Talent for Governance Training and Internship 2012

Deadline: 2 January 2012
Open to: Young (37 years old or younger) civil servants working for local governments in developing countries or Eastern European (non –EU) countries
Venue: Training at the Hague Academy for Local Governance in The Netherlands, Internship in Dutch municipality all together lasting 3 weeks

Description

The overall aim of Talent for Governance is to better the living conditions in developing countries and Eastern European (non‐EU) countries by strengthening their local governments. Talent for Governance enables ambitious, young civil servants working for local governments in developing and transitional countries to follow an international Talent programme in the Netherlands. This Talent programme consists of participation in a training course at The Hague Academy for Local Governance in The Netherlands, followed by an internship in a Dutch municipality or province and a Networking event. The Talent programmes take three weeks.

The training course attended during the talent programme, gives young civil servants a chance to experience policy practices from a local perspective. Experts in the field of local governance practice will be guiding them through this experience. During the course, the talents will gain knowledge and skills which will be useful back in their workplace. They’ll work to write a Back-Home-action-plan in which they incorporate a real-live-case from from their own community. The real-life-case project proposal needs to be submitted with the application form, and the employer needs to approve of the project. In addition, they will meet civil servants from all over the world. This gives them a chance to exchange ideas and learn from each other’s experiences. Possible topics of the courses are: (female) leadership, citizen participation, municipal management, local economic development, management of natural resources, or the provision of public services like water, health and education. After the two training course weeks, they will get the chance to visit one of our internship municipalities or provinces in the Netherlands for a week. These local governments will organise an internship programme of a couple of days, during which the talents get into contact with the practical side of local governance. Topics discussed during the course will come back during these days and the programme is linked to their own specific work interests. During this week the talents will meet many Dutch civil servants who work in the same field as they do at home. In this way they are able to really exchange practices with each other.

You can make a choice between the  programme themes: “Citizen Participation & Accountabilty”, “Local Economic Development” or “Local Service Delivery & MDG’s“. Make sure you can motivate your choice and show the relevance of the programme to your ambitions. To find out more about these programme themes, please click here.

Fees and allowances

All selected civil servants are asked to also contribute themselves to the Talent for Governance programme. This is a relatively small part of the financial costs of the programme. With this investment in him/herself the talent also shows commitment to the programme and their own development.
The amount asked of the talent is either 100 Euros or 200 Euros. This depends on the listing of the country where the talent is employed on the DAC list, published by the OECD. Following the division made on the DAC list:
• Talents coming from ‘Least Developed Countries’ and ‘Other Low Income Countries’ for a contribution of 100 Euros.
• Talents coming from ‘Lower Middle Income Countries and Territories’ and ‘Upper Middle Income Countries and Territories’ for a contribution of 200 Euros.

The Talent for Governance programme is almost completely cost covering for the chosen thematic programme. The talent programme covers cost of tuition fee, travel costs, accommodation and living expenses in The Netherlands. The Hague Academy will select the travel arrangements and accommodation and the living expenses entail three meals a day, meaning breakfast, lunch and dinner. All additional drinks, snacks, supplements etc. that have not been offered to you by the programme will be for your own account.

Eligibility

The target group of the talent programme consists of young (37 years old or younger) civil servants working for local governments in developing countries or Eastern European (non –EU) countries (see country list). The eligible civil servants are ambitious and dedicated to good local governance. They have at least two years of work experience and will be working within a local government for at least two more years. They speak English fluently. They find it easy to explain why the programme with a specific theme is relevant for them and the local government organisation they work for. Furthermore they will have to submit a real‐life case project proposal from their work, write a back‐home‐action plan for this project during the programme and, together with their employer, the internship municipality and their network, implement the action plan to the benefit of their community.
The programme is aimed for at least 50% of the talent to be women and aim for geographical diversity among the talent group.

How to apply?

The application procedure will take place as follows (check website for current deadlines);
• Only applications made through the online application form will be considered. Firstly, the applications will be screened for completeness of the form and basic eligibility of the candidates.
• Two weeks after the application deadline, only the candidates that are accepted into the next round will be contacted by Talent for Governance.

In order to continue to the application form, please click here.

If the applicant did get a positive response you will asked for more detailed proposal of the real life case project (with a two week deadline to produce these details):
In the following round the application will be scrutinized and checked even closer. The application will be screened on various criteria such as relevance, completeness, motivation, the feasibility and relevance of the real life case project and the dissemination plan.
It will be most likely conducted a telephone call to evaluate the knowledge of the English language. Furthermore, we will need a statement that the candidate, once selected, will be willing and able to transfer the contribution for your participation in the programme. The Talent for Governance Supervisory board will decide on the final selection of applicants. The deadline for the application is 2 January 2012.

You can download the Talent for Governance booklet here. To find out more about the application procedure, please click here.

Contacts

2500 GK The Hague
The Netherlands
info@talentforgovernance.com
T: +31 (0) 70 37 38 695
F: +31 (0) 70 37 38 660 P.O. Box 30435

The Official Website