No. 30-31 (1996): Modernization of Public Employment

Five years ago, ICAP carried out a program for the development and modernization of public employment administration entities, which constituted a sort of milestone in the modernization and institutional strengthening exercise and was an important input to successfully carry out the VII Meeting of Civil Service Directors of Central America and Panama, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, during the period from August 5 to 9, 1996, dedicated to the theme "Modernization of Public Employment". This meeting was originally conceived as part of a permanent process of updating ideas and not as a final product. In fact, it became the main point of reference for Central American thinking on this topic, and consequently the source of inspiration for the preparation of this issue of the Revista Centroamericana, which has been prepared with an unusual focus on the current practices of the State in this area.

The topic of public employment, which often, due to its apparent monotony, goes unnoticed in the great public debates, is essential and exciting in the context of the current moments of modernization of the State, processes of change undertaken in all the countries of Central America. In this profoundly changing frame of reference, the introduction of new technologies, accompanied by new ways of working, require new professional profiles with respect to knowledge, values, skills and attitudes, so that this topic has become a fundamental element for the development of institutions, organizations and companies, and has taken on practical relevance in the Central American public sector, to operationalize the new tasks of the State.

Two major lessons were derived from the space for reflection of this meeting:

* The current management complexity of the entities in charge of public employment administration, and more generally of the human resources function concerning policies, structures, activities and instruments, follows the acceleration of these changes. Hence the importance of renewing not only the civil servants working for public administrations, but also the systems and entities in charge of managing these personnel. 

* The challenge of competitiveness and productivity makes the function of public employment one of the strategic objectives of all organizations in general and of the State in particular, so that this work must be integrated into institutional macro-strategies, imposing the need to use in the management of human resources, knowledge, processes, methods and tools of the same nature and equal sophistication as those used in other areas.