PPG program supports Curriculum Development of a New Executive Master Program by HEQEP

Vol. 7, Issue 1 ͻ January 2015 3 Program Milestone 5 Research & Publications 6 Outreach & Networking 7 Alumni Corner 8 News Highlights PPG program supports Curriculum Development of a New Executive Master Program by HEQEP A meticulous and extensive brainstorming of ideas amongst professionals and academics was arranged by the HEQEP sub project of the PPG Program, to bring forth a blueprint of an Executive Master Program. The half day workshop was held on 27th December, 2014 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC). The workshop discussed various practical challenges faced by Public and NGO officials in their day to day work and aimed to design a practical work oriented curriculum which would be offered to the upcoming executive program. The workshop was attended by professionals, practitioners, academics and corporate managers who from time to time play the role of employers and human resource managers in their own organizations. The reason behind the workshop was to get opinions and suggestions in developing course curriculum for the upcoming Master Program. The Chief Guest of the workshop was Prof. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, Member of the University Grants Commission while Prof. Amin U. Sarkar chaired the session. The working session was held in two parts. Professor Salahuddin Aminuzzaman, Adviser of the PPG Program moderated the first part where he addressed the major problems that our public sector professionals face. The participants expressed their views on capacity building of public sector professionals who are the future administrators of the country. The second part was moderated by Dr. Sk Tawfique, where he and the participants focused on the need assessment of a tailor made professional degree and discussed the possible outline and modules of the upcoming degree. Editorial Board Chairman Professor Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman Members Professor M Emdadul Haque Dr. Sk. Tawfique M. Haque Editorial Assistant Md. Akram Hossain 1

Editor s Note The year 2015 is the 8 th successful year of the Public Policy and Governance (PPG) Program which initiated its journey in 2008 with a vision to impart research based knowledge and hands on experience on policy and governance to the professionals both at national and international level. PPG Program has accomplished enormous activities in the 8 years and earned much acknowledgement and approbation. With each growing year, the program has progressed and proved itself in joint collaboration, seminars, workshops, conferences, publications and in building strong academic networks at home and abroad. The PPG News is bi-annual publication which portrays the remarkable activities and events of the program. This issue comes with some more interesting and motivating activities and achievements of the program from July to December 2015. The PPG team will highly appreciate any comments, feedbacks and suggestions from the readers. Governance Survey A governance survey started in 2014 under the NORAD funded project Policy and Governance Studies (PGS) in South Asia. The survey is a common program component for all three partner countries:, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The major objectives of the survey are to map and diagnose public sector dysfunctions of these countries; and to assess the satisfaction level of citizens towards different service delivery organizations as well as political and administrative institutions. Data collection in Nepal has already been completed and in and Sri Lanka it is still in progress. A common questionnaire has been administered in all three countries with a few country specific questions. The sample size for is 2,745, while for Nepal 2,400 and for Sri Lanka 1,800. The survey is being conducted in all three countries following a representative sampling technique. Seminar on Road to 1947 Partition and Intellectual Narratives The seminar was organized by NSU in collaboration with University Press Limited (UPL) on August 13, 2014 at PPG Conference Room of NSU. Professor M. Emdadul Haq, Department of Political Science and Sociology of NSU presented the keynote paper Road to 1747 Partition and Intellectual Narratives. The seminar was participated by Vice Chancellor of NSU, Professor Amin Sarkar, as Chief Guest and other faculty members of different departments of NSU including Dean, School of Humanities and Social Science, Chair of the PSS Department, Director of PPG Program. The MPPG 4 th batch students and PPG staff along with some participants from UPL and undergraduate students of NSU attended the seminar. The seminar was around 2 hours long with lively discussion and debate on the literatures related to the 1947 partition. The seminar ended with precise and interesting narratives of the partition related history and events by the vice chancellor of NSU. 2

Program Milestones Partners Visit to MPPG Visit by delegates from Norway, Sri Lanka and Nepal A delegate comprising representative members of our partner institution in Norway, Sri Lanka and Nepal visited the PPG Program for admission interview of i students of Master in Public Policy and Governance (MPPG) and attending a project meeting for NORHED Project Policy and Governance Studies (PGS) in South Asia: Regional Master and PhD. Programs from 24 to 28 September, 2014. Members of the Delegates: Norway : Professor Ishtiaq Jamil Chief Coordinator, NORHED Project Nepal : Professor Dr. Chandra Mani Paudel Registrar, Tribhuvan University (TU) Professor Dr. Dev Raj Adhikari Dean, Faculty of Management, TU Professor Tek Nath Dhakal, Head of the Central Department of Public Administration, TU Mr. Raju Kumar Shrestha Associate Administrator, CDPA, TU A project meeting was held on September 25, 2014 at PPG Conference Room (NAC-1058) with the participation of representatives from all partner institutions. On the same day, a meeting was held with the Vice Chancellor of North South University at VC s Conference Room. Sri Lanka : Professor Ranasinghe Wijetunga, Dept of Political Science, University of Peradeniya (UoP) Mr. Shanaka Rodrigo Senior Assistant Bursar, Faculty of Arts, UoP The Registrar of Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal and the Dean, Faculty of Management, TU had a meeting with the Registrar of North South University. On 26 September 2014, the foreign delegates visited different places in Dhaka such as: National Museum, Dhaka University, National Parliament, Dhakeshwari Temple, etc. An official dinner program was also organized in the honor of the delegates at Hotel Serina, Dhaka. The VC and the Pro-VC of NSU along with the delegates, faculty members and staff of PPG Program attended the dinner. An accounts related meeting was held on 25 and 27 September, 2014 with the representatives of all 3 partner counties: Mr. Mainul Haque Khan, Accounts Officer, PPG Program, NSU, ; Mr. Shanaka Rodrigo, Senior Assistant Bursar, Faculty of Arts, UoP, Sri Lanka; and Mr. Raju Kumar Shrestha, Associate Administrator, CDPA, TU, Nepal. 3

Class by Guest Lecturers The MPPG program imparts practical and hands on knowledge to its students, and with that end in view, the program invites distinguished guest speakers for each of the ongoing courses, During this period some nationally and internationally reputed professionals, academics, practitioners and civil society leaders, were invited to deliver lectures on various topics related to various MPPG courses. In spring 2014 Semester of the MPPG 4th batch, a number of lectures by guest speakers were organized.. Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director of Centre for Policy dialogue (CPD), a leading Think Tank of delivered a lecture on Role of Civil Society Organizations and Think Tanks in Policy Analysis, Advocacy and Research on 1st November 2014. Mr. Monowar Islam, the Secretary of Power Division, Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources of the Government of, gave a presentation on Challenges of Public Policy Implementation in on 22 November. MPPG Program strives to ensure that the students learn more about the practical experiences rather than just mere theories. Hence, we invite the best resource person to deliver guest lectures. To this effect, Mr. Md. Mosta Gausul Hoque, Director, Planning and Development and Deputy National Project Director of UNDP assisted Improving Democracy through Parliamentary Development (IPD) Project, delivered a series of lectures on project management and related issues including logical framework on 13, 20, 27 September, and 22 November, 2014. MPPG aims to offer its students the best knowledge from the most experienced individuals of any and every field. Ms. Cynthia McKinney, an Ex- US Congress Woman, currently a visiting member of the faculty, Department of Political Science and Sociology in North South University, gave a lecture on Dynamics of Public Policy Making- Role of US Congress on 11th November 2014. On 12th of October, 2014, Dr. Iftekhar Iqbal, Associate Professor of the Department of History, University of Dhaka delivered a lecture on Role of Civil Society in Governance and Development of South Asia. He upheld a theoretical and conceptual discussion on civil society along with different historical and current examples, trends, challenges and prospects of civil society in South Asia. MPPG 4th Batch Visit to BARD The five days field visit to Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Kotbari, Comilla from 18-22 October, 2014 was successfully completed. A total of 19 participants including 2 staff members from PPG program attended the course. The Orientation Program on Development Management and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) was structured by BARD with classroom lectures and field visits. The course was designed with theoretical concepts of development, rural development, Comilla approach, stakeholder analysis, monitoring and evaluation and participatory rural appraisal. Besides the class room sessions, all participants were taken to a nearby village to visit Richo Comprehensive Village Development Cooperative (CVDC) Society where a local manager of the CVDC described how the cooperative worked for the benefits of its members in the Richo village. All participants, especially foreign students, from North South University enjoyed the visit to BARD for its nice environment and facilities. The participants also visited different historical places of Comilla, played a friendly volleyball match and enjoyed an exciting cultural evening jointly organized and preformed by participants and faculty members of BARD. Program Officer and Research Associate of the PPG Program were in the management of the BARD visit. At the end of the course, all participants were provided certificates. 4

Publications of PPG Faculty Members Professor Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman, Adviser of PPG Program published 3 research papers/ books: i). National Integrity System Assessment of, Transparency International, October 2014 (co-author Dr. Sumaiya Khair); ii). Local Governance and Decentralization Program for Union Parishad and Upazila Parishad, Dhaka, UNDP, December, 2014; iii). Governance at Cross Roads: Insights from, Dhaka: Institute of Governance Studies, 2014 (coedited with Rizwan Khair and Ipsita Basu) Dr. Tawfique M. Haque, Director of PPG Program, published a book chapter on Administrative Culture and Corruption in in the book titled Administrative Culture in Developing and Transitional countries in November 2014. The book was published by Routledge. Workshop on Research Topic and Proposal Research & Publications Paper Presentation in Conferences Professor Salahuddin M. Aminuzzaman, Adviser of PPG Program attended an international conference organized by International Political Science Association (IPSA) in Canada held on July 19-20, 2014. He presented there a paper on Political Economy of Local Governance: A Study of the Grassroots level Local Government in. Professor Salahuddin Aminuzzaman also made two presentations on National Integrity System to the Cabinet Division, Government of and the Anti- Corruption Commission, December 2014. He also attended GAIN international conference on Governance and Innovation: Business, Society and Environment in Developing Countries held on 19-20 December, 2014 at BARD, Comilla. The conference was jointly organized by the Center for Administrative Research and Innovation (CARI), Governance and Administration Innovation Network (GAIN), Network for Integrative Research (netinsearch) and Public Administration and Governance Research Network (PAGRN). He attended there as one of the key note speakers and presented a paper on Community Based Research: Does It Matter to Address Community Problems in - Yes, No or Not Sure? Dr. Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, Director of PPG Program attended the international conference organized by International Political Science Association (IPSA) held on July 19-20, 2014. He presented a paper on Principles of Ruling: A Comparative Analysis of Hinduism and Islam. Mr. Md. Akram Hossain, Research Associate and Program Officer of PPG Program attended the GAIN international conference and presented a paper on Knowledge Management for Good Governance in Public Administration: A Review of Kautily s Perspective Baseline Survey for the Need Assessment of Executive Master Program A baseline survey for the need assessment of the new executive master program has been undertaken by the HEQEP sub project of the PPG Program. The survey is being conducted in Dhaka, Rajshahi and Chittagong areas and its respondent groups are civil servant, NGO officials and fresh graduates. The data collection of the survey is near end and the report is expected to be published in February, 2015. A survey methodology training was given to the enumerators involved in the data collection of the survey. Students of the MPPG Program are required to submit their thesis at the end of the course. Thesis topic selection is one of the most important steps of thesis writing, because the successful completion of a thesis largely depends on the proper topic selection. The research proposal and topic selection workshop was held on 25 th September, 2014. The research project occupy 12 credit hours (out of total 36 credits for MPPG) and therefore much emphasize is given on writing the research proposal and gaining a clear focus of the problem identification. In the workshop Professor Ishtiaq Jamil from Norway, Professor Tek Nath Dhakal from Nepal, Professor RAW Ranasinghe from Sri Lanka were present along with the Adviser and the Director of PPG Program. 5

Outreach & Networking PPG Program Visit by UGC Member Dr. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, Member of the University Grants Commission of visited the MPPG office on 8thSeptember, 2014. He held a meeting with members of the faculty of the program. Professor Khan also had a formal meeting with the Vice Chancellor of North South University, Chair, Department of Political Science and Sociology and the Director of PPG Program. Professor Khan also made a donation of a number of books and important journals to PPG resource center. University of Manchester, UK visit by the Director, PPG Program Director of the PPG Program, Dr. Sk Tawfique M. Haque visited the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) at the University of Manchester, UK as an exposure visit for the Curriculum development of the new upcoming Executive Evening Masters Program. He had several meetings with the faculty members of IDPM regarding future academic collaboration for curriculum development and joint research. PPG resource center Books and journals donated by Professor Khan Staff Training under HEQEP sub project, Conducted by the British Council The Higher Education Quality Enhancement (HEQEP) Project aims to promote capacity building of its staff, and with that end in view a twoday corporate training titled, Better Emails and Communication was arranged. The training was conducted by the British council. A total of ten staff members of the Department of Political Science and Sociology took part in the training. It was a two-day training held on 30 November and 1st December. The Chair of the department exempted all staff from their regular duties to be able to take part in this training with full concentration and focus. 6

Alumni Corner Ms. Tahmina Afroz, a student of MPPG 3rd batch, presented a paper in a conference titled Rethinking Intellectual Activism at University of Maryland Baltimore County on April 12, 2014. She is going to start her graduate study at University of Texas at Arlington on Urban Affairs and Policy Program from Spring 2015. Mr. Raju Sharma, a student of MPPG 3rd batch, has established a think tank organization at Butwal city in Nepal. He has recently developed a policy paper titled cutting across the conceptual jungle of people s participation in Nepal: Learnings from the participation based development projects of the Local government institutions in Nepal. It can be found at http://asd.org.np/en/policy-program/ policy-fellowship/fellowship-awarded. In addition, he also writes about issues in local governance in local newspapers. Ms. Anjalina Karki, a student of MPPG 3rd batch, is working as SUN Project Coordinator in Save the Children International where she is engaged with project Engaging civil society organizations in advocating and sustaining political will for government action for scaling up nutrition. Mr. Md. Mahmudul Kabir, a student of MPPG 2nd batch, obtained JDS (Japanese grant aid for human resource Development Scholarship) scholarship in and went to Japan in August for participating in a two-year master s program on CSPA (Comparative Studies of Politics and Administration in Asia) in Kyushu University, Fukuoka city. He successfully completed the program with all A s in all courses and thesis. During the study in Japan, he also participated and presented paper in a number of workshops/seminars in Beijing, China; Hanoi, Vietnam; Manila, Philippines and traveled to London, UK for data collection for his thesis. The title of his thesis was Implementing People s Right to Know: the Roles and Challenges of Information Commission in. Program Staff News and Activities PPG Staff Joined Summer Workshop of CSDS, India Md. Akram Hossain is a Research Associate of the Public Policy and Governance (PPG) Program participated in a Summer Workshop on Analyzing Quantitative Data on Indian Politics from 07 to 18 July, 2014 organized by the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi, India. The workshop was held at Jain University, Bengaluru, India. Appointment of Research Associate & Office Manager of HEQEP Sub-Project Ms. Shehreen Amin Bhuiyan has been appointed as the Research Associate and Office Manager of the HEQEP Sub project of the PPG Program. Ms. Shehreen formally joined the PPG team on 20th October, 2014. Ms Shehreen has completed her BSS and MSS in Public Administration from University of Dhaka and achieved first class first position. 7

Governance Indicators News Highlights New Batch/Cohort of MPPG The Master in Public Policy and Governance (MPPG) Program admitted 21 students for its new cohort from, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The written admission test was held on Friday, 5 September, 2014 in for the selection of i students. A total of 58 candidates attended the test. Among them 14 candidates (9 male & 5 female) were finally selected for the admission. In Nepal, the admission test was held on the same day and 14 candidates (Male 10, Female 4) contested in written test for 5 available seats for Nepal. From Sri Lanka, 1 male and 1 female candidate was finally selected for the MPPG Program. Among the 14 selected candidates from 13 represented from different cadres of Civil Service (6 from BCS Administration, 5 from BCS Information, 1 from Education and 1 from BCS Audit & Accounts cadre), and 1 from NGO sector. From Nepal, 5 students have been selected; 1 of them is from civil service 2 from private sector and rests 2 are fresh graduates. Besides, 2 Sri Lankans have been selected, one is from the civil service and other from the academia. Indicator Country Year Voice and Accountability Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism Government Effectiveness Regulatory Quality Rule of Law Control of Corruption Percentile Rank (0 to 100) 0 20 40 60 80 100 Source: Kaufmann D., A. Kraay, and M. Mastruzzi (), The Worldwide Governance Indicators: Methodology and Analytical Issues Percentile Rank (0-100) Indicates rank of country among all countries in the world. 0 corresponds to lowest rank and 100 corresponds to highest rank. The Worldwide Governance Indicators are available at: www.govindicators.org Note: The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) are a research dataset summarizing the views on the quality of governance provided by a large number of enterprise, citizen and expert survey respondents in industrial and developing countries. These data are gathered from a number of survey institutes, think tanks, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and private sector firms. The WGI do not reflect the official views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. The WGI are not used by the World Bank Group to allocate resources. New Web Address of MPPG: www.pgs-southasia.org MPPG Program is now one of the major components of the PGS Programs. The PGS Programs have a separate web address: www.pgs-southasia.org which also covers the news, events and activities of MPPG Program. Besides the website of MPPG (www.mppg-nsu.org), you may also visit the new website, for any information regarding the MPPG Program, Ph.D. Program, Post-Doctoral Fellowships and other activities of the PGS Programs. PGS Program Policy and Governance Studies (PGS) in South Asia: Regional Master and Ph.D. Programs is an international program, run in collaboration with Department of Administration and Organization Theory of University of Bergen (UoB), Norway, Central Department of Public Administration (CDPA) of Tribhuvan University (TU), Nepal, North South University (NSU),, and University of Peradeniya (UoP), Sri Lanka. The project is funded by NORAD The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation- a specialized directorate under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Norway. Contact Us PPG Program Office, North South University Room No : NAC 1074/1076, Bashundhara, Dhaka-1229, Phone : +880-2-55668200, Ext. 2163/2164 Email : nsu.mppg@gmail.com Website : www.mppg-nsu.org, www.pgs-southasia.org Published By: Public Policy and Governance (PPG) Program Department of Political Science and Sociology (PSS) North South University Layout and Design: Project components Education Ph.D. Program at TU MPPG Program at NSU Evidence Based Research Post-Doctoral Fellowships Communication & Advocacy Publication, knowledge dissemination, policy advocacy and academic networking and collaborations, Farhana.Ferdous@gmail.com 8