Two back to back events were organised in Jerusalem on 28-30 June 2011 – a two-day Israel-OECD Conference “Cutting Bureaucracy: Regulation and Services” and a one-day workshop at the technical level on “Improving the Design and Evaluation of Regulation and the use of Regulatory Impact Analysis”.

The focus of the two-day conference was on the policies, tools and institutions needed to develop a coherent programme to improve regulation and reduce administrative burdens in Israel. The OECD was represented by the former Deputy Secretary General Aart de Geus and several officials from all three GOV committees – RPC, PGC and TDPC. Several experts from OECD countries such as Australia and the Netherlands also participated actively in the conference. On the Israeli side, the conference attracted  over one hundred participants including senior officials or directors-general from the Social Security Institute, the Ministries of Justice, Finance and Environment, the Ministry for Improving Services, the prime Ministry, and members of two governmental committees, on doing business, and on improving services. Prime Minster Netanyahu joined the conference at the end of the second day to receive a report on the conclusions. He asked that the conclusions of the conference be turned into a work plan.

The main conclusions of the conference was that an Israeli regulatory policy will be developed and it will likely promote the following:

• Use the standard cost model to measure administrative burdens
• Set targets to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens;
• Adopt regulatory impact analysis (RIA) as part of evidence-based decision-making, to link regulatory process to impacts;
• Locate the functions of regulatory oversight in an appropriate body, either in a core ministry or attached to the Office of the Prime Minister;
• Use consultation, following guidelines to be drafted, to take a user-centred approach;
• Use process mapping to improve public services and their efficiency;
• Prepare an annual regulatory plan and report on it.

Following the conference, a separate one-day workshop with an equal number of participants was held at the technical level to discuss ways of designing, implementing, enforcing and evaluating high quality regulations. This workshop, sponsored by the Ministry of Industry, Transport and Labor, brought regulators together from several government ministries and agencies, and led to the call for a regulators’ forum to be created in Israel.

Agenda and Presentations

• Agenda in English, Agenda in Hebrew

 

Conference

• How OECD Countries Look at Public Governance, Josef Konvitz, OECD
• Rationalisation of existing regulations?, Daniel Trnka, OECD
• Improving Public Services in Decentralised Contexts: the Need for Multi-Level Governance Tools, Claire Charbit, OECD
• The Danish Approach to Simplification and Better Regulation for Business, Eva Meiling, Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs, Denmark
• Reducing regulatory burdens in the Netherlands -using the SCM-, Jeroen Nijlan, MInistry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Netherlands
• Tools for Simplification – Lessons from the Mexico Experience, Manuel Gerardo Flores, OECD
• The SCM – main issues, advantages and challenges of quantification of administrative costs? Daniel Trnka, OECD
• Regulatory reform in Australia, David Cousins, Monash University, Australia
• An overview of OECD Strategies for Improving Regulatory Performance, Gregory Bounds, OECD
• Institutes for Management and Delivery - how to make regulatory reform happen?, Jeroen Nijlan, MInistry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Netherlands

Workshop

• The Splendours and Miseries of Regulatory Impact Assessment in the Czech Republic, Daniel Trnka, OECD
• Improving the implementation and enforcement of regulation, Session 2, David Cousins, Monash University, Australia

For further information, please contact: gregory.bounds@oecd.org or daniel.trnka@oecd.org