the Mediterranean Region. Aide-Memoire .... investments, and due to the
maintenance of high tariff and non tariff barriers. Another challenge which many ...
Under the Auspices of the Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Development, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Tunisia
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Meeting on Sharing of Best Practices and Innovation in Governance and Public Administration in the Mediterranean Region
Aide-Memoire
Tunis, Tunisia 15 – 17 June 2005
1.
SPONSORSHIP AND PURPOSE
The Meeting on Sharing of Best Practices and Innovation in Governance and Public Administration in the Mediterranean Region, which will take place from 15 to 17 June 2005 in Tunis, is organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs under the auspices of the Ministry of Civil Service and Administrative Development, Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Tunisia. The Meeting is one of the activities of the Programme for Innovation in Public Administration in the Euro-Mediterranean Region (http://www.unpan.org/innovmed), which is implemented by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, through its Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM), in collaboration with Formez1– Training and Study Centre based in Naples (Italy) and in line with the activities of CAIMED. The Programme is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Italy. The objective of the Meeting is to provide a platform for government officials and experts of the Mediterranean region to present and discuss significant innovations in public administration in their respective countries including Albania, Algeria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Egypt, Federation of Serbia and Montenegro, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestinian National Authority, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. About 80 participants are expected to take part in this event and to benefit from knowledge sharing. The Meeting will be preceded by an Experts Meeting on “Approaches and Methodologies for the Assessment and Transfer of Successful Innovations in Governance and Public Administration” which will provide useful tools for the replication of best practices in the region. On the basis of the above-mentioned assessment tools, experts and government officials will select those national innovation experiences that have a high potential for replication in the region. The project team will then conceptualise and design a limited number of pilot projects to be implemented in selected countries of the region in order to foster innovation processes and test the feasibility of the tools developed. 2.
BACKGROUND
The InnovMed Programme has been launched in mid 2003 and it is expected to be implemented through 2006. The objective of the Programme is to contribute to the improvement of governance systems in Northern Africa, and selected countries of the Middle East and the Balkan region, with a view to enhancing prosperity and development. In particular, the Programme aims at reinforcing the capacity of national governments, in terms of institutions, human resources, technological adequacy and financial management, to better cope with emerging national, regional and international challenges, as well as to respond more effectively to citizens’ demands and needs. Taking into account the existence of different administrative realities, systems, cultures and identities within the Euro-Mediterranean region, this programme intends to devise a set of strategies to promote the effective exchange of innovative experiences in public 1 Formez is an Italian semi-private institution based in Rome, with branches in Naples (Arco Felice) and Cagliari (Italy), which assists, among others, the Department of Public Administration in the coordination of training policies within the public sector.
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administration among the partner countries. By encouraging the sharing of knowledge and best practices, partner countries will benefit from experiences and lessons learned in other areas of the region and develop cooperation models aimed at stimulating vertical (North-South) as well as horizontal (South-South) collaboration. In brief, the Programme is intended to: •
Strengthen the capacity of governments of the region to establish national and regional priorities in public administration, through national and regional reports and studies, as well as regional meetings;
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Foster synergies among existing programmes for the promotion of exchange of experiences in public administration innovation by preparing an inventory of governance programmes in the region;
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Reinforce the capacity of governments and regional institutions to share information, knowledge and best practices in public administration innovation through the creation of a Network of Innovators, specific conferences and meetings, and an online portal accessible to all citizens across the Mediterranean countries;
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Enhance the capacity of governments to assess the validity, and transferability of best practices in public administration through the development of specific methodologies and tools, as well as training materials;
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Undertake an intermediate evaluation of the project through questionnaires, and feedback received by government authorities;
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Assist selected governments of the region to implement best practices and innovative experiences through pilot projects;
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Enable governments of the region to acquire knowledge and information on the usefulness of the programme and lessons learned through evaluation tools and an Award on Innovation in Public Administration in the Mediterranean Region.
3. CONTEXT These are challenging times for governments around the world. In the last half of the twentieth century, and more even so at the beginning of the new millennium, Governments have been under pressure to respond to the demands from their citizens and to the increasing complexity and change in their global environments. On the one hand, governments need to respond to a number of social and economic issues, including poverty; unemployment; poor education systems; and environmental degradation. On the other hand, countries are being forced to readjust their policies and skills to effectively integrate into the world economy. To meet these challenges, the United Nations adopted in the year 2000 the Millennium Declaration, which was followed by the development of specific targets encapsulated in the Millennium Development Goals. As in other parts of the world, many countries in the Mediterranean region have embarked on reform programmes in response to domestic pressures and to new opportunities brought about by globalization. Several countries have tried to revitalize their economies through the promotion of an enabling environment for private sector development and have improved the efficiency of public services. They have started introducing ICT in government operations and have given greater attention to issues of transparency and accountability.
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Although public sector reform has appeared on the agenda of many Arab countries, the process of implementation has been slow and has manifested problems of its own. In general, the public sector still plays a dominant role and, in many countries, is the employer of last resort. According to the IMF, the share of the State in the economies (2) of the Arab region is among the highest in the world (especially in some countries). In view of the tradition of a ubiquitous State, a weak private sector and weak civil society, a reconfiguration of the role of the State seems to be necessary. Building democratic government institutions is a crucial challenge which many countries of the region are beginning to confront. Although reforms have been undertaken to modernize government institutions in some countries, others are moving at a slower pace in terms of political and institutional reforms. In fact, reforms have been directed towards increasing the efficiency and the effectiveness of public sector operations, at establishing a modern information and communication infrastructure and at streamlining bureaucracies, but not as much at reducing the role of the State in the economy and at creating an appropriate institutional framework for public participation and private sector development. Weak regulatory and legal frameworks, coupled with ineffective financial and banking systems and a large role of the State in the economy have not created the appropriate conditions for the development of a vigorous private sector, and this in turn has slowed down economic growth. Privatizations have also been difficult in many southern Mediterranean countries. In some cases the fact that anti-trust rules and regulations to ensure fair competition were not in place at the time of privatizations has led to private monopolies stifling growth. According to the first issue of the United Nations World Public Sector on “Globalization and the State” (2001), the Arab Region has not benefited from globalization to the same degree as other regions of the world because of limited reforms in the public sector in establishing an enabling environment for the development of the private sector and investments, and due to the maintenance of high tariff and non tariff barriers. Another challenge which many governments of the region are tackling with is the issue of transparency (3) and accountability (4) in government operations. In its 2003 Global Corruption Report, Transparency International, an international anti-corruption advocacy group, suggests that the incidence of grand corruption declined in 2001-2002 in the Middle East and North Africa. Transparency International, however, observed that current anticorruption strategies are unlikely to achieve significant results if political reforms are not introduced. Even though a number of corruption cases were brought to light during the same period, they did not signify real structural change. The same Report noted that the absence of institutional reforms to accompany economic liberalization programmes and the prevalence of authoritarian rule constitute an important obstacle to transparency and accountability in both the State and private sector. Modernizing the public administration system is also a crucial element of the transition process in the Balkan countries. New socio-political and economic environments have put tremendous pressure on the old system, demanding hierarchically organized bureaucracies to 2 International Monetary Fund, “The Middle East on the threshold of change”, Finance and Development, 2003. 3 ) Transparency is usually referred to as the availability of and free access to information about governmental political and economic activities, procedures and decisions. 4) Accountability is related to answerability for choices and actions.
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adopt less interventionist behaviours and provide a positive framework for functioning market economies. This implies the necessity to move public administration to indirect economic management and to transform the state bureaucracy into a politically neutral civil service that is oriented to providing high quality public services. The reform of public administration therefore involves the reform of central, regional and local government, organizational and institutional structures, civil service statutes and management and administrative procedures. A change in organizational culture is also fundamental in order to change the way government institutions operate. Public administration reform is not a “one-off” exercise but a continuing process of institutional development that will see each of the Balkans countries developing their own administrative model drawing both from the bureaucratic and new public management models, re-assessing their model as it grows in maturity and, possibly, moving it further towards the new public management model. Alongside this demanding exercise in institutional development there is a massive task of human resource development. Professional and technical skills and knowledge, developed in a controlled economy, need to be enhanced to meet the demands of a free market economy. Management skills, which were not highly regarded in controlled economies, need to be developed by state officials at all levels if they are to be pro-active public servants, ensuring the delivery of high quality services to the public. The development of new skills and knowledge calls for a reform of the training system, which was based on a didactic approach to the transfer of knowledge, and now needs to use new action-learning based approaches to the development of skills. Changes in attitudes are critical and cannot be achieved through training alone as much depends on the working environment and the reward systems affecting people. However, this does not imply that government is absent from individual decision-making. It sets and enforces collective rules and regulations that enable individuals and institutions to interact efficiently, and seeks to create a stable economic environment that is conducive to private economic decision-making. It should do so in a predictable way, in accordance with the democratic mechanisms foreseen in a constitution, minimizing uncertainty, transaction costs and unwarranted discretion by officials. The Mediterranean countries, including the countries from Northern Africa, the Middle East and the Balkan region, have an impressive heritage in terms of capacity to acquire and produce knowledge, to creatively adapt and interact with other cultures, and to integrate sources of knowledge. The challenge is how to revitalize this heritage and capitalize on existing knowledge by creating knowledge networks and promoting a favourable environment for innovation in governance and public administration. The purpose of the Meeting is precisely to discuss the challenges, responses and opportunities of the countries of the Mediterranean region in fostering socio-economic development. 4. OBJECTIVES The Meeting on Sharing of Best Practices and Innovation in Governance and Public Administration in the Mediterranean Region will provide an opportunity for participants to: • •
Share experiences and best practices in promoting good governance in the Mediterranean region; Discuss lessons learned and key issues regarding innovation in the Government of the 21 century in the context of the Mediterranean region; 5
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Promote co-operation among governments of the region on governance and public administration issues; and Identify best practices with a potential of transferability and national pilot projects.
Government officials/innovators and experts will present one or more innovations in public administration in the area of human resources, public service delivery and/or e-government. In order to maximize the potential learning about these successful cases, the following issues will be discussed: What are the main characteristics of the best practice/s?; When and why were the best practices introduced and what makes them “best practices”?; What are the tangible results of the best practices and which groups have they benefited the most?; What challenges were encountered in designing and implementing the best practices?; How can these best practices be implemented in other countries and what are the pre-conditions for an effective implementation?; Are these best practices isolated reform efforts or can they create a positive environment for reforms in other areas leading to the attainment of national long term development goals? The Meeting is expected to achieve the following goals: • • • •
Enhance knowledge of innovations in public administration with potential of transferability in the Mediterranean region; Lead to the transfer of successful experiences in other countries of the Mediterranean region through pilot projects; Strengthen North-South and South-South cooperation to enhance public sector capacity building with a view to fostering economic and social development; and Receive feed-back from high-level officials on how the United Nations can provide more effective assistance to the governments of the Mediterranean region.
5. THEMES FOR DISCUSSION The Meeting will focus on sharing of best practices in governance and public administration. Selected participants are invited to prepare a presentation on their country experiences on all or any of the following themes which will be the focus of the meeting. • Leadership and Human resources in the public sector Topics can include the following: Training needs for managers in the public sector; Learning tools that could better satisfy capacity building activities (e.g. guidelines, in-service training, seminars, field visits to or consultancies from other countries) • Public service delivery: Access to urban and rural shelter and services for all; cost and affordability of public services; government and private sector roles in service delivery; community organization to enhance access to service delivery; urban development strategies; participatory urban governance; urban projects of shared success; urban innovations and good practices and lessons learned.
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ICT applications and Local e-Government, including:
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Policy framework for e-government including the creation of new policies and legislation and the inclusion of more actors; organizational arrangements and national and local egovernment readiness; e-government and service delivery and access; the role of egovernment in enhancing participatory democracy; e-administration and back office components including transitioning to electronic delivery of services and quantifying cost effectiveness of electronic service delivery; e-learning to build talent and improve performance; good practices and lessons learned. For each category, the best practices presented will have been selected on the basis of the following criteria: Human resources management •
Enhances the quality of leadership through new institutional frameworks and incentives; skills and training.
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Promotes professionalism. This criterion involves human resources management issues, such as, merit-based recruitment, training and development, and the promotion of ethical conduct. Mechanisms involve legislative instruments, management tools, and professional development.
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Increases performance of public sector employees. This can be achieved by supporting programs of continuing education conducted by private and public universities through, for example, IT training programs for all employees of the public sector. Support can be financial (through providing special scholarship program) and/or through providing training material and labs.
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Makes the public sector more competitive by restoring incentives and improving pay. Negative incentives should also been included, i.e., sanctions for noncompliance with new codes of ethical conduct.
Improvement of public service delivery •
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Demonstrates effectiveness in meeting the stated goals and objectives quantitatively and qualitatively. In order to meet this criterion, a nominated entity must prove that the degree to which its programme/project/other type of initiative produces the desired outcomes is high – this presupposes the availability of tangible evidence, e.g. the results of a formal evaluation. Provides high quality service delivery. This criterion emphasizes timeliness, courtesy, access and client-orientation in public service delivery. The high quality service delivery may be manifested in - but are not limited to - the availability of government services at times and in ways that are more convenient to the public, speedy processing of applications or claims, reduction in the amount of paperwork and other activities citizens must perform in order to demonstrate compliance or clearly written government regulations. Achieves efficiency in the process of public service delivery. This criterion involves effective uses of strategies such as streamlining of processes, reduction of red tape, 7
coordination and other measures, which have led to the increase in efficiency. An increase in efficiency must be supported by a quantifiable indicator, e.g. ratio between the benefits produced by a programme/project/other type of initiative and its costs. •
Represents a “radical departure” in design. This criterion involves transformative changes within a large framework, rather than incremental improvements, in the context of a given country and region. Innovative methods, tools and techniques are applied to micro and macro issues, such as modernization, change of organizational culture, administrative reforms or the overhaul of government service delivery procedures.
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Has introduced a substantially new concept. This signifies that the innovation, in the context of a given country and/or region, the introduction of a unique idea, distinctively new approach to problem solution, or unique policy or implementation design for improving the delivery of services.
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Has produced qualitative and/or quantitative improvements, such as the expansion of the coverage or enhancement of the quality service delivery, gains in efficiency and others.
ICT applications and Local e-Government •
Enhanced service delivery. This criterion means that local governments have upgraded their service delivery due to the application of ICT. Upgraded service delivery may be measured in terms of wider access to services, enhanced efficiency and timeliness, a more “citizen-centred” approach to services, and greater effectiveness, relevance and quality of services.
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Re-engineered government operations. This criterion relates to the implementation of processes re-engineering and innovative government-to-government applications. This may include decision support systems, government networking, and geographic information system (GIS), and lead to more effective policy-making and implementation, and multi-disciplinary, holistic and “horizontal” approaches to public service delivery and management.
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Promoted e-Participation. This criterion concerns the applications of e-government that enable a local government – policy makers and public officials – to better interact with the public, particularly individual citizens. This enhanced interaction may support government legitimacy, responsiveness and relevancy by allowing citizens to better express their needs, participate in and influence policy- making, comment on policy implementation, provide feedback on government services (on and off-line services), and file complaints, among other activities.
6. ORGANIZATION
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6.1.
Participants
Participants will include senior policy makers, experts, practitioners, and representatives of international, regional and sub-regional institutions. 6.2.
Official languages
The official languages of the Meeting will be English and French. 6.3.
Electronic networking
Electronic communication will be utilized to encourage wide and representative participation in discussions. All the documents of the Meeting will be posted on the Online Global Network on Public Administration and Finance (http://www.unpan.org) as well as on the United Nations Programme for Innovation in Public Administration in the EuroMediterranean Region (http://www.unpan.org/innovmed). 6.4.
Format of the Meeting
The first two days and a half of the Meeting will be conducted in a Plenary Session and will be devoted to the presentation of innovative experiences in public administration in the Euro-Mediterranean Region. Each presentation will be introduced by a high level government official who will speak about the context of the innovation in his/her respective country (social, economic, legal, etc.) followed by the joint presentation of the expert and the innovator (government official). The afternoon of the third day will be conducted as a special session between innovators and government officials and will be devoted to the implementation of the network of innovators in the Mediterranean region whose mission will be to provide support to those countries that want to innovate and need help/guidance in implementing specific reforms.
Contact Information: Adriana Alberti, Chief Technical Adviser Programme for innovation in Public Administration in the Euro-Mediterranean Region Division for Public Administration and Development Management, Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations, New York, NY E-mail:
[email protected] Tel. 212-963-2299 Bechir Bouzid Governance and Public Administration Branch, DPADM, Department of Economic and Social Affairs United Nations E-mail:
[email protected] Tel. 212-963-8414
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