-Dr. Md. Shahidullah-

This is the age of administrative transformation. Due to philosophical developments in public administration in the light of people’s welfare and rapid advancements in technology, the purview, nature, process, and instruments of administration are changing very quickly. All over the world, this administrative transformation is going on.

The quicker is the adaptation, the faster is the result. Those who are delayed in this adaptation are lagging behind. Bangladesh is already a dream-driven country to be developed by 2041. So its adaptation capacity is a prerequisite to achieving the goals.

The Weberian bureaucracy has already become obsolete facing diversified thoughts and ideas diffused by various exponents. Public administration is enriched with scholarly thoughts. Development administration has developed as a sub-field of public administration. For vision-oriented and rapidly growing Bangladesh, development administration is an issue of keen consideration and enhancing adaptation capacity has become an imperative.

After the Second World War, almost all the newly independent countries faced problems with their traditional administrative systems, structures, orientations, and value systems left by colonial powers which are not suitable for an independent country aspiring to be developed one. Appropriate political, administrative, and economic systems and policies were needed.

Traditional administration was means and process-oriented instead of goals and results. There was a new wave of development all over the world centring developing and underdeveloped countries.

So there was a search for a new administrative model that would be suitable for the newly independent states and be an effective system of administering the developmental needs of the developing countries. From this realisation, the transformation of traditional administration was needed.

Some prominent Western scholars like Edward Weidner, George F. Gant, F.W. Riggs, Han Bee Lee, John D. Montgomery, and Alfred Diamant tried to explore the purview and identify the features of development administration and defined it. The characteristics of DA are:  change orientation, goal-orientation, commitment, people’s orientation, time-bound, people’s participation, innovativeness, ecological perspective, effective coordination, responsiveness, efficiency, and democratic values.

Almost all developing countries have accepted this newly transformed administrative system in their countries. Public administration is the fundamental organisation of the state that implements public policies and accomplishes the activities of national development.

In Bangladesh, civil servants working with the central government are engaged in policy formulation and those who are posted in the field administration look after implementation of all the development activities. As bureaucrats are the key role players of govt. administration, they need to be trained in the light of the new administrative philosophy. Most of the developing countries established specialised training institutes to cater to the concept of development administration.

The initiatives of the present govt. have transformed the traditional regulatory administration into a development-oriented administration. In Bangladesh, administrative transformation has already taken place. Today’s administration of Bangladesh is quite different from its earlier version. The present administration is people-oriented, growth-oriented, result-oriented, change-adaptive, and innovative.

Just after coming into power, the present govt. emphasised strategic planning and strategic management. It declared vision-2021 and later on vision-2041. Accordingly, 1st perspective plan spanning 2015-2025 and 2nd perspective plan spanning 2025-2041 were formulated.

And govt. started to implement a perspective plan by adopting five-year plans. Based on the strategic plan all Ministries, attached departments, and agencies adopted plans, programmes, and action plans to materialise the national vision. To realize the development mission of the govt. which aspires to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041, new knowledge and technology adoption focusing on administrative reform and transformation is a must.

Considering the new dimension of administration the govt. has taken a praiseworthy initiative to establish a modern and contemporary-age suitable training academy that will cater to the concept of development administration making scope for a modern training facility for aligning administration with the new philosophy of development in the arena of administration. It is the result of the Honourable Prime Minister’s farsightedness and visionary leadership.

Under the guidance of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Planning took the initiative and put forward the proposal of establishing a specialised training academy. The proposal was passed in the ECNEC meeting and the Prime Minister named the academy, “National Academy for Development Administration” (NADA). Along with construction work, emphasis was put on designing training for this academy.

In the ECNEC meeting, three training courses were recommended for NADA. On 16 April, the meeting of the National Training Council (NTC) approved the proposed three courses. Among these are ‘Development Administration’ (DA) course for junior level, Sustainable Development and Project Management (SDPM) for midlevel, and Leadership and Strategic Management (LSM) for senior level.

And other necessary training courses will be designed as per need. NADA is working to develop collaboration with international training institutions and cooperation with development partners. Under the able guidance of the respected Senior Secretary and Honourable Minister, Ministry of Public Administration, all necessary works have been completed and are ready for formal inauguration. Hopefully, NADA will start its journey as a fully functional entity just after the formal inauguration by the Honourable Prime Minister.

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The writer is Rector (Secretary), National Academy for Development Administration