On 24 October 2016 the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine (NAPA) with the support of the Council of Europe Programme “Decentralisation and Territorial Consolidation in Ukraine” (http://www.slg-coe.org.ua/) held the round table discussion “Reform of the NAPA”.

The event was chaired by the NAPA President Mr Vasyl Kuibida with more than 100 participants: chairmanship of the Presidential Office and Minregion, representatives of the NAPA, local governments, Ukrainian NGOs, international organisations, researches and experts.

Participants discussed main challenges, tasks and problems related to practice and legal framework for improving the HRM including training systems for Ukrainian public officials in the context of decentralization reform in Ukraine as well as were acknowledged with corresponding international experience.

The chairmanship of the NAPA focused discussion on the provisions of the Draft Concept of Reform and Development of the Academy for 2016-2020. The Special Adviser to the Government of Ukraine on Decentralisation Mr Daniel POPESCU presented his Opinion on the mentioned Draft Concept. Particularly, he emphasized that “the NAPA is an essential element of the training system for public servants in Ukraine and it is clearly in need of a wide and ambitious reform in order to be able to tackle public administration needs and challenges of the 21st century in Ukraine. Launching the activity on preparation, approval and subsequent implementation of a reform of NAPA is a highly commendable step and the Council of Europe is ready to offer every support it can provide in order to help such endeavor.”

International experience on development of the effective training system for public officials in the Council of Europe member-states were presented for the participants of the event by the representatives of France, Italy, Lithuania and Latvia. The Council of Europe Programme “Decentralisation and Territorial Consolidation in Ukraine” also presented its current plans on supporting the central and local authorities in preparing and delivering policy and legislation related to modern and effective human resources management in local government with focus at launching stages on amalgamated communities.

The main findings of the round table discussion is about the strong necessity in adaptation of Ukrainian training system for public officials to the European standards and best practices to meet the challenges and requests of the society,  decentralisation reform and corresponding new adopted legislation.