On September 25, 2020, the “RICHELIEU FORUM: CIVIL SERVICE FOR NEW ERA” was held. For more than 10 years in a row the Forum has been one of the main platforms for international dialogue and finding effective innovative solutions in public administration and civil service, aimed at qualitative and effective changes in the context of current challenges.

Opening the event, Nataliia ALIUSHYNA, Head of the National Agency of Ukraime on Civil Service (hereinafter – NAUCS), emphasized that in the current conditions of uncertainty and the global crisis, there is a need to implement new technological solutions in the field of public administration and civil service, aimed at qualitative change. Coronavirus pandemic has affected the civil service system, which has a serious challenge and needs new approaches, in particular in the selection, competition, remote work, etc. That is why “RICHELIEU FORUM: CIVIL SERVICE FOR NEW ERA” should become a perfect platform for formal and informal exchange of experience, discussion of challenges and trends, dissemination of ideas, best practices in public administration and civil service.

Welcoming speeches to the participants of the event were performed by Deputy Chief of the Committee on State Building, Local Governance, Regional and Urban Development Andrii KLOCHKO, the Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleh NEMCHINOV, the State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Olexandr YAREMA, Deputy Minister of Eurointegration at Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Valeriya IONAN, who noted that in climate of uncertainty it is important to unite the efforts of the international community in order to fill the activities of civil servants with new content, the principles of which should include awareness and responsibility, quickness of response, involvement in processes, etc.

Head of Co-operation Section 1 — Good Governance and Rule of Law of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Xavier CAMUS; OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine Henrik VILLADSEN; Project Manager of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Romania, Director of the Representative Office of the Hans Seidel Foundation Representation in Kyiv, Ukraine Daniel SEIBERLING; Deputy Head of the Civil Service Bureau of Georgia Maia DVALISHVILI also greeted participants of “RICHELIEU FORUM: CIVIL SERVICE FOR NEW ERA”.

Head of SIGMA Programme Gregor VIRANT presented current and international trends in the development of the civil service during and after COVID-19.

Counsellor of Section for Political, Economic and Cultural Affairs of Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine Katja SALSBÄCK and Head of UN Women Ukraine Office Erika KVAPILOVA noted that in current conditions the integration of the principles of human rights, non-discrimination and gender equality into the civil service becomes particularly important.

Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Astana Civil Service Hub (Republic of Kazakhstan) Alikhan BAIMENOV and Deputy Chairperson of the State Examination Centre of the Republic of AzerbaijanBahram KHALILOV shared their experience in responding to modern challenges in the field of civil service.

At the end of the plenary session, the participants of "RICHELLE-FORUM: CIVIL SERVICE FOR THE NEW ERA" continued to work in sections:

-                   “HR as a Center of Innovations in the Civil Service”, during which implementation of a transparent classification of positions and the system of grades (catalogue of standard positions, salary scheme based on the value of the position) of the civil service; creation and implementation of an effective system for evaluating the performance of civil servants; adherence to the principle of ensuring equal rights and opportunities and reducing gender imbalance in the civil service; formation of organizational culture of civil servants were discussed.

-                   “Personalization of Development and Retention of Talents in the Civil Service”. Among the issues proposed for discussion were the following: features of distance learning of civil servants; development of a culture of self-education of civil servants; the only state qualification exam for a Master's degree in "Public Administration” as a tool for checking and monitoring the quality of higher education; introduction of monitoring the quality of advanced training and educational activities of educational institutions in order to diagnose the state of the system of advanced training of civil servants were discussed.

-                   “Digital Technological Solutions as Catalysts for Change”. As part of the section, the following issues were discussed: digital culture as a key value of the new civil service; building digital organizations as a challenge to the traditional principles of institution management; digital communications in the public administration sphere during the process of the development of an open information society; HR-digital transformation in the civil service (HRMIS) were discussed.

-                   “Openness and Transparency of the Civil Service”.  The participants of the section meeting considered the issues of actual requirements of society to the activities of public authorities; formation of information transparency and openness of the civil service; instruments of increasing the authority of the civil service and public confidence in civil servants; use of modern instruments and procedures by public authorities for attracting and receiving feedback from citizens were discussed.

Representatives of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Secretariat and other government authorities, higher education institutions, human resources management experts from EU Member States, OECD countries, the countries of the EU initiative “Eastern Partnership”, and international technical assistance programs and projects took part in the “RICHELIEU FORUM: CIVIL SERVICE FOR NEW ERA”.

For reference: The Richelieu Academic Readings were initiated by an Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine of September 2, 2009 No 1765-r for the purpose of providing of a systematic dialogue between the authorities, scholars and the public on urgent issues of civil service reform and local self-government service.

In 2020 “RICHELIEU FORUM: CIVIL SERVICE FOR NEW ERA” is organized by the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service, the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to Standards of the European Union, the National Academy for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Odessa Regional Institute for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Lviv Regional Institute for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute for Public Administration under the President of Ukraine with support of the EU4PAR technical assistance project in Ukraine, the DESPRO, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, the UN Women Ukraine, the Norwegian Centre for Integrity in the Defence Sector (CIDS) and OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine.

The National News Agency of Ukraine “UKRINFORM” and the Magazine “Civil Servant” are the media partners of the Forum.