Australia Awards South and West Asia

Australia Awards recently supported a high-level delegation from Bhutan’s Royal Civil Service Commission to visit Australia as an Australian Professional Opportunity (APO).

This successful visit helped facilitate learnings and discussions on professional development, leadership enhancement, and networking opportunities between Australian government agencies and institutions and Bhutan’s public sector agencies.

This APO was organised by Australia Awards in collaboration with the Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy. Led by Dasho Tashi Pem, the Chairperson of the Royal Civil Service Commission, the delegation experienced five days of activities on 7 to 11 April 2025. The itinerary of events aimed to enable an exchange of knowledge and learnings from Australian best practices in the fields of executive leadership competencies and public sector governance skills, and insights into global practices on digital transformation in governance, performance management and institutional reforms.

Some of the delegates, including Dasho Tashi Pem, the Chairperson of the Royal Civil Service Commission (centre), accompanied by His Excellency Mr Sonam Tobgay (second from right), discussing leadership with Professor Janine O’Flynn, Director of the Crawford School of Public Policy (right).

Using a blended learning approach, the visit involved interactive academic sessions and field visits to Australian government agencies. The academic sessions covered topics on leadership, global reforms, performance budgeting, blockchain in government, innovation and the entrepreneurial state, while the field visits included meetings with representatives from the Australian Public Service Commission, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Employment and Industrial Relations Group of the Australian Capital Territory’s Public Service, and the Office of Industrial Relations and Workforce Strategy.

During the meetings with their Australian counterparts, the delegates were introduced to recent initiatives and best practices regarding public sector reforms, talent management, employee mobility, and employee health and mental wellbeing. The delegates also met with the Bhutanese diaspora working in various Australian Capital Territory government agencies and gained insights into the performance management system, motivation for public servants and ways to optimise the use of public sector resources.

The Bhutanese delegates pictured with officials from the Australian Capital Territory government.

In addition to the scheduled itinerary, the Director of the Royal Institute of Management—who was a member of the delegation—received an opportunity to meet with representatives of the University of Canberra and strengthen the existing relationship between the two institutions.

The delegation expressed their appreciation to their Australian counterparts for meeting them, and look forward to reinforcing existing relationships and leveraging new linkages gained during the experience.

Australian Professional Opportunities are learning and development activities funded by the Australian Government and facilitated by Australia Awards.