In mid-may our European CAF Resource Centre organised and hosted an online CAF National Correspondents meeting. It gathered 40 participants and welcomed the representatives of 21 countries and ReSPA – the Regional School of Public Administration for the Balkans.
Once again, the attendance and the lively participation of everybody demonstrated the need and the relevance of sessions devoted to discussions, reflections, exchange of ideas and thoughts. It was indeed a productive meeting.
We started with a presentation from the Bulgaria representatives – the CAF National Correspondent and the Director of the National School of Public Administration. It focused on the achievements and new challenges of the implementation of CAF in Bulgaria, and also on its sustainability. Presentations were followed by a very active debate.
Some key takeaways?
- The organisations using CAF need to be encouraged to perform assessments more often, on a continued basis.
- The CAF model itself is not for everybody; is not suitable for organisations that are too big or too small, and the sustainability of its implementation should be evaluated according to the needs and the context of each country.
- The most important message that we can draw from this is that there is a need to promote the culture of quality in the public sector, to communicate the value of CAF and to position the model as a tool for change.
The meeting continued with discussions in breakout rooms where attendees addressed the following topics:
- risks and opportunities when organising the self-assessment process;
- how to build strong managerial commitment in the long run;
- how to integrate the logic of the model in the general strategy of the organisation.
In the second part of the morning, the EIPA staff presented the new webpage and the legal requirements for the data protection of the sensitive data hosted by the European CAF Resource Centre.
We finally had the pleasure of hearing about the last updates on the CAF Education Revision project (read above) and the plans of the Czech Presidency of the Council, from July to December 2022.
The CAF National Correspondent from Austria suggested the need to revise the PEF procedure. An agreement was reached that he would prepare a technical note with the specific proposal to be shared with the network.
The CAF National Correspondent of the Czech Republic shared with us the calendar for the most important events of interest for the CAF community under their Presidency: 29 September – CAF National Correspondents meeting and 19 October 2022: CAF users’ event.
