Topic 2008:
"Public Policy for Effective Management of Ethnic Diversity: Administrative Challenges and Synergies”

The Working Group (WG) on Democratic Governance of Multiethnic Communities is a forum about principles of democratic governance in multiethnic communities. We are interested in research and policy discussions about promoting inclusive policies responsive to the needs of ethnically diverse communities, in the design, implementation, and administration of public policies that help to advance the status of minority communities and promote the well-being of the majority and minority groups together, and in effective education and training for public officials to respond to multi-ethnic communities. In order to continue to advance, the Working Group looks forward to more in-depth studies from contexts across the NISPA region and beyond for the upcoming 2008 conference. Such studies will add to a comprehensive body of challenges and good practices that can support the integration of diversity issues into public administration education.

Our agenda for the working group contains four emphases and we welcome papers addressing all four. The issues we will address:

- A) what is the new public policy which is being carried out by different countries and localities to improve the management of ethnic diversity;

- B) what is the impact of the EU policy on national policies regarding ethnic diversity management;

- C) what are the challenges involved in developing effective national and local policies for Effective Managing of Ethnic Diversity

- D) how can public administration schools and institutes advance effective policies for ethnic diversity management through public administration education and training."

In response to these themes, as the working group has done from the outset,
 A) we look for high quality policy studies about themes of identity and engagement and the participation of minority groups in the social and political life, about tools to enhance active participation of minority representative such as ombudsman and civic engagement, and policy studies that provide suggestions by which local and national governments and their agencies or institutions might regularly assess their performance or demonstrate progress.
 B) In response to the important theme of this conference, we seek papers about the consequences of from national and EU policies for ethnic diversity management - what differences have these policies made.
C) We also are interested in understanding better the policy making process as it relates to management of ethnic diversity - what are the special characteristics of policy processes that lead to effective laws and programs; and finally
D) we seek papers that describe and evaluate initiatives within PA education and training programs to identify promising new practices for training public officials to work in diverse settings, to document good practice teaching and program design cases, to achieve a diverse faculty, to have a learning environment that respects these values, and to mainstream diversity issues, to recruit and support students from diverse backgrounds in the community, to be responsive to language differences in the community and among the student body, and to mainstream diversity in the curriculum. In particular we seek papers that perform a national census of how the education and training services for public administration meet these goals in each country in the region.

Effective democratic governance of multiethnic communities can only follow from an active combination of factors - strong policy leadership from national governments and the EU, creative and well-crafted policies at national and local level to achieve policy goals, meaningful and sustained implementation of policies in the form of good practices, and education and training of public officials to carry out policy and achieve its goals. We look forward to papers about each stage of these processes. As well, the Working Group hopes to continue to engage actively heads of schools and institutes of public administration by organizing thematic events or curriculum development workshops.