Bahrain has launched an initiative to increase transparency and accountability in the public sector.

A capacity development facility is being set up to aid the venture, which hopefully will eventually benefit the entire Gulf.

It will be jointly established by the Bahrain Institute of Public Administration (BIPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as part of similar UNDP initiatives worldwide.

The facility will be located at BIPA, Seef, to benefit first hand from local expertise in training and consulting.

It is hoped the institute's status as an authority and reference for public sector performance and policy assessment will aid government efforts to develop strong expertise in public sector organisations.

Aligned with the goals of Bahrain's Economic Vision 2030, the initiative endeavours to develop human resource management, promote good governance in civil service, revise and adjust organisational processes and implement a performance management system that measures results and ties them to employee and organisational performance.

'The Capacity Development Facility will identify capacity gaps in organisations and provide a coherent approach to solving them,' said UNDP resident representative Sayed Aqa.

'Relevant competencies will be built through training and related technical co-operation services,' Aqa added.

A project document for the facility was signed by Aqa and BIPA director general Dr Raed Benshams at the UN House, Manama, yesterday.

Dr Benshams said the joint project was the continuation of a long lasting relationship that supported the launch of an advanced e-training programme in 2006.

He said it was being developed into a regional centre that will produce e-training content and material in Arabic for the public sector.

Dr Benshams said one of BIPA's key objectives is to create a think- tank for the government to help with public administration and policy making.

'One of our projects is to develop Bahrainis to carry out consultancies, we need the brains of people outside, our neighbours and internationally, yet we need to build our own capacities to know what is happening inside, this leads us to create a think -tank,' he said.

'We are there to fill the gap while the government is understanding needs for training and development,' Dr Benshams said.

'We will provide consultancy for the government on how to create policies, bring know-how and build experts within the public administration.'

Since BIPA was established in 2009 it has racked up 10,000 hours developing 6,000 Bahrainis in the public sector.

This represents about 10 per cent of the government, but the goal is to reach 40 per cent per annum.

Programmes include customer service, productivity, innovation, human resources, finance, project management, public relations, as well as those tailored for the development of high government officials.

BIPA has 27 alliances with international organisations and strives to bring the best experts from around the world to help with training and development.

It is partially funded by the government and this year has a budget of BD2 million.

'We have huge capabilities in Bahrain.

'We are proud we are building a new culture and happy to serve each and every Bahraini to create a better future,' said Dr Benshams.

'Our top priority is Bahrain, but we are trying to develop expertise to reach out to the region and develop the GCC people,' Dr Benshams added.-TradeArabia News Service