The Kingdom of Bahrain, represented by the Institute of Public Administration (BIPA), has recently succeeded in the organising a major international conference at the capital of the Sultanate of Oman, Muscat, on October 24-27, 2016.
BIPA successfully organised the Arab-European Dialogues on Public Management (Euro MENA Dialogues), with the participation of 300 people representing 17 Arab, European and American countries. A total of 84 scientific work papers were presented. Bahrain had the lion’s share with 25 experiences and scientific papers presented.
An official delegation, led by Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister, HE Zayed bin Rashid Al-Zayani, and comprising representatives of the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) and BIPA, represented the Kingdom of Bahrain at the prestigious conference.
The kingdom’s success in organising such specialised international public management conference is no longer a surprise. It suffices to say that Bahrain hosts and chairs the Middle East and North Africa Public Administration Research (MENAPAR) network. Headquarters in Bahrain, MENAPAR was established by BIPA in 2014, and is presided over by BIPA Director-General, Dr. Raed Mohammed bin Shams.
Since its inception, MENAPAR has built a host of strategic partnerships and alliances which have contributed to making it a reference for public administration research in the region. MENAPAR held a number of conferences in various Arab countries, including Bahrain, in 2014, and Tunisia, in 2015. It then embarked on a wider networking process with the European Group for Public Administration (EGPA) which resulted in reviving and holding the Arab-European Dialogue on Public Management (Euro-MENA) in the Sultanate of Oman this year, in collaboration with the Omani Institute of Public Administration (IPA), the Aix Marseille University (AMU) and the École Nationale d’Administration (National School of Administration) (ENA) in France.
Euro Mena Dialogues focused mainly on the theme of “modernisation of human resources management and performance of public organisations” through four sub-topics, namely the “training issues”, the “strategic vision for human resources”, “Human resources and team management tools” and the “performance of public organisations”.
The conference featured a workshop on the best practices in the Arab public management, with the participation of seven Arab countries. Bahrain’s participation in the “Best Practice Workshop” focused on the best government practices in the following fields: Sand dune survey (Survey and Land Registration Bureau -SLRB), financing women with low income (Tamkeen), the Takaful Project (Central Bank of Bahrain), the governance management (SLRB) and innovative Bahraini experiences (Cabinet).
The conference made a set of innovative recommendations that stress the dire need for developing public administration in the Arab region. Recommendations focused on the need to shift from the traditional human resources (HR) management to modern HR patterns, such as competencies management, human capital management, work teams’ management, implementation of training programmes for the public sector employees on dealing with the national programme for development, as well as on ways to confront international challenges. They also called for turning the public sector personnel to managers who are capable of developing leadership and trust models.
During Euro-MENA Dialogues, three cooperation agreements in various fields were signed between the Omani Civil Service Ministry, the General Personnel Council (GPC) in the State of Palestine and the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) in Africa. Many participating countries also expressed their desire to take full advantage of Bahrain’s administrative experiences. They affirmed their need to exchange expertise, best practices and experiences with the Kingdom of Bahrain in the field of public administration.
MENAPAR also decided to allocate 50% of the revenues of the conferences held its umbrella to funding its programmes and plans.
The conference also agreed that the State of Palestine would host the fourth MENAPAR Network conference in July 2017, and Spain would host the joint MENAPAR-EGPA conference in 2018, which proves that such an alliance represents a permanent Euro-Arab dialogue held biennially under the name “Euro MENA”. The conference also launched an award for the best creative practices in the Arab World.