It's all about learning at the IR event on Bucharest!

With a very challenging theme: "Administrative capacity and its role in achieving the objectives of any public policy instrument", the event reunited representatives of all the 7 partners in the project, as well as stakeholders, both from central (Romania) and local (Belgium, Germany, Romania) top decision-making level, as well as representatives of the operational/technical level, achieving a close and constructive dialogue.

The event focused on cross-cutting and specific challenges and needs of the communities involved in the project, on getting mutual inspiration and co-developing ideas able to lead not only to the improvement of the policies tackled within the project, but also to broader reforms in terms of the administrative capacity of the partner entities. Thus all the institutions involved in the project, either with policy making role or with policy implementation and service delivery role will benefit from the exchange of know-how and innovative approaches in the project.

The local public authorities that paved the way for the learning process through the project presenting practical experiences were:

City of Viechtach, Germany - with an initiative targeting the development of the City of Viechtach, by implementing the concept of resilience, with a focus on revitalizing the inner city, fill vacancies, avoid new empty spaces in the buildings, and counting on the involvement of citizens in this process

Commune of Ciugud, Romania - with its approach to fully develop as a Smart village and Business-friendly destination, which has transformed it from a commune that generated annual revenues of about 15.000 Euros (in 2000) into a commune that generates annual revenues of over one milion euro and attracts approximately 60 million euros in European funds, generating development both in terms of reinventing the administrative capacity and the quality of the public services offered

Commune of Sadu, Romania - with its approach on digitalization and development as a smart village, automation of services and processes, rationalisation and efficiency of resources, as well as with the challenges launched regarding the public employees of the future.

Each good practice example mentioned managed to arise the interest of all participants and provide valuable information on how the three communities have addressed challenges that the current administrations are facing, turning them into opportunities.    

Also, among the topics addressed during the event, in the plenary sessions, respectively in the peer sessions were: dimensions of administrative capacity and its role in local policies design and implementation and in public services delivery, aspects regarding the policy instruments of all partners and the relation with the administrative capacity and also their challenges and expectations within the project.

In the context of this event the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration organized, together with the Association of Communes of Romania, the advisory partner in the project, a working session with the representatives of the Romanian stakeholders, in order to disseminate the conclusions of the event, the good practices presented and to imagine the next steps of collaboration.

For those interested in finding out additional information about the event held in Bucharest, as well as about the good practices debated, we invite you to follow both this page and, also, the Facebook page of the project https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561910005773!