NISPAcee plans to continue in activities already started and develop new ones which should be directed to meet those needs of its members which are shared ones and can be more gratifying with a joint effort. The Steering Committee sees the need for these activities to be still funded by western philanthropic or governmental sources until the regional economies are stronger and the network is self-sustaining. Therefore the implementation of the listed activities will depend in a great deal on the success of the organisation and the active participation of the membership in this matter as well.

 Annual Conferences

NISPAcee will continue in the organising of annual conferences for its members each year.

NISPAcee's Annual Conferences are a forum to encourage the exchange of information on developments in the theory and practice of public administration, to discuss the obstacles coming from the old system and new constraints, and to facilitate the application of innovative ideas, methods and techniques in public administration based on serious research in the region. The conferences are addressed to experts, scholars, and practitioners who work in the fields of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe to develop a new approach to the public administration in CEE with flexible organisational models and a new public management culture.

NISPAcee Annual Business Meetings and General Assembly are hold as part of the Annual Conference. This gives an occasion for educational administrators to get together with researchers and presenters.

Working Groups and other Specialised Meetings will be organised during the Annual Conferences in order to provide unique opportunities for partners of different projects, working groups as well as sponsors to meet, discuss joint projects and further activities, or establish new projects and co-operation.



 Workshops and Training Programmes

The workshops and training programmes aim to develop both the personnel of member institutions as well as public servants from the region.

NISPAcee 's Summer School sessions directly promote the main NISPAcee objectives by supporting the development of teaching methods and skills; public management and policy subjects; curriculum development; evaluation of instruction and research; and teaching materials development. Summer Schools are addressed to teachers, lecturers, trainers, academics and researchers from NISPAcee Member Institutions. NISPAcee has already implemented five successful summer workshops, and would continue with this activity each summer.

NISPAcee's workshops, in addition to the Summer School mentioned above, are devoted to academics as well as practitioners in the public service. These workshops focus on issues dealing with public administration in transition e.g. a joint EIPA/NISPAcee workshop on "Administrative Capacity for European Integration: The Demands of EU Membership on National Administrations and the Role of Training", held in October 2000.

Training programmes which NISPAcee intends to put in place will train the participants selected from the member institutions in the development of their special skills e.g. development of consultancy/advisory skills for their governments. Other programs could be developed based on the needs of different regions within the network e.g. accession countries, Balkans, NIS.



 Publications

NISPAcee publications enable the exchange of information among member and non-member institutions from CEE countries, and also provide relevant information for western experts who wish to learn about public administration in transition countries.

One crucial task is to develop study materials and textbooks for public administration studies written by experts from CEE, which will reflect the specific features of countries in transition. There is still a gap in the literature available for teachers in the field of public administration in the region. The majority of the study materials used are original western books or their translations without any regard to whether the information they cover applies to the situation in CEE countries.

NISPAcee publication programme includes:

•	publication of proceedings of NISPAcee events like conferences, summer schools, workshops etc.,
•	development of textbooks,
•	quarterly published informative Newsletter,
•	quarterly published series of academic papers "Occasional Papers in Public Administration and Public Policy" . A medium term objective of this project is to publish a learned journal of public administration in CEE countries,
•	other publications e.g. monographs and books according to needs, possibilities and ideas of the member institutions,
•	translation of relevant literature into CEE national languages.

 Exchange Programs and Development of PA Programmes

There are a great many programmes which support "East - West" exchanges, but only very restricted possibilities of mobility within the region. These programmes should enable scholars, professors, and students from the region to understand and know more about the public administration situation in CEE countries, and to contribute to the development of their institute, or a partner's institute, or public administration reform in their respective countries. This would be accomplished by utilising experiences and knowledge about successful experiments or failures from other countries in transition.

NISPAcee "East -East" Exchange Programmes which have already been implemented, include "Visiting Scholar's Programme", "Invited Speaker's Series," and "Student Exchange Programme" carried out between 1996 - 1999.

NISPAcee Future East-East Exchanges will continue mainly with an aim to spread out the knowledge and experience from more developed NISPAcee institutions and programs to those just emerging and developing, mainly in the Balkan region and NIS countries.

The new project "The Provision of Technical Assistance to Developing NISPAcee Institutions by Partnered NASPAA and More Developed NISPAcee Institutions" is an important means in this regard for the upcoming period. The project activity will provide support to assist emerging NISPAcee institutions build curricula, establish and evaluate missions, market their academic programmes, locate and develop teaching materials, undertake other curricular and academic program development by other more developed NISPAcee member institutions supported by an US NASPAA's partner.

Other similar projects will be developed according to the needs of member institutions, or potential members (institutions just being established), and available resources.



 Research

In the transition period, results of public administration reforms, public policy decisions etc. could benefit great deal from a comparative research which would provide analyses of contemporary problems and possible solutions, models and methods of public administration and public policy with assessments of empirical evidence from regional experience. Also the quality of education received by students strongly depends on the quality of research carried out by instructors. School development depends on information about the developments of others, as well. This is why NISPAcee, which starts research projects with a comparative focus, initiates the research. Research teams are composed of researchers from several CEE countries mainly from NISPAcee member institutions.

NISPAcee research working groups are being established on topics which reflect the needs in the area of education and training in public administration, public administration reforms, innovations in public management, etc. Working groups could be proposed by NISPAcee members and approved by the Steering Committee. There have already been five working research groups established within NISPAcee and other working groups could be established according to the members' proposals and available resources.

Applied Policy Research project, a joint NISPAcee/NASPAA project, is the next important step in fostering research in the region and simultaneously in strengthening public policy making. The project aim to build mechanism for partnership between government and NISPAcee members within a respective country. The primary activity of this project is designed to allow NISPAcee schools to work in co-equal partnerships with government officials in the country of the NISPAcee institution on important public policy problems jointly defined by the host country government officials and the relevant NISPAcee institution.

Other research projects will be developed according to proposals of members and available resources.



 Civil Service Forums

NISPAcee will continue in organising Civil Service Forums biannually.

NISPAcee Civil Service Forums endeavour to strengthen civil service responsibilities by establishing a forum for senior civil servants and officers responsible for civil service to meet with representatives of educational and training institutions and to exchange their views. This provides a platform for discussion and co-operation to be operational between educational institutions, civil servants and politicians.

NISPAcee intends to continue in organising similar meetings, seminars or workshops that would provide a platform for governments, civil servants and educational and training institutions to meet and establish closure co-operation and co-ordination of programmes.



 Information Services and Public Relations

The fundamental NISPAcee functions are closely related with the NISPAcee information services. Therefore NISPAcee will serve as a clearinghouse of information, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, skills, and all relevant information. Development of the organisation's Public Relations will strengthen the international as well as national awareness and recognition of NISPAcee within political and administrative circles.

NISPAcee will continue and will further develop the following information and public relation activities:

•	publishing and distribution of the Newsletter,
•	web site,
•	data base of member institutions,
•	distribution of available teaching, training, and research materials and relevant announcements and circulars,
•	data base of regional experts,
•	advanced Internet communication means (e.g. chat rooms)
•	catalogue of NISPAcee publications,
•	comprehensive brochure about the organisation,
•	other possible means which would foster the international as well as national awareness and recognition of NISPAcee (conferences and other meetings, media, catalogues and journals of other professional organisations etc.),
•	NISPAcee will co-operate closely with national networks of public administration established in some of the CEE countries and will foster the establishment of such networks in other countries,
•	NISPAcee will continue in or will establish working relations with other professional institutions, networks and associations operating in CEE region like EIPA, EPAN, EAPAA, IIAS, IASIA, EGPA, etc. in order to co-ordinate possible joint activities, to avoid the overlapping of activities, to advocate for interests of members, and to provide members with relevant information about activities of these organisations,
•	NISPAcee will strengthen working contacts with supranational governance bodies, especially the European Union, Council of Europe, the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in order to attract the attention of these organisations to the role and the potential of the NISPAcee in the public policy and public administration issues dealing with CEE region.

 Alena Brunovska Award

NISPAcee will recognise outstanding achievements in the field of public administration education and research within the member institutions by launching the prestigious award: "Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration".

The award has been launched in memory of Alena Brunovska, one of the NISPAcee' s founders and the first Chair of the NISPAcee Steering Committee. Simultaneously the award should attract attention of academics and teachers to an increase in the quality of their programmes, courses, teaching and research methods, what should contribute to the overall quality improvement in teaching public administration in the Central and Eastern European region.