Madlen Serban Vienna, 9 November 2009 Regional Workshop on EVIDENCE BASED POLICY MAKING

2 What is the ETF? Agency of the European Union Expert advice and support to the Commission and partner countries Specific field: human capital development Mission: to help transition and developing countries to harness the potential of their human capital through the reform of education, training and labour market systems in the context of the EUs external relations policy

The ETFs partner countries 3 European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument countries ENP South: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia and Israel ENP East: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia Potential candidate countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo (UNSCR 1244/1999), Montenegro, Serbia Candidate countries: Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey Other countries from Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

4 Discussion points A.General views on evidence based policy B.Crisis and the evidence based policies C.Case studies

5 A. a.The Evidence 1.Based on information and critical analysis i.availability ii.capacity to create evidence 2.Context matters i.international versus national versus community versus individuals ii.sectoral versus integrated iii. fragmented versus holistic 3.From research to action: communication between research and policy making i.participative approach ii.empowered participants/stakeholders

6 A. 2.The Policy i.Includes all phases of the cycle. From papers to action and corrective measures supporting improvement 3.The Policy making Process i.Intended versus ad hoc or a mix of both ii.Authors and institutional capacity

7 B. Crisis and the evidence based policies a.Proactive versus reactive b.Crisis as opportunity to rethink visions and actions

8 1.Evidence based policies for TVET 2.Evidence based policies for TVET in SEE C. Case studies ETF perspective

C.1. a.VET dilemma – job ready recruits for the industry of today: short term and long term evidences. Lifelong learning perspective b.Post Crisis recovery : Experience and lessons from the transition economies in 1990s i.Vision for human capital ii.TVET system with Effective governance : is looking for enhancement iii.Less advanced TVET systems: crisis as political drive

C.1. c. Cooperation with International agencies, governmental and non- governmental organizations d. Policy learning:

C.1. TVET reform policies should be home-grown and should support a wider involvement and consultation of public, private and civil society stakeholders. The ETF calls for policy making processes and development aid approaches that help making rather than taking policies. The ETF encourages policy information that help learning from local history and local innovation and experiments while looking at international developments.

C.1. For this, the international organisations should agree that policy learning hold much promise in creating powerful learning environments that help policy makers deepen their understanding of the complexity of the policymaking process and that drive for new TVET reforms in a lifelong learning perspective. The policy learning argument build on the assumption that policy options lay in each country's own political, institutional and cultural context is urging the need of knowledge base in specific country.

C.1. International agencies should provide much more opportunity and capacity to collect data and to provide coherent and consistent evidence-based and critical analysis of national contexts and challenges. Improving the scope and the quality of the knowledge base available in the concerned countries is an urgent field of actions. For this, the ETF recommends to further explore the knowledge base needed for policy learning, identify process supporting the set-up of this knowledge base, and conversely how policy learning processes need to adapt to limitations of the knowledge base.

C.1. e. Turin process The ETF is launching and coordinating biennial policy reporting processes (theTurin Process) dedicated to all its partner countries, with the aim of Portraying the reform progress of education, training and labour market systems Leading to evidence based policy making

15 C.2. Accession as political drive Evidences collected improved but not yet systematic –Information and analysis have multiplied and improved in quality –in some cases mainly sponsored and mentored by international organizations Evidences are informing strategic documents and policy papers –Links between research and the policy world are still to be developed Regional cooperation and mutual learning

16 C.2. Accession as political drive The legal framework is consequent to policy papers development Implementation often lags behind declared policy goals –Public institutions and social partners organizations institutional capacity remain weak (mainly due to the chronic lack of adequate human resources) Regional cooperation and mutual learning

17 C.2. Accession as political drive The capacities and institutional culture of policy monitoring and evaluation are not yet up to the declared strategic goals –No sound evidence is provided to the public for any policy maintenance, succession or termination Regional cooperation and mutual learning

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