Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
57/277. Public administration and development
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolutions 50/225 of 19 April 1996, 53/201 of 15 December 1998 and 56/213 of 21 December 2001 on public administration and development, as well as Economic and Social Council resolution 2001/45 of 20 December 2001,
Stressing the need for capacity-building initiatives aimed at institutionbuilding, human resources development, strengthening financial management and harnessing the power of information and technology,
1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General on the role of public administration in the implementation of the United Nations Millennium Declaration;1 2. Reiterates that efficient, accountable, effective and transparent public administration, at both the national and international levels, has a key role to play in the implementation of internationally agreed goals, including those contained in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, and in that context stresses the need to strengthen national public sector administrative and managerial capacity-building, in particular in developing countries and countries with economies in transition;
3. Decides that 23 June will be designated United Nations Public Service Day, and encourages Member States to organize special events on that day to highlight the contribution of public service in the development process;
4. Expresses its deep appreciation for the generous offer of the Kingdom of Morocco to host the fourth Global Forum, at Marrakesh, in December 2002;
5. Welcomes the substantive support that the Secretariat has provided to the Global Forum, and invites it to extend such support to any future forums of a similar kind that may take place;
6. Reiterates its appreciation for the role that the United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance performs in promoting information sharing and exchange of experience and in building the capacities of developing countries to utilize information communication technologies for this purpose, and reiterates that particular emphasis should be given to the exchange of experience related to the role of public administration in the implementation of internationally agreed goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration;
7. Requests the Secretary-General to submit a report to the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session, in the manner he deems appropriate, on the implementation of the present resolution.
78th plenary meeting
20 December 2002
United Nations Opens Nominations for 2010 Global Contest Seeking Excellence in Delivery of Public Services
In continuing efforts to promote and support innovations in public service delivery worldwide, the United Nations is calling for nominations for its 2010 Public Service Awards.
The seventh annual United Nations Public Service Awards are open to local or national public organizations as well as public-private partnerships involved in essential service delivery to citizens. Nominations can be made online at http://www.unpan.org/applyunpsa2010 until 31 December 2009.
Institutions interested in competing cannot nominate themselves. Instead, they must be nominated by Governments and civil society organizations for their achievements and performance in one of the following categories: improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public service; improving the delivery of services; fostering participation in policymaking decisions through innovative mechanisms; or advancing knowledge management in Government.
“The United Nations has long recognized that effective governance and efficient public administration are central to the global development agenda, and particularly in achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said while addressing the 2009 Public Service Awards winners and finalists earlier this year, reminding them that the ingredients for efficient and equitable public service delivery are “commitment, hard work, innovation, talent and technological know-how”.
Established by the Economic and Social Council in 2003 to promote better service delivery by Governments, the United Nations Public Service Awards promote exemplary public service and recognize that democracy and successful governance are built on a competent civil service. The most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service, they reward the creative achievements and the contributions of public service institutions to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries around the world.
Award recipients will be selected by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration. Winners and finalists for 2010 will receive a trophy and a certificate of recognition during the United Nations Public Service Awards Ceremony and Day on 23 June.
Workshop on the Implementation of a System for Management and Evaluation of the Performance of the Public Service
The Division for Public Administration and Development Management held a training seminar for high level officials titled "United Nations Workshop on the Implementation of a System for Management and Evaluation of the Performance of the Public Service". The Workshop was held from 7 to 10 September in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, in cooperation with the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) and the Ministry of Public Administration of Spain. The event was attended by 32 participants from Latin America, most of them responsible for the civil service in their countries (ministers, vice-ministers and directors of the civil service). Thirteen countries made presentations on the methods and systems of evaluation in their respective civil services.
Who We Are
Division for Public Administration and Development Management
Mission Statement
The Division for Public Administration and Development Management assists Member States in public service delivery improvement, public institutional building and human resource development, in the service of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Through research, advocacy, training and advisory services, the Division promotes the transformation of public institutions into ones that are more citizen-oriented, efficient, effective and accountable through transparent, participatory and innovative measures, including the adaptive use of information and communication technology (ICT).
What We Do
The Products and Services we offer
1. Support for Intergovernmental Processes The Division assists the United Nations intergovernmental policy deliberations by providing information on and policy-oriented analysis of the role of public administration, public finance and public economics in the development process via the United Nations Committee of Experts in Public Administration. It contributes to the identification of options, mechanisms and practices instrumental in strengthening key governance institutions, in promoting the rule of law, in increasing the participation of citizens in the decision-making process and in creating an enabling environment for public sector effectiveness.
2. Comparative Policy Research and Analysis The Division undertakes policy research and analysis on governance systems and institutions, decentralization, the changing role of the State and civil service reform, integrity, transparency and accountability systems, public economics and public policy, public finance and financial administration, the use of information technology in government, and capacity for conflict prevention and managing diversity. The types of publications and outputs include: analytical reports, case studies, country profiles, technical project reports, statistical database, training materials, major development/ trend reports and newsletters.
3. Informations Sharing and Training Programmes The Division assists Governments, through United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN), in improving public administration and finance systems by facilitating access to information, customizing and disseminating good practices and providing an international forum for the exchange of experiences.
4. Advisory Services The Division, upon requests from Member States, assists in providing information, methodologies, assessments and policy proposals concerning governance systems and institutions, decentralization, the changing role of the State and civil service reform, integrity, transparency and accountability systems, public economics and public policy, public finance and financial administration, the use of information technology in government, and capacity for conflict prevention and managing diversity. It helps strengthen the capacity of Governments of developing countries and countries with economies in transition, at their request, by providing advisory services at the country level in needs assessment, policy analysis and development, implementation programme design and development, capacity-building process and human resources development and training.
Our Mandates
The mandates of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management are defined by resolutions and decisions adopted by the General Assembly (GA) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.
Resolutions and Decisions Adopted by the General Assembly and the Economic & Security Council
The following resolutions and decisions are of particular relevance to the area of public administration. They include reference to reports by the Committee of Experts on Public Administration, the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and World Summit on the Information Society.
A - General Assembly
E - Economic and Social Council
Governance and Public Administration
Governance and Public Administration are crosscutting critical facilitating factors in the process of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, poverty reduction, and sustainable development. As the world focuses more and more on these broad goals whose achievement will lead to improvements in human life, and as globalization poses more and more challenges and provides opportunities, the issue of building the requisite capacities of governance and public administration becomes more pronounced, not only for developing countries but for developed ones as well. Consequently, there are emerging issues in governance and public administration that require intergovernmental attention and focused debate, exchange of information and innovative, successful experiences among countries as well as technical cooperation in the direction of public administration capacity-building. The work involves the following:.
- Redesigning and reconfiguration of governance systems and institutions
In search for better performing modes of governance and public administration, countries continue to undertake substantive work in restructuring, reforming, and reconfiguring their governance systems and institutions to make them more participative, decentralized and responsive to local, regional and global needs. The processes of public policy-making constantly need to more involve the local people and a wider spectrum of stakeholders (representatives of government, local governments, the private sector, and the civil society at the global, regional, national and local levels) rather than be a monopoly of the central government or public sector institutions.
.- Ethics, transparency and accountability in the public sector
Citizens in many countries are demanding more integrity, transparency and accountability in the conduct of public affairs. Many governments and their governance partners are responding by designing and strengthening institutions, systems and structures for safeguarding public sector integrity. DPADM is promoting ethics policies and programmes to preserve organizational integrity, increase access to information to foster transparency and accountability, and enhance the work of oversight bodies. In addition, DPADM is also supporting Regional Public Service Charters that aim to harmonize public service codes and structures that promote professional and ethical behaviour as various sub-regions and regions seek to integrate. UNPAN Global Documents on Ethics .
- Reforming institutions of the public service
Public sector reform has been on the agenda of many countries, both developed and developing. However, with the creation of the Millennium Development Goals and the push for reducing poverty, reforming institutions of the public sector has recently focused on strengthening their capacities for spearheading the achievement of these Goals. In addition, the environment shaped by an increasingly globalizing world is refocusing public-sector reform efforts to respond to the challenges and opportunities created by globalization. Technical cooperation efforts in this respect, especially in developing countries, in Africa and other regions, support Member States to reconfigure their public sector institutions to enable them to meet these challenges..
- Strengthening the human resource capacity including leadership
The challenge of attracting, developing, utilizating and retaining capable human resources in the public sector is central to the effectiveness of governments all over the world. The United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration has reiterated this challenge during its first two meetings in New York (2002 and 2003) (The Committee of Experts on Public Administration). An Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on "New Challenges for Senior Leadership Enhancement for Improved Public Management in a Globalizing World" stressed the importance of human resource development in the struggle against poverty and put an extra accent on the critical role of senior leadership capacity in public sector management and overall development. Many countries need to take up the challenge of building human resource capacities in general, and leadership in particular. The substantive, normative, and technical cooperation work of Governance and Public Administration is focused on this challenge as well.
.- Elevating the image, values and status of the public service
An effective public service is indispensable to the overall struggle for strengthening the rule of law and sustainable development, principally because the public service is central to the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programmes that are directly related to the reduction of poverty. However, during several forums it has been observed that in a number of countries the image of the public service has been tinted. Many countries are embarking on revamping the image of the public service to enable it to attract and retain the best talent to sustain its effectiveness. African countries adopted the 23rd of June as Public Service Day, and the United Nations followed suit by adopting the same date as Public Service Day to be observed worldwide. The introduction of the United Nations Public Service Awards is also one of the efforts to uplift the image of the public service (UN Public Service Day). There is a need for sustained effort to diagnose and analyse the forces and factors that have led to the erosion of the image of the public service in almost every country these past years, and to find remedies that would re-establish the values, status, and prestige in serving the public.
.- Strengthening decentralized governance for reducing poverty
Many countries have embraced decentralized governance as a structural and practical arrangement for empowering local communities to fight poverty at a close range. Strengthening decentralized governance has involved building institutional and human capacities in central government institutions, local government institutions, and civil society organizations for supporting participatory planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development as well as accountability at the grass-roots level. Decentralization is increasingly becoming an instrument for people's political empowerment, a platform for sustainable democratization, an initiative for effective and people-friendly service delivery, and a structural arrangement for the mobilization of economic development energies, initiatives, and resources. During the Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on "Innovations in Governance and Public Administration for Poverty Reduction" held in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in February 2003, decentralized governance for people's empowerment was highly commended for poverty reduction. ( Innovations in Governance and Public Administration for Poverty Reduction [13-14 February 2003, Bahia, Brazil])
- Building capacities of governance and public administration for managing conflict
Efforts to integrate conflict management into the work of governance and public administration are founded in the observation that most violent conflicts all over the world are caused and sparked off by failures in governance and public administration systems, institutions, and practices, especially in the way public policies and programmes allocate resources or respond to socio-politico-economic needs. A number of countries are therefore engaging in activities for strengthening the capacities of their governance and public administration to make policies that are conflict-sensitive as part and parcel of conflict management. .
- Focus on special needs of Africa
A number of initiatives need to be undertaken to pay particular attention to the special needs of Africa, especially in relation to strengthening the capacities of governance and public administration institutions. Substantive work is being done to support decentralized governance, public service reform, ethics and integrity in the public service and access to information through publications and the United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance (UNPAN). Collaboration and partnerships with African institutions (such a NEPAD, CAFRAD, OFPA, and other management development institutes at the regional and national levels) whose mandate is to strengthen governance and public administration is a priority of the work of Governance and Public Administration
.-
Reconstruction governance and public administration after violent conflict
The world of today seems to be prone to conflicts, some of which are so violent that they pull down governance and public administration institutions and structures. In such instances, the whole governance and public administration system and structure has to be rebuilt from "scratch". The process is not only long and highly expensive, but also requires careful analysis of the causes of the conflict in the first place, and the nature of the governance and public administration that should be put in place to avoid the recurrence of conflict and destruction.
Knowledge Management
Government in Information Society
While all societies have always had knowledge assets, they have taken on a new degree of importance with the advent of the Information Age, and now constitute a nation's key form of capital. Therefore, the Division for Public Administration and Development Management seeks to examine:
* The role of ICT in promoting knowledge-based government for development (k-government), more specifically, enhancing government capacity through ICTs to generate, acquire, manage, disseminate and apply knowledge resources towards nationally defined development goals in support of the UN Development Agenda.
* The role of electronic and mobile government (e/m-government) not only as one component of building a smart system to stimulate knowledge creation and facilitate knowledge resource management, but also as a tool for meeting public sector reform and good governance objectives. E/M-government focuses on:
* E/M-readiness for improving government services online;
* E/M-participation for promoting interactions and consultations between government and citizens in decision-making processes; and
* E/M-inclusion for bridging the digital divide to provide all citizens, especially those of the disadvantaged groups in society with online access to public information and services.
In exploring these themes and in building the capacity of UN Member States in these areas, the Division, through its Knowledge Management Branch undertakes analytical, technical, advocacy, training and networking activities.
* Knowledge-based Government for Development
* Electronic and Mobile Government Development
Socio-Economic Governance and Management
Organizational Chart
The implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the UN Development Agenda that are strongly underpinned by pro-poor and pro-equity orientation, requires new types of institutions including new approaches, strategies and tools. What is also required is new relationships and new partnerships. The overall governance environment, especially those elements that contribute more directly to the planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring of public services, require adjusting, repositioning in a way that goes beyond the realm of public administration and become more citizen-based and engaging. All these require learning of new skills, the introduction of new tools and the initiation of new procedures and processes.
DESA is attempting to respond to these new challenges through the provision of what it calls socioeconomic governance products and advisory services. In this aspect, the Socio-economic Governance and Management Branch (SGMB) of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) is taking the lead. In order to pursue its work coherently and consistently the Branch is organized both functionally into two clusters: i) Participatory Governance and Partnership Cluster; and ii) Governance Tools for the Implementation of the UN Development Agenda Cluster or Governance Tools Cluster. For reference, see Organizational Chart. In addition, DPADM through this Branch also has an outreach agency, namely: United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD), Nagoya, Japan , and partners with the International Centre of Innovation and Exchange in Public Administration (CIIIAP), Bahia, Brazil. UNCRD with its two regional offices in Africa and Latin America offers training, research and technical cooperation in the broader issues of sustainable human development.
A conceptual framework describing the key elements of socioeconomic governance products and services is presented below:
* Inter-governmental and research work in the area of pro-poor governance and development;
* Capacity-building of social and economic institutions relevant for the MDGs (for example, strengthening the planning and monitoring capacities of the ministries of planning, social welfare etc.);
* Production of tools, techniques and strategies that contribute more directly to supporting the MDGs (for example, national and subnational human development reports, citizen charters, people budgeting, participatory audit etc.);
* Strategies and institutional options to link social capital to development management to pursue the 'engaged governance' process for citizen-based dialoguing and advocacy for policy change (for example, in recent times the South Asian civil societies have networked among themselves and formed a group called the South Asian Centre for Policy Studies [SACEPS] and SGMB provided support to this group to produce, "A Citizen's Social Charter for South Asia: An Agenda for Civic Action," as a dialoguing tool for policy formulation in social development. In addition, in order to explore mechanisms, tools and strategies relevant for citizen engagement, DPADM/SGMB partnered with the State Government of Queensland, Australia and organised the first "International Conference on Engaging Communities" during 14-17 August 2005 in Brisbane, Australia. For further information, please view conference details.
* Building the capacities in pro-poor budgeting process, participatory audits, monitoring and evaluation, etc.
Sources:
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N02/557/65/PDF/N0255765.pdf?OpenElement
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2009/hq670.doc.htm
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/tabid/420/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/WhoWeAre/tabid/554/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/WhatWeDo/tabid/555/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/OurMandates/tabid/556/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/OurWorkAreas/GovernanceandPublicAdministration/tabid/538/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/OurWorkAreas/KnowledgeManagement/tabid/517/language/en-US/Default.aspx
http://www.unpan.org/DPADM/Home/OurWorkAreas/SocioEconomicGovernanceandManagement/tabid/527/language/en-US/Default.aspx