… as instruments to improve local governance and the integration of civil society Poznan, 14 November 2005 Anette Scoppetta Lecture at the Poznan University of Economics

Who’s talking? Anette Scoppetta _ Head of Co-ordination Unit for Austrian Territorial Employment Pacts and Co-ordination of OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance _ Expert for Austrian and European labour market issues (especially partnerships) _ Head of Unit “Work & Equal Opportunities” at the Centre for Social Innovation - ZSI, Vienna

Contents _ Part I:European Employment Policy _ Part II:The Austrian labour market _ Part III:The Austrian Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs) _ Part IV: Partnerships as important instrument in countries’ policies _ Part V: The OECD LEED Forum mission, strategy and tasks

_ Part I European Employment Policy

European Employment Strategy (EES) Lisbon European Council (March 2000): the new strategic goal for the European Union for the next decade was set: to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. The strategy was designed to enable the Union to regain the conditions for full employment and to strengthen cohesion by The Council also considered that the overall aim of these measures should be to raise the overall EU employment rate to 70% and to increase the number of women in employment from an average to more than 60% by 2010.

The Co-ordination at EU Level The new EES (revision in 2005) covers a three year period, from 2005 to Its components are: _ Integrated Employment Guidelines: guidelines setting out common priorities for Member States' employment policies _ National Reform Programmes: every Member State draws up a programme _ Joint Employment Report: is formed by the annual progress report _ Recommendations: country-specific recommendations are issued _ EU annual progress report: annual assessment to revise the Community Lisbon Programme

The Employment Guidelines ( ) The new Employment Guidelines are streamlined. Numbering eight they fit within three priorities: _ attract and retain more people in employment, increase labour supply and modernise social protection systems; _ improve adaptability of workers and enterprises; _ increase investment in human capital through better education and skills. The Guidelines proposed by the Commission and approved by the Council, present common priorities to the Member States national employment policies. From 2005, the employment guidelines are integrated with the macroeconomic and microeconomic policies and are set for a three year period.

Part II The Austrian labour market

Austrian labour market objectives ✿ Full employment ✿ Increasing female employment rate to 65% in 2005 ✿ Increase of older workers ✿ Reduce the average unemployment spell to 90 days ✿ Strengthen the economic basis by increasing the share of R&D (From 2,19% of GDP in 2003 to 3% in 2010) and increase the rate of self-employment (Source: EC, Joint Employment Report )

Austrian Labour market context GDP per capita (2004)€ (in comparison: Poland: 9.908, UK: , EU-25: ) Employment rate (overall)69,0% Employment rate (women)61,7% Unemployment rate (2003)4,3% (in comparison: Poland: 20%, UK: 4,9%, EU-25: between 2% to 31,8%) LTU rate1,2% Youth Unemployment ratio (2003)4% (Source: EC, Joint Employment report – Addendum - 1)

Labour market policy characteristics _ High labour market dynamics (every second employment relationship was started or terminated) _ An average of 774,200 individuals was effected 1,5 times by unemployment _ Regional diversity (2004: 82,025 registered unemployed in Vienna; 7978 in Burgenland) _ Seasonal unemployment in the construction sector and in tourism _ persistent shift towards service jobs (71% of all dependent workers have jobs in this sector) (Source: BMWA, 2003, Labour Market Policy in Austria 2003 and Statistic Austria, figures refer to 2003 if not indicated differently)

Major Austrian Labour market challenges _ Reform Austria‘s transfer system (reduce barriers to labour force participation) _ Remove gender pay gap (still one of the highest in EU) _ Increase employment rate for older workers (strategy on active ageing) and for youth _ Increase participation of adults in education and training, invest in human capital and lifelong learning

… in comparison: Poland Recommendations: _ increasing adaptability of workers and enterprises, e.g. measures to support entrepreneurship, reduce labour costs for low-skilled and the young, social partners having a key role _ attracting more people to labour market, e.g. build up effective partnerships at local level to develop active labour market policies, reform benefit system _ investing in human capital, e.g. develop life long learning strategy (Source: EC, Recommendations 2004)

Part III The Austrian Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs)

The Austrian TEP rationale Labour market challenges exist, which can not be met by just a few institutions on their own _ e.g. concentration of unemployment on certain groups of persons _ e.g. gender segregation on the labour market _ e.g. shifts between industries, economic sectors and regions as a result of developments, in the business and technology areas in particular

TEP Definition What is a Territorial Employment Pact? Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs) are contracted regional partnerships to better link employment policy with other policies in order to improve the employment situation on regional and local level. The support structure is being offered within the framework of the structural funds programme (ESF, ) on an intensified basis by means of a specific focus in Objective 3 Austria programme (priority 6).

Objectives and tasks TEPs contribute _ to greater effectiveness and efficiency of resources; _ to improved support for certain target groups; _ to saving existing jobs and creating new ones; _ to generating subsidies for regions; and _ to maintaining our living space sustainable. Major tasks of TEPs _ co-ordinating partners and their topics; _ developing joint work programmes (TEP-programme); and _ implementing the measures according to the emphasis of the TEPs.

TEP - Partners Provincial Government Labour Market Service Federal Office of Social Affairs Chamber of Labour Economic Chamber Chamber of Agriculture NGOs (Local Initiatives) Municipalities Federation of Industry Federation of Trade Unions Provincial School Board Educational Institutions Gender Mainstreaming Experts Budgets of the partners: over EUR 500 Million p.a.

Examples of Fields of Action Tyrol Burgenland Vorarlberg Salzburg Upper AustriaLower Austria Styria Carinthia Vienna Regional Managers for Employment Monitoring / Evaluation Direct linkage with Objective 2 and 3 Implementation within Objective 1 Open partnership-process Regional co-ordinators for vocational training Pool of ideas / ‘experimental capital’ Interdisk - platforms Local Pacts

Actual topics (Nation-wide) _ Nation-wide steps_process: Consolidation process on organisational development of the partnerships, such as e.g. _clarification of TEP roles and functions _development of impact chain (“Wirkungskette”) _documentation of results achieved _ Implementation of the joint development partnership “TEP_EQUAL_EDLERLY”: a new, innovative labour market instrument for elderly people, “Elderly plans”, is tested by the TEPs _ Internationalisation: strengthening the partnerships through international cooperation _ TEPGEM Project

Austria’s lessons learnt _ raison d’êntre of the partnerships must be obvious to all partners _ clarification of roles, functions and tasks of partners _ TEP partners are the core of the partnership, the TEP co-ordinations are the drivers of partnerships _ dominance of partners _ documentation of work performed _ communication motivation and patience is needed continuously

Part IV Partnerships as important instrument in countries’ policies

Partnerships _ improve policy co-ordination and adaptation to local conditions, _ lead to better utilisation and targeting of programmes, _ integrate civil society’s concerns into strategic planning exercises through more widespread participatory democracy, _ stimulate corporate involvement in local projects _ and promote greater satisfaction with public policy. (OECD Local Partnerships for better Governance, 2001) Why looking at partnerships? Partnerships - a bridge for linking concepts to people

Examples of types of partnerships Irish partnerships: partnerships are established to promote equality and social & economic inclusion Local strategic partnerships in United Kingdom: partnerships are created to tackle different issues co-operatively on local level Territorial Employment Pacts in Austria: partnerships are established to better link employment policy with other policies in order to improve the employment situation on regional and local level. Various countries strengthen their partnerships

Where else ? (Selection) Austrian TEPs Canadian CFDCs Berlin Pacts Greek partnerships Hungarian TEPs Irish partnerships France: CBE, MIFE, EREF and PLIE LSIPs in Slovak Republic SNP in Portugal Partnerships in Norway New Zealand RPP TEPs in Catalonia WIBs in USA Italian TEPs LSP in UK RESOC & SEER in Flanders Finnish partnerships Swedish RGC

Some numbers (Selection) Berlin / Germany: In Berlin, 12 Local Pacts for Business and Employment (BBWA) are in operation. Finland: There are 3 area-based partnerships established covering sub- sections of counties. France: Four main local co-operation models are created with in total 410 partnerships: 70 CBE - “Comité de Bassin d’Emploi”, 50 MIFE - “Maisons de l’Information sur la Formation et l’Emploi”, 70 EREF - “Espaces Ruraux Emploi Formation” and 20 PLIE - “Plans Locaux pour l’insertion et l’emploi”. USA: There are 593 local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and 53 State and territorial WIBs.

Partnership rationales (Selection) Catalonia/Spain: The EU employment policy was the motivation and starting point for the creation of partnerships in Catalonia. Hungary: Increasing of the unemployment rates, movements of labour force and no adequate communication between organisations Norway: Need for further economical development and cross-sectoral coordination of activities at county level Portugal: Positive experience with partnerships and the need for a more decentralized policy development process

Partnership functions (Selection) Canada: Partnerships are multi-functional and deliver a wide range of business, counselling and information services to enterprises, provide capital and access to funds. Flanders/Belgium: Partnerships have advisory function on employment and economic policies. Portugal: The partnerships are formal discussion fora or structures on municipality level in the field of labour market policy and social policy. Slovak Republic: Partnerships provide a platform for citizens and local communities to jointly make efforts to find solutions to their problems and concerns in the field of social inclusion.

Similarities Most partnerships are characterized by: _ MULTI-LEVEL: Partnerships decision-making involves stakeholders from supranational, national, regional and local levels. _ MULTI-SECTORAL: Multi-sectoral (or cross-sectoral) partnerships involve stakeholders representing various economic sectors/branches, governmental and non-governmental actors seeking to improve the co-ordination between labour market, education, economic and social policies at local and regional level. _ MULTI-DIMENSIONAL: Partnerships apply integrated approaches to multi- dimensional problems.

Main challenges of partnerships _ financing the operation (partnership structure, projects) _ sufficient documentation of work performed _ adequate performance indicators to measure added values _ working on different levels (national/regional/local) requires precise separations of tasks between levels (decentralisation) _ useing synergies between programmes on local/regional level _ capacity building

To sum up Partnerships are important instruments in regional economic development and labour market policy

… new Polish Partnerships ? Partnerships for employment in Poland: _ isolated single initiatives, e.g. Pakt na Rzecz Zatrudnienia _ national, regional programme supporting employment partnerships?

Part V The OECD LEED Forum mission, strategy and tasks

The Mission The OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance aims to enhance the contribution of partnership structures to local development and local governance and the effectiveness of policies.

Strategy for building the network The Forum _is open to all interested partnerships in OECD Member countries and countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe _ builds on existing expertise of OECD LEED, the Austrian Co-ordination Unit of TEPs and Forum Board members (e.g. Ireland, Canada, Flanders) _ brings together partnerships by offering various activities _ continuously develop the network further Forum partnerships are primarily focusing on employment and social issues and economic development

Tasks of the Forum _ Building the network (identification and networking of institutions) _ Building the data base (Documentary base, Guide on successful partnership building and operation) _ Forum meetings and International Partnership Fair _ Mentoring and Policy advice _ Information exchange (Annual brochure, Electronic newsletter, Forum Website, Electronic discussion group)

International Partnership Fair Aims: _ to exchange practical information between partnerships and good practices between partnerships across countries _ and to provide opportunities to build up co-operations between partnerships Practical Information: _ number of participants: 300 participants _ practice examples: up to 35 partnerships _ organiser: Forum, Austrian TEP-Co-ordination Unit 13 – 15 February 2006, Vienna, Parkhotel Schönbrunn

Contact Centre for Social Innovation - ZSI / Vienna Anette Scoppetta Homepage: Thank you

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