English

The 2010 World Public Sector Report brings to the fore a very critical issue - how to reconstruct public administration in post-conflict situations so as to enable it to promote peace and development in countries that have been affected by civil war and destruction. The Report shows that no progress can be made in promoting peace, development and protection of human rights unless appropriate governance and public administration institutions are established, leadership and human resources capacities are re-built, citizens are engaged in the process of reconstruction through decentralized participatory mechanisms and basic public services are delivered.

The United Nations global survey of e-government presents a systematic assessment of the use and potential of information and communication technology to transform the public sector by enhancing transparency, efficiency, access to public services and citizen participation in all countries and at all levels of development. The 2010 edition of the survey was prepared against a backdrop of financial and economic crisis that is putting tremendous pressure on governments to do more with less. The report examines transparency of stimulus funding and finds that open data could do a great deal to assuage unease and regain the public trust. The authors also argue that e-government technology, while no substitute for good policy, may provide regulators with a much-needed means of grappling with the speed and complexity of financial markets.

AJPAM is the official Journal of the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM), Africa’s continental professional association for public administrators and managers. AAPAM brings together policy makers, management practitioners and scholars associated with the state and non-state sectors. AAPAM is also affiliated with other International and professional bodies across the globe. AJPAM is a bi- annual publication published in January and July each year. AJPAM’s editorial policy is to publish original works that are practical and scientifically based and /or suggest new insights and innovative ideas in African and Global Administration and Management.

The open data toolkit is a brief guide for initiating, planning, implementing, and evaluating open data programmes in the Arab region. It includes five sections, covering planning and management, making and updating inventories and catalogues, developing platforms, evaluating, and ensuring open data quality. The proposed steps are fortified with examples from existing open data initiatives that help clarify the process based national experiences of developed and developing countries, including Arab countries.

The Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) collaborated with the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) to organize an Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting (AEGM), to examine how public administration and leadership capacities in the public service at local government level can be strengthened and lead the process of achieving the MDGs and development at local level. The AEGM took place during the IASIA annual conference held in Rome from 13 to 18 June 2011. The report was derived from the presentations and discussions of the AEGM.

The Division for Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) organized an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) entitled "E-Government Survey: Towards a More Citizen-centric Approach. It was held at United Nations headquarters in New York, USA, from 6 to 7 December 2010. The primary goal of the EGM was to make specific suggestions for new indicators with regard to the six initiatives considered for the 2012 survey. The report was derived from the presentations and discussions of the EGM.

The citizen engagement toolkit is a brief guide aimed at promoting engagement in and implementation of open government in the Arab region. Prepared as part of ESCWA open government initiative, the toolkit covers how to design, develop and implement citizen engagement programmes within the implementation of open government that contributes to better governance.

This special issue’s main objective is to develop an adequate understanding of the conditions and actions required for governments to build and deploy capacities to achieve developmental goals. This introductory article offers some conceptual clarification. It starts with the overall concept of state capacity, explores its major dimensions, and highlights the centrality of the administrative dimension (administrative capacity). It then explores the major contextual factors affecting administrative capacity and examines some contemporary challenges to capacity building. The last section briefly illustrates the main contribution of each of the five articles of the special issue.

This publication provides an overview of 145 successful innovations in governance and public administration from 50 countries that received the United Nations Public Service Awards, which is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. The purpose of this book is to disseminate, through descriptive case studies, information about innovative practices by looking at the problem that led to an innovation; the solution that was designed and implemented to respond to the specific challenge; the actors and steps involved in the innovation process, and lessons learned. Learning more about how public institutions from around the world have solved difficult governance challenges can be a powerful and inspirational tool for those engaged in improving public sector performance.

The overall objective of the Expert Group Meeting was to provide a platform for senior government officials and experts to present and discuss lessons learned and successful practices from recent experiences in strengthening public administration institutional capacities for preparedness, prevention, and reconstruction, especially in tragic crises since the United Nations World Summit in 2000 when the MDGs were launched. One of the immediate results of the Expert Group Meeting is this publication while a second output is the development of a “Guidance toolkit on public administration post-conflict reconstruction”. The purpose of this publication is to provide an overview of the main issues addressed during the meeting and to outline key messages. Each of the authors, writing in their personal capacity, outlines particular aspects of public administration post-conflict reconstruction.