Facilitated by the German Development Institute’s Managing Global Governance Programme (MGG), the National Schools of Public Administration of Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa have been collaborating over the past few years in order to strengthen knowledge exchange and learning among them. On July 14, 2020 a group of 16 participants attended the online workshop ‘Building Back Better’. The participants shared experiences and developments related to the current Covid-19 pandemic and planned activities for the implementation of the initiative ‘Building Back Better’. Coordinated by UNSCC and DIE the initiative is part of the ‘New York Programme of Action’ (NYAP) that was set up by the group in July 2018. Further activities will combine online trainings in the so-called ‘train-the-trainer’ formate, a research of national training schemes for the public sector and the SPAs online conference on October 27, 28 and 29, 2020.

The schools involved are Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), National Institute of Public Administration, Indonesia (NIPA), National Institute of Public Administration, Mexico (INAP), National School of Government, South Africa (NSG), National School of Public Administration, Brazil (ENAP), Institute of International Strategic Studies Party School, China (CCPS), Shanghai Institute of International Studies (SIIS).

The activities focus on developing key learnings on how training institutions can address the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and align their training activities to the change of needs and structural conditions? This includes the exploration of the opportunities of digital training formats.