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Agenda

30 November 2009

International colloquium “Debate and proposals on governance in Africa” [+] [-]

This colloquium is the third conference in the series “Meeting process for debate and proposals on governance in Africa”, a cycle of conferences that started in 2007 in Bamako-Mali. After the meeting in Polokwane-South Africa (June 2008), the Arusha colloquium gathered during three days (Nov.30th to Dec.2nd 2009) about sixty participants coming from five countries of the Eastern African sub-region (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania), from Southern Africa, and West Africa, as well as representatives from Latin America, the United-States, and France. The themes of the debate: sources of power legitimacy, constitutional processes, and the management of collective public goods. The participants are researchers, representatives of national and international public institutions, traditional and religious authorities, civil society leaders, trade unionists, media professionals, and representatives of the private sector. For the IRG and its partners, the challenge of this type of meeting is to highlight the benefits of a reflection on legitimacy in the evolution and reform of national and international public policies.

Arusha (Tanzania)

27 October 2009

XIV International Congress of CLAD on State and Public Administration Reform [+] [-]

The IRG, in collaboration with Lausanne’s Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (IDHEAP) and Paris’ Sciences Po University, will be leading two sessions at CLAD’s upcoming annual conference: a round table discussion on training in public affairs and a presentation of the programme offered by WOTPA (The World Observatory for Training in Public Affairs) a workshop reserved for WOTPA’s various partners, with the participation of representatives from the Externado University of Colombia, the National University of Colombia, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Ecuador and Bolivia’s College of Plurinational Public Administration.

- More information on CLAD’s annual conference [es]:www.clad.org

Salvador de Bahia, Brasil

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Institute of Research and Debate on Governance

Addressing governance issues

  • Legitimacy and the deep-rootedness of power

    How is the bond between a society and its state to be reinforced? Is a power’s conformity with a constitutional and legal system enough to found its legitimacy and ensure its citizens’ trust in and support for it? How should the full spectrum of other normative systems (local, customary, religious, historical) in our societies be taken into account? How is the process of power “institutionalisation” to be understood as a dynamic interaction between public institutions and the full range of governance actors?

    The IRG identifies and sets up contacts between networks of researchers and practitioners treating these questions. It stimulates the debate by:

    - organising international symposiums bringing together politicians and public administration practitioners, academics, traditional and religious authorities and international organisations:

    • Round of analyses and proposals in Africa : cycle of conferences in Western Africa (Bamako in 2007) Southern Africa (Polokwane in 2008), Eastern and central Africa and the Maghreb (in 2009).
    • series of conferences programmed in Latin America (Lima, February 2009), in Central Asia, and later in Europe.

    - expertise and research in 2008-2009 :

    • co-realisation of a study on « State legitimacy in situations of fragility » for the development Assistance committee of the OECD.
    • a series of case studies with Columbia University (NY, USA) concerning various legitimacy sources "dans les régulations foncières(Africa and Latin America)
      - Publications :
    • Between tradition and modernity : which governance for Africa? The proceedings and DVD from the Bamako seminar 2007 (in French and English).
    • Meeting process for debate and proposals on governance in Africa, The proceedings and DVD from the Polokwane seminar 2008.

    Leading project partners : MAEE, SDC, NCCR North-South, Norad DFID, IAG, ARGA, UNDP, OECD, MODOP, IFEA, CBC, IHEID, CINEP, SIPA, KSG, univ. Los Andes & Javeriana, UMMSM, CEAN, UPMF.

    Coordinator : Séverine Bellina (severine.bellina@institut-gouvernance.org)


  • Co-production of public good And multi-actor partnerships

    The innovative governance approach privileges the involvement of non-state actors in the exercise of power and the devising of policies: associations, NGOs, trade-unions, businesses, traditional and religious authorities, etc. This involvement can come in different shapes:

    - in contributing, via the provision of services of general interest (health, education, water, real estate..) to the devising of public policies in their sector;
    - in participating actively in setting the local as well as global consultation and negotiation agendas, promoting new norms and new instruments for the defence of specific rights.

    The IRG analyses and compares the processes of interaction of these actors with public powers, through:

    - the organisation of cycles of international encounters:

    • The co-production of public good (education and health): a series of encounters in Europe (2006-2008), in China (2007) and the United States (2009);
    • Advocacy strategies of civil society to promote international norms : a cycle of intercontinental encounters in partnership with the Ford Foundation bringing together civil society actors (NGOs and self-help movements) involved in advocacy strategies at the international level (Paris 2007, Rambouillet 2009);

    - research work

    • series of investigations undertaken with Sciences Po, the University of Montreal, Columbia University, etc.
    • joint research IRG-AFD on the arenas set up by agencies of European cooperation to consult with civil society;
    • the academic award for Non-governmental diplomacy, in partnership with Coordination Sud, the IEP, Paris (Sciences Po) and the Agence universitaire de la francophonie;

    - publications :

    • dialogue between English and French speaking specialists in the series Global Civil Society Yearbook, from the London School of Economics (LSE).
    • Civil Society Intervention in the Reform of Global Public Policy, Proceedings from the IRG/Ford Foundation international seminar, Paris, 2007
    • La gouvernance des NGO et leur rôle dans la coproduction de services publics – The Governance of NGOs and their part in the co-production of public services – Executive summary of the 2nd Sino-French Forum, Beijing 2007.
    • workshop reports by Sciences Po students on International negotiations’ stowaways – The role of NGOs at the 2005 Hong Kong WTO Conference, 2008.

    Leading project partners : Ford Foundation, CYFD, Coordination Sud, CONCORD, CFSI, AFD, Sciences Po, AUF, LSE, UDEM, UNGLS, UNPD, NPO Center, MDM, ATD…

    Coordinator : Martin Vielajus (martin.vielajus@institut-gouvernance.org)


  • a project in construction institutional engineering and public action reform

    Where is the international or state capacity towards framing and implementing suitable regulations; towards tackling citizens’ most critical problems; towards re-thinking their action? And what inertia curtails the States’ capability to act? What is new in the fields of public action reform and of adjustment to the new infra- and supra-national governance tiers?

    Through this work in progress, the IRG strives to bring out the diversity of types of “institutional arrangements” and reform processes devised around the world and to assess their relevance in the face of current challenges.

    Leading project partners : MAEE, MAEP, CEAN, IAG, IDB

    Coordinator : Séverine Bellina (severine.bellina@institut-gouvernance.org)


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