Introduction

Reducing territorial disparities and supporting growth and well-being requires well-developed government capacity to deisgn and implement regional development policies. These include administrative capacity in people and organisation management, strategic capacity in policy planning, co-ordination, implementation, stakeholder engagement, and monitoring and evaluation. We provide practical support to help national, regional, and local authorities improve their performance in these essential functions.

The OECD aims to help the Welsh Government, regional bodies, and local authorities plan and invest better for the development of Wales and its communities. Setting a long-term vision for Wales can provide a roadmap for Welsh Government, regional bodies, and local authorities toplan and invest together. They also need to enhance their capacity to implement policies effectively to achieve the vision.

Building on the OECD report The Future of Regional Development and Public Investment in Wales, United Kingdom, the OECD is working with the Welsh Government to provide hands-on support to them and the Welsh local authorities to advance their capacity in strategic planning and policy implementation for regional development and public investment.

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The OECD supports the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds in Croatia to strengthen the capacity of regional and local actors in the country to design and implement evidence-based development strategies. These strategies will contribute to the National Development Strategy Croatia 2030, and will guide the integrated investments to addresse regional development needs. The OECD provides analysis and policy recommendations, as well as capacity building actions - including knowledge-sharing fora with international experts and policy practitioners, capacity building workshops and trainings for regional coordinators in Croatia focusing on regional development policy implementation and multi-level governance instruments and practices. 

The project launched event was organised on 14 June, 2022 in Zagreb, Croatia. A diverse set of national and regional stakeholders discussed strategic planning and integrated investment in the Croatian context.

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On 16 February 2022, the OECD and the European Commission organised a Forum with over 300 participants to scale up administrative capacity building efforts. The Forum brought together national and regional Managing Authorities in the European Union to gain insights from international experts on administrative capacity building. It offered a chance to explore new ideas with peers for building capacity to overcome challenges in the management and use of EU fund under Cohesion Policy. The Forum also disseminated the outcomes and lessons-learned from the OECD-EC pilot project (see below).

Forum Highlight

Agenda

Information sheet

Final Plenary speech by Laura Polverari  – Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Padua, Co-Director of the Institutional and Administrative Capacities Observatory #CAPIS 

In 2018, the OECD began working with the European Commission on the pilot project Frontloading administrative capacity building for post 2020. The project provided hands-on support by experts to strengthen the administrative and strategic capacity of five national and regional Managing Authorities from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Spain (Extremadura) and Poland (Lubelskie) dealing with EU funds on a daily basis. The goal was to test and develop new solutions to strengthen administrative capacity in the post-2020 budgetary period.

Phase 1: Develop Capacity Building Roadmaps

• Identifying strengths and weaknesses in administrative capacity using a participatory process with all relevant actors.
• Preparing roadmaps to address the weaknesses with milestones, targets and deadlines.

Synthesis report: Strengthening Governance of EU Funds under Cohesion Policy

Highlights for Phase 1 and key recommendations of the report

The European Commission's press release of the project

Phase 2: Implement capacity building actions

• Implementing selected actions from the roadmaps.
• Developing a self-assessment instrument for all EU Managing Authorities

The Self-assessment Instrument for Administrative Capacity Building developed by the OECD (PDF and Excel)

European Commission practical toolkit for preparing Roadmaps for Administrative Capacity Building

Beginning in 2017, the OECD has helped Ukrainian authorities throughout the country advance in the implementation of their decentralisation reform and strengthen public governance institutions at the national and subnational levels. The seminar series was jointly implemented by the OECD Regional Development Policy Division and the OECD Eurasia Competitiveness Programme, in close collaboration with the Government of Ukraine. The project builds on the findings of the OECD Territorial Review of Ukraine (2014) and the OECD Multi-level Governance Study Maintaining the Momentum of Decentralisation in Ukraine (2018).

During 2017-2018, a series of capacity-building seminars were organised, covering various topics - from strengthening subnational partnership, enhancing local public investment across levels of government, fostering inter-municipal cooperation, to improve public service delivery at the local level.  

In 2019, four seminars were undertaken in Lviv, Kyviv, Poltava and Uzhhorod. The seminar in Lviv and Uzhhorod addressed how Ukrainian authorities at the local, regional, and national levels can coordinate to boost investment in transport infrastructure and strengthen local capacities. The seminar in Kyiv presented the Ukrainian version of the OECD’s 10 guidelines for effective decentralisation conducive to regional development and discussed how the OECD's 10 guidelines for effective decentralisation could be applied Ukraine’s specific context. The discussions in Poltava focussed on building local capacity to effectively co-ordinate and implement local investment through the 12 Principles for Action in the OECD Recommendation on Effective Public Investment across Levels of Government.

Access more information of the seminar series in 2017-2018

Access more information of the seminar series in 2019

Related topics

Public Investment & Infrastructure

Governance of Regional Development