Pension Reform in Iraq

In 2010, RE!NSTITUTE worked with Iraq’s National Board of Pensions to help accelerate reform within the country’s pension system. This collaboration resulted in three rounds of 100-Day Challenges. Teams were able to reduce the number of days to issue the first payment to new pensioners from six months to one day! Another team collected key salary and demographic information on almost 600,000 civil servants in 120 days – a 50% increase in the collection rate. The team then took the lessons learned from this effort and transformed them into a new process which led to 100% data collection in the two largest ministries within the Government of Iraq- a first in the history of the organization.

This was done by allowing teams to develop and act on their own ideas.  This freedom, coupled with greater accountability for results from their Senior Leaders, motivated staff to experiment and to work together in new ways.  Notably, staff and managers reported that over the successive waves of 100-Day Challenges, they experienced a cultural shift in the organization from a strong hierarchy and centralized decision-making to more flexibility, proactive behavior, and lateral collaboration.

RE!NSTITUTE  worked with Iraq’s National Board of Pensions and the World Bank sponsored this work.

For more information, see World Bank Briefing Note:  Accelerating Reform within Iraq’s National Board of Pensions.

• The World Bank
• Iraq’s National Board of Pensions