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Workshop Recommendations and Conclusions
A capacity-development Workshop (or discussion panel) jointly organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH) and the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee).
Concept Note
A capacity-development Workshop (or discussion panel) jointly organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH) and the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee).
Bucharest, Romania
2 -4 June 2022
2 -4 June 2022
Background
COVID-19 is threatening decades of progress to improve people’s lives across the globe. To counterbalance these threats it is imperative to take immediate action – now. The world already has the best plan for a sustainable, people-centered and planet friendly recovery – the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. What is needed now is to turn these goals into reality, for people and planet.
The COVID-19 crisis has impacted the SDGs in nearly all countries. Unemployment, discrimination, and the need for social justice are emerging challenges, while climate change and food insecurity have worsened. The pandemic has disrupted our society and challenged the public sector, which is tested to its limits.
"We need to move from death to health; from disaster to reconstruction; from despair to hope; from business as usual to transformation. The Sustainable Development Goals are more important now than ever,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
A sustainable and resilient recovery from the pandemic demands robust governance and strategies to deal with the crisis not merely on the medical but also on the social and economic fronts. It needs major transformations throughout the public sector in support for strong, resilient and integrated governance.
It is widely known that innovation and the digital transformation of public administration are essential, because they help create new opportunities for growth, simplify bureaucracy, deliver services equitably and make policies more transparent and effective. And this is not only because they save human and financial resources, but also conserve precious time, which, as demonstrated by the COVID19 pandemic, saves human lives.
The world and technology are changing at a faster rate than ever before. The innovative use of technologies in the public service through e-government services allows improving the quality of life of citizens. Given the wide range of socio-economic and environmental issues that the 17 SDGs cover and the transformational nature of the 2030 Agenda, it becomes clear that the successful implementation of the International Development Agenda is predicated on the effective use of innovative public service delivery approaches and cutting-edge technologies. Lessons from the pandemic may help us understand how innovations and e-government may assist public administration in overcoming many outstanding challenges that it will need to confront.
Against this background, UNDESA’s Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG), the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH) and the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Eastern and Central Europe (NISPAcee) are organizing a workshop (or panel discussion) to build resilience and capacity of national public administrations to withstand crises and stay on track with the implementation of the SDGs by promoting the culture of innovation and effective utilization of modern information-communication technology. The main theme of the workshop is congruent with the theme of the umbrella Conference: "Crises, Vulnerability and Resilience in Public Administration”.
Expanding the workshop (or discussion panel) on "Innovations and e-government to build a resilient public administration” to the 30th Anniversary Conference of NISPAcee will widen its reach and strengthen its impact by promoting collaboration and partnerships between public administration training schools and government institutions in the region and beyond, as well as academic community concerned with the pursuit of research on policy issues and approaches that are conducive to strengthenming the resilience of public administration to various crises.
Participants
The COVID-19 crisis has impacted the SDGs in nearly all countries. Unemployment, discrimination, and the need for social justice are emerging challenges, while climate change and food insecurity have worsened. The pandemic has disrupted our society and challenged the public sector, which is tested to its limits.
"We need to move from death to health; from disaster to reconstruction; from despair to hope; from business as usual to transformation. The Sustainable Development Goals are more important now than ever,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
A sustainable and resilient recovery from the pandemic demands robust governance and strategies to deal with the crisis not merely on the medical but also on the social and economic fronts. It needs major transformations throughout the public sector in support for strong, resilient and integrated governance.
It is widely known that innovation and the digital transformation of public administration are essential, because they help create new opportunities for growth, simplify bureaucracy, deliver services equitably and make policies more transparent and effective. And this is not only because they save human and financial resources, but also conserve precious time, which, as demonstrated by the COVID19 pandemic, saves human lives.
The world and technology are changing at a faster rate than ever before. The innovative use of technologies in the public service through e-government services allows improving the quality of life of citizens. Given the wide range of socio-economic and environmental issues that the 17 SDGs cover and the transformational nature of the 2030 Agenda, it becomes clear that the successful implementation of the International Development Agenda is predicated on the effective use of innovative public service delivery approaches and cutting-edge technologies. Lessons from the pandemic may help us understand how innovations and e-government may assist public administration in overcoming many outstanding challenges that it will need to confront.
Against this background, UNDESA’s Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG), the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH) and the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Eastern and Central Europe (NISPAcee) are organizing a workshop (or panel discussion) to build resilience and capacity of national public administrations to withstand crises and stay on track with the implementation of the SDGs by promoting the culture of innovation and effective utilization of modern information-communication technology. The main theme of the workshop is congruent with the theme of the umbrella Conference: "Crises, Vulnerability and Resilience in Public Administration”.
Expanding the workshop (or discussion panel) on "Innovations and e-government to build a resilient public administration” to the 30th Anniversary Conference of NISPAcee will widen its reach and strengthen its impact by promoting collaboration and partnerships between public administration training schools and government institutions in the region and beyond, as well as academic community concerned with the pursuit of research on policy issues and approaches that are conducive to strengthenming the resilience of public administration to various crises.
Participants
The direct beneficiaries of the workshop (or discussion panel) are senior managers of public administration training schools and management institutes, as well as the public servants and leaders, including those who are in charge of designs, implementation, innovation and e-government solutions and research in the field of public administration. They will be supported in their efforts to utilize innovations and ICTs in the public service to devise effective strategies and approaches to confront the challenges ahead, moving to 2030, including the negative impact of COVID-19 on the world.
Participants will be drawn from some countries partnering with the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH) and the NISPAcee and DPIDG, with geographical range stretching from Eastern and Central Europe to Caucasus and Central Asia..
Substantive backstopping to the meeting will be provided by several experts and human resource managers chosen from countries that demonstrated successful service delivery strategies, including during the pandemic. Engagement of the resource persons will enrich the discussions of the workshop.
Discussion Themes
As demonstrated by the pandemic, major challenges include:
- A need for fresh approaches to public administration which reemphasize the criticality of innovations and ICTs in continuous public service delivery.
It is widely admitted that in many parts of the world basic institutions were unprepared to replicate innovative practices and effectively use ICTs when the pandemic struck. Why was that?
- Resilience of public administration institutions.
It is critical to increase the resilience of national institutions to external shocks in the future. The ways how government institutions and civil society have innovatively responded to ensure that responsive and equitable mechanisms continued to govern during the pandemic, should be discussed.
- A need for strong partnerships and cooperation
The pandemic ascertained that, in congruence with SDG 17, there is a crucial need to draw on all available resources. Hence, the importance to understand how can different types and modalities of partnerships be efficient and effective, but also beneficial to all citizens? What and how to negotiate to reach consensus in decision making?
- How to reshape and refocus public administration training.
What lessons can be learnt from the pandemic in reshaping and refocusing our training in public administration to highlight the need for promoting culture of innovation? What new technics, methods and technological skills should be emphasized?
Co-organizers
The organizers of the workshop are:
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
UNDESA, based at UN Headquarters in New York, holds up the development pillar of the UN Secretariat. Its Divisions and Offices work together towards a common goal to promote the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. UNDESA collaborates closely with its partners at regional and country levels in helping countries to translate policies into formulation and implementation of national sustainable development strategies and preparation of roadmaps for national implementation.
UN DESA’s mission, to promote development for all, underscores the need for all stakeholders – governments, UN and other international organizations, civil society and the private sector – to do their part to improve economic and social well-being and prevent environmental degradation and leave no one behind.
The Astana Civil Service Hub
ACSH is multilateral platform for continuous exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of public service and public administration reform. The global outreach of the ACSH is reinforced through 42 participating countries and more than 80 institutional partners from different parts of the world, which are rich in applied knowledge and expertise in public service reform.
ACSH mission is promotes civil service effectiveness by supporting the efforts of governments of countries of the region and beyond in building institutional and human resource capacity. It provides technical assistance and advisory services to the governments of the participating countries on civil service issues
NISPAcee
NISPAcee is a non-governmental, non-profit, international membership organization – The Network established in 1995 with Headquarters in Bratislava, Slovakia. Activities of the organization follow the mission of the organization focused on promotion and strengthening the emergence of effective and democratic governance and the modernisation of public administration and policy throughout the NISPAcee region (this includes New Member States of the EU, Western Balkan countries, eastern countries which include Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Caucasus countries and Central Asia countries and Turkey).
This mission means a commitment to capacity and institution building, giving special focus on more independent local capacities; full-range involvement of civil society in public policymaking from decision-making to service provision; accomplishment of the administrative principles of openness, transparency, reliability and predictability, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness; promotion and protection of democratic values, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.
Official Languages
The capacity-building workshop will be conducted in English.
Venue and Dates
The workshop will take place on June 2-3, 2022.
Contact Information
Public Service Innovation Branch (PSIB)
Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG)
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
UN DESA/DPIDG/PSIB
Mr. Garegin Manukyan
Senior Governance and Public Administration Officer
Tel: +1 (212) 963-5410
Email: manukyan@un.org
Ms. Nadine Manket
Technical Cooperation Specialist
Tel: +1 (212) 963-1702
Email: manket@un.org
Astana Civil Service Hub
Ms. Tolkyn Omarova,
Project Expert,
Astana Civil Service Hub
Email: tolkyn.omarova@undp.org
Ms. Azhar Mukhmatekarim
Partnership and Communication Assistant
Astana Civil Service Hub
Tel: +7 701 111 41 02
Email: azhar.mukhametkarim@undp.org
NISPAcee
Mrs Ludmila Gajdosova
NISPAcee Executive Director
NISPAcee coordinator of the workshop
Email: gajdosova@nispa.org
Prof Juraj Nemec
Member of the NISPAcee Steering Committee, Former NISPAcee President
Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
The worshop resource person and programme coordinator
Email: juraj.nemec@umb.sk
Mrs Eka Akobia
Member of the NISPAcee Steering Committee
Caucasus University, Tbilisi, Georgia
The workshop resource person and programme coordinator
Email: eakobia@cu.edu.ge