The Meeting explored current issues of governance, public administration and ®nance and reviewed the United Nations work programme in those areas in light of those new challenges and resolution 50/225 of the General Assembly. It made recommendations for action at both the national and international levels, consonant with that resolution.
It was against the backdrop of this landmark resolution and a rapidly changing environment for public administration worldwide that the overall theme of the Meeting was de®ned as `redesigning the State for socio-economic development and change'. Within this overall theme, ®ve speci®c issues were identi®ed as particularly relevant: (a) promoting an enabling environment for sound governance; (b) enhancing the professionalism, ethical values and image of the public service; (c) rethinking the State for socio-economic development; (d) creating an enabling environment for private sector development; and (e) strengthening governmental capacity in the mobilization, management and accountability of ®nancial resources.
Running through the deliberations of the Group of Experts were certain common themes which emerged with remarkable frequency, both at the plenary sessions and in the group discussions. Those recurring themes reveal shared concerns and pressing needs for action. The need to redesign the State clearly emerged as one of those themes. It was articulated partly as a need to avoid the excesses of passivity on the one hand and total control on the other, and partly to respond to dominant new trends. One such observable trend was in the direction of globalization, which is gathering momentum and is rapidly changing the ways in which markets operate. Another is the progress of science and technology, which constantly transforms the methods of production, service delivery, transport, communications and information management. Yet another salient trend is the emergence of a vibrant civil society as a partner in the conduct of public aairs, nationally and internationally. In light of those new trends, old bureaucratic structures of control and domination no longer seem to work eectively. In several parts of the world, debureaucratization goes hand in hand with the decline of patterns of government administration marked by closure to the external environment. It is ushering new approaches to management exemplifying openness, initiative, diversity and frequent interface with multiple