(CoP on) Partnership: what’s in a name? Benedict Wauters COP coordinator Deputy Director ESF Flanders

A “Community of Practice”….? on “partnership”….?

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better (E. Wenger) The European Commission, EQUAL MAs of Flanders, Portugal, Austria, Czech Republic and Malta decided in 2006 to fund a CoP on partnership in the ESF: –to capitalise on experience gained in EQUAL –to take into account the emphasis placed on partnership in the new ESF regulation Origin of the CoP

The mission of the CoP on partnership in the ESF, is to stimulate more creative partnership thinking and implementation in the structural funds, especially in the ESF This is to be achieved by convincing programme managers, including from new member states, of the importance of partnership and enabling them to provide high quality support to partnerships in a structural fund context. Mission of the CoP

Managing Authorities and Partnerships Small and large, North, South, New Member States Malta Portugal Greece Italy Belgium Flanders Sweden Poland Czech Republic Austria Romania Partnership Experts Current members of the CoP

Stages in CoP development Source: E. Wenger

Setting up steering group Launching calls, selecting contractors, recruiting first members setting up technology Interviewing members 1st base camp Identification of broad issues 2nd base camp Key success factors to deal with issues identified Interactive website operational December 2006June 2007 September 2007 COP potential stage “Potential” stage completed

Continuing work and exchanges on practices 3rd base camp First deliverables presented and online November 2007 January 2008 COP coalescing stage December 2007 Continuing work and exchanges on practices More deliverables online Malta exchange event -Presenting and discussing deliverables with others -Recruiting new members (4th basecamp) Coalescing stage: almost there …

Continuing exchanges 5th base camp Continuing exchanges 6th base camp COP extension? April 2008 COP maturing stage February 2008 Stewardship? In Vienna, next to the 4th OECD LEED platform Into the maturing stage…

Partnership focus Territorial: –Some OPs, such as in the Flemish ESF OP, do not associate partnership with any specific territorial level –Some such as the Austrian ESF OP (with Territorial Employment Pacts) have a specific regional focus Thematic: –Some OPs (e.g. in the Czech Republic) emphasise added value of partnership for any given issue –Others link partnership to more specific issues (e.g. vocational training in Portugal)

Application forms Many OPs (e.g. Malta) inquire about the nature (e.g. what type of organisation is it) of each partner and their role / added value in the project Some also ask for coordination / decision- making structures and/or specific task and budget allocations (e.g. Flanders) In some cases, no specific questions relating to partnership are asked (e.g. Poland)

Requirements for partnerships -1 Some OPs require relatively informal agreements between partners before operations can start: –in some cases these contain quite a few operational details (memorandum of understanding referring to working programme, codes of conduct, rules and procedures,…) (e.g. Italy) –sometimes these state only committments to work together e.g. letters of intent (for example in Malta)

Requirements for partnerships -2 Others require more formal agreements and /or set other requirements: –sometimes a separate legal entity has to be constituted (e.g. Portugal) –in other cases legally binding contracts have to be signed between partners (e.g. Czech Republic) –there may also be specific rules governing the composition of the partnership and/or other operational details (e.g. Sweden)

Challenges time investment required to start up and build partnerships top-down, non-collaborative traditions of some institutions national legislation e.g. on awarding grants difficulties of ensuring engagement with local actors / civil society technical abilities of prospective partner organisations not developed partner organisations not representative bureacratisation of partnerships conflicts of interest

Join the work? Go to the website! 1. Reading only (generally only finalised outputs and finalised outputs and some announcements) Visitor Visit the website 2. Reading more + first step writing (comments) 3. Routine writing (blogs, fora, etc.) Registered Community Member Community Member Register on the website Premium Community Member Member 4. Further engagement (all site functions + meetings/tasks) Register on the website + contact the coordinator

Join the work? Go to the website!

Join the work? Go to the website! TEMPORARY “REGISTERED MEMBER” LOGIN User: malta Password: malta (lower case)