Summary report of the SIGMA virtual workshop for European Neighbourhood East partners which took place on 2 July 2020, on the impact of the coronavirus (COVID 19) crisis on the public administration reform agenda and the role of the centres of Government.

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Workshop for European Neighbourhood East partners on the impact of the
coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis on the public administration reform agenda
and the role of the centres of Government
(virtual event)
2 July 2020
SUMMARY REPORT
The workshop brought together policymakers from the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) East region.
Participants came from centre of government institutions (government offices, prime minister’s offices, etc.),
institutions responsible for public administration reform (PAR), and other key government departments, as
well as representatives of the European Commission and OECD-SIGMA.
The strong participation confirmed that, although governments continue to be under significant pressure to
respond to the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, senior officials are also ready to engage in policy
dialogue and exchange of experience with regard to what has worked so far and remaining challenges.
In order to set the scene, a flash poll was taken at the beginning of the workshop to gauge the general mood.
The results indicated that, overall, participants felt that the COVID crisis had, for the moment, only a limited
impact on implementation of their strategic framework for PAR. Despite this positive perspective, the
subsequent discussion underlined that the crisis has created significant pressures and also that the future
evolution of the pandemic and its impact on policy pririties remain highly uncertain and represent a significant
element of risk.
The workshop opened with an overview from SIGMA of a draft tool to help countries re-prioritise their public
administration reform programmes in light of the changed circumstances brought by the crisis. The
Re-prioritisation Tool offers a structured means to assess the current relevance of different policy reforms and
a way to organise debate among stakeholders on whether/how to reorganise PAR action plans so that they
better reflect real current needs and priorities. The tool was welcomed by participants. Ukraine, for example,
underlined that they would like to use the tool to review their PAR strategy. SIGMA mentioned that the tool
is already being used in a couple of Western Balkan countries. Participants were invited to provide comments
on the tool and expressions of interest in working with SIGMA to apply the methodology in practice.
The general discussion focused on two main issues: (1) the major challenges the administration is currently
facing; and (2) changes or innovative solutions to support effective government decision-making in the context
of the crisis.
Centre of government staff in ENP public administrations clearly face the same constraints as other
government departments across the world with respect to teleworking. The problems that remote working
can cause are particularly acute given the role of the centre of government and the complex tasks it has to
accompish. Participants mentioned, for example, the need to accelerate processes, introduce new instructions
and decrees and push through legislation, which require a high degree of coordination across government and
beyond, while also ensuring legal quality, accountability systems, etc.

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As in other regions, the response to the crisis by centres of government in ENP countries has, in some cases,
taken place against an uncertain political background, which adds an extra layer of complexity to the work of
the centre of government.
In response to these challenges, participants noted a wide array of innovations that have been introduced.
All participants noted the urgent need to introduce and adopt electronic systems for the circulation of official
documents for consultation and decision. Interestingly, Georgia explained that they had introduced an
electronic system of this type several years ago and it has provided for an important support during the crisis
period. For others, as in many OECD and other SIGMA countries, the crisis has required a rapid acceleration of
the scope, efficiency and use of electronic consultation and decision-making systems.
The crisis has offered countries the opportunity to road test and expand the use of policy systems that were
either in development or under-used. For example, in Azerbaijan, an IT-driven system for testing and exams
in the education sector was rolled out at short notice. But once successfully tested, it provides a model for the
accelerated development of similar electronic systems in other sectors.
Again, as in OECD countries and other SIGMA partners, a key feature of the response to the crisis has been the
use of enhanced IT platforms to facilitate virtual meetings. Participants agreed that this had been largely
successful and represents a significant shift towards a “new normal” in terms of working methods for the
public sector.
Given the urgent need to reduce physical contacts, participants noted the introduction of innovations to
digitalise and simplify access to online systems and services, both within the public administration and with
regard to outward-facing services for business and citizens. This shift to “digital by default” in public services,
which has been a clear trend across OECD and SIGMA countries for some time, was given an extra boost by
the crisis.
While the crisis has inevitably slowed progress with planned reform agendas, the discussion suggested that
the ENP East region has not lost sight of its PAR strategies. The task for centres of government is to review
which innovations brought can be mainstreamed and which actions have become more (or less) urgent in the
current climate. In some cases, this will require additional work to reprioritise and reorganise work plans to
develop the necessary legislative and regulatory frameworks for new priorities. It was confirmed by the results
of the second poll, which indicated that many countries had already started working on the revision of their
strategic frameworks for PAR.