Newland contributes to shape of civil service in Kazakhstan
ASTANA. KAZINFORM Chester Newland, Frances R. and John J. Duggan Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Public Administration at the USC Price School of Public Policy, spent a week in Kazakhstan during May to celebrate and observe the 20th anniversary of the country's professional civil service program, which he helped to establish in the 1990s.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Newland went to the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan as a representative of the United Nations Developmental Programme to work with Kazakh law experts who were refining civil and public law provisions. The institutionalization of the Agency for Civil Service Affairs was accomplished as a foundational framework of the constitutional government of Kazakhstan, USC News reports. In May, he returned to give the lead presentation at a panel for the seventh annual Astana Economic Forum titled "Civil Service Personnel Management: Current Issues and Prospects." The global conference held in Kazakhstan's capital brought together more than 8,000 delegates from 100 countries. Newland's speech focused on Kazakhstan's exemplary social, economic and political accomplishments over the past 23 years, which he explained were rooted in rejecting laissez-faire ideologies and embracing facilitative government grounded in professionally expert public institutions. "The progress made by Kazakhstan, particularly in creating professional civil service, is unsurpassed anywhere in the world," Newland said. "Eight of the 10 top jobs in civil service are career positions. They've reduced the political appointees and are moving toward a government of career professionals." Newland, who began teaching at USC in 1966, devoted 27 years to instructing at USC Price in Sacramento. He also has had an illustrious career in government service, twice serving as director of the Federal Executive Institute, the U.S. government's top training and development center. Among several major topics addressed at the Astana Economic Conference, the successful functioning of the new Regional Hub of Civil Service in Astana was the important one in which he was most involved. Sponsored by the U.N. Development Programme, the Hub incorporates top public service experts across a region stretching from China on the east to European Union Headquarters in Brussels on the west, Russia on the north to Pakistan and Afghanistan on the south. This cooperative effort to advance professionally expert civil services has major global significance. Newland met with Hub officials during the trip and gave a two-hour presentation to the Kazakhstan National Academy of Public Administration. He believes the current system of civil service in Kazakhstan is one of the best in the world, even in comparison to the United States. Kazakhstan sent talented youths to be educated abroad at top educational institutions and when they returned immediately put these bright graduates to work in positions of importance. He met briefly with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in that formative period and, upon his return to the country, sent Nazarbayev a letter echoing the praise from his presentation. "The path to civil service advancement in a relative short span of two decades has been impressive," Newland said. "President Nazarbayev and his team merit global recognition for this historic development."