Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption Community of Practice

1
Public Administration Reform and Anti-Corruption
Community of Practice

• SURVEY RESULTS
• Europe and the CIS
• May 2005

2
The Invitation

• An invitation to join the PAR-AC CoP was sent out
  to 170 staff members in the region who had
  indicated an interest for PAR-AC issues in a
  previous large-scale survey of interests and
  competencies of UNDP staff.
• Those who wanted to be members were asked to
  complete a questionnaire that was attached to the
  invitation.

3
The Questionnaire
4

• 28
• questionnaires were received.
• Out of those,
• 22
• respondents opted to be active members, and
• 6
• passive.

5
CoP Communication Face to Face Meetings

• The favored format is sub-practice thematic
  meetings (64 of respondents are very
  interested, 21 are medium interested).
• There is some, but less, interest for staff
  exchanges (46 of respondents very interested,
  25 medium interested) and sub-regional/
  geographic meetings (46 of respondents very
  interested, 25 medium interested).

6
CoP communication - Online

• Respondents are most interested in best practice
  exchange (71 of respondents have indicated that
  they are very interested, 21 that they are
  medium interested.)
• There is also interest for case study exchange
  (57 very, 32 medium)
• In addition, there is some, but less, interest
  for policy advice exchange, Action Reflection
  Note exchange and a CoP web page.

7
Top 12 most commonly marked theme-tool
combinations for CoP products

• Public participation in decision making How-to
  guide (15)
• Different regional traditions of public
  administration Case study analyses (15)
• Anti-Corruption strategies and plans Case study
  analyses (13)
• Performance management Training course (12)
• Public participation and awareness Regional
  version of practice note (12)

8
Top 12 continued

• Policy development mechanisms Policy paper (11)
• Convention reporting How-to guide (11)
• Performance management How-to guide (11)
• Public participation and awareness How-to guide
  (11)
• Poverty and corruption in the group of poorest
  countries Case study analyses (10)
• Public participation in decision making Case
  study analysis (10)
• Procurement How-to guide (10)

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Which theme-tools should the CoP focus on?
(respondents were asked to list three top
priorities)
10
TOP 4 PRIORITY FOCI

• EU Accession and Harmonization
• Public Participation in Decision Making
• Anti-Corruption Strategies and Plans
• Functional Reviews

11
EU Accession and Harmonization - COUNTRIES
12
EU Accession and Harmonization - TOOLS
13
Public Participation in Decision Making -
COUNTRIES
14
Public Participation in Decision Making TOOLS
15
Anti-Corruption Strategies and Plans - COUNTRIES
16
Anti-Corruption Strategies and Plans - TOOLS
17
Functional Reviews - COUNTRIES
18
Functional Reviews - TOOLS
19
Other comments

• Each CoP event should be clearly linked to
  participating COs' programme needs. For example,
  should the CoP facilitators be aware of CO's
  programmes in the related area and ensure that
  COs' staff brings CoP "products" back to their
  own offices and projects. A training and capacity
  building framework should be developed and agreed
  by COs. For this we should top CB advisors - like
  Raymond Clark, who builds his training and
  capacity building work on participation and
  feedback.

20
Other comments continued

• I could say from my personal experience that
  those sub-practice meetings are most efficient
  that have a specific focus / topic not too many
  general presentations where not only UNDP staff
  but also national project managers or government
  / NGO representatives involved in certain
  initiatives take part. Get to know who the
  counterparts in other countries / offices are is
  a very important motivating factor.

21
Other comments continued

• It has become extremely difficult to manage the
  invitations to all CoP meetings and workshops.
  The staff has constantly been on travel while the
  productivity of the COP meetings is yet to be
  confirmed. Instead we should start using virtual
  means such as videoconference facilities. It
  saves the cost and allows more participants (not
  only COs but our partners in the government and
  civil society) to attend the event. The WB's
  experiences could be helpful to learn from.

22
Other comments continued

• To support the above the CoP events database can
  be developed to track the knowledge received. As
  an example - UNDP Albania has developed an
  interactive sharing database. It can be accessed
  through http//intra.undp.org.al/office/levents/

23
Other comments continued

• It would be actually very useful to go to a
  'best practice' country from the region and work
  with colleagues on actually developing a plan of
  action for public reform/anti-corruption. It
  could be for both regional and local levels.
• The role of culture in public administration and
  anti-corruption reforms should be examined,
  together with the impact of economic transition.
  

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Other comments continued

• Kindly note that my responses are focused on EU
  accession matters and that I strongly believe
  that there should be a New EU Member States and
  Pre-Accession countries group. One topic of key
  importance is the absorption of the EU Structural
  and Cohesion Funds.
• The weak point among post-soviet countries is AC
  Laws Drafting and its implementation. They do not
  have so good anticorruption legislation.

25
Other comments continued

• The partnership of and with civil society at
  large (including trade unions, employers
  associations, religious communities, etc.) in
  anti-corruption mechanisms and public
  participation deserves more attention.
• PAR and anti-corruption should be addressed also
  from a local level perspective, since many SEE
  and CIS countries are not homogeneous and present
  areas out of the central governments' control.