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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
Guidelines: 'Give a Voice to Citizens !'
How to build stakeholder engagement
for effective decision-making
Introduction: Strong message
What ?:
• Clarifying concepts
• Core principles
WHAT ?
- Clarifying concepts
- Core principles:
• Participative
• Inclusive
• Respectful
• Continuous and two way
• Open
• Transparent
• Accountable
• Coherent
• Effective
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
WHY ?
-
EU Policy Framework
- Governance principles in the Lisbon Treaty
- Open Method of Coördination
- Europe 2020
- Social Investment Package
-
Current Challenges
- Lack of Meaningful Participation
- Scepticism about the EU & Europe 2020
- Need for coherence between different
policy fields
WH0 ?
- Policy Actors
-
-
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
…
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
HOW ?
•
•
•
Invite the stakeholders – organise a first
meeting
Invest in effective methodology
- before
- during
- after
Invest in capacity building of administration,
decision-makers and stakeholders- to learn
more about each other, but also to develop
their skills for participating better in this
kind of processes
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
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
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
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
http://www.eapn.eu/en/membersroom/development/capacity-building)
• 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
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)
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 CSR’s, 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
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
‘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