A joint project between the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was signed Monday morning to institutionalize the Middle East and North Africa Research Network (MENAPAR).

The project aims at uncovering the best ways to institutionalize the network, which the Kingdom of Bahrain, represented by BIPA, in collaboration with UNDP and several other partners, worked on establishing the network and operating it from the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The objective of the project is to explore the various options available to register this network officially; a due step to institutionalize it.

The ultimate aim for such a step is to achieve financial and strategic sustainability for research in the field of Arab public administration and to promote the best practices, and to highlight the successful historical experiences of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the administrative field.

Later, the Network will be introduced as part of Global Coalition of Think Tanks initiative, to be established by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) within South-South cooperation.

Dr. Raed Bin Shams, Director General of the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration, stated that the MENAPAR network was launched from the Kingdom of Bahrain on April 23, 2014, by acclamation of the participants in the organizational meeting of MENAPAR on 24 April 2014 and at the press conference that followed the meeting.

The idea of building a regional network for research in public administration was established at a preliminary meeting of the International Conference on Administrative Sciences (ICAS) and the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Management (IASIA) on 1 June 2013 with more than 50 participants.

The idea went forward at a workshop organized by the Institute of Public Administration in Bahrain, in partnership with UNDP, in early November 2013 to determine the future of this network, what its research agenda would be and how it would be managed to secure its sustainability.

Amin Al-Sharqawi, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), said that this project is a continuation of the fruitful cooperation between the UNDP and the Institute of Public Administration since its inception in 2006.

He congratulated the Institute of Public Administration for adopting modern ideas and advanced practices, thus making the Kingdom of Bahrain a model for other countries to follow.

He added that MENAPAR is the first of its kind in the Arab countries and aims to dedicate applied research in public administration, especially those related to achieving the 2030 Global Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

This project will be of added value in terms of the preparation, implementation and evaluation to reach lessons learned and best practices that can be benefited from in various Arab countries, where this network can be an important contributor to the various global networks interested in public administration in the Arab countries.

Source:BNA