The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) commenced the 33rd Capacity Building Programme (CBP) for Civil Servants of Maldives today in Mussoorie. The two-week program, being organized from 9th to 20th September 2024, is being conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Notably, this is the first program under the second phase for civil servants of Maldives following the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to train 1,000 Maldivian civil servants. The MoU was signed by India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar, and the Maldives' Foreign Minister, Mr. Moosa Zameer, for the period 2024-2029. The current program is hosting 34 civil servants from the Maldives, including Assistant Directors, Senior Administrators, Council Officers, Faculties and Community Health Officers, representing key ministries and departments from Maldives.

The inaugural session was chaired by Shri V. Srinivas, Director General of NCGG and Secretary of the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India. In his address, he welcomed the participants and reflected on the achievements of the first phase capacity building programmes (2019-2024), during which over 1,000 Maldivian civil servants visited the NCGG. He highlighted how the first phase had key figures and participants such as permanent secretaries,former presidents and members of Civil Service Commission and high ranking officials from key departments and ministries.

He elaborated on the India’s governance model and how it has changed in scope, scale, and size as it enters the “Amrit Kaal” or “Vision 2047” He also highlighted the next generation reforms, which have been designed to ensure last mile connectivity and how the digital technology has been embraced in India to ensure better policy making, service delivery, transform institutions and bring citizens closer to government. He discussed, how digitization of institutions is necessary to bring transparency and accountability, transform institutions and ensure good governance. He discussed in detail the various central government programmes which have been successful in easing the lives of citizens such as Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, Pensions Welfare, housing, healthcare, women and child welfare initiatives andinitiatives for enhancing positive competitionsuch as Prime Minister Awards and state rankings underNESDA among others. He also encouraged the officers to work in groups and make presentations on key policies and programmes being undertaken.

Mrs. Fathmath Inaya, Finance Executive, Civil Service Commission, Maldives and Team Leader of the Maldivian delegation, expressed her gratitude to the Indian government and the NCGG for the opportunity, stating her hope to learn and gain extensively from the program.

Dr. BS Bisht, Associate Professor, NCGG and Course Coordinator of the programme gave detailed information about National Centre for Good Governance and the milestones achieved by the NCGG over the years. In the elaborate presentation he discussed about objectives, activities, achievements, and future plans of NCGG and how it has evolved as a Centre for excellence. It was briefed that NCGG has trained civil servants from 33 countries including Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Seychelles, Gambia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, South Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Fiji, Mozambique, Cambodia, Madagascar, Fiji, Indonesia, South Africa among others.

It is pertinent to mention that NCGG had achieved the remarkable milestone by fulfilling the mandate of training a total of 1000 civil servants including Permanent Secretaries, Secretary Generals and High-Level Delegates from Maldives over a total of 32 Capacity Building Programmes in Field Administration for the Civil Servants of Maldives including programmes for senior level officers from Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and  Information Commission Office of Maldives (ICOM) under the MoU signed on June 8, 2019. The present programmes marks the initiation of the second phase of capacity building programmes after the renewal of the MoU in August, 2024. Five programmes will be held in the year 2024-25 targeting a total of 175 civil servants.

The Inaugural Session was graced by Mrs. Prisca Poly Mathew, Chief Administrative Officer, NCGG. The programme will be supervised and coordinated by Dr. B. S. Bisht, Course Coordinator, Dr. Sanjeev Sharma, Co-Course Coordinator, Shri. Brijesh Bisht, Training Assistant and Ms. Monisha Bahuguna, Young Professional along with the capacity building team of NCGG.

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KSY/PSM