Chair:

Mzia Mikeladze,  NISPAcee President, Center for Training and Consultancy, Tbilisi, Georgia

Welcome and opening speeches

Stanislav Konečný, Director, Institute of Public Administration, Bratislava

Ľudmila Malíková, Director, Institute of Public Policy, Comenius University, Bratislava

Robert Kaliňák, Minister of Interior of the Slovak Republic (to be confirmed)

Andrea Elcheková-Matisová, Head of Representation, Representation of the European Commission in the Slovak Republic on the behalf of  Ján Figeľ, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture & Youth
Pawel  Swianiewicz, LGI Steering Committee Representative, University of Warsaw, Poland, 
Ben Slay, Director, UNDP Regional Center, Bratislava, Slovakia
Almaz Atnafu, Division of Public Administration and Development Management, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, on the behalf of the Director Guido Bertucci, New York, USA

 

Presentation of the Slovak expert
Emília Sičáková-Beblavá, President, Transparency International Slovakia;  Institute of Public Policy, Comenius University, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences

 

 

 

Keynote presentation

Barbara Kudrycka, Minister of Science and Higher Education, Republic of Poland

Ceremony of the Alena Brunovská Award for Teaching Excellence in Public   Administration
Presentation of the Award by Mzia Mikeladze, NISPAcee President and Ľudmila Gajdošová, NISPAcee Executive Director  to the recipient:
Attila Ágh, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

Title of presentation: „Synergies and Conflicts between Policy Regimes and Political Systems"

The coordinators of the Working Group on Local Government invite researchers and practitioners to take part in a research project aimed at exploring the reforms of, and at, local government level in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The theme of the working group is local government. By using the term local government we prefer the broader context of governance to the internal machinery of local administration. The core of the mission of the working group will be built around a comparative analysis of local government developments in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) area. The developments will be compared to the European and Anglo-Saxon local administration models, as well as to the theories of self governance and decentralization.

The Working Group will focus on local government reforms. Members are expected to compare the challenges CEE countries face, identify the trends and waves of changes, and draw conclusions about convergence and divergence within CEE and between the CEE countries and the rest of Europe. The reforms examined by the group include both large-scale structural changes of public administration and small-scale managerial reforms initiated by local decision-makers.

●        Markku Temmes: Introduction on the themes of the working group.
●        Gábor Soós: Organization of the workshop and other practicalities.

In all CEE and CIS countries where the transformation of the planning economy has phased some rates of decentralisation of the state, the improvement of local fiscal capacity has become an emerging issue. Tax on immobile property is the most widely utilised local government revenue across the Anglo-Saxon World including the countries of the Commonwealth. Nothing surprising on that the World Bank, OECD and the different aid programs’ (US Aid, Canadian Aid, British Know-how Fund) studies have proposed to develop an ad valorem property tax system as a fundamental basis of local revenues over the period of the last 15 years. Based on the strong property tax tradition of those countries, they are right. However, no significant changes in the use of property tax in the CEE and CIS countries and that tax if it levied at all, remained marginal. This situation raises the question how can more efficient such tax in a quite different historical and cultural background. To study such taxes may help to assume the local revenue potential from these taxes but it may also identify the main barriers of a more effective use of these taxes in the cited countries.

The focus of the papers presented in this working group is on the use of policy instruments (legal, economic, information and administrative) with anti-corruption strategies in a transformation economy. The main aim is the analysis of the factors that lead to successful implementation of anti-corruption measures: from their inceptions, struggle during the passing time to their maintenance and sustainability in the practice. The papers will look at the institutional, economic and cultural and historic framework.

The ultimate aim of the research papers is to map anti-corruption measures from the perspective of policy instruments that have been introduced into the transition countries in the years 1995-2005. The focus is on all types of public administrating institutions, ranging from central institutions (ministries and specialized agencies) to self – governments on regional and local levels, judiciary, police and the like.

This Working group is supported by The Slovak Research and Development Agency.

Opening
Annual report of activities
Financial report
Future plans
Other
Discussions

Representatives of the NISPAcee member Institutions are expected to participate in the meeting.
All other conference participants are warmly invited and welcome to join the meeting

19:00  The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
Programme:
Ilja Zeljenka: Ouvertura giocosa
Ludwig van Beethoven:Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73
Eugen Suchoň:Metamorphosis, ESD 77b

A priority for the Working Group is to identify way in which schools and institutions of Public Administration can advance education and training in the field, to fully embrace priorities for multi-ethnic democracy - in policy making and administration.  Two papers in this session explore initiatives in one country and in the region to achieve this goal.   We also plan to use this session to prepare ideas and questions for presentation later in the day at the Forum for Heads of Schools and Institutes on topics of Incorporating Diversity in Public Administration Education.

The development of civil servants' administration skills is one of the conditions for an increase in public service professionalism, impartiality and transparency. The civil servants' continuous training system is closely related to the strengthening of administrative capacities and new quality creation according to the conditions of the Europe and Eurasia. The main objective of public administration and public policy is to create a civil servants' training system, which would be integrated and governed by central and local government and to evaluate the development of the system and related programmes.
The following relevant problems related to improvement of public servants training and professional development will be discussed: new challenges to develop public servants training system under conditions of globalisation, EU enlargement and knowledge society establishment; progressive experience of public servants' training accumulated through international practice; establishment and development of public servants training systems, development and implementation of national and international strategies for improvement of such systems.
The main attention will be paid to the following issues: new challenges for the improvement of public servants training, studies and qualification quality; new experience accumulated in CEE countries, members of the EU, while improving public servants qualification and organising teaching and studies; new phenomena and problems which silhouetted after EU enlargement; integration of scientific research elements into processes of training and qualification improvement.
The results of the workgroup will be characterised by a resolution. It will determine the main priorities of the work group: progressive experience of public servants training accumulated in the world practice, EU countries and other countries; new challenges, new opportunities and new teaching technologies which are to be taken into consideration under conditions of EU enlargement; experience of public servants training accumulated; analysis of current situation; development of public servants training systems and implementation of long-term strategies; development and implementation of international programmes and projects in the sector of public servants training.

This panel intends to bring together the experiences of practitioners in public administration reform (consultants, local, national and foreign advisors) and the research carried out by scholars in Public Administration on the topic of public administrative reform and how to make it work.

The goal of the meeting is threefold:

* to inform the attendees about the EAPAA accreditation process in general (application, self-evaluation, site visit and decision by the EAPAA Accreditation Committee);

* to point out the most important elements in the preparation of programmes for EAPAA accreditation: when is a programme ready for accreditation, what is needed to write an adequate self-evaluation report

* to sketch the requisites and procedure to become an EAPAA site visit team member.

When there are enough persons interested in becoming site visit team member, we will organise a site visit team member training later during the conference.

Twenty graduate students in public administration and public policy from the School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy, University of Delaware and the Faculty of Public Administration, Babes-Bolyai University have completed a two-week joint study of governance practices and public services in Transylvania that we believe is unique in higher education.  Small teams of students from both universities collected information to be used in jointly prepared research papers. 

This experience in higher education provided students from different backgrounds and cultures the opportunity to work and learn together in small groups as they conducted more than 40 interviews with public officials, representatives of NGOs and other well informed persons on a variety of contemporary issues including public education, health care, NGO organization and management, university-community interactions, intergovernmental relations, social service delivery, public corruption, traffic congestion and the urban environment. The intent was to expose students to the current status of governance policy and practice in Romania.  The result has been an exciting and productive learning experience for all connected with the project - - one which we hope to share with colleagues at other universities in the United States and Central and Eastern Europe.

The practice of public policy analysis and public management in both regions should benefit from enhanced understanding of the combined needs for cooperation across sectors and addressing “communities within the community”. For Americans, the situation in Romania demonstrates the need for a broad understanding of public issues in an emerging society where governments and NGOs must work cooperatively to meet an enormous backlog of needs with very scarce resources and potentially divisive ethnic differences.  As Babes-Bolyai students explain the situation in Romania to inquisitive foreigners, and hear about successes and failures in America from their guests, they reassess the situation at home. 

We think that educators in public policy and public administration may be interested in understanding this unique study abroad experience and the collaborative work that resulted from it.  At the May 2008 NISPAcee meetings in Bratislava, we would like to give a very brief summary and evaluation of the program conducted in January, then ask three or four of our two-person study teams to summarize conclusions from their papers and the experience of working together.

The paper will be presented at the Forum of Heads of Schools and Institutes of PA,(May 16, 2008,16:00)  the WG members  are meeting to prepare for the Forum.

2/ Topic:  Good Practices to Mainstream Diversity into PA Education

All schools and institutions of public administration in the various NISPAcee target regions work in multiethnic environments. In this panel in the Forum, rectors and deans of schools and institutions of public administration will share their strategies for addressing multiethnic environments, such as through adopting innovative teaching and training practices, curriculum design, and recruitment.

Multiethnic democracy requires multi-ethnic practice from the public service. Meeting this challenge begins with the work done by schools and institutes of Public Administration. Higher educational and training institutes should strive to recriut and train a diverse community of future public servants who will be ready to face issues related to the multiethnic communities and to find solutions that will promote democratic development of such communities, support their involvement in the decision-making process and their general, broader civic integration with the rest of the population.

The panel brings togather heads and faculty from schools and institutes of public administration who are experienced in dealing with multiethnic issues in the region to discuss strategies for their teaching/training programs, share with experiences, their observations on what works well in such programs and what needs to be avoided.

Ethnic, linguistic, religious, gender and other forms of diversity are central issues for public administration. This is certainly true for communities in which diversity appears in devise forms, such as in post-conflict contexts; it is also the case for any society in which principles of democracy and good governance are established as norms. However, in contemporary public administration education, public administrators are rarely sensitized to the relevance of diversity to their work, let alone how to address it comprehensively. Schools and institutes of public administration must play a lead role in this regard, incorporating diversity into their curriculum in a thematic or topical sense (how diversity is relevant to public service delivery, for example), and in their own policies (such as through application or recruitment strategies).

We' d like to discuss the topical issues in curriculum development: Incorporating Diversity in Public Administration Education from the experience of the recently conducted workshop, organised by the Curriculum Resource Center (Central European University), the Center for Policy Studies (Central European University), and the Managing Multiethnic Communities Program of the Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative (OSI) organised the workshop on in Budapest, Hyngary. We'd like to present an opportunity for the synthesis of views and experiences from a range of social, political, and economic contexts.

It will aim to address ways of integrating diversity into public administration education comprehensively. Discussions will consider diversity topically and as an issue that should be integrated into all aspects public administration education. What models of incorporating diversity into public administration education exist? How can curriculum be designed such that public administrators are sensitized to the need to address diversity in their work? How can public administration education itself be a model for incorporating diversity into all aspects of work?

The overall objective is to facilitate the exchange of views, experiences emerged in different social, political, and economic contexts as well as to draw lessons from existing good practices and strategies within NISPAcee.

The world's nearly 200 countries include some 5,000 ethnic groups. Nearly all of these countries have minority groups totaling at least ten percent of their total population. Such figures underscore that diversity management is a challenge not merely for a few 'multiethnic' states, but is more the rule than the exception. This is certainly true in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The panel aims to provide a timely and innovative contribution to the public administration discourse by offering informed, in-depth analyses of how ethnic diversity has been recognized and how arguments for national cohesion and efficient public administration have been balanced in the process of on-going reforms of public administration in different contexts.
Discussion of the dean/heads
Issues for discussion: Experience with problems of diversity into PA education.Potential for cross-border co-operation and provision.

The Panel  will focus on health care, which is one of the most frequently reformed public service branches. All CEE countries realized several attempts to improve the delivery of health services in recent years. However, as indicated by the previous NISPAcee projects and also other sources, most of realized reforms did not bring expected outcomes.

            These reform failures are very much connected with lack of theoretical knowledge in health policy and also health economics, but also with general weaknesses of policy making and policy implementation in CEE conditions. Contributions submitted focus especially in the following topics - evaluation of outcomes of health reforms in CEE region, analysis of health policies and their implementation problems in CEE region, purposes of limited ability to create and realize health care policies.

18:15 -18:30 Departure for the Institute of PA by buses

The guests will be entertained by "Muzička", a group of enthusiastic musicians who are fascinated by the authentic folklore of Slovakia.

Patrycja Suwaj, Hans Rieger: Next steps of the working group; Presentation of overal results; Evaluation of the working group

Public policy also develops within a regional context, and is shaped by factors outside of the national framework itself.  Requirements and expectations, as well as policy lessons, from the EU are major forces in shaping diversity practices and policy.  Papers in this session focus on the impact of the EU policy on national policies regarding ethnic diversity management, as well as explore innovative policy practices in their own right.