” The Scandinavian Welfare Model – Four Countries – Four Regional models”, Conference in Hamar, Norway, The Regional Self-government Experiment in Kainuu Region Juhani Kärkkäinen, Development Director The Joint authority of Kainuu Region (FI)

Kainuu in Finland 568 km 625 km 181 km KAINUU KAJAANI HELSINKI OULU IVALO Puolanka Suomussalm i Hyrynsalmi Kuhmo Kajaani Vaala Vuolijoki Sotkamo Paltamo Ristijärvi

- Percentage of the whole country 8,6 7,3 6,1 3,1 2,9 2,7 2,5 1,9 1,6 1,4 1,3 1,2 0,8 Forest area 2003 Total area Roads 2006 Summer cottages 2005 Unemployed 2006 Primary production 2004 Population 2006 Number of farms 2005 Pop. with educat qulificat Employed workforce 2004 Services 2004 Secondary production 2004 Housing Production Kainuu in proportion to the whole of Finland Rural Population Populat. over 64 years 2006 Source: Statistics FInlandJoint Authority of Kainuu Region

Kainuu municipalities

Renewing Kainuu Kainuu Regional Plan 2025

STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT – REGIONAL PLAN 2025 VISION 2025 ”Kainuu offers a high quality of living through skills, enterprise and cooperation”

JOINT DEVELOPMENT MISSION ”Improving the appeal and competitiveness of Kainuu as a place in which to live, a location for business and a tourism destination” STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT – REGIONAL PLAN 2025

Regional plan 2025 Focusing for development Five industry clusters have been chosen for special development in the future:  ICT, electronics and metal  Tourism, leisure time and culture  Forestry and wood processing  Food stuff production  Welfare

Regional plan 2025 Innovation and excellence Three cores as focus in developing innovations: Information and Communication Technology  Measuring  Embedded applications  Wireless instrumentation  Software products  Renewing industry with IT applications Tourism, leisure time and culture  Sport technology applications  International products in nature-, culture-, sport- and event tourism  Renewing travel industry with IT applications Welfare  New ways to produce services in public and private sector  New IT applications in social and healthcare  Functional food

THE REGIONAL SELF- GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT IN KAINUU REGION

The Act on the Regional Self- government Experiment in Kainuu * passed by the Finnish Parliament in February 2003, * took force January 1,2005, lasts to the end of 2012

To obtain experiences on the strengthening of regional self-government on development of the region organizing the basic services citizen participation municipal administration activities of the governmental district bodies relations between the governmental and regional administration The purpose of the experiment (by the law )

REASONS FOR INITIATING THE EXPERIMENT Kainuu (and other similar regions in Finland) are facing major development challenges: structural trends in industries declining population with rapidly aging demographic structure low rate of employment lack of entrepreneurship, and weakening municipal economies  to overcome and reverse the negative trends Kainuu was seen as a suitable testing ground for new types of administrative and financing structures

THE AIMS OF THE EXPERIMENT to ensure health care, social services and educational services for all inhabitants of the region to bring the guidance of regional State administration of business subsidies into one regional democratic organization to better focus regional development activities to initiate larger, more effective projects to create new enterprises and jobs

Three main elements of the experiment 1. Regional democracy 2. Increased responsibility to the region for its own development – delegation of governmental decision making 3. Provision of basic services on regional level

Regional democracy (1/1) For the first time on the Finnish mainland, a democratically elected regional council was granted administrative powers that has traditionally been the domain of central government or governmental district bodies

Regional democracy(2/1) REGIONAL COUNCIL * the highest decision making body on the regional level *elected for a four-year term by the citizens

Regional democracy (3/1) Election of councillors 39 councillors were elected by secret and direct ballot, in accordance with the principles of proportional representation The first regional election was arranged at the same time with the municipal election in October 2004

Delegation of decision making (1/2) In the Finnish national budget for 2005 * most of the national funding for the regional development of Kainuu has been grouped into a single subsection

Delegation of decision making (2/2) Regional council decides on the allocation of resources allotted to the region in the national budget

Provision of basic services (1/3) Why to provide services regionally ? Providing services regionally aims to ensure equal services to all citizens. The previous, distributed model of service production (by individual municipalities) would have been resulted (in all likelihood) within a short time, in concentrating the activities in the regional centre, Kajaani.

Responsibility for welfare policy transferred from the municipalities to the region (2/3) Thus, the region is responsible for health care and social services (with the exception of children`s day care) vocational and upper secondary education and professional adult education Financing of the services remains with the basic municipaties.

ORGANISATION OF KAINUU REGIONAL AUTHORITY FINANCE ADMINISTRATION TECHNICAL AND CATERING SERVICES REGIONAL COUNCIL REGIONAL BOARD AUDITING COMMITTEE COMMITTEE FOR COMITTEE FOR SOCIAL AFFAIRS AND HEALTH UPPER SECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION REGIONAL PLANNING AND PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT GROUP

From the viewpoint of Kainuu the experiment is permanent –There is no return to the old system in 2012 It is important –to create and adopt new and better practises to meet the challenges we face –to achieve new jobs and enterprises.

The Region of Kainuu has proved to be an interesting pilot region that – we believe – is of interest also to European partners is interested in changing experiences is open to good advice is also looking for cooperation, benchmarking and common projects.

The operational values of the Joint authority of Kainuu Fairness Productivity Trust in future Customer orientation Individual responsibility Transparency and mutual confidence

Programme for Citizen Participation (approved by the Regional Council, 2006) Special focus –Children and youngsters –Elderly –Handicapped –Unemployed –Multicultural –Citizen and 3rd sector associations

Programme for Citizen Participation Means, examples –Education, advice, special materials for the schools –Youth councils –Information (incl. on-line services) –Interactive cooperation forums –Feed-back channels

For further information Juhani Kärkkäinen Development Director