Capacity building programmes for civil servants of Bangladesh, Maldives begin in Mussoorie

Three capacity-building programmes for 95 civil servants from the Maldives and Bangladesh commenced at the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) campus here, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday.

NCGG was set up in 2014 as an apex-level institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

NCGG entered into an agreement with the Maldives Civil Services Commission for capacity building of 1,000 civil servants by 2024 and with the government of Bangladesh for 1,800 civil servants by 2025. So far, 685 officers from Maldives have been imparted training at NCGG.

''With the scaled-up activities of NCGG, three capacity-building programmes for the civil servants of Bangladesh (59th batch with 45 participants) and Maldives (22nd & 23rd batch with 50 participants) commenced at the Mussoorie campus,'' said the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

The intensive two-week programme will also help them to update their knowledge and skills with emerging digital tools and best practices of good governance, it said.

In partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), NCGG has taken up the responsibility to build the capacities of civil servants of various developing countries. So far, it has imparted training to more than 3,500 civil servants from 15 countries -- Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, Seychelles, Gambia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and Cambodia.

''These trainings were found to be highly useful by the participating officers of different countries. Also, NCGG has been involved in the capacity building of civil servants from various states in the country. These programmes are much sought after and as desired by the MEA, NCGG is expanding its capacity to accommodate a higher number of civil servants from more countries as demand is on the rise,'' the statement said. NCGG's capacity-building initiatives for the civil servants both domestic and of other developing countries, aim to promote citizen-centric public policies, good governance, and enhanced service delivery to improve the quality of life of citizens by reaching out to the last person, it said.

In his inaugural address, Bharat Lal, Director General, NCGG highlighted the role of civil servants as enablers to help people to realise their full potential. He stressed the importance of working with speed and on a scale, and providing world-class basic services to citizens in a timely manner. While providing basic services, Lal also urged the civil servants to be strategic and innovative to anticipate, listen to and adapt to citizens' needs and preferences.

''Expectations of citizens from their governments are on the increase in every democratic nation and thus, developing a system to capture their expectations and putting in place an effective public grievance redressal system, is of paramount importance,'' he stated.

Lal urged the officers to address the grievances of the people proactively and in a time-bound manner.

''We have to ensure that leakages have become a thing of the past and mentioned how scholarships, subsidies, wages, etc. are paid in a few minutes without any leakage,'' he said.

Speaking of the seamless governance system, Lal cited the planning and implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission, announced by the prime minister in 2019 to make provision of clean tap water to every rural household and all schools, anganwadi centres, residential schools, etc. within five years.

At the time of this announcement, only 32 million out of 194 million households had tap water connections, the statement said.

However, working with speed and scale and use of technology as well as massive mobilisation, now 120 million rural households have clean tap water supply in their homes, it said.

Similarly, with the use of technology, cooking gas under Ujjwala was provided to 96 million households and toilets to over 115 million households under the Swachh Bharat Mission, effectively transforming the quality of life of people forever, the statement said.