School of Young Managers in Public Administration
- Legal Type
- NGO
- Year of registration
- 2010
- Geography
- International
SYMPA was founded in 2007 in cooperation with the Swedish organization SIPU International (now FCG Sweden) with an aim of creating a community of young professionals able to effect change in public administration in a future democratic Belarus.
SYMPA’s mission is to create and support channels of communication for public administration professionals and keep them informed about principles and practices of modern good governance, to involve the target groups in educational and exchange programmes in order to build their capacity in public administration and instill the value of civil participation, and to conduct research in the field of public administration. We work to improve the quality of public procurement, to increase participation in decision making at the local level, and to increase transparency and accountability in public spending.
Research in public administration in Belarus is one of SYMPA’s strategic directions. For this reason, BIPART - Belarusian Institute for Public Administration Reform and Transformation was established in 2011 as SYMPA’s research branch. BIPART’s mission is to promote the reform of the public administration system in Belarus in accordance with modern principles and practices. BIPART unites people interested in improving the quality of governance in Belarus.
SYMPA is a member of NISPAcee and the OECD Global Network of Schools of Public Administration.
Field of Work
Policy and Democracy
Support and Capacity building
advocacy, research and education in public administration, participatory budgeting
Target Group
Adults
Young people aged 25-35: young professionals, civil society activists, political activists; Civil servants aged 30-40: decision makers on the functioning and structure of the public administration system at the local and national levels; Pressure groups:
Type of Activities
Consultations
Seminars, trainings, conferences
Surveys / mapping
monitoring public procurement, research in public administration, civil engagement
International Projects
EU-STRAT-The EU and Eastern Partnership Countries: An Inside-Out Analysis and Strategic Assessment
EU-STRAT is an international research project that studies the relationship between the European Union and the countries in the European Eastern neighborhood. The key objective of EU-STRAT is to provide an inside-out analysis and strategic assessment of the links between the EU and Eastern Partnership countries.
Website: http://eu-strat.eu/
Duration: 01.05.2017 – 30.04.2019
Supported by European Union's Horizon 2020
Support to School of Young Managers in Public Administration
This project has been supported by SIDA - Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency since 2008.
SYMPA's one-year diploma in public administration attracts young Belarusian professionals and civil servants, and consists of four sessions spanning an academic year and taking place in Minsk (Belarus), Vilnius (Lithuania), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Stockholm (Sweden), with self-study periods in between the sessions.
Support capacity building and partnership of civil society and local authorities in Belarus
This 4-year project supported by the European Commission has just started.
Duration: 01.02.2018 – 31.01.2022.
Support to public participation in government affairs at local level in Belarus through Human Rights-Based- and Evidence-Based Approaches
This short project was supported by supported by Matra, The Netherlands
Duration: 10.12.2016 - 09.12.2017
Promotion of government transparency in Belarus in the field of public procurement and public finances
Duration: February 2016 – January 2017,
Supported by the National Endowment for Democracy
https://www.ned.org/region/central-and-eastern-europe/belarus-2017/
Project Ideas
- Target group
- pressure groups, watchdogs, journalists, citizen journalists/bloggers
- Field of work
- Support to our project ‘Open Tenders’ – a website that monitors public procurement and encourages participatory budgeting. We have been running this innovative project for the past six years now. Although Belarus has been often referred to as the Silicon
- Role of Partner
- provide software development experts to develop complex algorithms; in particular write a new programme code for data cleansing and formatting, and create an automatic alert ('red flag') alerting the authorities of 'bad bids', corruption or fraud
- Preferred Countries
- any
- Target group
- general public, advocacy groups; in long run: public authorities
- Field of work
- Pilot research project into how the government’s message and communications style impact ordinary people, following the model of Behavioural Insights Team (https://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/) In this research, we would like to see how communicating t
- Role of Partner
- contribute with own expertise, support and advice (this type of research is not yet known in Belarus); provide experienced researchers
- Preferred Countries
- any
- Target group
- civil servants and anyone familiar with civil service and public administration
- Field of work
- Comparative studies in public administration and civil servants, e.g. motivation to enter public administration, reasons for leaving public administration, post-civil service career, relationship with constituents, attitude to civil servants, understandin
- Role of Partner
- contribute with own expertise, support and advice; provide experienced researchers with own country’s expertise
- Preferred Countries
- any
- Target group
- general public, activists, journalists, bloggers, civic servants
- Field of work
- Advocacy and lobbying: policy, draft bills, local referendums, public participation, participatory budgeting The concept of people’s participation in decision making, at least at the local level, is still relatively unknown in Belarus. The authorities are
- Role of Partner
- provide experienced lobbyists with own country’s and international expertise in influencing the authorities; contribute to the development of advocacy campaigns
- Preferred Countries
- any
- Target group
- anyone interested in improving their knowledge about the issues of public administration, participatory decision-making
- Field of work
- Organize study tours, knowledge exchanges and joint conferences, in the field of public administration, participation, spending, and procurement. Belarus is still a relatively unknown country to many, and we would like to share our experience, and learn a
- Role of Partner
- share expertise and experience in the field of public administration; contribute to the development of local networks
- Preferred Countries
- any
Interesed In
Field of work
Policy and Democracy
Support and Capacity building
IT and software development, web analytics, social research, public administration, participation, finances and procurement
Target Group
Adults
civil servants, lobbyists, social researchers, young people, citizens journalists
Type of Activities
Consultations
Seminars, trainings, conferences
Development work / pilot work
Surveys / mapping
social research, software development, surveys, e-education
