News

On March 10-11, 2026, at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Skopje, a two-day international conference on the topic "Capacity Building of Civil Servant Training Institutions" was held. The conference was organized in joint cooperation between the Center for Change Management (CCM), the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA), the Regional School of Public Administration (RESPA) and with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of France.

This two-day conference brought together experts in the field of public administration from North Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, France, Italy, Brussels and Moldova, with the aim of exchanging experiences in terms of good practices, challenges and possible solutions for the development of civil servant training institutions.

The first day opened with welcoming addresses by the Minister of Public Administration, Goran Minchev, the Ambassador of the Republic of France, Christophe Le Rigoleur, the Director of the Regional School of Public Administration, Maja Handziska Trendafilova, the Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to North Macedonia, Ben Nupnau and the Program Coordinator of the Center for Change Management, Iskra Belcheva Ristovska.

Three panel discussions were held during the first day of the conference.

The first panel on the first day of the conference was entitled “From Needs Assessment to Annual Training Programs”, and was moderated by Aleksandra Stojanovska from the Ministry of Public Administration, and the panelists were Peter Vandenbruaene from the Federal Public Policy Service of Belgium, Charlotte Duflos from the Regional Institute of Public Administration in France, Valentina Miličić from the National School of Public Administration in Croatia, Sabrina Bandera from the National School of Administration of Italy and Stanija Višekruna from the National School of Public Administration of Serbia.

The second panel on the first day of the conference was entitled “Trainer Management Framework and Contracting Modalities”, moderated by Iskra Belcheva Ristovska from the Center for Change Management, and panelists were Mélanie Recour from the Federal Public Policy Service of Belgium, Charlotte Duflos from the Regional Institute of Public Administration in France, Sabrina Bandera from the National School of Administration of Italy, Valentina Miličić from the National School of Public Administration of Croatia and Dafina Dodoveci from the Albanian School of Public Administration.

The third panel on the first day of the conference was entitled “Training Methodologies, Entrance Exams and Certification”, moderated by Aneta Ivanova Stojanoska from the Center for Change Management, and the panelists were Peter Vandenbruaene from the Federal Public Policy Service of Belgium, Charlotte Duflos from the Regional Institute of Public Administration in France, Valentina Miličić from the National School of Public Administration in Croatia, Sabrina Bandera from the National School of Administration of Italy, Stanija Višekruna from the National School of Public Administration of Serbia and Dalibor Ćopić from the Agency for Civil Servants of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

During the second day of the conference, a panel discussion and group work were held according to the “World Cafe” concept.

The panel discussion during the second day of the conference was entitled “Quality Assurance, Evaluation, Research and Collaboration”, which was moderated by Emilija Gerogieva Gjoshevski from the Ministry of Public Administration, and the panelists were Mélanie Recour from the Federal Public Policy Service of Belgium, Charlotte Duflos from the Regional Institute of Public Administration in France, Valentina Miličić from the National School of Public Administration in Croatia, Sabrina Bandera from the National School of Administration of Italy, Dafina Dodoveci from the Albanian School of Public Administration and Zemka Striković from the Human Resources Directorate of Montenegro.

For the rest of the day, the participants worked in groups according to the World Cafe concept, which was moderated by Jelena Mrdak from the Regional School of Public Administration. The aim of this exercise is for participants from different countries to become more familiar with the practices of institutions from other countries and to share experiences.

This two-day international conference contributed to connecting public administration experts from different countries, and especially to familiarizing them with the practices of countries that have already established institutions for training civil servants, in parallel with the process of establishing the Macedonian Academy for Training and Professional Development of Civil Servants.