The Director General of the Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) Dr. Raed Mohammed bin Shams revealed that the official setting up of the Middle East and North Africa group for Public Administration Research (MENAPAR) will take place next April in Bahrain, which is considered one of the achievements of the 29th International Congress on Public Administration held by the Institute last year, pointing to the importance of having this group for the future of public administration in the Arab world; due to the accelerating changes passing through the region which call for the need to exchange experiences and expertise to contribute to the process of policy-building, decision-making and development stemming from the culture of the region and targeted towards it. This came during bin Shams participation in the annual conference of the network of government training institutes and centers in the Middle East and North Africa entitled “the State and its human potential: the challenge of building in times of change”, which was organized by the Basil Flayhan Financial Institute in Lebanon with the Arab Planning Institute in Kuwait.
Bin Shams also moderated a public dialogue session entitled “Can we build capacities in times of crises, challenges and opportunities before the Middle East and North Africa region”, which focused on the importance of involving public sector employees in the development process through developing policies that contribute to providing equal opportunities for them to develop their abilities in advance, in addition to attracting the promising talents and competences to the government sector, and the development of cadres on managing crisis and successive changes.
Bin Shams stressed on the need to deal wisely with the challenges facing the public administration and the necessity to start developing appropriate solutions to contribute in getting a distinguished model for public administration for the Middle East and North Africa, which will only be achieved through public administration institutes and bodies coming together under one umbrella through which they exchange ideas and best practices, and preparation of researches that go in line with the changes.
Consequently, the goal of this 5th annual conference of the network of government training institutes and centers in the Middle East and North Africa is to launch a constructive dialogue about the proposed policies and best practices in the modernization of the country, building government institutions and formation of human capitals in the public sector.