Scribbling – the professional writings since 1990

I thought my HEALTH WARNING would discourage readers – but, curiously, it seems to have had the opposite effect with daily clicks hitting the 400 mark today after the last post on the central Asian experience…

This post is a record of my professional writing over the past 30 years and included largely to ensure that I have easy access to such source material

It does not include the material about my travels in places such as Bulgaria, Germany and Romania and other material you can find listed in the top right corner of the blog…

“In Transit – notes on good governance” 1999 book	in which I tried to capture for my new colleagues in ex-communist countries what I felt we in the West had learned, between 1970 and 2000, about managing change in the public sector My initial projects in CzechoSlavaki, Romania, Hungary and Latvia were all a bit scrappy and it was the 3 Central Asia projects of 1999-2007 which gave me the real satisfaction
Transfer of Functions – European Experience 1970-2000. Uzbekistan 2002	The experience of transferring functions in Europe to different levels of government in the latter part of the 20th century
Policy analysis for Slovakian senior civil servants - a manual	One of my least successful efforts I need to add a bibliography and update it a bit eg Paul Cairney
Public Admin Review in Azerbaijan as at 2005	This was the first project since I had left Scotland whose results left me totally satisfied – what seemed a hopeless situation when I arrived in 2002 started slowly to give hope, culminating in the setting up of a Civil Service Agency
“Missionaries, Mercenaries or Witchdoctors?” Paper presented to 2006 NISPAcee Conference	A fairly biting analysis of the shortcomings of Eiropean Technical Assistance in its efforts to develop the capacity of Ministries and state bodies in ex-communist countries
Road Map for Local Government under threat 2007	I had experience of helping run a municipal authority – but not designing a local government system. Romania, CzechoSlovakia, Hungary and Latvia gave me certain insights about this in the 1990s but it was a 2year project in Kyrgyzstan which helped me produce this detailed RoadMap
Administrative Reform with Chinese Characeristics 2011	China still haunts me – 11 years later. I was invited to lead a 4 year EC project in the country but had culture shock very quickly…I produced 17 reasons for my resignation – but still learned enough to write this piece….
“The Long Game – not the Logframe” paper presented to 2011 NISPAcee Conference at Varna	critique of EC technical assistance to PAR – presented to NISPAcee Annual Conferences of 2007 and 2011
Training that Works 2011	100 page paper based on what I felt I had learned in the last decade particularly in Kyrgyzstan and Bulgaria. It challenges a few myths
Blog 2009-2021 www.nomadron.blogspot.com	See the annual collection of posts for the last 2 years – as well as E-books on administrative reform, Bulgarian art, Romanian culture, Germany etc
No Man’s Land; journeys across disputed territories (2018)	A first effort at my personal story
Just Words -  a Sceptic’s glossary	EC reports always gave an opportunity for provocative writing and I started this habit of caustic definitions early in my career with them
Change for the Better? A Life in Reform; (2021)	the present version of my effort to make sense of the challenge of admin reform in a variety of countries

For those wanting to see the earlier writings -

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2021/04/50-years-of-scribbling.html Part I

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2021/04/my-scribbling-from-1975-1990.html Part II

https://nomadron.blogspot.com/2021/04/scribbling-from-foreign-lands.html Part III