Strengthening Chile's Public Senior Executive Service System Srengthening the Public Senior Executive System (SES or Sistema de Alta DirecciÃ³n PÃºblica), through building institutional capacity in the Civil Service Agency to: (i) Empirically evaluate the system's results since merit-based recruitments for senior executives started in 2004, with the objective of consolidating the system; (ii) Developing and organizing basic analytical data available to ensure stronger HR management of senior executives; (iii) Developing an analytical model to define pay and incentives for executives with the objective of improving attraction of qualified candidates and retention of good performing executives, and implementing it on a pilot basis; and (iv) Develop a model for coaching and consolidating managerial competencies while on the job, and implementing it on a pilot basis.  In recognition of the distinct role of senior public officials, and after a crisis driven by the political appointment of senior public sector executives in 2003, Chile has formally grouped its senior public servants into a top management category starting in 2004, and now manages them under a separate human resource management (HRM) policy with tailored recruitment, management, and remuneration practices, which differ from those applied elsewhere in the public service. Recruitment is partially outsourced to private sector head hunters followed by approval of the shortlist and ranking by the Council for the Senior Executive Service, a body composed by members proposed by the President and cleared by both major coalitions in Congress. The system covers the first two layers of managers, representing over 1,000 positions in about 55 percent of Chile's 200 agencies. The Civil Service Agency, also created by the same law and linked to the Ministry of Finance, is the institution in charge of assisting the Council for SES in the management of the SES cadre. Eight years after its creation, and after a change in the ruling coalition in 2010 which was crucial to test its endurance, the system is still on a maturation process compared to more consolidated systems in other OECD countries (such as the US, Australia, Canada or the UK). Chile's SES faces four main challenges: (i) Political pressures to increase political influence for the appointment of senior executives, given there is no empirical study that demonstrates if public sector performance is better in those agencies with managers from SES compared to those with pure political appointees; (ii) lack of organized data on senior executives profiles to allow for a more analytical and professional management of these highly skilled human resources; and (iii) Focusing more efforts on the development and retention of executives after concentrating almost exclusively on ensuring a merit-based recruitment process, which is motivated by the high annual turnover rate of executives, close to 50 percent on average between 2004-2010, compared to 11 percent in a similar system in the UK. Addressing these challenges, a policy priority for the Council for SES supported by the Budget Office and the Ministry of Finance, will require strengthening the monitoring and evaluation and general institutional capacity of the Civil Service Agency, the technical institution in charge of running the system. It is in this context that the Government of Chile, through the Civil Service Agency and the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance, has requested World Bank support through an IDF grant.