Minister of Planning Ashraf el Arabi headed for France on Wednesday to attend the 7th Annual Conference of the GIFT-MENA Network.

In statements to MENA, Arabi said he received an official invitation from the French minister for civil service to attend the event.

The General Assembly and 7th Annual Conference of the GIFT-MENA Network entitled “Governance, Fragility and Sustainable Development” will be held in Paris-France on 12-14 October 2016.

For its seventh edition, the conference offers a unique meeting time for actors of change in governments, society and development organizations operating in MENA and neighboring countries to discuss issues of governance, fragility and sustainable development. 

For this particular year, discussions will be inspired by the latest challenges facing the MENA region as well by the data and recommendations of the 2030 development agenda. They will be centered on what is currently needed to build the capacity to govern, to pave the way for restoring peace and growth in fragile environments, to keep pace with the increasing complexity of challenges facing public administration and to foster participative cooperation models.

The conference will tackle issues of state fragility and resilience, youth employment and expectations, public administration capacities for implementing the 2030 Development Agenda, challenges of financial governance and transparency, new approaches of development aid and assistance to public administration in fragility contexts and prospects of digital and open data for governments.

The conference will take place on Thursday and Friday, at the Pierre Mendes-France conference center, in Paris. It will bring together policy-makers and senior staff in government, schools presidents and directors of training and human resources management, representatives of development funds, banks and multilateral cooperation agencies as well as international and regional experts in governance, state modernization and capacity development.

The General Assembly will take place later Wednesday. It is open to directors and senior representatives of training schools as well as to regional and international partners.

Source: MENA