Strasbourg, 21 January 2013                                                           CDLR-Bu(2013)8

                   Item D.1 of the agenda

BUREAU OF THE

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE ON LOCAL AND REGIONAL DEMOCRACY

(CDLR)

CENTRE OF EXPERTISE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

AND COOPERATION PROGRAMMES

Secretariat Memorandum

prepared by the

Directorate of Democratic Governance

Democratic Institutions and Governance Department

This document is public. It will not be distributed at the meeting. Please bring this copy.

Ce document est public. Il ne sera pas distribué en réunion. Prière de vous munir de cet exemplaire.

Introduction

This document (see appendix) contains updated information on the Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform and its priorities for 2013.

An overall presentation of the Centre’s working methods and results in 2012 can be found in the annual activity report CELGR(2012)1rev.

Action required

The Bureau is invited to take note of the information contained in this document.

APPENDIX

THE CENTRE OF EXPERTISE IN 2013 AND BEYOND

SHORT-TERM PROSPECTS

In 2013, it is expected that the level of activity compared with 2012 will slightly diminish.

Despite very high demand, in particular for capacity building programmes, the reason for a possible decline is twofold. On the one hand, two positions paid from the Ordinary Budget of the Council of Europe were lost in 2012 (In June and September respectively) and the two current secondments benefitting the Centre will expire in 2013 (in June and December respectively). On the other, financial resources are also dwindling: the available Ordinary Budget resources have diminished by 35% and are expected to continue to fall; Voluntary Contributions become, in the current economic context, scarcer; last but not least, the European Commission is imposing more and more often service contracts to which the Council of Europe cannot apply.

Despite all these trends, the fall in activity level should be modest and the Centre should continue to deliver around 28-29 programmes in 17-18 countries (more if the current negotiations on extra-budgetary programmes are successful).

The ambitious capacity-building programme in Ukraine (funded by Denmark and Switzerland) will continue until April 2014, while the legal assistance one will finish in March 2013. The new Joint Programme for Serbia has been preliminarily approved by the European Commission but its start is subject to the Serbian government adopting three different documents (two pieces of legislation and a strategy). It is currently expected that it would start in summer 2013. The extensive programme in Albania (funded by Switzerland) has already started. The programme in Malta (funded directly by Norway) should begin shortly. An ambitious capacity-building programme has been prepared for Armenia and a member state has expressed preliminary interest in funding it. Preparatory work for specific cooperation programmes in Morocco and Tunisia is underway.

Negotiations for new Joint Programmes are held in (with) Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Turkey and Russian Federation.

Demands have been received for a regional programme to analyse and deal with the impact of the financial crisis; such programme should be implemented on a comparative basis in pilot local authorities in Greece, Portugal and Spain and should be based on the Local Finance Benchmarking tool (updated to include the findings of the recent report on the impact of the financial crisis on local authorities in Europe). This programme should be funded through a mix of Norwegian and Open Society funds. 

In co-operation with the Congress and following requests from interested countries, the Centre has started preliminary work in Tunisia and Morocco. In 2013, this work should lead to:

-       Preparation of national reports on the state of and prospects for local and regional democracy in Tunisia and Morocco: starting from the concept of national Structure and operation reports adopted by the CDLR, such documents should add substantial chapters including the current and envisaged reforms, the work and support offered by the international community and recommendations and strategic guidelines for future work;

-       A regional conference on decentralisation and regionalisation in South Mediterranean countries;

-       In the light of the findings of the above-mentioned reports, the preparation and submission to donors of fully-fledged programmes for Tunisia and Morocco; such programmes should include policy advice, legal assistance and capacity building components.

The following list sums up the activities which should be implemented in 2013.

Country-specific programmes in 2013

Albania

Human resources management*

Inter-Municipal Co-operation*

Armenia

New programme prepared, funding not secured

Belgium

Flanders: Conference and peer review on merging of municipalities

Bulgaria

Leadership Academy

Croatia

Inter-municipal co-operation

France

4 training sessions on performance management for INET

Georgia

New programme being prepared, funding not secured

Germany

Testing of ELoGE in several municipalities in Baden-Wurttemberg

Hungary

Best Practice programme

Leadership Academy programme

Italy

Performance management

Inter-municipal co-operation

Malta

National Training Strategy

Best Practice Programme

Performance Management

Leadership Academy

ELoGE (testing and preparing the national Platform)

Moldova

Best Practice Programme

Russian Federation

North-West Russia

Cross-border Co-operation Programme

Chechen Republic

Three new training activities

Serbia

Human Resources Management*

Switzerland

Best Practice Programme in the Ticino canton

Turkey

Leadership Academy Programme

Best Practice Programme

Ukraine

Follow-up to the Public Ethics Benchmarking Programme*

Best Practice Programme*

Performance Management Programme*

Local Finance Benchmarking*

Leadership Academy Programme*

Strengthening of local government associations*

Support to the implementation of the Strategy and ELoGE

Regional

Local Finance Benchmarking in Greece, Spain and Portugal

Strasbourg – Training of Trainers on Leadership Academy Programme for NALAS.

Conference on Decentralisation in South Mediterranean

Other

Kosovo[1]

Best Practice Programme*

Tunisia

Report on the state and prospects for local democracy

Morocco

Report on the state and prospects for local democracy

* Programmes implemented with financial support from the EC or from member States

Development and publication of tools in 2013

Because of a shortage of funding and the new communication policy of the Council of Europe, the Centre will refrain from publishing new toolkits in paper version. These will therefore only be published in electronic version. After the publication of the Toolkit on Human Resource Management in late 2012 - early 2013, three other toolkits have been finalised. Their publication was delayed by the need to develop and include chapters on gender mainstreaming in each of them, but it should be done by March 2013.

The toolkits and methodologies on which they are based have raised considerable interest from departments inside the Council of Europe and external partners as well. Several other tools are being considered; these tools should be based on benchmarking methodologies and combine the experience of the Centre of Expertise on such methods with that of colleagues on the substance:

-       A tool on municipal policies on culture and heritage;

-       A tool on municipal educational policies;

-       A possible tool on municipal policies for integration of the Roma.

LONG-TERM PROSPECTS

The reform process of the Council of Europe is impacting significantly on the Centre of Expertise, which needs to find new and creative ways to maximise its footprint in a context of diminishing resources.

The decentralisation of a significant amount of the work towards the ten Council of Europe country offices is an important evolution. It is expected that this trend will continue as more and more of the actual operational work will be delegated to country offices while the Centre will continue to offer conception, fund raising, supervision and quality assurance. It is hoped that more of the financial management tasks, which take a substantial management time, will also be decentralised to field offices. 

The Centre is also looking for partners who can be trained to work with the tools developed by the Centre and who can continue to ensure impact of the Centre's work without a direct and heavy involvement in the management by the Centre. In some countries, programmes (e.g. the Beacon Scheme in Bosnia and Herzegovina) launched by the Centre continue with no involvement from the Centre. In others, there is very limited input, generally in the form of expertise, while most of the costs are covered and management is performed by the local partners (e.g. programmes in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, North-West Russia, Switzerland...). Yet in others (e.g. the four programmes to be implemented in Malta), national authorities will cover all costs, including costs with expertise, while the Centre will only provide (free of charge) management time for supervision and quality control.

An interesting example is offered by one of the most recent programmes developed by the Centre, the Leadership Academy Programme, which met with a success which went beyond initial expectations. In fact, the success was such that the original leadership programme, based on the more demanding and time-consuming methods of benchmarking and peer reviewing, was practically abandoned. Before even the publication of the toolkit, the programme was already implemented on a sustainable basis, with local authorities covering most of the costs, in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey, and Ukraine. It was also implemented in North-West Russia and its implementation will start shortly in Malta and Montenegro. In 2012 and 2013, the National Association of Municipalities of the Republic of Bulgaria (NAMRB) will be offering this programme, with very limited input from the Centre of Expertise, to sister associations in "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and Greece.

Moreover, as mentioned in the first part of the document, several partners asked the Centre for the authorisation to use this programme in their future training offer: the Management Centre of Innsbruck, the Local Authorities’ Training Centre in the Ticino Canton (Switzerland) and NALAS. A training of trainers was organised in Bellinzona (Ticino) for the Swiss and Austrian partners (but also for some trainers from Ukraine and Malta), and another one should be organised in 2013 in Strasbourg for NALAS. Following these trainings, the above-mentioned partners should be able to receive the authorisation to make use of the Leadership Academy toolkit in their work while the Centre should gain access to new experts who can be used in its programmes and new partners who will be implementing its programmes.

Such business model, whereas the Centre trains and authorises partners to do the work in its stead could be extended to other programmes which met with significant success, such as the Best Practice Programme, the Public Ethics Benchmarking Programme, the Human Resource Management Programme etc.

Relations with the Schools of Political Studies could be improved. In some counties (i.e. Ukraine), the co-operation is very good; several alumni of the Ukrainian School are used as local experts and the School co-operates with the local team and is interested in taking over some of the programmes of the Centre. In other cases however, an improvement of such co-operation can be explored.

Another interesting development could be the launching of European or regional, and not only national, programmes. In 2012, the Best Practice for Coastal Towns programme was the first of this kind and met with significant interest, despite the very limited timeframe available and very reduced promotional efforts. Such programmes could be launched with the help of the Congress (like the programme on Best Practice for Coastal Towns) and regional partners, such as NALAS. A SEE regional Best Practice Programme was discussed, but funding has not yet been identified. The regional conference envisaged for South Mediterranean countries could lead to a regional programme, possible based on peer reviews or exchanges of best practice.

The (limited) contacts the Centre had with two South Mediterranean countries show that there is demand for support, in particular in respect of capacity-building programmes in the region. Moroccan and Tunisian training institutions and authorities have expressed high consideration and interest in Toolkits I and IV (unfortunately, for financial reasons, only 2 of the current 8 toolkits have been translated into French) and have already formulated very specific needs for assistance.

The co-operation with the Congress is very important for the Centre and should continually be enhanced. After the successful co-operation in Albania and Ukraine and in the above-mentioned European Best Practice programme, the Centre and the Congress are co-operating on developing programmes in Morocco and Tunisia. Regular meetings between the Secretariat of the Congress and the Centre have been scheduled which will undoubtedly bring new and strengthened co-operation.