1. 49th Meeting of the Directors Generals for public Administration in the European Union DISPA - Meeting of Directors of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration
Amílcar Arantes
INA – Instituto Nacional de Administração
10th and 11th December 207, LISBON

2. DISPA
DISPA – Directors of Schools and Institutes of Public Administration – is an informal network formed by directors and presidents of central training schools and institutes of public administration in the members sates of the European Union.
Mission: “The aim of DISPA is to promote cooperation and exchange of experiences and good practices between members of the EU”.
DISPA Meeting

3. The DISPA Meetings: One per presidency This year, 2007 :
In Brühl, Germany, May, 29th-30th
In Oeiras, Portugal, December, 6th-7th
The number of participants ± 50
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4. LOCATION Instituto Nacional de Administração
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5. PROGRAMME 2 (1/2) Days programme 5 Plenary Sessions
Presentation of a subject
Open debate
1 Parallel Sessions
Working groups
2 Social Programme
Banquet
Excursion
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6. PROGRAMME
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7. PROGRAMME
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8. Ongoing reform of the Portuguese Adminstration
João Figueiredo, Secretary of State of Public Administration
The mobility scheme has particularly called the attention of participants. Questions such as:
how are the unions reacting to this comprehensive reform?
how is the government monitoring the process?
what is the schedule for the reform?
is it having an impact on training needs?
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9. Lisbon Agenda and the Technological Plan
Carlos Zorrinho, Coordinator of the Lisbon Agenda and the Technological Plan
Topics:
how the institutes and schools of public administration can contribute to the processes underpinning change and innovation?
innovation should be strongly supported in the public sector as it is a powerful mean to create value for our stakeholders
The debate tackled several questions such as:
is there a specificity for innovation in the public sector?
what are the drivers and the limitations and difficulties of innovation in the public sector?
how can training contribute to help managers and other personnel to adapt to change, uncertainty and the unknown?
how can it contribute to the development of a culture characterized by risk taking and inclusiveness?
how can first line managers, key players in this process, be prepared to implement and support innovation processes? How can they create a context that encourages change and innovation in their organisations?
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10. New Learning and Innovation – Challenges for Public Management
Roberto Carneiro
Fundamental issues for the Lifelong Learning and for the Lisbon Strategy agendas were discussed such as:
the synergies between learning and innovation
the nature of knowledge in organisations (human capital and structural capital)
the relation between formal and informal learning
the need for a generative learning as opposed to an adaptive learning,
the role of ICT and particularly Web 2.0 and 3.0, e-skills and e-learning to support flexible learning and inclusiveness
the importance of investing in team work and collective performance to drive social knowledge.
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11. New Learning and Innovation – Challenges for Public Management
Roberto Carneiro
Some important and varied questions from the participants came out of this presentation:
what is the impact of implementing new teaching and new learning modes on the functioning of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration?
how to replace a low cost massified teaching model that characterizes our present average training model and reinvent a massified learning system viable from a financial point of view?
how can network externalities can contribute to achieve lower costs in training and to enhance generative learning that sustains a “factory of innovation”?
as new learning is a mix of continuity and innovation, what should be the proportion between continuity and innovation in a curriculum?
how can we enhance opportunities in new learning and encourage the existence of competent learners (“self regulated learners”)?
how can we help learners to transfer what they have learned in the training context to their workplace?
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12. New Learning and Innovation – Challenges for Public Management
Roberto Carneiro
Additionally a discussion took place :
how to deal with learning in a multicultural context and the potential of diversity for innovation.
The way we organise ourselves in Europe is a learning process.
Preserving diversity and accepting different cultures is a source of richness– the combination of differences – is the source of success.
2008 will be the Year of Intercultural dialogue and Europe must understand that it has a huge potential because of its differences.
Two very inspiring messages were left to participants:
“The drivers of new learning are the driver for our society. Make your collaborators feel the joy of starting afresh learning each day “
“We all need to have dreams, little dreams to move out of the ground floor of life”.
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13. EUPAN Network Mafalda Santos
The exhaustive presentation of EUPAN and of its activities was followed with great interest by all participants
Questions such as how EUPAN works or if it has a permanent secretariat were put to the speaker.
Other issues were also looked at such as:
the continuity of work of the EUPAN between presidencies and the important role that the Troika has played up till now, as well as the role of the presidencies themselves
the challenging task of coordinating the working groups
the outputs of the EUPAN working groups and the documents they produce as well as the role that the DISPA can play in disseminating information about these materials and the internet site of EUPAN.
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14. Portfolio management and its impact on human resources development and training
Norman Jardine from the European Commission
Was an opportunity for participants to discuss its use as a skills register, a competency mapping tool and a human capital database
In a context that HRM and Training are constantly being asked to add value to the organisations’ performance and “if you can measure it, you can manage it”, what are the potential benefits of such an approach and how can this approach work successfully with the involvement of all the actors concerned?
The DISPA should contribute to teach managers HRM techniques and skills but also to change the attitude both of HR managers and other personnel regarding the use of e-portfolios
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15. European Reciprocal Training (ERT) network and e-learning network
The Institutes and Schools of Public Administration are actually working together in two other networks at an executive level
Although not all of them are already part of the networks, their number is growing and the DISPA meeting was an opportunity for a speaker to provide information on the ongoing activities of the networks and the steps they are taking to achieve their goals.
Besides the organisation of very successful study visits in many of the members’ countries (ERT) and yearly face to face meetings (ERT and e-learning), the networks have started using audioconference to improve their communication and nurture the networks.
They will soon begin using them also to create more opportunities for the institutes and schools to promote joint events at a distance and increase the number of potential civil servants that are reached by the programme.
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16. Europe in Action and PATENT European training programmes
Europe in Action and PATENT were presented as two examples of training programmes for EU civil servants that were the result of various levels of cooperation between Institutes and Schools of Public Administration and aim respectively:
enhance civil servants mobility within the European Union countries
and strengthen collaboration between the EU National Public Administrations.
Both will start in 2008 and will follow a blended learning model.
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17. Draft Resolution on the DISPA Meeting
The EUPAN presentation directly questioned participants about the nature of the DISPA network and its relation with EUPAN. This issue was discussed at the end of the meeting and the directors agreed that informality and reciprocity are two key words and values to characterize the DISPA network.
This network creates opportunities for an informal exchange of experiences and good practices between its members who collaborate on the basis of a reciprocity level. This is so as the legal nature and the scope of activity of the members varies a great deal and thus determines to some extent the way each of the institutions participates in the DISPA network as well as in the other two networks – “Reciprocal Training Programme” and “e-learning” - that gather the institutes and schools representatives.
DISPA considers that there should be a closer contact with EUPAN and more cooperation between both networks.
DISPA should follow more closely the works of EUPAN (HRWG) and the themes that this network is addressing as they are of interest for the activities of the Institutes and Schools of Public Administration and particularly for their training programme.
DISPA Meeting