Governance in OECD spotlight
Northern Ireland has become the first region to have its system of government reviewed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD’s first review of public governance at a regional level is turning its attention to how Northern Ireland is administered. The review is due to report to Finance Minister Simon Hamilton in November. It follows on from a similar review of the region’s education system and a visit by Hamilton to OECD headquarters in Paris in September 2013.
“Present financial circumstances, coupled with increasing demand for public services, mean that the need to reform government in Northern Ireland has never been more important,” Hamilton stated. Rolf Alter, the OECD’s Director of Public Governance and Territorial Development, said that the review would help to implement the current reform agenda and identify further areas for reform.
The OECD team will recommend improvements across three areas:
• strategic direction;
• operational delivery; and
• engagement with people.
Quality and value for money in local public services will be benchmarked with those elsewhere. The review process is being overseen by the Executive’s sub-committee on improving public services. This is chaired by Hamilton and also comprises Mark H Durkan, David Ford, John O’Dowd, Jim Wells, and OFMDFM junior ministers Jonathan Bell and Jennifer McCann.
agendaNi understands that the UUP’s Minister, Danny Kennedy, would be willing to become involved but was not invited to join the group.
The OECD was established in 1961 to share best practice between developed economies. Its areas of expertise in governance include public finance, e-government, integrity and transparency, regional economic development, regulatory policy, and risk management.
Previous reviews are available online (at www.oecd-ilibrary.org) and the most comparable review – in terms of a country’s population size – was carried out in Estonia in 2011. The Estonian Government, in the OECD’s view, needed to strike a better balance between the everyday delivery of public services and looking ahead to assess the country’s long-term needs. A set of strategic plans had been published but many of these were not being acted upon.
While the country placed a high value on education, its governance was divided between several public bodies and a ‘single system’ approach was needed. The review also pointed out that Estonia had a rapidly ageing population but the quality of services for older people was poor compared to other countries. Joined-up government would help to improve services but a wider cultural change was also needed to ensure that society placed a higher value on older people.