On October 26, 2021, Dr. Colin Knox, the NU GSPPProfessor & Vice Dean for Academic Affairs talked about “Public Sector Reforms in Kazakhstan: a pathway to the top 30 developed countries”

SYNOPSIS

Kazakhstan has ambitious plans to become one of the top 30 developed countries in the world by 2050. Its most recent route map to achieve this is the Plan for the Nation: 100 Concrete Steps, announced by the president in May 2015. A key pillar in this reform agenda is the development of a professional civil service. Whether civil service reforms to date and those envisaged under the new plan offer a trajectory to the 2050 stated goal? Despite significant political endorsement at the highest level, reforms have focused on institutional, structural and legal changes without the necessary attention to how these will impact on the quality of public services provision. The speaker highlights the interdependence between civil service reforms and an outcomes-based approach and adapts the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Better Life framework for Kazakhstan as a way of making this connection.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Colin Knox is Professor and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs of the Graduate School of Public Policy. Dr Knox received his doctorate in public policy from Queen’s University Belfast, one of the Russell Group Universities in the United Kingdom. His fields of research include: public sector reform in developed and developing countries; local government; and public policy evaluation. He has also written widely on the politics of divided societies. Dr. Knox also spent 8 years as a practitioner working in local government in the UK prior to joining academia.

VIDEO FROM THE EVENT