International Conference on Enhancing Citizen Participation in Public Governance
(Amari Watergate Hotel, Bangkok, 28-29 May 2008)

1. Background

In the OECD countries, many different governance issues of core concern including open and inclusive policy making, risk management and decentralization have been on discussion and dialogue for better way forward. Recognising the importance of those issues that are closely intertwined with the government efficiency, the OECD Asian Centre for Public Governance has a commitment to distributing and sharing them with the OECD non-member Asian countries, with an aim of bridging between the OECD and Asia in this regard.

The OECD Asian Centre has been holding international conferences on public governance since 2005, bringing international experts and officials of public affairs into one place, so as to discuss better way forward to good governance in Asia. The first conference was held in December 2005, in Seoul, Korea under the title of the OECD-ASIA Public Sector Performance Symposium. The second was “International Conference on Performance Measurement and Government Innovation” held in July 2007 in China.

On this occasion, the OECD Asian Centre, in association with Office of the Public Sector Development Commission of Thailand co-host the International Conference on Engaging Citizen Participation in Public Governance on 28-29 May in Bangkok, Thailand.

2. Goals of the Conference
- Recognize and share the benefits of engaging citizens as key actors in public governance
- Identify the impediments of entry to participation for citizens in public governance and explore how to lower or remove them to engage citizens
- Provide the OECD member and non-member countries with the opportunity to share experiences and good practices in this field

For Agenda : Please refer to the attached document