Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe

The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe originated from the genuine effort of people and institutions from the region to share the knowledge and skills and unite the effort to cope with present and future challenges in the field. The thorough and appropriate identification of the present and prospective needs of member institutions along with the effective means of their satisfaction is the most crucial element of the success of the organisation. That is why its members accept this mission statement in order to identify, steer and orientate our future activities within the next three to five years.

The Szazadveg Foundation first joined the activities of NISPAcee in spring 2005, becoming a full member by the end of the same year.

 

1. 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 will foster 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 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 the advantage 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.

 

2. Environment

NISPAcee activities will be devoted to institutions, schools and training centres with emphases on the NISPAce member institutions as well as to public servants responsible for training and education.

The political change in the region brought about the challenge of transforming governments, which created the need for new curricula in teaching and training public administration. Previously established programmes, courses, students and faculty recruitment procedures, and methods of teaching quickly became obsolete in the already existing institutions and the new institutions are facing the immense task of finding answers to such problems. The existence of NISPAcee has shown that opening up national boundaries and getting institutions to communicate with each other can help to identify, articulate and find suitable solutions for the difficulties and dilemmas that members face.

Institutions concerned with public administration in Central and Eastern Europe greatly differ. They are organised differently - some are autonomous while others are units of a larger organisation. They differ in their history - some are newly established after the political transition while others have a long-standing history. Some of them are run by the state or regional authorities whereas others have been established as non-profit organisations. They show differences according to their target groups: some offer regular college or university undergraduate education, others are graduate schools only, while some offer just in-service training, still others offer all these programmes. There is also a considerable sub-regional variety of experience, approaches, levels of professionalism and goals (such as joining the EU in a foreseeable future ) .

While such differences exist, all institutions share common interests and have both short term and enduring concerns. Many institutions are still grappling with fundamental questions concerning national priorities in public administration training and education, with basic questions about institutional structure and curricula, and with practical questions concerning the recruitment of students and faculty. They are subject to a vital but often disorganised flow of information, advice and outright intervention by well-meaning western counterparts. They generally have very little contact with other institutions in the region, and few mechanisms for learning from the successes and mistakes of each other, despite the fact that the transitions affecting their countries and institutions have many fundamentally similar elements.

Well-established institutions have an important political role to play, because they carry the foundations of the national administrative culture on which a new education and training system will have to be built. Public administration reforms in many CEE countries require a new generation of public administration officials who are educated and trained in these institutions. Similarities cut across not only new programmes, but especially across the reform of public management. Most of the countries in the region are too small to have the critical mass of public administration, management and policy experts. Learning from member institutions' successes and failures can speed up professional development.

The public administration profession is in a turbulent period both in the East and the West. It is crucial to create public administration systems in Central and Eastern European countries, including the educational and training institutions which serve the systems, which are able to cope with change, satisfy the present and accommodate the future tasks of governments serving their citizenry. This includes the transformation of the public administration at the national and local level to become transparent. Translated to education and training, this implies readiness to discuss the future and to include public sector management concepts and practice in curricula, even if their application is non-existent in the region.

There is still a considerable deficit in the amount of knowledge concerning present state of national public administration systems as well as requirements for their reform in the region. Public administration reform proposals, implementation efforts, and the content of teaching should be based on a solid mass of empirical evidence. That is why facilitating and the fostering of research, analysing all facets of public administration systems, should be promoted.

NISPAcee, with its established networks, is well positioned to help improve public administration by relying on East-East co-operation. By streamlining guidelines for training inputs in the region and helping information exchange in managing western assistance to training and education in public administration, NISPAcee can take a leading role in pointing out as well the deficiencies sometimes observed in East-West co-operation.

 

3. Background and legal status

The organisation was established in 1994 as an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation focused on the public administration challenges facing Central and Eastern European countries. In October 1995 NISPAcee become an independent legal entity registered in Slovakia as an international organisation.

NISPAcee started and successfully completed the following main projects and activities since the beginning of its existence:  

• executive secretariat responsible for the implementation of all NISPAcee functions and programs was established and further developed,
• NISPAcee organised yearly research oriented conferences,
• summer workshops,
• biannual Civil Service Forums,
• other specialised meetings,
• launched publication programmes for information, teaching as well as research purposes including proceedings from conferences, summer workshops and other events, textbook on Public Finance translated also into six CEE languages, quarterly published Newsletter and Occasional Papers in Public Administration and Public Policy, translation project focused on translation of SIGMA and other relevant publications into CEE languages, project focused on an evaluation of academic programmes in the field of public administration within 15 CEE countries,

• implemented two years of East-East Exchange programmes
• data base and web site was developed and is accessible on the INTERNET on the address: http://www.NISPA.SK

In summary, at present the Network represents large resource of expertise, experience and information and is recognised as an important international organisation not only within the region, but by other western and international organisations as well.

4. FUNCTIONS and objectives

The execution of NISPAcee´s mission will be based on five fundamental functions:

• Networking
• Facilitating training and education
• Fostering research
• Developing consultancy
• Supporting advocacy

Main objectives of the organisation are associated with these fundamental functions.

4.1. Networking

NISPAcee will serve as a well-functioning forum for the exchange of ideas, skills, and relevant information. In doing so, it will act as an effective clearing house to assist, mediate and actively encourage member institutions in all activities conform with its mission. In particular it will:

• 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
• use appropriate networking techniques such as web site, data sets made available to member institutions, newsletter, conferences, and joint projects

4.2. Facilitating Training and Education

NISPAcee will serve as an institutional basis facilitating training and education in public policy and administration. In particular it will:

• 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 MA and Ph.D. programs
• 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

4.3. Fostering Research

NISPAcee will support the development of the genuine research capacities in the region. In particular it will:

• 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)

4.4. Developing Consultancy  

NISPAcee will become a natural facilitator of implementation of theory and methodology into the practice of public administration. In particular it will:

• 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

4.5. 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
• 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, sub-regional, 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

The above mentioned functions will be executed by efficient steering, co-ordinating and administrative activities of NISPAcee secretariat as well as member institutions.

 

5. Resources

NISPAcee's long term objective is to achieve financial sustainability. In order to follow this objective NISPAcee has already launched membership fees and would create the necessary financial reserves of the organisation. The aim is to make a significant progress in a five-year period.

Several donors and partners support NISPAcee activities since the organisation's inception:

• The Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative, Open Society Institute, Hungary
• The Austrian Federal Chancellery through the Austrian Federal Academy of Public Administration
• 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)
• 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), USA
• French government through International Institute of Public Administration (IIAP), France
• Activities organised by EIPA (European Institute of Public Administration ), funded by the European Commission and the Dutch Government
• UNDP, Slovakia
• Higher Education Support Programme, Open Society Institute, Hungary
• In kind contributions of member Institutions in addition to the annual fees

 

6. Core activities

NISPAcee plans to continue in activities already started and develop new ones which should be directed to meet those needs of its members which are shared ones and can be more gratifying with a joint effort. The Steering Committee sees the need for these activities to be still funded by western philanthropic or governmental sources until the regional economies are stronger and the network is self-sustaining. Therefore the implementation of the listed activities will depend in a great deal on the success of the organisation and the active participation of the membership in this matter as well.

Core NISPAcee activities include:

• Annual Conferences
• Workshops and Training Programmes
• Publications
• Exchange Programmes and Development of PA Programmes
• Research
• Civil Service Forums
• Information Services and Public Relations
• Alena Brunovska Award

6.1 Annual Conferences

NISPAcee will continue in the organising of annual conferences for its members each year.

NISPAcee's Annual 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. The conferences are addressed to experts, scholars, and practitioners who work in the fields of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe to develop a new approach to the public administration in CEE with flexible organisational models and a new public management culture.  

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.  

Working Groups and other Specialised Meetings will be 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.

6.2 Workshops and Training Programmes

The workshops and training programmes aim to develop both the personnel of member institutions as well as public servants from the region.

NISPAcee 's Summer School 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 five successful summer workshops, and would continue with this activity each summer.

NISPAcee's workshops, in addition to the Summer School mentioned above, are devoted to academics as well as practitioners in the public service. These workshops focus on issues dealing with public administration in transition e.g. a joint EIPA/NISPAcee workshop on "Administrative Capacity for European Integration: The Demands of EU Membership on National Administrations and the Role of Training", held in October 2000.

Training programmes which NISPAcee intends to put in place will train the participants selected from the member institutions in the development of their special skills e.g. development of consultancy/advisory skills for their governments. Other programs could be developed based on the needs of different regions within the network e.g. accession countries, Balkans, NIS .

6.3 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. There is still a gap in the literature available for teachers in the field of public administration in the region. The majority of the study materials used are original western books or their translations without any regard to whether the information they cover applies to the situation in CEE countries.

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,
• 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.

6.4 Exchange Programs and Development of PA Programmes

There are a great many 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, include "Visiting Scholar's Programme", "Invited Speaker's Series," and "Student Exchange Programme" carried out between 1996 - 1999.

NISPAcee Future East-East Exchanges will continue mainly with an aim to spread out the knowledge and experience from more developed NISPAcee institutions and programs to those just emerging and developing, mainly in the Balkan region and NIS countries.

The new project "The Provision of Technical Assistance to Developing NISPAcee Institutions by Partnered NASPAA and More Developed NISPAcee Institutions" is an important means in this regard for the upcoming period. The project activity will provide support to assist emerging NISPAcee institutions build curricula, establish and evaluate missions, market their academic programmes, locate and develop teaching materials, undertake other curricular and academic program development by other more developed NISPAcee member institutions supported by an US NASPAA's partner.

Other similar projects will be developed according to the needs of member institutions, or potential members (institutions just being established), and available resources.

6.5 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. School development depends on information about the developments of others, as well. This is why NISPAcee, which starts research projects with a comparative focus, initiates the research. Research teams are composed of researchers from several CEE countries mainly from NISPAcee member institutions.

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. Working groups could be proposed by NISPAcee members and approved by the Steering Committee. 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.

Applied Policy Research project, a joint NISPAcee/NASPAA project, is the next important step in fostering research in the region and simultaneously in strengthening public policy making. The project aim to build mechanism for partnership between government and NISPAcee members within a respective country. The primary activity of this project is designed to allow NISPAcee schools to work in co-equal partnerships with government officials in the country of the NISPAcee institution on important public policy problems jointly defined by the host country government officials and the relevant NISPAcee institution.

Other research projects will be developed according to proposals of members and available resources.

6.6 Civil Service Forums

NISPAcee will continue in organising Civil Service Forums biannually.

NISPAcee Civil Service Forums endeavour to strengthen civil service responsibilities by establishing a forum for senior civil servants and officers responsible for civil service to meet with representatives of educational and training institutions and to exchange their views. This provides a platform for discussion and co-operation to be operational between educational institutions, civil servants and politicians.

NISPAcee intends 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.

•  Information Services and Public Relations

The fundamental NISPAcee functions are closely related with the NISPAcee information services. Therefore NISPAcee will serve as a clearinghouse of information, which provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, skills, and all relevant information. Development of the organisation's Public Relations will strengthen the international as well as national awareness and recognition of NISPAcee within political and administrative circles.

NISPAcee will continue and will further develop the following information and public relation activities:

• publishing and distribution of the Newsletter,
• web site,
• data base 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. chat rooms)
• catalogue of NISPAcee publications,
• comprehensive brochure about the organisation,
• other possible means which would foster the international as well as national awareness and recognition of NISPAcee (conferences and other meetings, media, catalogues and journals of other professional organisations etc.),
• NISPAcee will co-operate closely with national networks of public administration established in some of the CEE countries and will foster the establishment of such networks in other countries,
• NISPAcee will continue in or will establish working relations with other professional institutions, networks and associations operating in CEE region like EIPA, EPAN, EAPAA, IIAS, IASIA, EGPA, etc. 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,
• NISPAcee will 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.

6.8. Alena Brunovska Award

NISPAcee will recognise outstanding achievements in the field of public administration education and research within the member institutions by launching the prestigious award: "Alena Brunovska Award for Teaching Excellence in Public Administration". 

The award has been launched in memory of Alena Brunovska, one of the NISPAcee' s founders and the first Chair of the NISPAcee Steering Committee. 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.

 

7. Management

The development of the organisation needs a management which will guarantee its further sustainability and which will be able to manage all challenges of the changing external as well as internal environment of the organisation.

In order to achieve the above the top management of the organisation have to be very well professionally equipped, flexible, expert and geographically diversified, nationally and internationally recognised. Therefore, in addition to legally listed bodies in the Bylaws, new positions will be launched and the following responsibilities and relationships will be established:

Legal Representatives stated in the Bylaws 

• The General Assembly is the principal governing body of NISPAcee with the rights listed in the Bylaws.
• The NISPAcee President and the Steering Committee will be responsible for all the tasks listed in the Bylaws and mainly focused on the strategic issues of the organisation. A geographical balance should be reached within the members of the Committee to represent the different needs of different CEE sub-regions of the organisation.
• The Executive Director and the Secretariat will be responsible for all the tasks listed in the Bylaws mainly dealing with the execution of NISPAcee functions and work programmes.

Enlargement of the organisation's management 

• Task Force - in order to extend the capacity of the organisation's management in specific directions, the Steering Committee can appoint problem solving oriented groups, individuals from NISPAcee member institutions, to work on e.g. the development of projects or implementation of projects with responsibilities defined by the Steering Committee or by a project already approved by the Steering Committee. A leader of such a group will report to each Steering Committee meeting about a progress in a matter delegated to the group
• NISPAcee will foster flexible models of national and regional co-operation of Member Institutions.

More information on NISPAcee is available at: www.nispa.sk, or at the International Relations Department of the Szazadveg Foundation at: varkonyi@szazadveg.hu.