COOPERATION with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in advancing personnel administration in the Philippines is to have “significance,” the Civil Service Commission (CSC) vowed.
CSC Chairman Karlo Alexei B. Nograles issued the statement following the International Conference on Human Resource Management in the Public Sector by the Asean Conference on Civil Service Matters (ACCSM) Plus Three in Korea.
“As we continue to face similar challenges, it is comforting to know that we are not alone in our struggle and that we have a network of people and organizations that can help us in our own efforts to find solutions,” Nograles said.
“To be able to gather together with our counterparts …and learn from each other’s innovations and best practices is always a welcome experience,” he added.
Nograles said the conference “will surely serve as an avenue to gather and disseminate knowledge on recent advancements in emerging areas of human resource administration and reforms as well as HR innovations in managing global changes.”
ACCSM’s roots can be traced back to 1981 when the “Asean Conference on Reforms on Civil Service” was established. Once every two years, civil service agencies gather for information exchange, mentoring and partnering activities that aim to promote effective cooperation and mutual assistance in public sector capacity building among Asean Member States. But it was in 1989 that the civil service institutions of AMS saw the relevance of formalizing and elevating the network and system of mutual learning and information exchange and, thus, established the ACCSM for a greater, more systematic and more enduring cooperation among the civil service agencies.
Through ACCSM, cooperation took life beyond sharing information and experiences in the conference venue toward a more sustainable partnership before and after the conference. The connection among AMS became sustained, cohesive and more regular.
The ACCSM led efforts toward the signing of a landmark declaration elevating the civil service as a “catalyst” in achieving the Asean’s development goals. On the occasion of the 30th Asean Summit in April 2017 in Manila, Philippines, leaders of Asean’s 10 Member States signed the Asean Declaration on the Role of the Civil Service as a Catalyst for Achieving the Asean Community Vision 2025.