BALANCING FLEXIBILITY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY
Jan Hendeliowitz,
LEED Directing Committee
Chief Policy Advisor, Ministry of Employment
Danish National Labour Market Authority
Models of Public Employment Service: Centralized and
Decentralized Moscow, Russia 17-18 September 2014
About us
The OECD: A forum for governments to share experiences and
seek solutions to common problems.
The LEED (Local Economic & Employment Development)
Programme:
• Created in 1982 and has 37 member countries
• Key themes: Employment & skills, entrepreneurship, the
social economy, economic development & governance
• Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance: over 2900
members in 61 countries
2
“Twenty years ago local agencies were
simply responding to local issues as
they came up. We needed an integrated
vision if we were to transform our
economic fortunes. Flexibility from the
state government allowed us to develop
this vision and now all the local agencies
work more closely together to deliver
real results for the area.”
Keith Patridge, President of McAllen Economic
Development Corporation.
What is flexibility?
‘The possibility to adjust policy. . . to
make it better adapted to local contexts,
actions carried out by other
organisations, strategies being pursued,
and challenges and opportunities’
(Giguère and Froy, 2009).
What do we mean by flexibility?
• Programme design: programme mix, features including target groups,
programmes outside the standard portfolio, local employment strategies
• Financing: global or line item budgets, resources allocation between
budget items
• Target groups: locally specified groups
• Goals and performance management: sub-regional goals,
negotiation of targets and indicators, performance assessment not based
solely on quantitative criteria
• Collaboration: freedom to participate in partnerships, local decisions
about collaboration
• Outsourcing: responsible for outsourcing services to external providers,
influence on terms of reference of contracts
WHY IS LOCAL FLEXIBILITY
IMPORTANT IN PES
MANAGEMENT?
1. Need to respond to local variation
Unemployment rate, UK
Unemployment
rates, skills
supply and
demand,
demographics,
etc.
2. Facilitates policy integration . . .
Increasing relative importance of different factors on local policy integration
Note: composite indicator based on 11 countries
Source: OECD (2010), Breaking Out of Policy Silos: Doing More with Less
. . . and collaboration
Degree of Flexibility
Degree of policy co-ordination and integration
5.0
4.5
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
United
States
Flanders,
Belgium
Canada
Czech
Republic
Korea
France
Northern
Ireland
(UK)
Italy
Sweden
Israel
Ireland
Australia
3. Evidence of improved outcomes
• Sub-regional flexibility in management
of PES is positively and statistically
significantly related to employment
rates in 25 OECD countries surveyed
(2009)
• An increase of 1 point in OECD
flexibility index is related to an
increase in employment rates of 1.64%
HOW TO BALANCE
FLEXIBILITY AND
ACCOUNTABILITY?
Balancing flexibility and accountability
• Negotiating local targets while ensuring they add
up to the achievement of national goals
• Awarding flexibility incrementally: waivers,
awarding to larger cities first
• Boosting horizontal accountability: partnerships
hold each other accountable
• Using data: stimulus for cooperation and
continuous evaluation of success
WHAT DOES FLEXIBILITY
LOOK LIKE IN DIFFERENT
CONTEXTS?
Flexibility in the management of
employment policies & programmes, Local
Job Creation project, 2013
United States
Flanders, Belgium
Canada
Czech Republic
Korea
France
Northern Ireland (UK)
Italy
Sweden
Israel
Ireland
Australia
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
Example: United States
Workforce Investment Act of 1998
• Local Workforce Investment Boards responsible for
overseeing employment and training services under WIA
in a given geographic area
• Federal waivers where rigidities prevent states from
responding effectively
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014
• Streamlined WIBs with more responsibility
• Some flexibility given under waivers now part of law
(e.g., enhanced budget flexibility)
• Strengthened accountability
Thank you
www.oecd.org/cfe/leed