ABOUT NISPAcee The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe

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1 ABOUT NISPAcee The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe By Ľudmila Gajdosova, NISPAcee Executive Director NISPAcee was established in 1994 as an non-profit, non-governmental organization focused on the public administration challenges facing central and eastern European countries MISSION NISPAcee is an arena for East - East collaboration through assisting, mediating and facilitating joint research, educational and training programmes and discussions between instructors, civil servants, trainers, public sector managers and politicians. This shall promote both human capacity building and institutional development in public administration through mutual learning and bring about considerable synergetic effects to all member institutions. NISPAcee fosters preferably East - East co-operation, as well as East - West co-operation. The core of the NISPAcee activities is to promote the development of public administration disciplines and training programmes in post-communist countries. This means increasing the quality of instruction and research and assisting in school/institute development on international, regional and national levels. Part of the mission is also to foster the development of civil service human resources by spreading the practices of good professional public management, public policy and governance and assisting in the overall political and economic transition through effective public service. Most important is the creating of conditions for the increased professionalism of the civil service especially through the facilitation of contact between government representatives responsible for public service and representatives and consultants from member institutions. In addition to this advantage that this will give the countries involved, it will also help strengthen the position of schools and institutes in these regions as well as NISPAcee as an organisation. FUNCTIONS AND OBJECTIVES The execution of the NISPAcee mission is based on five fundamental functions associated with main objectives of the organisation: 1. Networking NISPAcee aims to serve as a well-functioning forum and a bridge for the exchange and transfer of ideas, skills, and relevant information and to:

2 improve co-operation between various schools and institutes of public administration throughout the region, and between individual educators, students and practitioners in the field disseminate and encourage the utilisation of knowledge and practices developed by its members through co-operative efforts strengthen various partnership patterns to meet both supra-regional (international, East-West), regional and sub-regional challenges help schools and institutes within individual countries at institution building, especially foster establishment of associations in the field at the national level bridge between Western, Central and Eastern countries in Europe and to utilize the special capacity to link the Balkan, East, Caucasus and Central Asia regions bridge between academia and practice use appropriate networking techniques such as web site, data sets made available to member institutions, newsletter, conferences, and joint projects 2. Facilitating Training and Education strengthen individual schools and institutes of public administration education and training in Central and Eastern Europe by an assistance adjusted to individual needs develop textbooks and other teaching materials adjusted to specific conditions of the region make specific effort to assist developing the new M.A. and Ph.D. programmes initiate quality assessment procedures (including accreditation) in the region and assist in their preparation and implementation at national level stimulate the engagement of young professionals in training and education by special promotion programmes facilitate exchange teaching activities among member institutions 3. Fostering Research NISPAcee aims to support the development of the genuine research capacities in the region and to: help develop public administration theory, especially as it is able to respond to the region's transition toward fully democratic governance, the functioning of a market economy and preserving social cohesion cultivate the skills of rigorous research methodology, including validity and reliability of applied research establish and maintain its own permanent or occasional research working groups, related to common research interests amongst academics and practitioners active in the field of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe and other countries to investigate specific subjects and problems of interest and importance to member institutions encourage comparative studies regularly publish good quality occasional papers (with further prospect to establish a fully professional scientific journal) 2

3 4. Developing Consultancy NISPAcee aims to become a natural facilitator of implementation of theory and methodology into the practice of public administration and in particular to: facilitate the application of innovative ideas concerning administrative behaviour, specific technologies and regionally generated knowledge developed by member institutions in the regular operation of civil service disseminate the information about best practices and most typical failures elaborate the data base of regional experts in various fields of expertise 5. Supporting Advocacy NISPAcee will use its non-profit, neutral status and reputation to advocate the need of raising the quality of public administration in the region. In particular it will: strengthen working contacts with supranational governance bodies, especially the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United Nations and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) act to facilitate links with individual Central and Eastern European national governments, especially by dissemination of NISPAcee products and by promoting public relations activities help to organise standing discussions for dealing with the ongoing public administration reforms of top executives, scholars and teachers at regional, subregional, national and local level develop its own Public Relations to strengthen the international as well as national awareness and recognition of NISPAcee within political and administrative circles ACTIVITIES 1. Annual Conferences NISPAcee organises annual conferences for its members each year. The 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. Meetings of NISPAcee s Working Groups and other Specialised Meetings are 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. 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. Start of the Network two-steps: 3

4 The 1st Meeting of Representatives of Regional Institutes and Schools of Public Administration, Vienna, Austria, January 1993 The 2nd Meeting of Representatives of Schools and Institutes of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe, Bratislava, Slovakia, January 1994 establishment of the NISPAcee Continuation in Annual Conferences: The 3 rd Annual Conference Public Administration in Transition in Bled, Slovenia, March 1995 The 4 th Annual Conference Developing Organisations and Changing Attitudes: Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe in Tirana, Albania, March 1996 The 5 th Annual Conference Professionalisation of Public Servants in Central and Eastern Europe in Tallinn, Estonia, April 1997 The 6 th Annual Conference Public Administration and Social Policies in Central and Eastern Europe in Prague, Czech Republic, March 1998 The 7 th Annual Conference Improving Relations between the Administration and The Public in Sofia, Bulgaria, March 1999 The 8 th Annual Conference Ten Year of Transition: Prospects and Challenges of the Future for Public Administration in Budapest, Hungary, April 2000 The 9 th Annual Conference Government, Market and the Civic Sector: The Search for a Productive Partnership in Riga, Latvia, May 2001 The 10 th Annual Conference Delivering Public Services in Central and Eastern Europe: Trends and Developments, in Krakow, Poland, April 2002 The 11 th NISPAcee Annual Conference: Enhancing the Capacities to Govern: Challenges Facing the CEE Countries, Bucharest, Romania, April, 2003 The 12 th NISPAcee Annual Conference: Central and Eastern European Countries inside and outside the European Union: Avoiding a new divide, Vilnius, Lithuania, May, 2004 The 13 th NISPAcee Annual Conference: Democratic Governance for the XXI Century: Challenges and Responses in CEE Countries, Moscow, Russia, May, 2005 The 14 th NISPAcee Annual Conference: Public Administration and Public Policy in Emerging Europe & Eurasia: For Professionalism, Impartiality and Transparency, Ljubljana, Slovenia, Summer Schools, Workshops and Training Programmes NISPAcee Summer Schools 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 eight successful summer workshops, and aims to continue with this activity each summer: The 1st Summer School The Education and Training of Public Servants in Portoroz, Slovenia, August 1994 The 2nd Summer School Public Finance and Comparative Public Administration Curricula Development and Teaching Methodology in Stara Lesna, Slovakia, August 1995 The 3rd Summer School Information and Communication Technology as a Driving Force of Change in Public Administration in Prague, Czech Republic, September 1996 The 4th Summer School Administrative Law in Budapest, Hungary, September 1997 The 5th Summer School Teaching of Public Management in Borovetz, Bulgaria, July 1998 The 6 th Summer School Ethics and Responsibility in Bialystok, Poland, August 2001 The 7 th Summer School Assessing the Quality of Governance: Developing the Common Assessment Framework for CEE Countries, in Potsdam, Germany, July, 2002 The 8 th NISPAcee - EPAN Joint Summer School European Policy Management in Comparative Perspective, in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, June 29 th - July 5 th,

5 NISPAcee workshops are devoted to academics as well as practitioners in the public service and are focused on issues dealing with public administration in transition: Implications of New PHARE Programming for Institutes of Public Administration, held in cooperation with EIPA, Maastricht, The Netherlands, October 1998 "Administrative Capacity for European Integration: The Demands of EU Membership on National Administrations and the Role of Training", in cooperation with EIPA, held in Maastricht, The Netherlands October 2000 Public Administration Education and Training in a Framework of Modernization and Decentralization in cooperation with IASIA and UNDESA, held in Bratislava, Slovakia, December 2001 Training programmes which NISPAcee puts in place train the participants selected from the member institutions in the development of their special skills e.g. advisory training programme focused on fostering successful implementation of public administration reforms throughout the region through the development of the indigenous advisory capacities of NISPAcee institutions: - Training of trainers Building of Advisory Capacities, Bratislava, Slovakia in May, 2001 and May Training courses How to be a Better Policy Advisors, Bratislava, Slovakia in October 2001, Almaty, Kazakhstan in October 2001, Cluj-Napoca, Romania in June 2002, Odesa, Ukraine in October 2002, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation in October 2003, Bratislava, Slovakia in April 2005 and Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in June Training of trainers Building Advisory Capacities for Institution Building for EU Membership, Bratislava, Slovakia in April Training course for advisors Institution Building for EU Membership, Albena, Bulgaria, in June 2004 NISPAcee aims to develop other programmes based on the needs of different regions within the network e.g. accession countries, Balkans, NIS. 3. Information and 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. 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, 5

6 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. Other information activities includes: NISPAcee web site: database 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. discussion groups) 4. 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. This is why NISPAcee support research activities. 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. 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: Working Group on Politico-Administrative Relations (from 1998) Working Group on Better Quality Administration for the Public (from 1999) Working Group on the System of Social Security with Special Emphasis on Problems of Unemployment, Poverty and Gender ( ) Working Group on Governing Multi-ethnic Communities (from 2000) Working Group on Public Finance and Accounting (from 2001) Working Group on e-government (from 2002) Working Group on Public Health Management and Policy ( ) Working Group on Preventing Corruption in Public Administration (in 2003) Working Group on Capacity Building of Civil Servants Training System according to EU Requirements (from 2004) Working Group on Strategic Leadership in Central Government ( ) Working Group on Degree Programmes of Public Administration/Public Policy Education (from 2005) Working group on Ethics in Governance (from 2005) Applied Policy Research Project, a joint NISPAcee/NASPAA (National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, USA) project supported by 6

7 USAID in years , was the next important step in fostering research in the region and simultaneously in strengthening public policy making. The project aimed to build mechanism for partnership between government and NISPAcee members within a respective country. 5. Exchange Programmes and Development of PA Programmes There are a lot of 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, included "Visiting Scholar s Programme", "Invited Speaker s Series," and "Student Exchange Programme" carried out between NISPAcee future East-East exchanges and development of PA programmes continue mainly with an aim to spread out the knowledge and experience from more developed NISPAcee institutions and programmes to those just emerging and developing in a form of technical assistance and research working groups, mainly focused on the Balkan region and NIS countries. 6. Civil Service Forums/High Level Meetings NISPAcee Civil Service Forums and High Level Meetings endeavour to strengthen civil service responsibilities by establishing a platform for discussion and cooperation to be operational between educational institutions, civil servants and politicians: The 1 st Civil Service Forum Civil Service Training: Challenges and Prospects was held in Paris, France, October 1997 The 2 nd Civil Service Forum Openness and Transparency in Governance: Challenges and Opportunities was held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, October 1999 High Level Meeting The Capacity to Govern in Central and Eastern Europe was held in Prague, Czech Republic, December, NISPAcee aims 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 and policies. 7. NISPAcee Awards Alena Brunovská Award 7

8 NISPAcee recognises outstanding achievements in the field of public administration education and research within the member institutions by launching the prestigious award: "Alena Brunovská Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration". The award has been launched in memory of Alena Brunovská, one of the NISPAcee founders and the first Chair of the NISPAcee Steering Committee. The award is a tribute to her commitment to the development of public administration education in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. 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. Criteria Candidates are assessed on the basis of their performance in the following fields: teaching excellence: outstanding performance in classroom teaching leadership in pedagogy: in all non-classroom activities which contribute to improving the teaching of public administration Although the main emphasis is on the criteria set out above, the following are also taken into consideration: contributions to the practice of public administration: all activities which support improvements in the public administration of the candidate s country or region applied research: research and related activities which advance the practice of public administration 8. Partners Several donors and partners support NISPAcee activities since the organisation's inception: The Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute, Budapest, Hungary The Austrian Federal Chancellery through the Austrian Federal Academy of Public Administration, Vienna Austria SIGMA, France (SIGMA - Support for Improvement in Governance and Management in Central and Eastern European Countries is a joint initiative of OECD/CCET and EU/PHARE mainly financed by EU/PHARE), Paris, France The Pew Charitable Trusts, USA through the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), USA USAID, through the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), Washington, D.C., USA French government through International Institute of Public Administration (IIAP), Paris, France EIPA (European Institute of Public Administration), by funds from the European Commission and the Dutch Government, Maastricht, The Netherlands UNDP REBC, Bratislava, Slovakia Higher Education Support Programme, Open Society Institute, Hungary UN DESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), New York, USA The World Bank, Washington, D.C., USA 8

9 Open Society Institute, New York, USA Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France SlovakAid, Bratislava, Slovakia Member Institutions In addition NISPAcee co-operates closely with national networks of public administration established in some of the CEE countries and aim to foster the establishment of such networks in other countries, e.g. Polish Association for Public Administration Education Lithuanian Public Administration Training Association Association of Romanian Public Administration Schools NISPAcee has established working relations with other professional institutions, networks and associations operating in CEE region 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: EIPA (European Institute of Public Administration), Maastricht, The Netherlands Thematic Network of Public Administration and EPAN (European Public Administration Network) Leiden, The Netherlands EAPAA (European Association for Public Administration Accreditation), Enschede, The Netherlands IASIA (International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration), Brussels, Belgium EGPA (European Group of Public Administration), Brussels, Belgium NISPAcee aims to 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. - NISPAcee has established a close cooperation with United Nations Thessaloniki Centre for Public Service Professionalism, - NISPAcee has accepted an invitation to participate actively in United Nations Public Administration Network, MEMBERSHIP NISPAcee membership encompasses Institutional Members and Associate Members. Individuals can apply for Observer status. At present the NISPAcee enlists 126 Institutional Members (from 23 countries), 32 Associate Members (from 19 countries) and 231 Observers (from 36 countries) Institutional Membership is open to appropriately designated academic units within larger educational institutions (e.g. colleges, schools, divisions, departments, programmes, units, centres, institutes, faculties) to independent educational and training institutions having curricula leading to: graduate degrees in public management and administration undergraduate degrees where public policy, public management and administration areas predominate; and diplomas or certificate in public policy, public management and administration 9

10 to independent non-profit research institutions (e.g. think-tanks), or to governmental institutions and agencies in Central and Eastern Europe Associate Members: is open to academic degree-granting institutions, agencies of government, corporations foundations, professional associations, academic institutions offering diplomas or certificates, independent research or training organisations from non-central and Eastern European countries, and other non-academic organisations, and international organisations that subscribe to the same purpose of NISPAcee. Individuals from these institutions can also apply for observer status. Observers: participation is open to Central and Eastern European professionals mainly involved in teaching, research, training and practice in public management and administration, whether they represent a Member Institution or not. Membership Benefits receive three copies of the NISPAcee publications including quarterly Newsletter may contribute to NISPAcee publications may participate in NISPAcee General Assembly, Annual Conferences and other activities attend conferences organised by the NISPAcee at a reduced rate may maintenance and publish their own data on the NISPAcee web page Dues In accordance with the by-laws NISPAcee dues for membership for a calendar year are 150 EUR for the Member Institutions and 300 EUR for Associate Members. The dues could be changed by a resolution of the General Assembly. LEGAL STATUS AND GOVERNANCE In October 1995 NISPAcee became an independent legal entity registered in Slovakia as an international, non-governmental and non-profit organisation, financed by membership fees, grants, donations and yields of its own activities. The General Assembly and the Steering Committee of five officers elected from the Member Institutions are the NISPAcee governing bodies. The members of the Steering Committee are elected for three years term. The NISPAcee Steering Committee Present Members: Mzia Mikeladze, President, László Vass, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary Sergey Pushkarev, Ural State University, Yekaterinburg, Russia Wolfgang Drechsler, University of Tartu, Estonia Stanka Setnikar-Cankar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Executive Secretariat The Secretariat is located in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. NISPAcee staff: Ms. Ľudmila Gajdošová, Executive Director, Contact: gajdosova@nispa.sk Ms. Viera Wallnerová, Project Manager, Contact: wallnerova@nispa.sk Ms. Elena Žáková, Project Manager, Contact: zakova@nispa.sk Mr. Juraj Sklenár, Information & PR Manager, Contact: sklenar@nispa.sk Mr. Ján Andruch, IT Consultant & Webmaster, Contact: andruch@nispa.sk Address: Hanulova 5/b, Bratislava, Slovak Republic 10

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