Commission staff working document
Horizontal Actions HA Capacity – Capacity building and involvement
Download 0.86 Mb.
|
Horizontal ActionsHA Capacity – Capacity building and involvementCoordinated by: the Baltic Sea NGO Network, the Union of the Baltic Cities and the Swedish Institute http://groupspaces.com/eusbsr-governance/ A key factor of success for the EUSBSR is the integrated and coordinated governance of the Baltic Sea region, between sectors of society as well as between regional and local authorities, business, academia, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in the respective countries. Through active involvement of all potential stakeholders in promoting and implementing the goals of the EUSBSR and its Action Plan we can ensure, that the words are translated into action. Understanding and being able to make use of the cobweb of multilevel governance in a project driven reality, within the respective policy areas involved in the implementation of the EUSBSR, is the heart of its success. Multilevel governance strengthens openness, participation, coordination and joint commitment to delivering targeted solutions. The Council of the European Union calls ‘the Commission and the Member States to actively support the multi-level governance approach recognizing the potential substantial contribution from all levels of society in implementing the macro-regional strategies’.71 The EUSBSR has created a useful framework for joint action to address common challenges in the Baltic Sea region. Our challenge is to ensure, that we can utilize its full potential and ensure participation of all potential stakeholders in promoting our common goals. In the EUSBSR, it is not just the Actions to fulfil the Strategy’s objectives that are complex. The funding and management of the Strategy are equally complex: e.g. no explicit funding is allocated for the implementation of the EUSBSR. Instead, the Strategy is integrated in the hierarchy of European and Member state strategies and funding. This implies that the EUSBSR as a European macro-regional strategy is fully integrated in the European long-term growth strategy entitled the EU 2020. Therefore, it is also reliant upon strategies at national, regional and local levels (for various policy areas) throughout the BSR. Furthermore, funding does not always follow the strategy. The implementation of the EUSBSR depends on successful alignment of funding, e.g. from the European Territorial Corporation (ETC) programmes or from the operational programmes of the ERDF, from national or regional ESF or EARDF funding (like the CLLD approach in the Rural Development Programme), from European sector programmes (such as Horizon 2020, Connecting Europe Facility or COSME), from various national state budgets, from regional and local government budgets, etc. As the Partnership Agreements attempt to coordinate national, regional and local strategies and funding with the objectives in the EU2020 and with European funding, the purpose of the EUSBSR is to coordinate strategies and funding in order to efficiently address the challenges for the Baltic Sea region identified in the EUSBSR. This means that the people and organisations involved in the implementation of the EUSBSR, in its policy areas, need not only to understand the multilevel governance system of the region, but also how the programming and funding structure works in the 2014-2020 programming period. This means that for the implementation of the EUSBSR to be successful, the key-actors need not only to be able to identify and address gaps within their thematic area of the Strategy and address those by means of projects but also, be able to navigate in the multilevel governance system of the region, as well as to have a good overview of the 2014-2020 programming period in order to attract the funding required. This calls for capacity building for actors involved in the implementation of the Strategy. In order to address these challenges, horizontal action ‘Capacity’ is designed to meet the needs for professional and partnership-based management of the EUSBSR, by focusing on building knowledge, competencies and leadership skills for implementation of the Strategy in a complex multilevel governance system. Likewise, it is essential to ensure that all partners in the multi-level governance structure have possibilities and incentives to participate in the implementation of the EUSBSR. Partners at all levels should be enabled to join in common activities and to find a role in contributing to the fulfilment of common goals. In order to achieve this, it is important to identify hindrances to such participation and address them. Objectives The aim of horizontal action ‘Capacity’ is to offer capacity building support for the implementing stakeholders, using multilevel governance as an overall guiding principle. In practice, this will be carried out by means of: developing and operating a capacity building platform for the implementing stakeholders; involving and utilizing networks across sectors in the BSR, supporting involvement of local- and regional authorities, NGOs, business and academia to ensure that all levels will be mobilised to the full extent. Targets and indicators
* In the EUSBSR, the implementing stakeholders are divided into five groups / examples of heightened capacities in each group: policy area coordinators and horizontal action coordinators – new flagships grounded in the multilevel governance, that generate lasting impact for multiple stakeholders; policy area focal points and members of steering committees/groups – new networks of relevant stakeholders are created in respective Member States, in the multilevel governance perspective; flagship leaders, project developers and project managers – new flagships/projects developed with larger perspectives, and consequently funded with blended financing; managing authorities and other representatives of financial programmes – increased awareness of the specific needs of the EU macro-regional strategies and their governance structure (e.g. multi-level governance), which will effectively facilitate emergence of projects that deliver results beyond those stipulated in the programme documents; local and regional authorities, NGOs, business and academia in the Member States – ability to integrate international perspectives, such as the EUSBSR, into their strategies. Furthermore, an important target in this horizontal action is to increase the involvement of local and regional authorities as well as the involvement of civil society organisations in to the implementation of the Strategy. Actions 1. Developing and operating a capacity building platform for the implementing stakeholders EUSBSR is a complex initiative, with multiple objectives at several levels; local, regional, national and macro-regional. Managing the EUSBSR is an adaptive challenge regarding the complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty of tasks relating to a manifold of parallel processes at different levels. Implementing stakeholders need to have adaptive capacities in order to cope with these challenges. Capacity should here be understood as a combination of knowledge, competencies and leadership capabilities. The proposed answer to this need is a platform for capacity building. The capacity building platform offers tailor-made programmes including seminars (also online), action learning (practical training on real cases) and coaching (individually or in groups). In the EUSBSR, the implementing stakeholders are divided into five groups: policy area coordinators and horizontal action coordinators; policy area focal points and members of steering committees/groups; flagship leaders, project developers and project managers; managing authorities and other representatives of financial programmes; and local and regional authorities, NGOs, business and academia in the Member States. Each of the five groups will be offered a capacity building programme. The first group comprising coordinators of policy areas/horizontal actions will receive a specially tailored programme which will be provided separately. The development of the programmes for the remaining four groups will be carried out in working groups involving key stakeholders. The programmes are planned to be partly financed by the European Social Fund. This action focuses on developing capacity building programmes for the implementing stakeholders. 2. Involving and utilizing networks across sectors in the BSR, supporting involvement of local- and regional authorities, NGOs, business and academia Multi-level governanace (MLG) is an overall guiding principle for the Strategy and should be an integrated methodology for all implementing stakeholders. That is why MLG is an important part of the platform for capacity building. However, MLG calls for more than capacity building activities. Horizontal action ‘Capacity’ will be instrumental in involving and utilizing networks across sectors in the BSR, supporting involvement of local and regional authorities, NGOs, business and academia into EUSBSR. This action focuses on: building knowledge amongst implementing stakeholders on MLG in relation to EUSBSR; involvement of local and regional authorities, NGOs, business and academia in the implementation of EUSBSR. Developing proposals and recommendations on how to increase the effectiveness of the EUSBSR by enabling participation of all potential stakeholders; providing support to coordinators of policy areas in their task of building long-term flagship processes, rather than projects while using MLG as the guiding principle. Directory: regional policy -> sources -> docoffic -> official -> communic -> baltic baltic -> Commission staff working document regional policy -> The contribution of regional and local authorities to economic development baltic -> Commission staff working document Download 0.86 Mb. Share with your friends:
|