Enhancing institutional capacity and an efficient public administration (TO 11) - state of play in the framework of the negotiations     Florian HAUSER, DG EMPL E.1 ESF Informal Technical Working Group meeting  4/5 March 2014 Crowne Plaza Hotel, Brussels  

TO11 in Partnership agreements Overall… slow progress… Strategic choices often seem to be difficult (due to delay in national reforms) – as a result: description tends to be vague and general Complementarity between funds (ERDF & ESF) and TOs (e.g. TO2 & TO11) sometimes not clear (especially for e-government)

Reflections on preliminary exchanges on TO11 in OPs (1) Limited readiness with ex-ante conditionalities – delays with strategic framework HR and training addressed very formally investment in the human capital perspective very limited Political commitment? Vision?

Reflections on preliminary exchanges on TO11 in OPs (2) Description of strategy to address the development needs often copies national strategies, mentioning also initiatives that are not necessarily eligible for assistance; Additionality not explained

Reflections on preliminary exchanges on TO11 in OPs (3) Weak intervention logic – specific objectives very general, covering a big variety of measures, which further complicates the attribution of appropriate indicators; "Black Box" of change trajectory

Reflections on preliminary exchanges on TO11 in OPs (4) Output and result indicators often do not have a direct link with investment – many additional factors may influence progress

Recommendations on the form (1) Focus on your objectives – make them really specific, as you would for the rest of ESF Keep specific objectives coherent – do not combine too many areas (this will help for the result indicators)

Recommendations on the form (2) Don’t copy-paste from national strategies – indicate where ESIF will contribute (additionality) Think of the actions to fund and look what outputs will be best to measure

Recommendations on the content (1) Institutional reforms go beyond re-organisation and legal amendments: To encourage knowledge based society you need knowledge-based institutions! – think innovation (co-creation, co-delivery) Think "good government" (trust, transparency, accountability, service orientation) Think about investment in civil servants

Good Governance = Balance of Interests It’s all about "Is responsive to present and future needs of society" Trust Reliability Satisfaction

How to build Trust?

How to build Trust?

Recommendations on content (2) Prioritise needs and think about your investment approach – For example, related to e-government, better invest in a limited number of services with high economic or social impact than in any institution that may have the ambition to digitalise

Recommendations on content (3) Avoid reform silos - e-government, service delivery, cutting red-tape have to be interlinked as they involve the reengineering of the same processes

Estonia: Company registration process

Recommendations on content (4) To measure performance you need to think globally – consider all types of inputs (policy objectives, people, finances, institutions, ICT) and all types of results (policy results, legislation, services, people, institutions) Reflect "Political Economy"

Have a vision

When it happens, it feels great…

Bad situation/ Opportunity Challenge Managing Change Leadership? Stakeholders? Indicators? Milestones? Processes? Risks? Ideas Bad situation/ Opportunity Black Box Improved Situation Drivers? Incentives? Baseline "Where are we"? Vision Objective "Where do we want to be"? How do we get there?

A challenge: Entry Points? Policy… Agency Autonomy? Technical Capacity? Government ? Public Administration ? ? Programme/ Project level Political Leadership? Awareness? Commitment? ? … delivered?

Any Questions?