For Advancing Iraqi Public Sector Reforms

  On 21 May 2015, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) concluded the first Familiarization Seminars on Knowledge Management in support of ongoing public sector reforms in Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region.

Organized within the framework of the Iraq Public Sector Modernization (IPSM) programme and in collaboration with the Joint Analysis Unit of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (JAU/UNAMI), the first seminar was held at the National Center for Management Development and Information Technology (NCMDIT), in Baghdad, from 31 March to 2 April 2015, and the second with the Kurdistan Institute for Public Administration (KIPA), in Erbil, from 19 to 21 May 2015.

The seminars provided government officials from NCMDIT, KIPA and other ministries in Baghdad and Erbil with a unique opportunity to recognize knowledge as a government asset and need to manage and share it as a means to advance the ongoing public sector reform initiatives.

KIPA Director, Sawsan Almerani, supervised 25 participants from various ministries of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) who discussed the concept and application of knowledge management which was imparted during the three-day seminar. "The public sector reforms can be achieved as a culmination of initiatives by these empowered government officials and KIPA would continue its support in partnership with specialized organizations, such as ESCWA," she said. 

Chief of ESCWA Governance and Statebuilding Section Atsuko Okuda elaborated the linkage between the KM seminars and the recently concluded capacity development workshop on change management in Istanbul in April 2015. "It is critical to keep the momentum of change management and public sector reforms with knowledge management as a cross cutting intervention," she stated. Okuda said that “ESCWA will continue supporting NCMDIT's and KIPA's roles as change agents and hub for public sector capacity development with a series of familiarization seminars throughout 2015, taking into account the role of ESCWA at the regional level."