National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), an autonomous apex institution of the Government of India in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs today concluded its two-week 17th capacity building programme for civil servants of the Maldives, which was started on 31^st October 2022. In 2019, during the visit of Maldives by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an MoU was signed between the NCGG and the Civil Services Commission (CSC) of Maldives, which envisaged capacity building activities of 1,000 civil servants of Maldives at NCGG over the next 5 years. Despite Covid–19 pandemic, so far over 500 civil servants of the island nations have been trained under the aegis of the MoU signed in 2019.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to the Maldives in June 2019, emphasized India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and assured India’s full support to the Maldives in realizing its aspirations for broad-based socio-economic development and strengthening of democratic and independent institutions. India is the largest development partner of the Maldives.

The valedictory session of this programme was held on 11 November, 2022. In his valedictory address, Bharat Lal, Director General, NCGG stressed that there is a need to be sensitive and responsive in serving the people. He also suggested that it is necessary to work with speed and on a scale, and use digital technology in the delivery of services. He also emphasized that after going back to Maldives, participants may utilize the knowledge and skills acquired during the programme. He also cited the example of the ‘Chiranjivi yojana’ on maternal healthcare started in 2006-07 for tribal women in Gujarat and said that such innovations and out-of-the-box thinking help in leapfrogging and speedy service delivery.

The capacity building programme for civil servants of developing countries aims at equipping them with cutting-edge knowledge, skills and tools to design and deliver effective public services in an increasingly complex and interdependent world. It is expected that this will establish good governance and ultimately achieve sustainable development apart from providing rich cross-country experience. The NCGG is sharing various initiatives being taken in the country such as e-governance, digital India, universalization of public services to achieve sustainable development goals, usage of Aadhaar in service delivery, public grievance redressal mechanism and disaster management with special reference to the coastal regions among other important areas.

Eminent persons and domain experts from different fields conducted highly interactive sessions in the two-week programme, sharing their knowledge and experiences with the participants. The focus has been on priority sectors of India–Maldives relations, regional cooperation initiatives in the Indian Ocean region, improving service delivery: an essence to citizen centric governance, PM Jan Dhan Yojana: positive impact on citizens’ lives, total quality management, public policy and implementation, challenges in achieving SDGs, tourism, the composite culture of India, the constitutional foundation of decentralization in India, public grievances redressal mechanism, PPPs, reforms in governance, an overview of security scenario, digital India, agro-based practices in coastal areas, etc.

During the 2-week course, participants were also taken for exposure visits to places like Pradhanmantri Sangrahlaya, a smart city, the Parliament of India, zero energy building – Paryavaran Bhavan, Delhi Metro, Taj Mahal, etc. Eminent speakers and experts such as Indrani Bagchi, CEO, Ananta Centre; Professor Deepti Pandey from IIM Ahmedabad; Padamveer Singh, former Director, LBSNAA; ABP Pandey, Chairman, FRA and others addressed the participants during the programme.

Deputy team leader from Maldives Suhana Saeed in her address appreciated the programme both in content and delivery. She has assured that these learning platforms shall be highly useful to them.

In the valedictory session, Prof. Poonam Singh, Nodal Officer (Training) from NCGG gave an overview of the programme in detail and appreciated the participants for their enthusiastic participation. Course Coordinator Dr. A. P. Singh presented a vote of thanks in which he spoke that these initiatives require meticulous planning and execution.

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