ReSPA’s Regional Network of policy coordinators meets and paves the way for the upcoming “Academy on Public Policies”
29-30 March 2022, Istanbul, Turkey
ReSPA organized a two-day meeting of the Regional Network of Policy Coordinators, established as a specific network within ReSPA’s Working Group of Centre of Government. In addition to the members of the Network, the meeting was attended by various civil servants dealing with the coordination of public policies in ReSPA Members as well as representatives of the academia. Representatives of OECD/SIGMA were also present during the meeting and contributed accordingly during all the sessions.
The main aim of the meeting was to present, debate and brainstorm the consolidated draft of the programme of the upcoming ReSPA Academy on Public Policies. The Academy is a new endeavour of ReSPA, and it is a life-long specific learning programme planned to start in the following months. The Academy will include eight modules that will target a variety of topics related to public policies, such as evidence-based policy planning, situation & problem analysis, methodologies for prioritization process, defining and communicating reform activities, financing reform activities, monitoring/reporting and evaluation of the implementation of the planned policies.
Each module will last five full working days. The programme will be a blending among lecturers from academia from the Region and lecturers from civil services of the ReSPA members to ensure an adequate balance between theoretical and practical approaches. ReSPA will soon organize the process of identification of the participants for this specific learning programme, targeting civil servants dealing with public policies in the respective administrations in the Region.
In addition, during the meeting were discussed the possibilities for establishing a Regional Journal on public administration reform in the Western Balkans and various views pros and cons were debated.
During the second day of the meeting, the representatives of OECD/SIGMA presented the findings/results of the Monitoring Report 2021 on (i) the Strategic Framework of PAR and (ii) Policy Development and Co-ordination. A specific session in the format of the “round table” was devoted to the exchange on enhancing policy coordination and evidence-based policymaking: good practice examples and future plans. Country presentations were held on policy coordination and evidence-based policymaking, targeting the following questions: What reform measures have been recently implemented and how successful are they? What challenges remain, and how do administrations intend to overcome them. The session was characterized by lively discussions.
