Given the flurry of activities of the last decade, it may be an appropriate time for scholars to take stock of the governance developments and situation in Asia Pacific.

A conference entitled Strengthening Governance in Asia-Pacific: Public Sector Administrative Reforms and Capacity Building to Improve Transparency and Accountability is being organized in New Delhi, India to deliberate on these important issues. The conference will be co-hosted by the Network of Asia-Pacific Schools and Institutes of Public Administration and Governance (NAPSIPAG) and the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). A number of local partners will also assist in organizing the conference.  .Participants to the Conference will include experts, scholars and practitioners as well as invited key speakers. Participation will be mainly from the Asia Pacific region, although the Conference is open to participants worldwide.

With the overarching theme of the conference focusing on Strengthening Governance to Combat Corruption in Asia-Pacific, this call for papers stresses both conceptual and empirical papers which assess the impact of governance policy development and administrative reforms in the Asia Pacific region. The Conference will be organized with opening and closing plenaries focused on its overarching theme, with separate sessions to address each of four sub-themes. The four sub-themes are: (i) Governance Initiatives to Fight Corruption; (ii) Improving Government Transparency and Accountability; Strengthening Public Accountability; and (iv) Engaging women and Involving Civil Society and Media.

Papers for the main theme should focus on strategic approaches and policy developments in the fight against corruption in the Asia Pacific region. Papers should address the progress made in the last decade, mindful that a wide variation exists in the degree of perceived corruption in the different countries of the region. The papers should also take stock of advances made since countries have endorsed the Asia Pacific Anticorruption Action Plan and the U.N. Convention. This means paying specific attention to reforms in improving transparency and ethics in their civil services, measures taken to promote corporate governance and measures introduced to encourage public/citizen participation.

Papers for the sub-theme sessions should also focus on the Asia Pacific experience, take stock of the situation of the last few years in a given country or sub-region, reporting empirically to the extent possible on the main theme.
Sub themes:

This sub-theme would explore the pervasiveness of corruption in the region and its impact on development and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, and highlight what strategies and actions governments in the region are employing to combat it. This will include: (i) judicial and legislative reforms; (ii) administrative reforms at the national and sub-national level as well as those to support decentralization; (iii) enabling institutions, procedures and processes, and capacity building and training initiatives to support governance, and improved government transparency and accountability.

This sub-theme would discuss public sector/administrative reforms including activities to improve public accounts management and reporting, public sector financial management and control of government expenditures, functioning of parliamentary public accounts committees and supreme audit institutions, post evaluation of government programs to assess value for money; as well as activities to strengthen e-governance, and government procurement and contracting.

This sub-theme would discuss specific public sector administrative reforms, institutional arrangements and capacity building activities, governments in the region have undertaken to improve citizen accountability. This will include profiling regional experiences and lessons learned with right to information programs, citizen report cards, social audits, and mechanisms for citizen complaint handling and responses.

This sub-theme would discuss specific administrative reforms or special arrangements, and capacity building activities, governments in the region have undertaken to improve participation and engagement of women and civil society for improved governance and deepening of governance reforms. This will include recent developments in the region with respect to media accountability and effective government-civil society cooperation models.

Paper Submissions: