Centers of Excellence Conference Brings together Ministries, Looks Ahead to the Implementation of Institutional Reforms
Watch a short video on COE in Palestine called Palestinian Voices: Change from Within:
The second annual Centers of Government Excellence Conference was held in Jericho on October 31, 2010 under the auspices of the USAID Palestinian Authority Capacity Enhancement (PACE) Project. The project provides direct capacity building assistance to five partner ministries to improve the ability of front line government agencies to provide efficient and effective government services. Lead by Kaizen and based on Kaizen’s Organizational Self-Assessment and Transformation Program (OSTP), the Centers of Excellence program empowers government employees with the knowledge needed to self-assess the current capacity of their institutions and create actionable recommendations for reform.
The Consular General for the United States Daniel Rubinstein and Prime Minster Dr. Salem Fayyad gave the key note addresses. The conference opening was also attended by five Ministers from Fayyad’s cabinet, other high ranking government officials, international guests, and over 200 employees from the Palestinian Authority.
Fayyad applauded the work completed by the participants over the first two years of the project, reminding them that institution building would lay the foundation for a free and independent Palestinian State. Referring to the impact of the work already accomplished by his staff, he stated “This effort to accomplish positive change supports our overall goals and national objectives to create institutions capable of providing services with integrity and transparency.” The Prime Minster closed his remarks thanking USAID for its support and encouraging the participants to double their efforts to improve the culture within each Ministry to be-citizen centric for the good of all Palestinians.
Consular General Rubinstein heralded the impressive accomplishments of the Ministries stating, “We are here to celebrate your successes in improving services for Palestinians and I am glad that the United States government is a partner in this effort.” Rubinstein went on to describe many of those achievements including the complete refurbishment of 10 citizen service offices across the West Bank; the revitalization of road repair units in Ramallah, Nablus, and Hebron; the launching of the new postal logo and new postal services; and the work of the Higher Council for Traffic to improve road safety in order to reduce serious accidents. Concluding, he remarked how creating a culture of excellence within the PA would prepare the institutions of the Authority to govern and serve citizens.
The conference concluded on November 1, 2010 and succeeded in solidifying buy-in across all PA institutions to implement activities in support of sustainable internal reform that will continuously improve government.
The conference marked the beginning of an important phase in Kaizen’s Centers of Excellence program. Partner ministries just completed a self-assessment of their current operations for the first time. Using the conclusions in the self-assessments, the ministries will now produce action plans that will address some of the issues identified, improving overall ministry operations that will eventually lead to better government services for Palestinian citizens.
