The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan together with UNDP have initiated the creation of the Astana Civil Service Hub (ACSH). In March 2013, 25 countries and 5 international organisations adopted the Declaration on the Hub’s inception. 

Today ACSH has become an institutional platform for continuous exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of civil service, consisting of 43 participating countries. 

Mission:

• To assist in promoting civil service effectiveness by supporting the efforts of governments of the participating countries in building institutional and human capacity.

Objectives:

• Strengthen cooperation among participating institutions and build partnerships with expert networks, thinks tanks and universities all over the world;

• Cultivate a network of policy makers, practitioners and other partners to share knowledge and experience on civil service reform in the region;

• Provide technical assistance and advisory services to the governments of the participating countries to enhance capacity on civil service issues;

• Facilitate and support capacity-building activities to enhance in-country and regional knowledge, skills and attitudes on civil service development and modernization;

• Introduce innovative approaches in learning and training to generate more effective acquisition of knowledge and skills among the beneficiaries;

• Carry out applied research and analysis on civil service development and professionalization;

• Publish and disseminate knowledge products, including review of innovations in civil service, case-studies, regular and occasional thematic policy and white papers, and a journal.

Three main areas of activities:

 Outcomes over the past 10 years:

• The number of participating countries has increased from 25 to 43.

• The Hub has established partnership with 90 institutional partners from different parts of the world, which are rich in applied knowledge and expertise in civil service reform. Over 60 Memoranda of Understanding with leading universities and academies of public administration and public policy. 

• The Hub has created a roster of experts from research institutions and universities, international organisations, civil service professional associations to provide expert advice to civil servants of the participating countries. The roster consists of more than 140 experts and continues growing.

• The Hub has delivered over 200 demand-driven capacity building events for around 12 800 participants from 126 countries.

• The Hub has produced over 80 knowledge products: case studies, journals, research papers, publications.

• The Hub has published 18 issues of the International Journal of Civil Service Reform and Practice - a practitioner oriented, peer-reviewed, open access journal.

• The Hub has held 2 Innovative Solutions Schemes with the purpose to identify the most effective innovative solutions in public service delivery.

• The Hub has launched Peer Learning Alliances on one-stop-shop public service delivery, on e-Government development, on transformation and innovations in governance, and AI and new technologies to capture and share tacit knowledge of practitioners.

• The Hub conducted 5 needs assessment studies to identify the participating countries’ changing priorities and demands.

• The Hub in response to COVID-19 pandemic conducted over 40 online capacity building events for over 5000 civil servants, scholars and experts from 62 countries.

• The Hub launched the Virtual Alliance of practitioners for experience sharing in the context of COVID-19. The platform contains more than 40 forms of practical materials and useful resources.

• The Hub supports training of civil servants of the participating countries at the Academy of Public Administration of Kazakhstan Master degree programmes. 23 scholarships were granted.