Community of Practice on partnership in the ESF

October 2008

Open Days

Benedict Wauters Deputy Director Flemish ESF Agency

COP partnership coordinator

COP origine

• Initiative came from DG EMPL and ESF Managing Authorities of Czech Republic, Austria, Portugal and Belgium Flanders

• Flanders is coordinating the COP• Response to the new ESF regulation articles on

– involvement of stakeholders, including social partners, in the governance mechanisms of the Operational Programmes

– the provision of financial support to multi-actor projects• …as well as EQUAL lessons learnt

Promote partnerships, pacts, networking (ESF Reg., Art. 3)

PROJECTS

GOVERNANCE

Stakeholder engagement in preparation, implementation

and monitoring of ESF support (Gen. Reg., Art.11)

New Structural

Funds Regulations

2007-13

MainstreamingEQUAL good

practice

How to practice, and how to support partnershipsas ESF Managing Authority / Implementing body?

involvement of social partners and NGOs (ESF Reg., Art 3+5)

COP definition

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact

regularly.

COP: objectives• In the EC grant agreement:

– provide a space for members to help them:• solve everyday problems in promoting and managing

partnership in the programmes• disseminate good practice• innovate (find better ways of doing things than what

already exists)– this is in line with the COP mission statement

which was constructed based on members’ input

Mission of the COP as defined by its members

More and fresh/creative partnership thinking and

implementation in structural funds (especially the ESF)

How do we achieve this?• Convincing programme managers, including

from new member states of the importance of partnership

• Produce/share and provide easy access to:– practical tools, models, guidance notes/fiches,

good/poor practice descriptions, contextualised case studies and real life stories…

– …anchored in reality (including from EQUAL)• Engage in two-way interaction with other

networks, initiatives, wider work environment…

Mission of the COP as defined by its members

Source: E. Wenger

Setting up steeringgroup

Launching calls,selecting contractors,

recruiting first memberssetting up technology

Interviewing members

1stbasecamp

Identification of broad issues

2ndbasecamp

Key success factors to deal with issues identified

Interactive website operational

December 2006 June 2007 September 2007

COP potential stageCOP potential stage

Continuing work and exchanges

on practices

3rdbasecamp

First deliverables presented and

online

November 2007 January 2008

COP coalescing stageCOP coalescing stage

December 2007

Continuing work and exchanges on

practices

More deliverables online

Maltaexchange

event

-Presenting and discussing deliverables with others-Recruiting new members

(4th basecamp)

Continuing exchanges

5th basecamp

Continuing exchanges6th

basecamp

April 2008

COP maturing stageCOP maturing stage

February 2008

Vienna, next to the 4th OECD LEED platform

Brussels

COP stewardship stageCOP stewardship stage

Preparation7th base-campPrague

Preparation8th Base-

campBucharest

PreparationOpen Days

Brussels

18-19 Sep 2008 October 2008 6-7 November 2008

Preparation9th

BasecampBudapest

Handbook for Managing

Authorities draft version

Expert field research

for handbook ctdPresentation on

data and analysis of research

21-22 July 2008

Expert

redaction +

final research

Preparation

10th BasecampLissabon

Final event

Lissabon

Expert

final redaction

December 2008

FinalVersion

Handbook

Study visit in Flanders

Flanderspeer review

results

Expert panel validation workshop

Interactive study visits

• Study team does research before the visit:– Interviewing a representation of monitoring committee,

programme management and partnership project coordinators/partners

– Using questionnaire based on the key success factor framework

• Analyst synthesis results, looking especially at difference between types of actor

• Workshop with the interviewees is used deepen common understanding and propose actions

• Action plan is prepared by study team with programme managers

Summing up: results from the CoP• Validated key success factor framework with

good practice descriptions in the structural funds from all over the EU

• Country fiches describing the understanding and implementation of “partnership” in the ESF around the EU

• Interactive study visit procedure based on the key success factor framework

• Handbook for ESF programme managers on supporting partnership in the ESF

• All available via the interactive website

Interested to join?

• To know what’s going on but:– Go to www.partnership.esflive.eu

– Register

– Gain access to and read (public) discussion fora, wiki’s, blogs etc.

• Ready to engage further? Contact the coordinator benedict.wauters@esf-agentschap.be