The President's Office, on Thursday, held the second session of the virtual webinar series "Visioning Maldives: Leadership Dialogues" as part of the Executives Enhancement and Enrichment Programme (EEEP) 2021-2023. The webinar was organised by the Public Service Training Unit of the President's Office with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the UNDP Maldives and the Civil Service Training Institute (CSTI).
The webinar was themed around "Data for Policy: Harnessing the potential of data for evidence-based policymaking." It mainly focused on the growing role of data in shaping, designing, and delivering public policies, zooming in on the evolving institutional and functional capabilities of the public sector for strengthening agile, adaptive, and real-time policymaking.
"Visioning Maldives: Leadership Dialogues" aims to expose leaders to the latest trends in public administration, development policy and innovation. It brings together global experts and government officials to solicit and exchange knowledge sharing on 21st-century leadership to inspire and support the Government of Maldives in leapfrogging into a "future proof" developing nation.
Dr Ibrahim Hassan, the Minister of Higher Education, delivered the opening remarks at the session, attended by over 270 officials representing government offices and institutions and independent entities. Enrico Gaveglia, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative in the Maldives, moderated the session.
The speakers for the session included Alexandru Oprunenco, Head a.i. of the Regional Innovation Centre UNDP Asia Pacific; Sanyukta Samaddar, Adviser on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from NITI Aayog of the Government of India; and Astha Kapoor, co-founder of the Aapti Institute. The expert panellists weighed how data has become both an asset and a risk in the post-pandemic world and shared experiences on how governments manage effective decision-making using data and highlighted new ways of understanding and doing data governance.
The EEEP was officially launched on December 27, 2021, by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to improve the skills and capabilities of political and executive-level staff in public offices. Local and international experts in the field would facilitate the two-year training programme.