This fall, five talented civil servants were lucky to be selected for our Talent for Governance programme. Each year we receive many applications for this unique programme which combines a two week training course at the Hague Academy with a short internship in a Dutch municipality. Thanks to several Dutch municipalities we were able to select five very motivated civil servants who really want to make a change in the municipalities they work in.
Heidi, county trade officer for Kwale County Kenya and Stephen, project officer for the poverty eridication programme in Kweneng District Botswana, participated in September in the programme on local economic development. “My experience during the training was quite life changing. I gained so much knowledge from the experts who were facilitating the training, fellow participants who brought in so much knowledge and experiences not to mention the field visits that were quite interesting and enlightening”, said Heidi. “My team in Kenya is very enthusiatic of the new ideas that I brought home.
“The lessons on developing a LED strategy were more interesting for me. We don’t have that in my country”, said Stephen. “I also enjoyed the study visits and I learned how municipalities collaborate with different stakeholders to improve the economic livelihoods of the inhabitants”.
At this moment, the local service delivery programme still takes place in which three more talents are participating: Cecilia, planning coördinator of the sub secretary of Environment of the municipality of Rosario Argentina, Sagacious, coördinator of the County Service Center in Grand bassa County Liberia and Abbas, head of communication and PR department of the Municipaltiy of Dura in the Palestinian Territories.
These two programmes were made possible by the municipalities of Apeldoorn, Amstelveen, Drechterland, Hoorn, Medemblik, Meppel en Steenwijkerland.
A new application round for our Talent for Governance programme opens on the 11th of October 2016, click for more information.