05/10/2021 - 06/10/2021
The Venice Commission organised the 13th UniDem Med Seminar entitled "Public Administration facing the COVID 19 Pandemic: Modernisation and digital innovations", in co-operation with the General Personnel Council of Palestine*. This seminar took place in an hybrid format on 5-6 October 2021.
More than 150 international experts and senior public officials from the Southern Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia) participated online in the event, in addition to 80 face-to-face participants in Palestine*.
Based on presentations by European and regional experts, participants exchanged on the experiences during the Covid 19 Pandemic and more specifically on issues related to digital transformation, modernisation and digital innovations in public administration. The seminar was an opportunity to address the challenges of this digitalisation and in particular the issues relating to data protection and respect for fundamental rights. Its impact on the simplification of procedures and the user experience was also discussed through the presentation of several national experiences. The lessons of teleworking, personnel management and the digitalisation of human resources, including evaluation, training, recruitment and mobility, were also discussed. This seminar was an opportunity to present the standards and work of the Council of Europe in this area and in particular the Arabic version of the “Toolkit on teleworking in Public Administrations” initiated by the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance of the Council of Europe.
The objective of the UniDem Med project (University for Democracy for the Southern Mediterranean) is to contribute through peer-to-peer exchanges to the modernisation of the public administrations in the region by ensuring the effective application of the law and the consolidation of institutions. The project aims to strengthen the legal capacities of senior civil servants in areas related to good governance, rule of law and human rights as well as to build closer ties between the public administrations from the region.
The UniDem Med project is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in the framework of the Joint Programme “Regional Support to Reinforce Human rights, Rule of Law and Democracy in the Southern Mediterranean" (South Programme IV).
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* This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of Council of Europe and European Union member States on this issue.