Abstract
Our last Chronicle ended by announcing the 4th ‘Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue’, which took place in Rabat (Morocco) from 12−14 October 2011 on the theme: ‘Governance, Territorial Development and Culture’. More than eighty participants took part in a major event of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA) in the Mediterranean zone. These dialogues have the main objective of facilitating mutual understanding of the big democratic challenges in establishing high-performing public management.
In cooperation with ENA of Rabat and ISCAE, this conference provided us with the opportunity to address a fundamental issue: the importance of the culture as vector of territorial policies and the development of our societies. The students of our partners, ENA and ISA, also took part to our event and the discussions.
Several platforms and roundtables underlined the importance of our new partnerships established in Rabat. We welcomed our colleagues from the European Training Foundation (ETF) who made presentations and emphasized new perspectives.
During the Dialogue, and at the instigation of the IIAS, the project to organize a ‘African Forum of Public Administration’ in April 2012 became a reality. But we shall return to it later.
On 21 and 22 November 2011, the second sub-regional conference of LAGPA took place in Bogota (Colombia), on ‘The Management of Public Space: a Shared Responsibility’.
A few days later, on Saturday, December 10, in Seoul, a panel co-organized by the Korea Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) and IIAS was held on the theme of ‘The Regional and Global Cooperation in the Field of Public Administration’.
This very successful panel was followed by a meeting of key officials of the Asian Group for Public Administration (AGPA), organized for the afternoon of the same day, to discuss the second official conference of AGPA to be held in May 2012 in the Maldives and the governance rules of AGPA. The meeting, led by Mr Pan Suk Kim, Chairman of IIAS, was attended by the two Vice-Presidents of the Institute for East Asia, Jiang Wu, and Asia and South Pacific, Mr Akira Nakamura, by the representative of the ‘Civil Service Commission’ of the Maldives, Mr Ahmed Husham, and by Mr Rolet Loretan, Director General of IIAS.
The end of the year was characterised by significant events in terms of staff. First, having expressed a desire to return to his native Austria to pursue his career, Mr Johannes Irschik left the Institute after four years of exemplary collaboration in every respect. To replace him, our choice was Mrs Virginie Delattre-Escudié. Virginie is French. She spent many years in Germany where she graduated in International and Development Economics from the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) in Berlin and carried out some research for the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation and for the Brussels office of the German Institute of International and Security Affairs (SWP). Prior to this she had worked for five years in the political department of the French Embassy in Berlin.
Finally, in order to consolidate the scientific expertise of the Directorate General of the Institute, we have also hired, as from 1 January 2012, a staff member to fill the newly created role of ‘Development Officer’ in the person of Ms Munira Aminova, from Uzbekistan. Munira holds a MBA in Public Service from the University of Birmingham and a PhD in Political Sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Prior to this, she worked for the University of Westminster in Tashkent for six years, the Ministry of Finance and other institutions. She has had research and consultancy positions with The United Nations, UNDP, IWMI, OSCE, USAID, the British Embassy and others. She has also authored scientific and research papers in academic journals and conferences.
As soon as the mists of the holiday season were easing, it was time for the traditional period of the statutory meetings for the three entities of the Institute based in Brussels. The first to convene was EGPA’s Steering Committee on 27 and 28 January 2012, followed by the Board of Management of IASIA on 13 and 14 February, the various specialised committees of IIAS on February 15 and finally, the Council of Administration of the Institute on 16 and 17 February. All of these committees and councils confirmed the innovative and dynamic strategy of our institutions by accelerating the development process of ongoing projects and encouraging new initiatives.
Two facts deserve to be particularly noted: first, the Ghent University College invited the Council of Administration of IIAS to inaugurate the IIAS Department of the University Library, consisting of 17,000 books offered by the Institute in accordance with the decision taken by the Council of Administration in 2011. A delegation from the Council of Administration therefore visited Ghent on 16 February and was warmly welcomed by representatives of the Office of the University College.
We are also pleased to welcome our new members accepted by the Council of Administration: the Dominican Republic as a member-state and ReSPA − Regional School of Public Administration based in Montenegro − as an International Organization. In addition, the Council of Administration has accepted corporate members from Argentina, China and Korea as well as a regional organization based in Slovakia (NISPAcee). An application from Taiwan, China, has yet to be approved by the Chinese National Section, as reported in our statutes.
Earlier, from 1 to 3 February, EGPA jointly organized with NISPAcee a successful Fifth Trans-European Dialogue (TED 5) in Budapest, on ‘The Politics of Agency Governance”.
In March 2012, the IIAS was invited to organise a panel on ‘Creating Public Value: between Public Opinion and Public Service Delivery’ as part of the annual conference of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) in Las Vegas (Nevada). The Director General of IIAS, responsible for chairing the panel, invited speakers from IIAS, EGPA and IASIA. Then, later in the day, the president of IIAS presided in turn a ‘super session’ on the question of the role of government in reducing poverty.
At the time of writing, we have successfully organized the ‘1st French-speaking African Forum’ in the premises of the ENA (National School of Administration) in Rabat (Morocco). Sixty participants debated for two days on the theme of ‘Local Governance and Development in Africa’. Due to the success of this first event, all the partners involved (IIAS, EGPA, ENA Morocco, IEA, IMPGT Aix-Marseille, GRET, CAFRAD and the Hanns Seidel Foundation) have voluntarily agreed to set up for 2013 a ‘2nd French-speaking African Forum of Public Administration’, probably in Yaoundé (Cameroon). The anticipated theme is: ‘The Major Structural Administrative Reforms in Africa’.
Finally, the past few months have been marked by the development of new regional groups of IIAS (LAGPA and AGPA) and by the organisation of sub-regional conferences. We also negotiated agreements with the local organisers of the IIAS/IASIA Congress 2013 in Bahrain and the 2013 EGPA Conference to be held (probably) in Edinburgh (Scotland). Our contracts with our publishers, including Sage and Larcier-de Boeck, have also been renegotiated. Finally, we are in the middle of preparing the International Congress of IIAS in Merida, Mexico (June 18-22), the IASIA Conference in Bangkok, Thailand (16-21 July) and the EGPA Conference in Bergen, Norway (5-8 September). But we will discuss these in our next Chronicle. In the meantime, we wish you a great summer!