Public Service in Transition: Enhancing its Role, Professionalism, Ethical Values and Standards

In April 1996, the United Nations General Assembly, at its resumed 50th Session, adopted resolution 50/225 on Public Administration and Development. The resolution confirmed the importance of reinforcing public administration for development and emphasized the need for cooperation among United Nations departments and agencies in supporting capacity-building in the broad areas of governance, public administration and finance. Specifically, it acknowledged that the role of the United Nations is to assist Governments, at their request, and to focus inter alia on strengthening government capacity for policy development, administrative restructuring, civil service reform, human resources development and public administration training.

In light of the above mandates and the recommendations of the Thirteenth Meeting of Experts on the United Nations Programme in Public Administration and Finance (May-June 1997), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN/DESA) sponsored a series of meetings with the objective of highlighting the problems of the public service profession, which is currently in rapid change. After consultation with the Greek Government, it held a regional Conference on the subject of Public Service in Transition: Enhancing Its Role, Professionalism, Ethical Standards and Values , with a focus on the needs of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The United Nations Development Programme (Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS) agreed to co-sponsor and coorganize this Conference, which was hosted in Thessaloniki, from 17 to 20 November 1997.

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