World Bank Technical Paper No. 259. This collection of papers was presented at the World Bank Conference on Civil Service Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in 1993. The goal of the conference was to promote the flow of ideas among researchers and practitioners in the civil service and public sector human resource field. The conference addressed a need to identify strategies for improving the capacity of governments to manage their human resources effectively and efficiently. Four main themes were discussed: * Reviewing civil service reform and its overall role in economic development * Adjusting staffing levels and upgrading compensation * Recruiting and retraining personnel, particularly in the higher managerial ranks * Strengthening institutional capacity to manage human resources and improving managerial authority and accountability. The paper affirms that the fundamental problem facing the region today is governments' lack of capacity to provide services that only they can provide.