The Principles of Public Administration and their use for public administration reform in Azerbaijan.
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The Principles of Public Administration for the European Neighbourhood countries were presented at an event in Baku on 24 November 2016. Co-hosted by SIGMA and the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication (CAERC), it gave the opportunity to discuss the application of the Principles to public administration reform in Azerbaijan.
Good governance of a country is essential for both generating and making good use of public funds; for ensuring economic and social successes; and, thereby, for improving the well-being of its citizens and the international standing of the country. Improving governance requires substantive, comprehensive and continuous public administration reform (PAR). This is what SIGMA has defined in the Principles, which aim to support the national authorities, the EU Commission services and other interested parties to develop a shared understanding of what PAR entails and what countries could aim at with their administrative reforms, whether through comprehensive PAR programmes or only in one or a few of the core areas of PAR.
Against this background, the event highlighted the importance of an efficient, accountable, effective and transparent public administration within the wider economic and social development agenda of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In fact, the country has embarked on an ambitious programme of economic reforms and reorganisation of the public administration. In response, the European Union is now offering a comprehensive agreement with the Republic of Azerbaijan as a renewed basis for political dialogue as well as for mutually beneficial cooperation through various instruments.
SIGMA`s activities in Azerbaijan are already based on the Principles but the event allowed the latter to be presented and explained in greater detail. The high level participants from leading Azerbaijani authorities and institutions, the European Union and SIGMA identified several focus areas for public administration reform and considered what kind of support the EU instruments, including SIGMA, should provide in the future, with the Principles serving as the reference framework for the discussions as well as for any future work.