HANOI (VIETNAM), 24 February 2023  — 29 senior Vietnamese public sector leaders successfully completed the fourth and final segment of the Modern and Effective National Governance Programme for Emerging Leaders (MENGPEL). A collaboration between the Chandler Academy of Governance (CAG) and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) of Vietnam, MENGPEL was designed to strengthen public sector capabilities, which is essential towards building strong nations. Vice Minister for Home Affairs, Dr Trieu Van Cuong, was present at the closing ceremony.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Vice Minister Trieu emphasised that good national governance is a decisive factor for the success of a country. In this regard, he underscored the importance of building capabilibities for political cadres and public servants. He also expressed appreciation to CIG for the success of MENGPEL, and hoped that this would pave the way for the next run of the programme and for further cooperation activities between MOHA, CIG and NAPA.

Mr Kenneth Sim, Dean, CAG expressed his gratitude to the partners at NAPA and MOHA for entrusting CIG to run this inaugural important leadership programme. He emphasised that in designing the curriculum, CAG had worked closely with NAPA to ensure that the programme was contextualised to Vietnam’s needs, while drawing upon international good practices. At the same time, the curriculum also had a strong practitioner orientation, which is an important hallmark of CAG’s programmes. The feedback from the programme has been positive and some participants have started applying the knowledge and skills acquired during the programme in their work.

Likewise, in his closing remarks, Dr Nguyen Ba Chien, President of NAPA emphasised that good governance is key to national success. Echoing Mr Sim, Dr Chien said that MENGPEL was designed to be practical, incorporating international good practices that were applicable to the Vietnamese context. He added that MENGPEL is aligned with the broader Vietnamese government’s directive of capability development for emerging public leaders and managers. He noted, in particular, that the programme has enhanced the effectiveness of the participants in their work, and contributed to building a professional, responsible, dynamic and talented civil service.‍

Speaking on behalf of the class, Mr Le Quang Hoa, Director General of Hung Yen Department of Home Affairs shared that the participants have found practical ways to apply the skills and knowledge acquired in their daily work. The participants were thankful for the opportunity to learn from senior national and international experts, as well as from each other. In addition, the programme has also been a useful platform for participants to build personal relationships, which is critical for collaboration and cooperation across departments and even provinces, in delivering seamless services to the public.

Taking place from 20 – 24 February 2023 in Hanoi, the final segment of MENGPEL focused on developing skills in policy and programme design. Participants were taught different tools to analyse locally relevant policy challenges and to design policy solutions to these challenges.

As part of the learning activities, the participants travelled to Hoa Binh province in Northern Vietnam, where they interacted with local government leaders to understand different facets of real life policy challenges, including the development of cultural tourism in Mai Chau distict within the province. Using the analytical and system thinking tools and frameworks that they learnt in class, the participants worked in groups to develop and present solutions to these policy challenges.

(Source: https://www.chandlerinstitute.org)