Transforming public administration to unlock accelerated delivery of the SDGs

The public sector plays a crucial role in addressing societal challenges and fostering inclusive and sustainable development. As we face increasingly complex and inter-connected global challenges, public institutions must transform to anticipate future development needs and be more responsive and adaptive to the communities they serve. 

In this context, the upcoming UN Public Service Forum 2024 will focus on fostering innovation and transformation in the public sector to confront our shared challenges and enhance the capabilities of public administrations across the world. 

“Investing in the next generation of public service leaders is an imperative for all governments,” said Ms. Ciata Stevens d’Almeida, Executive Director of the President’s Young Professionals Program in Liberia (PYPP). As one of the participants of the upcoming Forum, she explained that the Program, which has been running for 15 years, emphasizes the critical role young public servants play in transformative public administration in Liberia and in training young public service leaders is actively “building a new generation of policymakers”.

The Forum will culminate by highlighting innovative public sector initiatives through the UN Public Service Awards ceremony, which will recognize the recipients of the 2024 award for excellence in public service delivery. Past award winners have featured game-changing initiatives like a hands-on mobile ICT classroom truck in Ghana, providing sanitary pads to women and girls in need in the Republic of Korea and equipping young people from disadvantaged communities in Brazil with job training.

Held under the theme ‘Fostering Innovation amid Global Challenges: a Public Sector Perspective’, the Forum will delve into topics such as gender responsive public service delivery and women’s leadership, changing mindsets in public institutions, climate action and artificial intelligence. The Forum will also explore the High Impact Initiative of the United Nations on ‘FutureGov’, which focuses on fostering innovation, building public sector skillsets, and changing mindsets to build public sector capabilities for the future. A focus will also be placed on the important role young public servants play in driving the innovation and transformation needed for an agile, responsive and effective public service.

Co-organized by UN DESA and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of the Republic of Korea, the Forum will take place in Incheon, Republic of Korea from 24 to 26 June 2024. It will provide a platform for hundreds of public administrators, government officials, representatives of civil society, academia and youth and practitioners in the field to come together to share experiences in the realm of public administration and service delivery. 

For more information: UN Public Service Forum 2024