European Week of Regions and Cities

Partnerships for strengthening labour market policies and social inclusion

Workshop 11E19 ‘Working in partnerships to foster employment and social inclusion’

Brussels, 11 October 2006

Dirk Maier, Jana Machačová

_ Ms. Jana Machačová: Forum Office Vienna at the ZSI (Centre for Social Innovation), OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance

_ Mr. Dirk Maier: Co-ordination Unit for the Austrian Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs) at the ZSI (Centre for Social Innovation)

Who’s talking?

The area-based partnership is a tool to improve governance. It seeks to:

_ improve policy co-ordination and adaptation to local conditions; _ lead to better utilisation and targeting of programmes; _ integrate civil society’s concerns into strategic planning exercises through more widespread participatory democracy; _ stimulate corporate involvement in local projects; and _ promote greater satisfaction with public policy.

(OECD Local Partnerships for better Governance, 2001)

Why looking at partnerships?

Partnerships - a bridge for linking concepts to people

Which partnerships?

Forum partnerships are characterized by:

_ MULTI-LEVEL: Partnerships decision-making involves stakeholders from supranational, national, regional and local levels.

_ MULTI-SECTORAL: Multi-sectoral (or cross-sectoral) partnerships involve stakeholders representing various economic sectors/branches, governmental and non-governmental actors seeking to improve the co-ordination between labour market, education, economic and social policies at local and regional level.

_ MULTI-DIMENSIONAL: Partnerships apply integrated approaches to multi-dimensional problems.

Forum partnerships are primarily focusing on employment and social issues and economic development

TEPs in Austria

Canadian CFDCs

BBWA in Berlin

Greek partnerships

TEPs in Hungary

Irish partnerships

France: CBE, MIFE, EREF, PLIESlovakian LSIPs

SNP in Portugal

Partnerships in Norway

RPP in New Zealand

TEPs in Catalonia

WIBs in the USA

TEPs in Italy

LSP in UK

RESOC & SEER in Flanders

Finnish partnerships

RGC in Sweden

Partnerships’ diversity (Selection)

_ Clear, simple, shared and understandable vision;

_ Sufficient financial and human resources;

_ Common agreement and commitment of key interests;

_ Mutual confidence, respect and trust among the partners; _ Clear definition and division of partners’ roles.

(Professional management, shared mandates or agendas, collaborative decision-making, high level of information exchange and good communication; realistic timeframes, dynamics and flexibility, understanding and political support.)

Partnerships’ Success Factors (in general)

Motivation and patience are keywords in partnership‘s operation

_ Lack of clear purpose;

_ Unclear division of tasks and responsibilities;

_ Lack of skills for effective partnership operation (e.g. management, financial control, negotiation);

_ Unbalanced inputs-outputs;

_ Limited financial resources.

(Unrealistic goals; manipulation or domination of the leader, hidden agendas, frequent personal changes (might be contra-productive), lack of communication, misunderstanding of the partnership role in the territory.)

Partnerships’ Failure Factors (in general)

The Austrian TEP case

Labour market challenges exist, which can not be met by just a few institutions on their own

_ e.g. concentration of unemployment on certain groups of persons; _ e.g. gender segregation on the labour market; _ e.g. shifts between industries, economic sectors and regions as a result of developments, in the business and technology areas in

particular.

TEP - Partners

Provincial GovernmentLabour Market Service

Federal Office of Social Affairs

Chamber of Labour

Economic Chamber

Chamber of Agriculture

NGOs (Local Initiatives) Municipalities

Federation of Industry

Federation of Trade Unions

Provincial School Board

Educational Institutions

Gender Mainstreaming Experts

Budgets of the

partners:

over EUR 500

Million p.a.

Territorial Employment Pacts in Austria

Tyrol BurgenlandVorarlbergSalzburg

Upper Austria Lower Austria

Styria

Carinthia

Vienna

Regional Managers for Employment

Monitoring / Evaluation

Direct linkage with Objective 2 and 3

Implementation within Objective 1

Open partnership-process

Regional co-ordinationfor vocational training

Pool of ideas / ‘experimental capital’

Interdisk - platforms

Local Pacts

Austria’s lessons learned

_ raison d’être of the partnerships must be obvious to all partners;

_ clarification of roles, functions and tasks of partners;

_ TEP partners are the core of the partnership, the TEP co-ordinations are the drivers of partnerships;

_ dominance of partners;

_ documentation of work performed; and

_ communication.

Austria’s External Success Factors

_ Funding of the operative structures by the Ministry for Economics and Labour and the ESF;

_ Creation of an external and independent federal TEP Co-ordination Unit as counsellor and information hub;

_ Guidance not directives;

_ Long-term process approach;

_ Structural development is accompanied by development of new topics; and

_ Empty field of action has to be assigned.

Partnerships

_ are important instruments to address multi-level, multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional problems in regional development and labour market policy;

_ could be very different, but each type of partnership can successfully meet the challenges of the regions;

_ success is a result of careful internal planning and external programming; and

_ build effective communication channels between sectors.

Conclusions

Useful partnerships’ links

_ Territorial Employment Pacts, Austria: www.pakte.at

_ Area based and Community Partnerships, Ireland : www.pobal.ie

_ Employment Pacts, Hungary: www.rop.hu

_ Central Uusimaa Partnership, Finland: www.kumppanuusyhdistys.net

_ Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs), Spain: www.diba.es

_ Local Strategic Partnerships, UK: www.neighbourhood.gov.uk

http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/forum/partnerships

http://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/forum/partnerships/database

Contacts

Centre for Social Innovation - ZSI / Vienna

Jana Machačovámachacova@forum.zsi.at

Dirk Maier maier@zsi.at

Homepage: http://www.zsi.athttp://www.pakte.athttp://www.oecd.org/cfe/leed/forum/partnerships

Thank you for your attention.