Timeline
ACSH Founding Conference took place in Astana, inaugurating the establishment of the Regional Hub. The conference was attended by the official representatives of 25 countries and 6 international organizations. As a result of the Conference, the Declaration on establishment of the Regional Hub of Civil Service was adopted.
The first issue of the electronic journal of the Regional Hub of Civil Service was published online.
Publications
The first baseline needs assessment study was carried out to identify the priorities for the Hub activities.
The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and UNDP signed an Agreement to strengthen the Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana. The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan promised $14 million for the institutional support of the Regional Hub for the next 3,5 years and the United Nations Development Programme has agreed to manage it.
The UN Office for South-South Cooperation awarded the Regional Hub with a special prize for strengthening regional and interregional cooperation.
Second needs assessment study was carried out to identify the priorities of the Hub activities for the next year.
The Regioanal Hub of Civil Service in Astana signed the MoU with Asian Association of Public Administration (AAPA).
The Hub signed the MoU with the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee).
The first round of the Innovative Solutions Scheme was concluded with three winners to receive funding for their case-study projects:
- National Anticorruption Centre (Moldova), Project: Integrity Testing Mechanism of Civil Servants;
- Colin Knox, Professor of Ulster University (the United Kingdom), Project: Quality of Life Framework for Public Services in education;
- Saltanat Akhmetzhanova, Director of Centre of Scientific Economic Expertise, JSC “Economic Research Institute”, Ministry of National Economy (Kazakhstan), Project: Improving the process of preparing professionally competent personnel for public administration through the development and implementation in the educational process of the new discipline of “Evaluation of socio-economic impact of normative legal acts”).
Countries joined the Regional Hub of Civil Service of Astana in 2015: Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The Hub signed the Memorandum of Understanding with American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) and exchanged letters of cooperation with OECD.
The Global Conference on “Professional Civil Service for the Successful Implementation of Institutional Reforms” was jointly organized by the ACSH, UNDP and national partners in the framework of Astana Economic Forum. The participants discussed modern trends and international best practices for improving the civil service system, issues of good public administration, development of preventive diplomacy and improvement of the public services quality, innovations in training civil servants and conducting research projects in the field of public administration, both in Kazakhstan and abroad.
Presentation of the Review of the Global and Regional Trends in Civil Service Development was held in Astana. The study is a unique summary review, combining theoretical framework and applied expertise of the leading international scholars and practitioners in the field of public administration. It covers the basic development and reforming trends in civil service over the past twenty years in the countries of North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Caucasus and the CIS countries.
The “Partnerships for Civil Service Excellence: Trends from the Astana Civil Service Hub Participating Countries” panel session was held in Atlanta in the framework of the ASPA (American Society of Public Administration) Annual Conference.
The Eighth Annual Conference of the Asian Association of Public Administration (AAPA) was held in Astana in close cooperation with the Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana and the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The conference brought scholars and practitioners of Asian countries to discuss topical issues, new challenges and innovative approaches to the development of public administration.
On the sidelines of Astana Economic Forum the Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Rio Branco Institute of Brazil and Prime-Minister’s Office of Bangladesh. Based on the MoUs, Brazil and Bangladesh gained the status of participating countries of the Regional Hub.
The outcomes of the comparative study “Civil Service Reforms in Kazakhstan: Benchmarking against OECD Countries” were presented at the OECD headquarters in Paris with the participation of representatives of the Presidential Administration of Kazakhstan, the Astana Civil Service Hub, and the Agency for Civil Service and Anti-Corruption of Kazakhstan.
To view the publication, please follow the link
Montenegro and Uzbekistan have become the participating countries of the Astana Civil Service Hub.
The first Steering Committee meeting was held in Astana to set life to the Regional Hub. The agenda of the meeting included the organizational structure of the Hub, functionality of the Steering Committee as a main coordinating mechanism, distribution of duties among three main working groups (i.e. training and research, knowledge management and expert network, and partnership and exchange of experience) as well as working plan for 2013.
Minutes of the Steering Committee meeting
The first pilot seminar for the civil servants of 10 countries was conducted in cooperation with Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The seminar attendees included senior management from the official civil service bodies and institutions of the Hub participating countries.
Countries joined the Regional Hub of Civil Service of Astana in 2013: Mongolia.
The Astana Hub organized the first event outside Kazakhstan in Baku, Azerbaijan. The round table on Effective Public Service Delivery was jointly organized by the Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana, Civil Service Commission under the President of Azerbaijan, and OECD.
Countries joined the Regional Hub of Civil Service of Astana in 2014: Macedonia, Thailand.
The Global Conference called “Meritocracy and service ethics as the key factors of civil service effectiveness” was held in the framework of Astana Economic Forum, where UNDP Administrator Ms. Helen Clark, being one of the key speakers at the conference, presented her speech on “Civil service effectiveness and sustainable development”.
The conference called “International Cooperation for Civil Service Excellence: A Bridge to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals” was held at the UN Headquarters in New-York, USA. The event was jointly organized by the ACSH, Kazakhstan Permanent at the UN, and UNDP HQ to discuss the forms of regional and global cooperation for the development of the civil service with a view to achieve the Sustainable development goals, innovative solutions for the civil service development, the use of strategic foresight across the civil service perfection.
The Hub signed Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese Academy of Governance.
The Hub became a member of OECD Effective Institutions Platform uniting more than 60 countries and organizations in order to find solutions to improve public institutes’ quality. The Hub conducts “peer-to-peer” workshops applying Platform’s methodology.
The conference called “Partnership for Civil Service Excellence” was organized by the ACSH in Astana to discuss the new ways and innovative solutions to strengthen the partnership for civil service modernization. Representatives from more than 30 countries attended the conference, including well-known experts from ASPA, GRECO, UNDP GCCSE, Chinese Academy of Governance, OECD, as well as representatives of the Kazakhstan President Executive Office, Ministry for Civil Service Affairs and other state bodies of Kazakhstan.
On its 19th session, the High-level Committee of the UN General Assembly having praised the work of the Astana Hub, decided to spread the Hub model across all regions as a successful example of multilateral cooperation. Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development
The workshop for the African civil servants on “Strengthening Bilateral and Multilateral Diplomacy in the context of Sustainable Development Goals” was jointly organized by the ACSH and Kazakhstan Foreign Affairs Ministry in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). The workshop brought together high-ranking diplomats from 35 African countries, representatives of the African Union and UNDP’s Global Centre for Public Service Excellence. The main objective of the workshop was to establish cooperation with the African diplomatic community in advancing sustainable development goals by deepening diplomatic capacities and using of South-South cooperation, to contribute to the further development of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy.
Countries joined the Regional Hub of Civil Service of Astana in 2016: Lithuania, Indonesia, Palestine, Estonia, and Bhutan.
The Conference gathered the participants from 40 countries to consider pressing issues and challenges faced by the countries of the region in the sphere of civil service, as well as the role of partnership and the Hub in solving them.
The civil service excellence trends from the Astana Civil Service Regional Hub participating countries were discussed by the special panel under the 25th NISPAcee Annual Conference Innovation Governance in the Public Sector. The international conference has taken place in Kazan Federal University with the participation of more 150 participants from Central and Eastern Europe, USA, France and SAR, including delegates of UN, International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), Centre national de la fonction publique territoriale (CNFPT), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), rectors of a dozen universities of Central and Eastern Europe.
The Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with e-Governance Academy of Estonia, Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Center for Islamic Countries (SESRIC) and Kazakhstan’s State Corporation “Government for Citizen”.
Astana Civil Service Hub and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which will facilitate cooperation between the two organizations.
The heads of civil service agencies and experts from over 40 countries gathered in Astana to discuss key issues of civil service development in the era of sustainable development goals.
