NAPA Outlines ‘Grand Challenges’ In Public Administration
The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) has spent the last year soliciting ideas from individuals in the federal sector to identify the largest challenges facing public administration. Last week, NAPA rolled out the Grand Challenges during their fall meeting. These challenges will serve as the focal point for NAPA’s collaborative efforts for the next decade.
The Grand Challenges fall into four categories: Protecting and Advancing Democracy, Strengthening Social and Economic Development, Ensuring Environmental Sustainability, and Managing Technological Changes. The 12 Challenges are to:
Protect electoral integrity and enhance voter participation
Modernize and reinvigorate the public service
Develop new approaches to public governance and engagement
Advance national interests in a changing global context
Foster social equity
Connect individuals to meaningful work
Build resilient communities
Advance the nation’s long-term fiscal health
Steward natural resources and address climate change
Create modern water systems for safe and sustainable use
Ensure data security and privacy rights of individuals
Make government AI-ready
During the fall meeting, Terry Gerton, President and CEO of NAPA, explained the importance of collaborative efforts to meet these challenges.
“Addressed individually, these Grand Challenges will take years or even decades to solve,” said Gerton. “So it is imperative that we move forward on these challenges simultaneously, to shape effective governance in the 21st century. With this campaign, the Academy wants to inspire action, enhance understanding of each Grand Challenge, connect stakeholders, and drive change. We plan to work with interested people and organizations at all levels of government, in academia, and in the private and nonprofit sectors so that, collectively, the nation can make meaningful progress.”
In order to effectively address these challenges, NAPA also noted in their report that agencies will need to address core management issues that stifle operations. The report called upon managers to work on managing amidst risk and uncertainty; conducting business in an agile manner; reflecting the nation’s diversity and ensuring inclusivity in their workspaces; improving service delivery; protecting cybersecurity; and ensuring environmentally sustainable operations.
These core management practices should cut across all challenge areas, the report explained.
“Over the next decade, we will face tremendous technological, economic, environmental and social shifts in our world, which will have a seismic impact on the future path of our nation,” said Gerton. “Therefore, it is critical that governments at all levels take steps to transform and modernize, to ensure they can tackle these challenges in new, innovative and effective ways.”
