Conference Managing for results: effective monitoring and evaluation
of the National Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria for Roma integration (2012-2020)
Sofia, 23-24 January 2012
European policy perspectives
on social experimentation
Antoine SAINT-DENIS and Szilvia KALMAN,
European Commission - DG Employment, social affairs
empl-innovation@ec.europa.eu
and inclusion
What is social experimentation?
• Social experimentation relates to testing innovative
solutions at small scale and measuring its specific
impact on beneficiaries with a view to
disseminating them widely.
• Social experiments are a more specific tool than
mutual learning projects, social innovation projects
or pilot projects.
• « How to better implement what is designed on
paper? » It is an action-oriented tool.
2
What is social experimentation?
• Social experimentation uses randomised control
groups to evaluate the specific value added of the
measure (What would have been the situation of the
people if the measure had not been implemented?)
Test
group
Control
group
comparison
Highly robust information about the measure and the context
3
What is social experimentation?
• Not experimenting on people, but experimenting
on concrete actions in order to assess what works
and what does not for the sake of the people
• Actors of a social experiment:
– Public authorities (policy-makers)
– Social service providers
– Evaluators
– Civil society organisations
4
The policy context
• The urgency of more effective and
efficient policies:
– In the context of the crisis, responding
to social needs cannot systematically
mean spending more
– Need to go on innovating in order to
respond to Europeans’ long-term needs
and aspirations
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The policy context
• The development of impact
evaluation within the EU cohesion
funds:
– Impact evaluation seminar of the
regional policy (Polish Presidency of the
EU, Warsaw, 12 December 2011).
– Developing counterfactuals are now a
priority of DG EMPL and DG REGIO.
6
The policy context
• The Europe 2020 Strategy:
– Emphasis on promoting innovation and
social innovation (flagship initiative
Innovation Union)
– Focus on reforms of social policies
through
evidence-based
social
innovation
including
social
experimentation
(flagship
initiative
European Platform against poverty and
social exclusion)
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The value added of social experiments
• At least 4 four types of value added:
– starts small but gives a real chance of scale up
– Supports decision process by making timely evaluation
more useable: repeated interactions between
knowledge and action
– Helps finding the most efficient solutions: especially
when the policy consists in influencing people’s
behaviour
– builds consensus for reforms: helps to overcome
controversy about a policy initiative
8
Examples of social experiments
• Amalipe center’s project Promoting
social inclusion of young people in
marginalised rural Roma
communities:
– supported by the European
Commission (Progress, 2011-2012)
– Developing 4 community support
centers
9
Examples of social experiments
• Worldwide: World Bank and J-Pal
(poverty action lab) projects
• In the European Union:
– The Wroclaw conference (26
September 2011) showcased 10 social
experiments implemented in 15
Member States. These projects cover
the fields of education, employment,
homelessness, minimum income benefit
and youth policy
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EU support action: awareness raising
• An EU ministerial conference of the
Polish Presidency, held in Wrocław
(Poland) on 26 September 2011,
discussed responses to the social
impact of the crisis and how to
intensify the support to innovation
within social policies.
• Planned EU conference on 29 June 2012 in
Brussels
• A number of other events
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EU support action: capacity building
J-Pal guide on SE
for policy makers
(available)
EU support
network
Capacity
building
ESF learning
Network?
Training for
public
authorities
…
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EU support action: financial support
€9,5M
2009-11
€5900 M
ESF
2007-2013
Financial instruments
2014-2020
?
PROGRESS
2007-2013
EU Programme
for Social Change
and Innovation
2014-2020
€100M
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The EC proposal for a Programme
for Innovation and Social Change
• Article 4 – General objectives
(b) Support the development of adequate, accessible and
efficient social protection systems and labour markets and
facilitate policy reform, by promoting good governance,
mutual learning and social innovation
• Article 15 – Specific objectives (Progress axis)
(c) Provide policy-makers with financial support to test social
and labour market policy reforms, build up the main actors’
capacity to design and implement social experimentation,
and make the relevant knowledge and expertise accessible
• Article 5 – Budget
958 million€ - 60% to the Progress axis, “of which at least
17% shall be allocated to promoting social experimentation
as a method for testing and evaluating innovative solutions
with a view to scaling them up”. = almost 100 million€
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The proposal for the ESF regulation
• Article 9
– The ESF shall promote social innovation within all areas falling
under the scope of the ESF in particular with the aim of testing
and scaling up innovative solutions to address social needs.
– MS shall identify themes for social innovation
– The Commission shall facilitate capacity building for social
innovation (mutual learning, networks, dissemination of good
practices and methodologies)
• Article 11
– The co-financing rate shall be increased by 10 percentage
points if the whole of the priority axis is dedicated to social
innovation or to transnational cooperation, or a combination of
both
– For each priority axis, operational programmes shall describe
how they contribute to social innovation, and which allocation
of money is made
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For more information
Available online:
• A methodological
guide to social
experimentation
• 10 examples of
social experiment
in 15 Member
States
http://ec.europa.eu/social/innovationconference
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For more information
• call
for
proposals
on
social
experimentation (closed 15 Dec 2011):
– http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=630&langId=en&callI
d=331&furtherCalls=yes
• Multiannual financial framework 20142020:
– Cohesion Policy
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&news
Id=1092&furtherNews=yes
– New EU Programme
Innovation
for
Social
Change
and
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&news
Id=1093&furtherNews=yes
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