Monday, October 26, 2009

“Public Policies and Political Decision Making – Shifts in Making Politics More Rational”
The Academy for Political Development in partnership with the European Fund for the Balkans organised  from 11-13 September 2009 in Zagreb the regional seminar on “Public Policies and Political Decision Making – Shifts in Making Politics More Rational”. The aim of the event was to gather and connect alumni of Schools of Political Studies from Western Balkans (Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Skopje, Prishtina, Tirana) who are engaged and interested in improving public policies management in reform context of EU accession negotiations (politicians, public servants, researchers, consultants etc.). The seminar focused on public sector capacity building for analysis and impact assessment of public policies, as well as integration of analytical procedures in process of political decision-making. Some of the topics discussed were:
-    Introductory lecture on public policies and political decision-making
-    The policy process in WB countries
-    Regulatory reform
-    Policy development and budgetary planning
-    The dynamics of policy transfers and Europeanization
-    Policy analysis as advocacy tool
-    The real life of public policies
-    Knowledge-based political decision-making The Albanian School of Political Studies was represented there by a delegation of its alumni who actively participated and shared their knowledge and experience in this very fruitful regional event.