The three-day 29th International Conference of the NISPAcee Association, which connects institutions and schools in the field of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe, concluded at the Faculty on Saturday, October 23, 2021. The annual conference is an event aimed at exchanging information in the development of theory and practice in public administration. The central theme of this year’s conference was “Citizens’ Engagement and Empowerment – The Era of Collaborative Innovation in Governance”. The event, which took place at the Faculty of Administration of the University of Ljubljana, was attended by 200 participants, of which 120 were physically present, and the rest followed the conference online.
The NISPAcee conference was attended by academics, scientists, experts, researchers and practitioners from various disciplines working in the field of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe (including all countries covered by NISPAcee membership, the Russian Federation, the Caucasus and Central Asia).
The conference discussed possible ways to strengthen the empowerment of citizens in the Central and Eastern European region in relation to its development and tradition, governance practices, regulatory framework, financial capabilities, public policy, digitization processes, human resource management and public administration as such.
The guest of honor, who addressed the participants via video, was the President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor, who emphasized the topicality of the conference, especially since the recent pandemic has had a significant impact on our lives in terms of social engagement and citizen engagement. The conference participants were also addressed by the Minister of Digital Transformation Mark Boris Andrijanič.
Within the working groups, the three-day conference included a number of discussions and presentations on topics such as: local government, e-government, NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe, the role of law and public administration, public administration reform, interregional and cross-border cooperation and development, public finance and public finance management, political-administrative relations in Central and Eastern Europe, cultural policy, co-creation and smart development, behavioral interventions in the public sector and evidence-based public policy-making.
The round table discussed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education from a global and NISPAcee perspective.
Prizes were also awarded at the conference. “Alena Brunovska Award” for pedagogical excellence in the field of public administration for 2020 was received by Maja Klun, PhD, from the Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana, and for the year 2021 Daniel Klimovský, PhD, from Comenius University in Bratislava. The “Mzia Mikeladze PhD Thesis Award” for the doctoral thesis in 2020 was received by Petra Đurman, PhD, from the University of Zagreb, and for the year 2021 by Zoltán Török, PhD, from Corvinus University, Budapest. The NISPAcee Award for Best Postgraduate Student Contribution went to Steven Nõmmik, University of Technology in Tallinn, and the award for Best Comparative Contribution at the 29th Annual NISPAcee Conference went to Katarína Staroňová, Comenius University, Slovakia, and Marek Rybák of the Czech Republic. Elena Žáková, former NISPAcee senior manager, received the NISPAcee Merit Award.
The conference also elected Calin Hintea, PhD, from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, to be a new president of NISPAcee.
At the end of the event, participants received an invitation to the upcoming, 30th NISPAcee Conference, to be held in Romania, at the University of Bucharest.
The full conference program and other conference information are available here >>.
Briefly about NISPAcee: NISPAcee brings together public administration institutions and schools in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1994 as an international, non-governmental, non-profit organization based in Bratislava, Slovakia. The Faculty of Administration of the University of Ljubljana was one of its founding members. More about the association here >>.