December 8-9 regional hub of public service in Astana and the Academy of Public Administration under the President, with the support of the European Union, hold an international conference on “Innovative Approaches to civil servants’ development.”

Opening the conference Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Regional hub of Civil Service in Astana Alikhan Baymenov noted that the Hub Mission is to promote the efficiency of public service by supporting the efforts of the governments of countries of the region in capacity-building reforms.

Regional hub of Civil Service in Astana was created in March 2013 on behalf of the President of Kazakhstan, together with the United Nations Development Programme during the Founding Conference as an international platform for the exchange of experience and knowledge in the field of public service.

Initially 25 countries (including the European Union, the USA, Turkey, Japan, Korea, China, India and the CIS countries and the region) and 5 international organizations established the Hub. Recently, the number of participants of the Hub has expanded, reaching more than 30 countries and organizations.

On behalf of the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in August 2014 the Government of Kazakhstan signed an agreement with UNDP to improve the financial and institutional support of the Secretariat hub. UN Under Secretary General Helen Clark noted that this decision is further evidence of the leadership of the President of Kazakhstan in development regional and interregional cooperation.

The choice of Astana as the location of the Hub is due to the leadership of Kazakhstan in the field of civil service reform. In particular, in November this year in Paris, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development civil service reform the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2013 has been marked as a successful example of promoting meritocracy and professionalism in the civil service with a strong anti-corruption focus.

It is important to note that the activities under the auspices of the Regional Hub funded not only by the Hub, but also by other organizations and governments. In particular, a number of activities have been sponsored by the European Union, the OECD and the Government of Azerbaijan. Government of Thailand, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan have taken the initiative to take action and to co-finance hub in 2015.

Reform of the civil service of the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2013 laid the legal and institutional framework for improving the quality of training of civil servants. Today in Kazakhstan begins the introduction of new methods of training of civil servants.

The conference was held in order to familiarize participants with innovative approaches to professional development of civil servants, which are used in the countries with the most effective public administration.

The main target audience of the conference were the faculty of the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Kazakhstan and the Regional Centers of retraining and training of civil servants from all regions of Kazakhstan, experts of personnel management of central government bodies, as well as specialist from a number of countries in the region.

Director of the Department of distance learning (e-learning) Institute training of civil servants of the Republic of Korea (COTI) Mr. Lim presented the methodology «SMART-learning», which will be introduced the Republic of Korea. New methods and technologies were also presented by the representatives of the Academy of DBB (Germany), the Regional School of Public Administration (European Union), the University of Ulster (UK), the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Higher School of Public Policy of the Nazarbayev University.

A feature of this conference was that along with the methodology and best practices in the field of training and development of civil servants, teachers trainings for the development of innovative methods and forms of education.

On the second day of the conference experts from Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan were presented results of a joint study on the improvement of the performance evaluation of civil servants in the context of combating corruption, conducted as part of the work plan of the Regional hub.

The conference participants were also informed about the results of the joint work and plans as part of the Hub. It was also noted that the cooperation will be established with international centers with similar missions in Singapore and Oslo (Norway).