Background
The Working Group (WG) on Governing Multiethnic Communities had its fifth gathering at the 12th Annual Meeting of the NISPAcee. The working group continued its discussions about promoting inclusive policies responsive to the needs of ethnically diverse communities, and about the design, implementation, and administration of public services that help to advance the status of minority communities and promote the well-being of the majority and minority groups together.  The group also initiated a discussion about effective education and training for public officials to respond to multi-ethnic communities, and about the role of schools of public affairs and administration to improve this education and training. 

 

For its sixth gathering at the 13th Annual Meeting of NISPAcee, the WG has decided to proceed on two tracks.  First, we would like to continue to receive papers addressing evaluation of public programs that support cultural and ethnic minorities and assessing the design and effectiveness of training and education programs for public officials to respond. 

 

Second we would like to organize a roundtable discussion among public officials and public administration school faculty and directors to talk together about how to improve the preparation of public officials to work in multi-ethnic democracies.  This roundtable discussion, in turn, might lead to a future statement by NISPAcee about the importance of this interaction and of the steps and standards for the PA schools to follow in their curricula, teaching, and recruitment of students.

 

 

 

Officials as well as citizens are often frustrated in their attempts to get a clear picture of the performance of government's achievement in promoting inclusive policies responsive to the needs of ethnically diverse communities.  Comprehensive information and analysis is rarely available on the issue equity in public service delivery.  And public officials are often untrained or unprepared to deal with the new and complex demands of managing public services in the face of ethnic diversity and majority-minority conflict.

 

We consequently seek policy studies that provide suggestions by which local governments and their agencies or institutions might regularly assess their performance or demonstrate progress. And we seek evaluations of the ways in which public officials are educated and trained to respond to the challenges of public service delivery in multi-ethnic democracies and practical examples and recommendations of how such training and education might be improved.

 

By adding to the field research available that can identify key factors of successful practice in providing equitable access to public services for minorities, and by applying these lessons to effective development of good basic education and training techniques for preparing public servants to manage in a diverse world, we hope to combine scholarship and practice, leading to meaningful long-term change in public administration and its response to ethnic diversity, equal opportunities and non-discrimination, particularly at the sub-national levels of government.
 
A preference will be given to papers based on empirical research (case studies), on papers that provide empirical evaluation of education and training practices, and of papers that link an understanding of policy experiences with the education and training needs they call for.  Guidelines for writing papers are available in Working Groups section.

 

Also, we are interested in papers with a focus on curriculum and training issues that NISPAcee might lead in developing -- questions of how to help current public administrators, and future ones now in the PA schools, to learn to manage in a multiethnic environment, steps to assess and advance how the PS schools and training centers are doing in recruiting diverse classes of students, from all ethnic groups, into their programs, how active they are in having faculties or available speakers and experts on these questions, and how they can evaluate their own training and education programs to assure they are responsive to these needs.

 

Finally, we seek senior public officials and public administration educations willing to serve on a roundtable discussion about how to improve the preparation of new public officials in public administration schools in the NISPAcee region to work effectively in multi-ethnic democracies.   We are interested in discussion that identifies the practical education and training needs relevant to working in such complex settings,  that addresses how to recruit cultural and ethnic minority students into public service and in to public administration education programs, and how to assure their successful completion of these programs, and that helps develop specific suggestions for good academic practice and curricula.  We are hopeful that roundtable participants will be available to continue discussion of these themes throughout the year to help develop recommend standards of good practice.