In 2014, Nana Agyekum-Dwamena, became head of Ghana’s civil service: an institution plagued by low motivation, inefficiency, and weak performance. In his first weeks in the role, the World Bank offered funding for a major, multi-year reform programme, which he could design. While he had extremely limited financial resources, he had seen major civil service reform programmes fail before. Should he accept the offer, or were there other ways of improving performance?