United Nations Public Service Day to be inaugurated 23 June 2003

(UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, 16 June) An international day to commend and to encourage exemplary public service will be marked for the first time on 23 June at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

“The Day recognizes that democracy and successful governance are built on the foundation of a competent civil service,” said Guido Bertucci, Director of the United Nations Division for Public Administration and Development Management of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “The ability of a society to maintain safety and essential public services, protect human rights, maintain an efficient framework for market activities and to hold free and fair elections draws on the skills and sense of purpose of public servants working as a team. Without an effective civil administration, democracy and prosperity are virtually unattainable.”

The values of teamwork, innovation and responsiveness to the public are reflected in the United Nations Public Service Awards, which will be presented on 23 June to the government departments of 14 countries from all regions of the world. Representatives of six of these agencies will be present in New York. They will exchange views at a public colloquium
from 3 – 6 pm in Conference Room 1.

Public administration at policy crossroads

Recognition of the importance of public administration has swelled rapidly in the last decade. The establishment of sound civil administration was a central challenge in the transition from centralized to market-based economies that took place in the 1990s, as it was in the adaptation that many developing countries attempted to the new international environment of globalization during the same period. Aid policies during that decade shifted dramatically away from the provision of physical infrastructure to capacity-building in the public sector, and transparent administration adhering to democratic values became a precondition for many assistance programmes.

A basic level of public administration has been recognized as prerequisite to rebuilding or installing democracy for the first time in conflict-torn countries as diverse as El Salvador and Guatemala, Cambodia, Mozambique, Kosovo, Timor L’este, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The idea of an international day to commend public service was first proposed by the Committee of Experts on Public Administration, an independent panel of experts from both government and academic institutions. The General Assembly established the Day in 2002, by means of resolution A/RES/57/227.

The UN Division for Public Administration and Development Management is assigned the responsibility for administering the awards and promoting Public Service Day. The Division’s overall portfolio includes a programme of technical assistance in the field of governance.