No. 68-69 (2015): Contextual lessons and practices of public management in Central America

The Central American Institute of Public Administration, ICAP, has been stimulating and promoting a strategy aimed at generating Central American knowledge in public administration and Central American integration. To this end, it has implemented a series of actions to share and socialize the knowledge produced in the region. Thus, issues 68 and 69 of the Central American Journal of Public Administration, ICAP's Journal, are noteworthy for their contents and especially for their lessons learned for the application of knowledge in governmental activities. Three main types of lessons regarding the introduction of changes in public management and governance can be identified in this issue.

a) Recent analyses of the immediate environment of Central American public administration suggest the need to move from rational legal public management to governance of citizens' rights, with a focus on the State's response not only to the needs of the population, but also to the fulfillment of citizens' rights. Likewise, the environment of the Region has been shaping a democratic society with large gaps, different from the authoritarian and non-democratic society of some decades.

b) Quantitative and qualitative assessments that measure and record significant events with respect to certain innovations and policies adopted by governments, such as anti-corruption strategies, e-government, e-participation, etc. as shown in the Figures section of this Journal.

c) Good practices and systematized experiences in Central American public administration, as a result of the implementation of policies, programs, projects, activities and actions aimed at both strengthening the image of public administration through the recognition of outstanding initiatives in the governmental sphere, and improving the performance of the public sector through the replicability of good practices, stimulating the search for innovative solutions. These results are an indication of the generation of knowledge in the Region, in the field of public administration, and constitute a potential to trigger a process of production, reproduction, appropriation and accumulation of knowledge, so that it can be applied to any field of life and human activity, efforts that ICAP makes available to the scientific and academic community, professionals, government and civil society in general, in the Region.