Roadtown, Tortola - Ms. Arlene Smith, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Deputy Governor’s Office is currently representing the Government at the 2009 Commonwealth Advanced Seminar in Wellington, New Zealand.

Ms. Smith is attending a two-week seminar, from March 9-20 on Leadership and Change in the Public Sector, which is sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation and the New Zealand Agency for International Development.

The seminar is held annually for ministers and senior officials from the Commonwealth and some Asia-Pacific and Latin American countries to give them the opportunity to study and discuss programmes of reform in the public sector.  

The 2009 programme, the fourteenth in the series, will explore how different countries tackle dilemmas arising from efforts to improve service delivery, develop capable civil services, decentralise decision making, foster good governance and encourage leadership.  There will be many opportunities for participants to compare and contrast their own reform experiences with those of other countries and with that of New Zealand. 

The seminar will focus on topics like pathways for creating effective public sectors; achieving effective delivery of basic government services; setting and implementing strategies to create public value; performance and resources; leading and managing change; leading for results; and putting it into practice.

Participants will work with seminar staff, each other, and New Zealand practitioners in a friendly and informal environment to identify priorities and strategies for reform.  The programme will be a mix of presentations, case studies, workshops, panels and small group discussions.  Visits to relevant organisations and appointments will be arranged, where possible, to meet participants’ specific interests in reform.

The public service is currently going through a period of reform.  The renewed programme of public sector reform was announced in January 2008 by His Excellency the Governor, David Pearey. The areas of reform are financial, service delivery, strategic planning and human resource management.