Joint Conference of the National School of Government of South Africa and MGG

During the event „International Capacity Development for the Civil Service – The Sustainable Digitalisation Agenda“, IDOS and the National School of Government of South Africa (NSG) underscored their commitment to ongoing collaboration by signing a joint cooperation framework.

From 5-8 May, the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) and the National School of Government of South Africa (NSG) hosted a three-day conference on “International Capacity Development for the Civil Service – The Sustainable Digitalisation Agenda” in Cape Town, South Africa. It brought together more than 60 international representatives of national schools of public administration and other training institutions to exchange on the potentials and challenges in leveraging digitalisation towards sustainable development, and the implications for the training of civil servants.

The National School of Government of South Africa (NSG) and the Managing Global Governance (MGG) programme implemented by IDOS have been engaging with the MGG network in public sector capacity development for the implementation of the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development since early 2018. During the event, IDOS and the NSG underlined their commitment to ongoing collaboration by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The joint conference provided opportunities for competence development through international knowledge-sharing and a series of hands-on workshops, for instance on the social impact of Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, the event facilitated peer-exchange and network-building to advance the collaboration agenda for 2025 and 2026. Following the opening remarks from representatives of the hosting institutions and the German Embassy, Pretoria, highlights entailed a hybrid session of the NSG Master Class Series on “Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, South Africa), a roundtable discussion between national schools of public administrations from Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa, and a panel discussion with digitalisation experts from South Africa and Germany.

The Conference was organised by IDOS and the NSG in connection to the MGG/PRODIGEES Policy Labs on digitalisation towards sustainable development (Stellenbosch, April 28 – May 3), and in affiliation to the PRODIGEES project of the Managing Global Governance (MGG) programme with financial support from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Ministry of Culture and Science of the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW), and co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.