The Development Academy of the Philippines, in cooperation with the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), will host a five-day workshop called “Workshop on the Common Assessment Framework for the Public Sector” this coming August 21-25 at Novotel Manila-Araneta Center, Quezon City.
The workshop, which is expected to be participated in by 29 delegates from member countries of the APO, aims to introduce the Common Assessment Framework (CAF), a quality management instrument specifically tailored and developed by the European public sector. The CAF has been used by public sector organizations across and outside Europe.
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region will be presented with this tool for potential adoption and for them to learn from the experiences of European countries, particularly in the conduct of self-assessment for the promotion and sustainability of organizational excellence.
Inspired by total quality models
The CAF was inspired by the major total quality models, particularly the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management, the European counterpart of the APO, and was specially designed for public sector organizations through the cooperative efforts of European Union ministers responsible for public administration. An easy-to-use, free tool to assist public sector organizations in using TQM techniques to improve their performance, the CAF can address important questions related to the planning, measurement, monitoring, assessment and improvement of the performance of such organizations.
Both the APO and the DAP see the potential of the CAF as a new tool for APO member countries in analyzing and assessing a public sector organization’s performance in order to improve its productivity.
Self-assessment
Public sector organizations must periodically perform a self-assessment through which they may identify areas for improvement, and the CAF is an excellent tool that could be used in doing this as has been proven in Europe.
The workshop will open with the presentation of the experience, findings, best practices and recommendations from the 2015 Study Mission to Europe regarding public sector performance improvement. Another session will cover business excellence across the globe for the public sector and how the CAF fits in.
The CAF will be specifically linked to the APO Public Sector Productivity Framework that is used as reference for the programs and projects conducted by the DAP as the APO Center of Excellence on Public Sector Productivity.
Other sessions
Other sessions will delve into the application of the CAF as a self-assessment tool that develops a culture of excellence and the principles of TQM in the public sector. The resource persons specifically invited for this workshop are renowned lecturers from the CAF Resource Centre of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), including Patrick Staes, a seconded national expert, and Nick Thijs, a senior lecturer. They will be joined by Bruce Searles of Benchmarking Partnerships in Australia.
Expected to attend the five-day workshop are participants from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Republic of China, Indonesia, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan, Sir Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.