Dear Honorable Members of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), Dear Peers, Colleagues and Friends,

As we are on the eve of closing the 2023 financial year, and on behalf of the entire Family and Community of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), and in my capacity as President of this Association, I have the honor of sending you this message to share with you our main achievements in 2023:

- The majority of BoM members have been appointed and there remain two vacant seats to fill;

- We supported the reform of the IIAS Statutes to enable it to comply with Belgian Law;

- We held a BoM meeting in Doha as part of the IIAS Annual Conference in February 2023 and took part in the work of this Conference, which was a great success, I would like to congratulate the Host Country and  the Organizers;

- We organized our Annual Conference in Manila, Philippines, from July 31 to August 4, 2023, marked by a series of activities, including a BoM meeting. The Report of which will be submitted to you shortly;

- As part of the promotion of Standards of excellence in education and training for the Administration, we have set up with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), a TaskForce to revise, revisit, and adapt the Standards adopted since 2008 which ICAPA is using until now. To date, the members of the TaskForce have been appointed, a roadmap and a methodology have been adopted and no less than six (6) Regional Workshops carried out with Partners from both UN-DESA and AISIA;

- To show our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and non-discrimination, we have set up a Steering Committee called "I.D.E.A.L." which stands for Inclusion, Diversity, Equality, Accessibility, and Leaving No One Behind, and who has to his credit a first Panel organized during the Annual Conference in Manila;

- We have finalized the appointment of the Chairpersons, Directors, and Co-Directors of the AISIA Working Groups and I would like to welcome them to our family and community;

- We also agreed to create three (3) new Working Groups on current themes linked to the Sustainable Development Goals, namely:

  1) Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), in Partnership with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Encheon, South Korea;

  2) Implementation and localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);

  3) Promotion and mainstreaming of the Principles of Effective Governance.

- The members of AISIA have also been mobilized either at the international level, at the regional or national level in activities linked to our vision and mandate and I would like to thank them for all the efforts they are providing to give more visibility to our Association and to anchor its influence.

This great harvest could not have been possible without your commitment, your dedication to our Association, your mobilization, your ideas, and your efforts.

I call on all our members to continue, together, this common effort for greater influence of IASIA, more activities, more partnerships, and more resources, as a common good and a common concern.

I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season, and a Happy New Year 2024: Peace, Health, Serenity, and Prosperity.

With my respect, my esteem, and my friendship,

Yours eternally,

Dr. Najat Zarrouk

Director of Development and ALGA, UCLG Africa, Morocco.

Member of the UN Committee of Experts on Public Administration.

President of IASIA.