# OECD-Workshop: Driving Public Sector Organisations for Crisis - Strategy, Planning and Innovation
KDZ carried out 11 case studies on the resilience of public administration during Covid19. Inspiring public sector organisations prove innovations, the ability for adaptation and resilience:
- Women’s Service of the City of Vienna
- National Office of Employment of Belgium
- Sofia Regional Health Inspectorate
- Croatian Pension Insurance Institute
- Municipality of Thessaloniki
- Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana)
- Lubuskie Voivodship Office (Poland)
- The Vouzela and Campia School Grouping (AGEV, Portugal)
- Ministry of Environment, Slovak Republic
- Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Agricultural Markets and Rural Development, Slovenia
- Madrid Salud
Thomas Prorok presented the findings in a workshop in Brussels organised by OECD Public Governance, European Commission, Belgian Ministry for Civil Service (BOSA) and KDZ - Centre for Public Administration Research.
You can find the presentation of the results here.
# CAF Facilitator & Exernal CAF Feedback Expert (EFACs) Training
- apply the principles of quality management and excellence in their organisation
- transfer the contents of the CAF 2020 into organisational practice and develop a tailor-made framework for the CAF assessment
- facilitate and monitor CAF implementations professionally and solution-oriented
- act at the interface to organisational and personnel development and drive change management programs with CAF
The aim of the Training was twofold: to increase the capabilities of quality management practitioners by deepening their CAF facilitation skills and to train them to act as CAF External Feedback Experts (EFAC) who will do the CAF external evaluation.
The Training is part of the BACID program, supported by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with funds from the Austrian Development Cooperation.
# Civil Society contributing to Public Administration Reform
WeBER - Western Balkan Civil Society Empowerment for a Reformed Public Administration - is an impressive initiative. Civil Society Organisations monitor and contribute to Public Administration Reforms.
The team met in Tirana on invitation and perfect organsiation of Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM) in person after more than two years and discussed challenges of the sectoral implementation of Public Administration Reforms. Some findings:
- The transparency of recruitment decisions needs to be increased.
- More collaboration and cooperation with citizens and civil society organisations and openness of Public Administration and Government is needed.
- Public consultations need more capacity in the public administration to enable a proper handling of the requests from civil society and stakeholders.
- Often the legal setup fulfils all requirements for modern public governance. But when you look into the details of practice there is still a long way to go to modern structures and public services.
- Reforms are mostly due to individual dedicated civil servants/managers and not a direct result of the PAR strategy.
- Political will and understanding for reforms is crucial but not often available.
Read more about WeBER here.
# City Financial Health Indicators in Austria
The municipal budget transparency platform provides 8 financial health indicators for the Austrian municipalities. Due to the new accrual accounting reform the existing indicator set could be improved and includes now 8 financial health indicators:
- Public Savings Rate
- Quota Free Financial Resources
- Self-financing ratio
- Duration of Debt
- Debt Service Ratio
- Net Income Ratio
- Net Asset Ratio
- Asset Maintenance Rate
Especially the "Asset Maintenance Rate" is an important supplement to the already existing indicator set and provides information on whether the municipal assets and investments are being adequately maintained and cared.
You can find the City Financial Health Indicators on the platfom offenerhaushalt.at (KDZ-Quicktest) in German language.
# Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity in Municipal Finances
How can artificial intelligence and robotics support municipal finance management? What does cybersecurity cost a city?
The chief finance officers of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bordeaux. Hamburg, London and Trondheim exchanged in the „Cities for Sustainable Public Finances CSPF Network“ in Vienna in June.
One result: Its clear that we will have to live with algorithms. Now its time to elaborate the data governance rules - also in the cities.
Read more here.
# KDZ at CIB (Capacity and Institution Building) Working Group meeting annual conference in Belgium
Alexandra Schantl took part at the Annual Meeting 2022 of the CIB Working Group of the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) at the beginning of June to exchange with international practitioners and experts on decentralized development cooperation.
Through knowledge transfer and experience exchange, the CIB Working Group supports cooperation between its members and within UCLG, as well as the interests and needs of its members vis-à-vis politicians and (international) donor organizations.
At the meeting, recent trends, challenges, and potentials of decentralized development cooperation of local governments and local government associations were discussed. In this context, KDZ introduced both the BACID III project and KDZ tools for localizing the SDGs such as the SDG Check for Municipal Investments and sounded out cooperation possibilities.
We congratulate and look forward to further cooperation.
# The Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing awarded as „Effective CAF User“
The Slovak Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing (ÚNMS SR) applied at the CAF-Centre of KDZ for the „Effective CAF User Certificate“. Following the European standards two External Feedback Actors conducted the on-site-visit and assessment of the organisation.
The Office of Standards, Metrology and Testing proved the effective implementation of the Common Assessment Framework and high excellence of its services. Thomas Prorok and Philip Parzer handed over the CAF-certificate to Director Katarina Tatranska, CAF Manager Anna Budiakova and CAF-Correspondent Greta Hrehova in Bratislava.
Congratulations to the whole team.
# KDZ and ReSPA support the Ministry of Information Society and Administration (MISA), North Macedonia with the CAF implementation
After the consensus workshop in Ohrid the self assessment group came together in Skopje to elaborate the CAF-Improvement plan. The presence of Minister Admirim Aliti during the workshop showed the high priority of CAF for the future development of MISA.
Read more here.
# Action Plan Workshop in EU-Agency “eu-LISA”
The CAF Centre of the KDZ supports eu-LISA in the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).
In Strasbourg the Self-Assessment Group of eu-LISA - the European Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice - came together for two days to elaborate the CAF-action Plan.
The KDZ team is happy to cooperate with this excellent and highly mature European Agency.
# CAF in German City of Starnberg
CAF experts Philip Parzer and Alexandra Schantl are supporting the City of Starnberg in setting up a quality management system with CAF. Due to our local governments experiences in numerous countries we bring an added value as CAF and municipal expert to Starnberg. Its a pleasure to cooperate with the highly committed team in Starnberg.
For more information on CAF, click here.
# Hybrid Meeting of CAF-Experts
Twice a year, the Austrian external CAF Certifiers (External Feedback Actors EFAC) meet on invitation of the Ministry of Public Service and the KDZ - Centre for Public Administration Research to exchange experiences on the external feedback and certification procedures.
The CAF Certifiers, in short CAFFEX, are the experts who check the implementation of the CAF Quality Label standards on site and make a recommendation for the award of the CAF Quality Label. The CAF Quality Label is a European and international certification for excellent and innovative public administrations.
In the CAFFEX meetings we regularly discuss current topics and inform our CAFFEX network about the latest CAF news. We are particularly pleased that we were able to welcome participants from the German, Swiss and Italian CAF communities again this year.
