The NAUCS held a conference on quality management in the public sector based on the CAF system

On 27 May, the conference ‘CAF as a strategic tool for modern, sustainable and citizen-oriented public administration’ was held in Kyiv. The National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service organised the event jointly with the Centre for Adaptation of the Civil Service to EU Standards and the High School of Public Governance, with the support of OECD/SIGMA, GIZ, and the Hanns Seidel Foundation. 

The conference brought together about 100 participants - representatives of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, ministries, central executive authorities, government experts and international partners - to discuss the implementation of the CAF (Common Assessment Framework) as an important tool for quality management in the public sector. 

In opening the conference, Nataliia Aliushyna, the Head of the NAUCS, noted the importance of public administration reform under martial law. "The goal of the reform is to build a professional, efficient and effective system of public institutions focused on the needs of citizens. Given the economic, technological and global changes," said the Head of the NAUCS, this challenge is crucial for Ukraine. Nataliia Aliushyna also said that the CAF model makes it possible to make public institutions not only capable, but also innovative, sustainable and strategically oriented. According to her, ‘despite the diversity of institutional frameworks and legal traditions, the administrative space of the EU member states is united by the values of good governance, and this is the level Ukraine is striving for.’ 

The conference was built around a practical analysis of the implementation of CAF as a quality management system that helps public institutions increase efficiency and meet the challenges of digitalisation, transparency and citizen orientation. Representatives of the government and international organisations, including Oleksandr Yarema, State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, Martins Krievins, Senior Advisor at OECD/SIGMA, Sandra Fuhr, Project Manager at GIZ, Hrachik Yarmaloyan, Regional Manager at GIZ, and others, also addressed the conference with welcoming speeches. 

Participants had the opportunity to listen to strategic presentations by experts from EIPA, OECD/SIGMA and the SES of Ukraine on the relationship of CAF with ISO, internal audit and control implementation. Separate sessions were devoted to the OECD's recommendations on citizen-centric services, as well as practical experience of CAF application, in particular, in the Brussels Region Employment Service ACTIRIS and the Austrian Federal Chancellery. 

During the interactive roundtables, participants discussed the strategic potential of the CAF model for Ukrainian institutions: from opportunities to integrate into reforms to scaling up CAF, strengthening political will and building leadership capacity in public administration.