1. 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  

2. 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)

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. How to build Trust?

12. How to build Trust?

13. 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

14. 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

15. Estonia: Company registration process

16. 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"

17. Have a vision

18. When it happens, it feels great…

19. 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?

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

21. Any Questions?