1. EAPN EU Inclusion Strategies Group
7a EAPN: Fighting for a Social Europe Free of Poverty
‘Give a voice to citizens!’
How to build stakeholder engagement
for effective decision-making
 Guidelines for Decision-Makers at EU and national level
Elke Vandermeerschen
EAPN EU Inclusion Strategies Group
17 May 2014
Prague
EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK
RÉSEAU EUROPÉEN DES ASSOCIATIONS
DE LUTTE CONTRE LA PAUVRETÉ ET L’EXCLUSION SOCIALE 1

2. Guidelines: 'Give a Voice to Citizens!'
How to build stakeholder engagement
for effective decision-making
Introduction: Strong message
What?:
Clarifying concepts
Core principles 2

3. WHAT? - Clarifying concepts - Core principles: Participative Inclusive
Respectful
Continuous and two way
Open
Transparent
Accountable
Coherent
Effective 3

4. WHY? The Added Value Bringing in essential expertise & knowledge
Empowering people & communities
Promoting mutual learning & understanding
Building consensus, accountability & legitimacy
Raising visibility & public awareness
Enhancing coordination 4

5. WHY? EU Policy Framework Governance principles in the Lisbon Treaty
Open Method of Coordination
Europe 2020
Social Investment Package
Current Challenges
Lack of Meaningful Participation
Scepticism about the EU & Europe 2020
Need for coherence between different policy fields 5

6. WHO? Policy Actors Other Stakeholders Decision-makers
Technicians / Advisers
Representatives of public institutions
Civil dialogue officers
Other Stakeholders
People with direct experience of poverty
NGO’s
Social Partners
Researchers
Informal citizen groups and initiatives … 6

7. HOW?
Define the scope and terms of the dialogue and engagement – what you want to achieve and how, with a timeframe
Engage the right stakeholders
Establish clear coordination and contact point for stakeholders: a person responsible for continuous quality in the engagement
Invest in the engagement – allocate the resources 7

8. HOW? Invite the stakeholders – organise a first meeting
Invest in effective methodology
- before
- during
- after
Invest in capacity building of administrations, decision-makers and stakeholders - to learn more about each other, but also to develop their skills for participating better in these kinds of processes 8

9. Strengthen (or establish) a legal framework for civil dialogue
HOW?
Strengthen (or establish) a legal framework for civil dialogue
Promote mutual learning and exchange on methodologies and results with other administrations and at EU level
Evaluate, adjust & mainstream 9

10. - Creating the right framework at EU level: Development of guidelines
ACT!
- Creating the right framework at EU level:
Development of guidelines
Redesign format of the Annual Convention
Make structural Funds accessible
Support the PEP meeting
Develop the Knowledge Bank
Organise mutual learning exchanges 10

11. - Creating the right framework at EU level:
ACT!
- Creating the right framework at EU level:
Invest in the work of organisations
Develop a set of standards for the involvement of stakeholders
Give clear guidance to Member States
Use the Mid-Term Review as an excellent opportunity to follow these recommendations 11

12. ACTION NOTE & CAPACITY BUILDING
How to use our Task Force Guidelines on Stakeholder engagement
1. INTERNAL CAPACITY BUILDING
Organize an EAPN meeting to present and discuss the document
Use the guidelines to improve and encourage participation in your own network, ‘be a model’! (see also MASS Membership Assessment and Support System document
Use the document to assess the state of play of ‘stakeholder engagement’ in your country
Plan actions together how to improve the situation of stakeholder engagement in your country
Think about translating the document 12

13. ACTION NOTE & CAPACITY BUILDING
2. BUILDING ALLIANCES
Use the document to find/define/convince allies:
Possible actions:
Send it to your members
Send it to possible external allies: who else is involved in the process (your SPC member, administrations, other NGO’s, trade unions, ... see the toolkit for more ideas) 13

14. ACTION NOTE & CAPACITY BUILDING
3. COMMUNICATION
Use them to get some attention for the (need for) stakeholder engagement in the European Semester, and for the Poverty goal of Europe 2020 in general:
Possible actions:
Send it to the press. If you have worked on the NRP or CSRs, you can send your position paper(s) with it, and ask for an interview
Publish it on your website, use social media to promote stakeholder engagement and post the guidelines 14

15. ACTION NOTE & CAPACITY BUILDING
4. ADVOCACY
Use the guidelines to convince your government to involve you (more) in the European Semester process:
convince your government that stakeholder participation is necessary + possible + useful
show your governments how to organize stakeholder participation
You can also send it to other political actors (SPC members, your (regional/national) MEP’s...), together with your position paper and ask for a meeting to discuss both 15

16. Questions & Comments? ‘Give a voice to citizens!’
How to build stakeholder engagement
for effective decision-making
 Guidelines for Decision-Makers at EU and national level
Questions & Comments?
EUROPEAN ANTI-POVERTY NETWORK
RÉSEAU EUROPÉEN DES ASSOCIATIONS
DE LUTTE CONTRE LA PAUVRETÉ ET L’EXCLUSION SOCIALE 16