Fudan-Arab Lecture Series No.16

Title: 

The Culture of Arab Public Administration

Speaker: 

Prof. Sofiane Sahraoui, International Institute of Administrative Sciences

Host: 

Prof. Yijia Jing, Fudan IGPP

Time: 

12:00-13:20, November 11th, 2024

Venue: 

Room 805E, 8th Floor, West Sub-building of Guanghua Towers

https://www.wjx.cn/vm/Y2JFxR6.aspx# 

The Speaker：

Sofiane SAHRAOUI, PhD is the Director-General of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS), since May 2017 and was the recipient of the Jose Edgardo Campos Collaborative Leadership Award from the World Bank Group in 2017.  He is a founding member of the MENAPAR (Middle East & North Africa Initiative for Public Administration Research) network, and founding President of the Arab Governance Institute (AGI).  He has just been appointed to the Executive committee of CANSPPA (Chine-Arab Network of Schools of Public Policy and Administration). He is constantly invited to keynote at major international events.

Dr. Sahraoui holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh (Katz Graduate School of Business) and an MSc. from the University of Oxford (College of St Anne’s).  He has published four books and more than 50 research articles on public and local governance and the governance of education and training.  He regularly consults on public governance and higher education for major organizations like the African Development Bank, EU, OECD-SIGMA, UNDP, GiZ, governments, and universities.

Abstract:

Good public governance is essential for sustainable development. In the Arab region, there are many impediments to such good governance; chief amongst these is the public administration as a sociological polity.  The need to modernize the state apparatus and public administration has had to contend with formidable inertia premised on an organizational culture not conducive to reform or sustainable development.  This is reflected in awkward and dysfunctional human resource management systems. The presentation delves into key aspects of the Arab public administration culture using multiple theoretical lenses and practical observations by the speaker who has taught, consulted, and researched Arab public administration for more than 15 years.