Ljubljana, 21st October 2021 – A three-day 29th International Scientific Conference of the NISPAcee Association, which connects institutions and schools in the field of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe, started today at our faculty. 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 is “Citizens’ Engagement and Empowerment – The Era of Collaborative Innovation in Governance”. 200 participants registered for the event, which takes place at the Faculty of Public Administration of the University of Ljubljana. 120 of them came to Ljubljana, the rest are watching the conference online.
The NISPAcee conference is 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).
This year’s NISPAcee conference opens a discussion on possible ways to strengthen citizens’ empowerment in the CEE 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 includes 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.
There will also be a roundtable on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on higher education from a global and NISPAcee perspective.
On the first day of the conference, the “Alena Brunovska Award” for pedagogical excellence in the field of public administration was presented. For the year 2020, the award was received by Maja Klun, PhD, from the Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana, and for the year 2021 by Daniel Klimovský, PhD, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. The “Mzia Mikeladze PhD Thesis Award 2020″ award for doctoral work was received by Petra Đurman, PhD, from the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
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 >>.