On Saturday, The first day of the 29th International Conference of Public Administration that will be hosted by Manama during the period of June 1-6, more than 450 participants from Bahrain and other countries. The 29th session of the International Conference on Public Administration will discuss the main theme: ““The Future of Public Administration: Leadership and Professionalism” along with several sub-themes namely: the risk and future strategies, leadership in the future, and the creation of innovative services for the future. The conference is organized by the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) in collaboration with the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) and the World Association of Schools and Institutes of Public Administration (IASIA), the two largest organizations specializing in administrative sciences in the world.
The conference, held once every 3 years, is the largest international gathering of public administration in the world and involves all experts, academics and practitioners working in various areas of public administration. It has become possible for the Kingdom of Bahrain to host this international conference when the BIPA succeeded in obtaining the approval of 76 countries. Five other countries-including South Africa, Argentina and India-have competed to win the right to host this year's conference.
The total number of working papers presented to the conference reached 322 with 75 from the Middle East alone and just 63 of them were accepted. The working papers submitted by the Kingdom of Bahrain amounted to 60, the equivalent of 78% of the total Middle East papers, of which 49 were accepted. For the first time in the history of the conference, 29 working papers will be presented in Arabic after adopting Arabic as a third official language in the conference along with English and French.
In this session, the conference will develop a local agenda of public administration by offering the local experience and expertise associated with the Gulf, Arab and pan-Middle East region. It will also shed light on the roles of women in public administration and discuss several other topics related to education and training programs, partnerships between government and the market, project management, reform in the public sector, local governance and development, accountability and culture and trust, financial management in the public sector, leadership and governance and public policy, management of energy and the environment, food security, the welfare of society, diversity and gender equality in the field of public services.
For his part, Dr Raed Bin Shams announced in a previous news conference that the Institute of Public Administration has established a Middle East Public Administration Research (MEPAR) group which is the largest Group of Public Administration institutions in the entire Middle East. It will be one of the most important groups in the region given that the international Arab speaking organizations concerned with public administration in the Middle East are actually resorted to by the local governments seeking solutions to their public administration issues. Bin Shams added that the Institute aspires to be an Arab reference in public administration science and research.
It is worth mentioning that the opening ceremony of the conference as well meetings of the working groups and panel discussions will be held on the third day of the conference in the presence of all the participants. The first day will see legal meetings of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) and the World Association of Schools and Institutes of Public Administration (IASIA). The second day will witness major meetings of the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences as well as a round-table meeting of the leaders of the International Institute. On the fourth and fifth days, the conference will resume open sessions and workshops for schools and institutes of public administration.
