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1 The national atalogue of sf best practices The national atalogue of sf best practices: learning from the past to govern the future Best practices to share
2 Learning from the past to govern the future
3 This publication was implemented within the project National atalogue of Italian SF best practices, programmes and ommunity initiatives by the following companies: Irs, les, onform, ngineering - Ingegneria informatica and Brodolini Foundation. ditorial coordination Vera Marincioni, Marianna Angelo, Gianfranca Iorio, Luigi Accogli (Ministry of Labour and Social Security irectorate General for Guidance and Training Policies) Technical and mainstreaming committee Vera Marincioni (hairman, G-POF) Marianna Angelo (epartment, G-POF) Annalisa Vittore (SF Regional oordination) Michele olasanto (expert adviser) Stefano Volpi (Isfol, SF National valuation Unit) Mafalda amponeschi (Lazio Region) Luigi Accogli (epartment, G-POF) ditors aniela Oliva (Irs), aniela Pieri (les), Amanda olletti (onform), iego Teloni (Brodolini Foundation), aria Broglio (Irs), hiara Luigini (les), Lucia ostanzo (les), Giancarlo ente (Brodolini Foundation) ditorial and graphic project ecilia Addone - onform Srl Nancy Lombardi - onform Srl Translation from Italian Liliana ocumelli (member of the Italian Association of Interpreters and Translators) - onform Srl Printed by digraf Srl - Formello (Rome) - diting finished in April 2008 Reproduction of extracts is only authorized for non commercial purposes, mentioning the source and faithfully reproducing the text. All other rights are reserved.
4 Index Preface Introduction 1. The national atalogue of best practices The methodology uropean background on best practices Practices in atalogue: a general overview The on-line atalogue The national SF best practices atalogue: an instrument for an evaluation glance backwards programming and a support for programming The best practices atalogue NOP Obj.1 Atas Scientific research School Security evelopment NOP Obj.3 System Actions ROP Obj.1 Basilicata alabria ampania Molise Apulia Sardinia Sicily ROP Obj.3 Abruzzo Bolzano milia Romagna Friuli Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy
5 Marche Piemonte Toscany Trento Umbria Valle d Aosta Veneto Iniziativa omunitaria qual qual Round I - Geographical Ps qual Round I - Sectoral Ps qual Round II - Geographical Ps qual Round II - Sectoral Ps Leonardo da Vinci Programme Innovative Actions (ex art.6 SF)
6 Preface The valorisation of best practices and their actual dissemination and availability represent, for the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, a significant added value to the intent to adopt a partaken governance of the policies supported by the uropean Social Fund. Moreover, all those objectives are supported by the uropean mployment Strategy, highlighting the need to adopt a new approach to policy making, an open method of co-ordination, as reviewed and approved in February One of the five pillars of this approach concerns mutual learning, a concept which emphasizes the important role played by the exchange of best practices and experiences, reinforced by the belief that any country could learn from other countries having faced similar critical issues. The uropean ommission itself underlined that the application of the open method of co-ordination was introduced as a means of spreading best practices and achieving greater convergence towards the main U goals 2. In such a view, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security fulfilled the need to have a specific information tool on the best practices implemented during the programming period. Such a mutual learning approach is suitable also within national borders where the whole experimented methods and models of action cannot remain a treasure merely limited to the benefit of the experimenting group, but turn into a treasure open to comparison and sharing with others. The atalogue of Italian best practices is intended as an instrument of quality knowledge on the activities implemented up to now, as well as an information tool useful for both project proposing actors and institutional bodies responsible for programming the policies co-financed by the sf and, more generally, by the Structural Funds. The approach adopted to create the atalogue is based on two relevant elements. Firstly, the dynamic character of the atalogue intended to be not a mere archive of past projects but a way of spreading the knowledge acquired in the last years. Secondly, the attempt to search for a common basis linking the Operational Programmes, both national and regional, the qual ommunity Initiative, the Innovative Actions (Art. 6 of the Reg. n. 1784/99) and the Leonardo da Vinci ommunity Program. In such a view, identifying best practices guarantees the effectiveness of the uropean Social Fund, since SF actions aim at solving specific issues in different local areas. The need of systematic information valorised by a shared transversal outlook derives from the intent to kick off a series of SF-employment strategies able to maximise the achieved results. In order to meet such a need, the first step was the identification of high-quality practices, followed by the dissemination activities among different stakeholders as a way to share knowledge and a chance for mutual learning. By fostering best practices dissemination and availability, our intent is to provide information, involvement opportunities and assistance to the many institutional stakeholders, local practitioners and citizens making project proposals and planning, with a view to promote systems strengthening, complementary processes and shared culture and rules. In a nutshell it is an attempt to foster joint and permanent mutual learning processes. Not an end but a starting point for further development. Vera Marincioni irector General for Guidance and Training Policies Ministry of Labour and Social Security 1 ommunication to the spring uropean ouncil of 02 February 2005, entitled Working together for growth and jobs. A new start for the Lisbon strategy. ommunication from President Barroso in agreement with Vice-President Verheugen (OM/2005/24) 2 ommunication from the ommission to the ouncil, the uropean Parliament, the uropean conomic and Social ommittee and the ommittee of the Regions: Strengthening the social dimension of the Lisbon strategy: Streamlining open coordination in the field of social protection (OM/2003/261) isseminating best practices contributes to foster partaken governance within SF policies 5
8 Introduction 1. The national atalogue of best practices The national atalogue of SF best practices, programmes and ommunity initiatives implemented in Italy in is a project promoted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security - irectorate General for Guidance and Training Policies within the national System Actions with the intent to foster the transfer and dissemination of best practices as a strategic instrument for their innovation, dissemination, valorisation and mainstreaming. The significance to have a specialist information heritage derives from the need to turn SF opportunities into operative strategies able to maximise the achieved results. In such a view the first imperative step concerns the identification of high-quality practices and the following move regards appropriate activities of dissemination among the many and different system s stakeholders. Through adequate dissemination, in fact, the best practices become a learning instrument for lessons that go beyond their specific contents. The widespread awareness of the importance of dissemination has been strongly confirmed in the last few years by the promotion, at ommunity level, of best practices exchange and spreading activities financed with ommunity funds. Such importance further increased after the uropean Union enlargement. ach programme pays specific attention to best practices, eligibility criteria and the exchange of experiences, as showed by the significant role of dissemination and valorisation actions in the Leonardo Programme, the key mainstreaming principle in qual ommunity Initiative, the SF financing provided in the national Operational Programme for the transfer of good practices in the Obj. 1 and 3 areas, as well as the SF Art. 6 providing innovative actions, pilot projects and the exchange of experiences and information related to topical priorities envisaged at uropean level. The main objective of the national atalogue of SF best practices is to inform, involve and guide the wide range of institutional stakeholders, local practitioners and the public with the intent to promote systems strengthening, complementary processes and evaluation culture by fostering best practices dissemination and availability. In particular the project was inspired by the need to have a dynamic instrument to collect and codify all the best practices implemented in the programming period within the Operational Programmes, both national and regional, the qual ommunity Initiatives, the Innovative Actions envisaged by the Art. 6 of the Reg. n. 1784/99 and the ommunity Programme Leonardo da Vinci. Since the large amount of catalogues issued in Italy and the rest of urope on excellence projects regarding specific topics (gender mainstreaming and equal opportunities policies, vocational training, policies to support the labour inclusion of disadvantaged categories, etc.) or a single programming, the necessity arose to establish a shared standard system to identify and catalogue best practices. The eligibility criteria of this standard system should go beyond the fragmentation and the lack of homogeneity of previous catalogues by adopting the following dimensions peculiar of any successful practice: action efficacy in terms of objectives and results attained; innovation characters and model-serving capacity for actions replication elsewhere; high-quality level of project actions and implementation process as revealed by the presence of needs analysis, monitoring and self-evaluation activities and quality controls; horizontal mainstreaming potential to create, improve and strengthen partnerships involving new actors enterprises, social parties, third sector and associations; extent of project replication and sustainability of project effects in terms of project consideration of such elements since the initial planning step and on the basis of the project actors involvement and information dissemination; project involvement of public administrations to facilitate vertical mainstreaming; professional skills of promoters and actuators and related network experiences. The national atalogue of Italian SF best practices, programmes and ommunity initiatives revolves around the definition of a minimum set of trans-verse eligibility requirements and the identification of further undefined value-adding characters changing according to project programme/programming. The excellence projects eligibility criteria not only do follow the methodology suggestions and instruments provided by Isfol the Institute for the evelopment of Vocational Training for 7
9 Workers for identifying and evaluating SF best practices but they also meet the information needs deriving from the new programming. The submitted projects are screened on the basis of new SF programming objectives. In particular the projects included into the atalogue were selected on the basis of excellence characters in terms of: available information provided in a clear, homogenous, trustworthy and synthetic form as a pre-requisite for the replication and transfer of the project experiences elsewhere and for a wide involvement of the actors operating in the same field; efficacy in terms of the needs/policy problems solved and the objectives pursued by each project; innovation of project contents and methodology, also considering the link between such renovate characters and the innovations recently introduced in the legislation and institutional framework within the different action fields; adequacy and completeness of the logic implementation framework referred to valid programming and planning actions; level of replication and transferability potential, guaranteeing the absence of insuperable obstacles to replication; long-term sustainability also in terms of economic resources, considering the fact that an effective and innovative project lacking of financial resources is difficult to be replicated and transferred; potential horizontal and vertical mainstreaming of the actors working in the same field and project capacity to create networks; presence of useful cues to take as a lesson for attaining the programming objectives. ue to the rapid modifications of the contexts target of SF financed actions, identifying and disseminating excellent projects and the related distinguished characteristics become imperative instruments to support institutions to treasure the past experiences and make adjustments for a more effective policy planning and programming, as well as to promote uropean integration. The atalogue intends not only to provide institutional decisionmakers with a valid instrument to assess the activities financed and implemented up to now, but also to support and accompany the launch towards the programming through a benchmarking approach, the improvement of institutions capacity to treasure past experiences and the definition of shared rules, thus promoting a partaken governance. For each best practice project identification criteria are available project title and code, Management Authority, project coordinator, project partner, financing programming and project duration as well as the related project policy. The on-line version of the atalogue provides further details on project actions and characters determining the project eligibility as a best practice. 2. The methodology The methodology adopted to create the national atalogue of Italian SF best practices, programmes and ommunity initiatives is based on the following main features: involvement and active partaking; representative character of the atalogue and the relative value of the best practices; eligibility criteria and submission form; rating system; dissemination of an evaluation culture. Involvement and active partaking The main pillar of atalogue s collection and updating activities is represented by the active involvement of, and permanent interaction with, the main stakeholders and local actors dealing with SF programming, that are: at central level the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, irectorate General for Guidance and Training Policies within national system actions was responsible for the atalogue s implementation in cooperation with the staff of experts of the Temporary ompanies Grouping (TG) actuating the atalogue project. It performed the function of general process coordinator. The practices identified at local level have been submitted to a multi-level evaluation process (actuator, project staff, managing authority) with the intent to select the highquality projects really meeting the eligibility criteria to be included in the atalogue; at local level the Managing Authorities, both national and regional, the Provinces and the people responsible for the projects submitted for the inclusion into the atalogue. They performed a preliminary self-assessment on the basis of atalogue s eligibility criteria (project submission form) and chose the projects more appropriate to represent the strategies defined by policy-makers to adequately use the ommunity funds. The self-assessment process was supported by the representatives of the TG that contacted, involved and activated all stakeholders. The information transfer from local to central level occurred thanks to meetings, events and telematic instruments used to directly involve the main actors of the collected projects and rationalise and capitalise the attained results. The interaction and information exchange between the two levels, being each other complementary and not alternative, was the strength factor crucial to the successful atalogue s implementation. 8
10 On one hand the local level stakeholders took advantage of their direct and solid knowledge acquired on the local and institutional socio-economic context, in addition to that on each single project. Such a knowledge allowed the local actors to identify the project success elements and evaluate the matching extent between expectations and achieved results, as well as the indirect effects and innovative aspects. On the other the filter at central level guaranteed that all best practices satisfied the shared eligibility criteria by making a comparative analysis of the projects implemented in different sectors or territories. The local and central stakeholders took advantage of their different information and knowledge sources, both necessary to obtain an objective data collection taking into equal account each of the many best-practice eligibility aspects. Variegated communication procedures ensured flexible cooperation between the two levels. Here-below a synthetic chart on interaction process between central and local levels. Representative character of best practices atalogue The representative character of the collected data was a further element distinguishing the atalogue s methodology. A practice is considered eligible to best practice not only in absolute terms but mainly on the basis of a comparison with its specific context of origin. For such a reason the local level provided a valid contribution and enabled to involve the various stakeholders into the self-evaluation process and check the real value of each practice on the basis of different outlooks. ligibility criteria and submission form ligible best practices derived from a selection of SF programming projects finishing their activities in ecember 2008 (such projects represent the minimum eligible unit). Project selection fulfilled specific criteria that led to a national atalogue of best practices really representing a treasure of experiences for valorisation and mutual learning. The adopted eligibility criteria refer to the Isfol approach (see The Isfol methodology to identify and analyse SF best practices, June 2004) already adopted and confirmed by previous experiences of data research and collection on Italian best practices (as by the Repertory of best practices on 2005 employment services and equal opportunities, a document implemented with the cooperation of one of the Temporary ompanies Grouping member). ligibility criteria are as follows: efficacy, innovation character, implementation framework adequacy, replication and transferability potential, long-term sustainability, vertical and horizontal mainstreaming. MRGING NTRAL AN LOAL LVLS NTRAL LVL (Ministry of Labour and Social Security and TG) LOAL LVL (National and regional Managing Authorities and project Managers) Roles and objectives - Perform tasks of governance, programming and coordination centre - Work as a Basis to implement information exchanges with easy accessibility - Govern and introduce innovation through best practices; - Foster evaluation culture; - Programme standard procedures to collect data on implementation strategies and attained results and speed up identification of best practices. Roles and objectives - Rationalise successful experiences - Impact with remarkable changes on-to local system - Acquire new procedures to assess policy results Methodology for BPs selection - Find information. Local level is one of the main sources. - ontrol the representative character and consistency of best practices and select projects for the atalogue on the basis of rating scores. - Identification of projects for BPs Gallery. Methodology for BPs collection - Identification and selection of remarkable practices - irect self-submission of projects by project Managers. Information flows between local and central levels are exchanged through different forms of communication, such as tele-matic instruments or meetings. 9
11 The different parts of the submission form to propose projects for the atalogue were designed on the basis of the abovementioned criteria (see the Form Filling Tips in the website). This form is both an evaluation instrument to verify the eligibility of the proposed projects and a sheet to collect descriptive details for the atalogue. The three parts of the form regard project identification data, project features (background context, expected activities and products, type of actions and beneficiaries, etc.) and the attributes to qualify the project as a best practice. The third part of the form, entitled project attributes to qualify as a best practice is very important and strictly related to eligibility criteria. Information provided in this part acquire a specific calculation value according to a rating system. The indicators for eligibility criteria are as follows: adequacy and completeness of the logic implementation framework; significance of the topical policy dealt by the project; information availability and clarity; sustainability (for activities and results at national/transnational level); innovation characters (regarding context, process, products, results/objectives); replication potential; transferability aspects; mainstreaming (horizontal and vertical). The presence/absence of indicators and their weighting are calculated by applying the rating system also used to identify the projects appropriate for the Best Practices Gallery in the website. Rating system The rating system calculates weighted evaluation results on each practice with the intent to identify not only the standard characters distinguishing a practice as good, useful and worth disseminating but also the quality synthetic level of all practices collected. In particular the system is able to meet the identification and selection criteria by rationalising self-evaluation processes (local level) and identifying best practices (central level). The application of a rating system processing the contents provided in the third part of the submission form produces synthetic evaluations on the quality level and characters of each best practice through an approach resulting more selective than the one used for the atalogue. The rating system is based on: re-adjustment and weighting of the indicators in the third part of the submission form according to their influence on the general quality level of the best practice. The weighting of the indicators is not linked to the relevance of each indicator in its field (adequacy and completeness of the logic implementation and planning framework, significance of the policy subject dealt, etc.) but to the value that each indicator has on influencing the project quality as a whole; indicators added value on the basis of their consistency with the strategic priorities established in programming documentation. Such consistency is evaluated with reference to the ommunity strategic guidelines and the 1081/06 Regulation on SF and the national Strategic Framework; score for each indicator in the third part of the submission form calculated as a result of the total sum of indicator s weighting and its (possible) consistency with the priorities envisaged in one or more than one programming document. The definition of quality synthetic indicators derives from the awareness that the indicator is a relationship device affording many advantages in terms of best practice measuring, comparing and transfer. issemination of evaluation culture Involving different stakeholders into the best practices identification, evaluation and catalogue processes developed a higher evaluation culture among central authorities and at local level. At central level such involvement implied the experimentation and development of the capacity to make a significant employ of best practices for policy definition, processes governance and innovation enhancement, by establishing, since the initial programming step, standard criteria to collect information data for evaluation and to measure and evaluate the best practices. At local level the Managing Authorities and the local stakeholders partaking in the atalogue activities improved their self-analysis and self-evaluation capacities to know, recognize, identify and select best projects, that is their capacity to programme future actions on the basis of the achieved results and developed system capacities. Best practices identification and selection process The operational process to identify and select best practices was very complex and articulated into many steps: initiative s launch and promotion; collection of remarkable practices; audit of collected practices and data-entry in IT system; evaluation of collected practices; audit in cooperation with the administrations responsible for evaluated practices; validation by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and data inclusion into the national atalogue of SF best practices; rating system application; validation by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and selection of the best practices for the web Gallery. 10
12 Further cross-cutting activities included the arrangement of midterm audit meetings with committing bodies and actuators (the atalogue s launch conference was followed by some local workshops). Here-below chart shows a synthesis of the steps widely illustrated in the following pages. Stakeholders involvement and awareness arising To start up the initiative and obtain large consensus a project launch event was arranged to involve stakeholders in atalogue s activities: the national conference on project presentation. The intent was to: officially launch the project; present the operational strategies and methodologies adopted (with a special view to the synthetic submission form and its employ, the collection and selection system, evaluation instruments, rating system and its application, etc.); involve stakeholders that can propose further best practices; share future outlooks on best practices. TRANSVRSAL ATIVITIS Periodic feedback meetings with stakeholders Periodic controls on project works in progress BUILING TH ATALOGU - STPS Stakeholders' involvement and awareness arising ollection of remarkable projects Audit and validation of collected information List of projects to be included ontacts with administrations responsible for selected projects Submission of selected projects to the Mainstreaming ommittee and the Ministry of Labour- G for Guidance and Training Poilcies Rating system application Information comparison with administrations Presentation of results to sectoral stakeholders; atalogue publication The atalogue launch conference stirred Managing Authorities and the responsible for national and regional SF activities to partake in the atalogue s implementation. All stakeholders received adequate information to submit project applications they could consider worth proposing according to best practices eligibility criteria. ollection of remarkable projects Following the initial information step a permanent research activity was set to constantly look for new projects to include in atalogue. In such an order direct meetings were held with local stakeholders (i.e. Regions and Provinces), actuators (variegated final beneficiaries and actuators such as training bodies, universities, excellence centres, etc.) and project coordinators. The representatives of administrations and people responsible for project measures and implementation were interviewed to collect data on remarkable practices meeting eligibility criteria. Afterwards project actuators were contacted with different procedures and in cooperation with Managing Authorities: in some cases the Managing Authorities provided direct support to project applications submission by contacting actuators and coordinating the activities to self-submit project candidatures; in others the Managing Authorities provided a list of possible eligible projects and related actuators that were contacted later by the TG staff of experts. Such recruitment procedures advanced in parallel with the cascade research strategies adopted autonomously by the atalogue staff to pinpoint projects to further submit to Managing Authorities approval. ooperation with Managing Authorities was particularly profitable in terms of: descriptive information on programmed actions, otherwise unavailable in documentation; integrative information on adopted strategies; estimate of actions considered remarkable for innovation character and strategic for transfer and dissemination potential. After the analysis of project documentation all actuators of possible eligible projects were assisted to fill in the submission form in the project website. In general all stakeholders were asked to point out SF projects implemented in period being very representative for policies/measures, targets and action typologies (system actions, actions for the person, accompanying actions). Actuators represented another source of best practices by selfsubmitting their projects under the assistance of the atalogue project staff (TG) and/or administrations. In fact a specific website section focused on assistance to self-submit projects on-line. The IT system enables submission of practices only to registered users: personal data, organisation of origin and address are required to receive a feedback with login and password. After registration users can enter the web and bring a project, and related data, to the attention of the atalogue staff. Project data are further submitted to the project staff and Managing Authorities for controls and evaluation. Audit and validation of collected practices and data-entry in IT system Once collected all practices were screened to check information consistency and completeness. The atalogue staff responsible for screening activities analysed the best practices data provided in the first two sections of the synthetic submission form. ata 11
13 screening highlighted possible information missing and enabled to further contact actuators and adjust the form. omplete forms were entered in IT system. valuation of collected practices All entered practices were evaluated by the project staff with IT system support revealing the presence/absence of indicators in the third part of the form linked to eligibility criteria of: adequacy and completeness of the logic project and implementation framework, significance of project topical policy, information availability and clarity, sustainability, innovation character, replication and transferability potential, mainstreaming elements. ialogue with administrations responsible for selected projects As already highlighted, the list of practices evaluated by project TG was submitted to responsible administrations for further analysis, in consideration of the fact that many projects could be self-submitted. The intent was to control the consistency of strategies adopted by each practice with its pursued policies, as well as its attained outcomes and remarkable impacts on the context of origin of the practice. In such a way TG evaluators received further information directly by the administrations responsible for the practices. By a deadline fixed in advance the administrations could express their approval or disapproval on each project eligibility to best practice, thus fulfilling integration between local and central levels. ontacts with national and local coordinators of projects to be included into the atalogue endured parallel and along identification, evaluation and publication steps. Validation by the Ministry of Labour and data inclusion into the atalogue -sheets containing information and evaluation scores of practices validated by the administrations were submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security irectorate General for Guidance and Training Policies for final approval. Ad-hoc mainstreaming ommittee was set for supervision, thus reinforcing methodology and validation activities. The auditing interaction between the Ministry of Labour and project staff ensured information inclusion in the atalogue after in-depth analysis. After Ministry s approval once expired the deadline for disapproval and in application of silence-assent principle practices were included in the atalogue and made available online in the website for all users. Rating system application Projects in atalogue passed a specific rating system identifying the most remarkable projects for consistency with policies and priorities set by Lisbon ouncil, new ommunity programming regulations on Structural Funds and national Strategic Framework. The intent is to take the current transition period to a new programming into proper account and contemporary treasure past experiences for a better employ of resources in the future. The atalogue is not only a means to collect and spread best practices of the past programming period but mainly a support to well rule over the actual transition and positively affect on programming. The rating system makes weight calculation on the indicators provided in the third part of submission form and linked with strategic priorities set in the new programming documentation. The rating system outputs projects with highest rating score to be included in the atalogue web Gallery. Validation by the the Ministry of Labour and best practices Gallery ollected practices have been issued on-line all the project duration long. A periodic monthly selection of best practices out of all issued projects was made to place greater emphasis and visibility to them through the atalogue home-page. The best practices in Gallery have high rating score and meet the requirements to well represent their programming, action field/policy type. Validation from Labour Ministry reinforced sharing of the entire evaluation process. Periodic feedback meetings with shakeholders and results dissemination Giving feedback to stakeholders, while going on with sharing information with National and local Managing Authorities, aimed at disseminating the collection results to the public. Three workshops were held in Rome, Bologna and Milan to be an occasion to spread the atalogue initiative, illustrate its methodology, activities in progress and highlight atalogue s potentiality and use. The actuators of remarkable projects could show their achieved results. This methodology gave the participants a chance to compare each other and enter into mutual dialogue, as well as share their experiences and incurred difficulties. atalogue project activities included a national final conference at the end of SF best practices collection and evaluation, and printed publications in nglish to disseminate the Italian atalogue all over urope. 3. uropean background on best practices Within SF initiatives (as well as qual and Leonardo da Vinci programmes) the trend took root to evaluate and valorise past or current experiences and the awareness arose on the importance 12
14 to identify, collect and highlight best practices. ommunity programmes and related discussions, decision-makings, coordination and learning processes, constantly refer to, both in official or unofficial terms, past or current experiences. Such experiences are picked out, described and disseminated with evaluation, example and demonstrative purposes. It is an approach in line with the open method of co-ordination stressed by the uropean mployment Strategy (S) as the crucial criterion to set policies based on five key principles: complementarity, convergence, mutual learning, integrated approach and goal-oriented management. The exchange of best practices and experiences is emphasised as imperative for mutual learning, since the belief that each country could learn from other countries facing similar problems 1. Best practices valorisation and evaluation acquire parallel importance. The adoption of an action model through measures of labour and social active policies is an ambitious challenge for its implied objectives but also uncertain for unknown effects. It certainly requires a great effort to verify results and look for success and un-success factors. ommunity programmes follow guidelines coordinated at ommunity level, partly receive financing from central sources and implement actions and results at local level. In such a context the best practices collected and spread can be a starting point to develop guidelines treasuring past experiences and support to re-programme actions cycles at National and ommunity levels. As a consequence new measures should be planned and implemented at decentralized level (fostering a learning process that moves from experience to programme and goes back to experience), promoting the exchange of experiences among all centres and local stakeholders involved, and a learning process through horizontal mainstreaming. With this overview it seems easy to accept that best practices collections lead to variegated range of products, such as real catalogues (for the public), inventories for local stakeholders, collections on specific study-cases (research documentation on specific action guidelines), pilot projects and bright collections of practices. The range of instruments to collect, exchange, disseminate and valorise good practices may be widened to include even seminars, meetings, informal exchanges, conferences and exhibitions to valorise innovative results. The list may be longer and contain databases and repertoires of projects chosen as examples or mere enumerations of financed projects and subgroups of projects with no elements to share with best practices. In this mixture of products derived from best practices collections the catalogues are the soles with solid methodology and valid informative basis. In fact a catalogue implies a scrupulous analysis and screening of all, or quite all, experiences implemented, in addition to capillary and standardised information available and the definition of reliable selection filters. Initially attention should be paid to the aim and beneficiaries of any best practices collection. If addressed to the vast public, as for catalogues, the product should have high accessibility and availability of information able to emphasize success factors and innovation characters. It cannot be a mere administrative and descriptive report. It is imperative to set a definition of best practice.at uropean level there are many terms used as synonyms without explaining the exact meaning, such as good practice, best practice, promising practice, succes case, etc. A good definition is set clear when referred to an entire grid (or a part of it) of specific criteria. stablishing valid eligibility criteria for best practices is important. Such criteria refer to the attributes any best practice is expected to have. Basic information to collect data derives from eligibility criteria. If criteria become more rigid, information becomes more detailed and complex. Information does not represent a simple set of data but evaluation elements (in terms of efficacy, efficiency, innovation, etc.). Information available may not satisfy information requirements because are often less detailed, homogenous and capillary. This difficulty emerges from many documentations on uropean collections of best practices implemented at ommunity and national levels. The lesson is that any best practices collection, although subsequent to actions implementation, should be programmed in advance, since and parallel to the beginning of actions plan in order to gather all required information. On the basis of the above-mentioned issues it is necessary to design the final product starting from the data forms collected on each single practice, information contained and graphic layout. In addition to the data forms on projects the catalogue could also contain further elements increasing its efficacy and efficiency (such as an index of project forms, excellent cases illustrated with details, synthetic guides to plan and apply measures for specific actions field). etails as type of product (publication, website, -Rom) and browsing methods cannot be left out because product accessibility and availability depend on them. Regular updating is necessary for dynamic catalogues. Best practices collection process is articulated into two steps or filters, distinguished and complementary: the local and central ones. Learning through the exchange of experiences and active involvement of stakeholders is made possible by the instruments adopted to collect best practices at local level (National, regional or local), while the National/ommunity level coordinated activities. 1 Moreover, within goal-oriented management, success of strategy is ensured by addressing actions to specific targets and benchmarks. Identification of such targets and benchmarks is up to and Member States defining, for such an aim, eligible good or best practices. 13
15 The local filter is represented by the self-evaluation of project managers asked to submit some of their projects to eligible best practice. Usually self-evaluation is based on prefixed criteria and supported with description of key elements of the practice and its consistency with eligibility criteria. Transmission of information between local and central levels occurs through different means, such as questionnaires, forms, meetings, etc. The central filter is responsible for further audit of eligible practices. It could be up to a team of experts, administrative organisation or mixed groups made up of local and central representatives. The aim is to select the best practices to be included into the final collection. The audit starts with the analysis of information provided at local level. Such information can be integrated with data collected during visits, analysis of documentation, detailed interviews, case studies, meetings. The two steps, local and central rounds, are complementary and not alternative. In fact the the local level stakeholders take advantage of their direct and solid knowledge acquired on the local and institutional socio-economic context, in addition to that on each single project. Such a knowledge allowed the local actors to identify the project success elements and evaluate the matching extent between expectations and achieved results, as well as the indirect effects and innovative aspects. The central level guarantees that all best practices satisfy the shared eligibility criteria. The presence of certain requirements, such as transferability and efficacy, can be verified only at central level because they imply a deep knowledge of different socioeconomic and institutional contexts and the capacity to make a comparative analysis of the projects implemented in different sectors or territories. On one hand best practices selected only through the central filter would be based only on indicators and algorithms but quality elements ensuring success would be lost by such an objective analysis. On the other without a central filter it could be difficult to ensure appropriate homogeneity in the audit of identification criteria of best practices. Moreover the interest of local stakeholders into being included in the best practices collection could prevail over a merit evaluation. ollecting best practices presumes their selection out of the whole implemented projects. Often selection is made with no clear reference criteria and information available, thus resorting to the subjective evaluation and personal eligibility criteria of project managers and/or experts responsible for collection activities. Pursuing the objective to implement a best practices catalogue intending to be a real treasure of experiences to be valorised and shared for mutual learning, the sine-qua-non condition is the establishment of identification criteria and the recruitment of information on projects in line with such criteria. In urope most approaches to that issue are different but share some elements. The first concerns the distinction between identification criteria of each single practice from those to select the whole practices to be included into the final collection. Identification criteria refer to a series of attributes featuring a model of best practice and necessary to consider projects eligible to best practices. Selection criteria are added principles not referred to the single practice but to best practices as a whole. Applying a rigid grid of identification criteria could led to accept as best practices the unbalanced set of experiences referred to the same programme. On the contrary a valid collection of best practices should represent the entire variety of experiences and illustrate details on different types of projects, action strategies and environmental contexts. Paying attention to respect variety is something different from a diplomatic concern to include in the collection the best practices highlighted by local project managers. As for the grid of identification criteria, the few examples available in urope confirm the grid adopted by the atalogue project referred to the framework proposed by Isfol Institute for the evelopment of Vocational Training for Workers (Isfol methodology to identify and analyse SF best practices, June 2004), and consolidated for further Italian best practices research and collection activities (for example the Repertory of best practices for employment centres and equal opportunities implemented with Irs cooperation). Such a set of criteria is well balanced and adhere to the main requirements of uropean examples of SF best practices collections. Since the Italian atalogue covers the entire field of the uropean Social Fund, such criteria were strictly adjusted to represent the different action strategies. In particular efficacy and sustainability criteria need a more precise definition. fficacy criterion requires that the practice has produced results adequate to fixed objectives and expected effects. omparing achieved results with expectations implies ex post evaluation (evaluation conducted either on or after completion of an intervention) and not a mere ex ante appraisal. Such an evaluation implies wider information and methodology problems related to monitoring and efficacy assessment. If expost evaluation is missing for a project, periodic information on project in-progress activities as well as information recorded after the completion of the project are not available, thus making impossible to verify project efficacy unless using anecdotic way. The evaluation would be false and mis-leading. fficacy criterion should be further specified in terms of: direct effects (beneficiaries); indirect effects (socio-economic context) for example through dissemination of ideas, motivations, information, peer group effects, reproduction, social rules; interim effects (along implementation); final short-term effects; final long-term effects; 14
16 unexpected effects (positive or negative), beyond established objectives. irect effects regard beneficiaries and receive accurate consideration in most of the uropean best practices collections because they usually correspond with the explicit project objective. Indirect effects concern socio-economic context and correspond to the main result attained by the project. Sustainability, as illustrated in the Isfol methodological document issued in 2004, covers a wide range of contents that should be further distinguished. According to Isfol methodological document sustainability means compatibility with resources available and comparative costs analysis with other similar initiatives, as well as the potential to recruit new funds. At this point, by looking at other uropean experiences, it is better to mention two different criteria. Firstly the efficiency principle that means satisfying the requirement of a good (used) capital-output (produced) ratio. A policy appearing efficient from the point of view of results obtained could be satisfying if compared with similar interventions attaining the same results with more saving of costs. In addition to that, sustainability criteria could require that the practice goes on with its activities or producing effects beyond the completion of action. It is a demanding criteria worth considering as special requirement. More precisely sustainability could be intended as capacity to produce further resources and/or results after the completion of the project. According to the above definition, a practice is sustainable if produces changes with a cost-benefit ration advantageous for involved stakeholders (for example employers) thus soliciting a positive attitude towards it and willingness to incur costs. When sustainability is meant as the capacity to produce positive effects after the completion of the intervention, such intervention is required to match with the structural characters of its context of origin (organisations and enterprises, local labour market, etc.) or having introduced elements (cultural attitudes, coordination forms, etc.) able to positively impact on the context and endure in structural way, thus enabling the practice to prosecute activities in autonomy. Paying attention to appropriate employ of project resources should mean not only take into account the financial resources but further resources, some possible factors crucial to the success of the project. Usually information are limited to financial data. The above-mentioned Repertory on best practices within mployment services and equal opportunities used the same criteria adopted for the atalogue project. Such criteria pay attention to high professional skills as a key element for best practices identification. Beyond financial resources many projects are successful thank to the professional resources (professional quality of the personnel involved) and technology-logistic ones (technology devices, software used, quality of environments, their accessibility and welcoming characters). 4. Practices in atalogue: a general overview For up-to-date contents of the national atalogue of Italian best practices more than 1700 projects passed a census-taking and final 1500 projects were finally selected through a specific evaluation procedure to be included in the publication. The variegated projects showing the wide range of activities financed by the SF in programming period represent an exhaustive overview of national and regional programmes implemented under the Objective 1 and 3 as well as of ommunity initiatives. The many different operational procedures adopted to collect practices were often customised according to Managing Authorities needs and represented an added value to the variegation of results in terms of atalogue s distinctive factors for best practices eligibility (for instance with reference to categorisation variables as reference policy, linkage with S pillars, etc.). The best practices distribution based on key variables resulted from the illustrated operational procedure. The National atalogue presents a composition not in line with mere statistical representativeness principle (related to financial resources, territories, etc.) but with the intent to show a snapshot of the best practices implemented in the previous 7years-long programming and as represented by the Managing Authorities proposing their submission, (set aside the projects self-submitted by coordinators/actuators and further approved by Managing Authorities). The largest slice of projects in atalogue, in percentage terms, is represented by practices in the Objective 3 areas, followed by projects under Obj. 1 and qual ommunity initiative. omparing national OP Obj.1 18,5% Leonardo Programme 2,1% Percentage distribution of practices in atalogue: programmatic clusters (%) regional OP Obj.1 7,7% qual 12,4% national OP Obj.3 5,0% Art.6 2,1% regional OP Obj.3 52,1% 15
17 national with regional programming within Obj. 3 areas, the projects implemented under the regional OPs amount to more than 52%, while in the Obj. 1 areas the collected projects under the five national OPs amount to 18,5%. Projects implemented with Art. 6 and Leonardo programme represent a little more than 2% respectively. It must be kept in mind that Obj. 1-3 programming include many types of programmes while Art.6, Leonardo and qual refer to a single typology of programme, thus implying a less number of projects. Practices collection resulted more successful, in terms of numeric figures, in Obj. 3 areas but with differences between administrations both at national and regional levels. The same difference also regarded Obj. 1 areas where it depended on many factors impacting on data collection (possible administrative decentralisation implying a larger amount of coordinators to be contacted to identify practices, access databases, different levels of interest expressed by financing administrations, cooperation of actuators, etc.). From a quality point of view the atalogue includes projects impacting on different aspects of education, training and labour systems. In terms of policies the most recurrent topics concern training activities for labour placement (13,6%), strengthening of education and training systems (10,6%), research, innovation and competitiveness (9,4%). There is not a specific field of impact more relevant than others. In fact projects distribution is uniform for all policies but with different impacts, as showed in the following chart. Local evelopment Support to labour inclusion of migrants Support to labour inclusion of the other-wise abled mployment services/vocational Training/ Labour demand-supply matching Research, innovation and competitiveness Strength. of education, training and labour systems Job quality/emersion of black market Gender Mainstreaming and equal opportunities Tackle school and educational dropping out Anti-discrimination fight and equal opportunities for all Active ageing Training for compulsory education Learning for labour placement Learning for permanent labour placement Business creation and entrepreneurship development onciliation/sharing Other Best Practices Policies (%) regional and national programmes and Obj. 3 regional OP support training for labour placement (preference expressed by 18,9% of projects under Obj. 1 nop, 25,3% of projects under Obj.1 rop and 13,0% of projects under Obj. 3 regional OP). Actions to strengthen education, training and labour systems prevail among national OP System Actions for Obj.3 areas (20,2%) and under Leonardo Programme (28,6%). For qual project the recurrent policy refers to fight against discrimination and equal opportunities for all (15,5%). Under Art. 6 programmes the most recurrent policy adopted by best practices concerns mployment services/vocational guidance/assistance labour demand-supply matching (12,8%). The same occurs with the linkage of projects to the S. About half projects focus on two S pillars: employability (22,8% of projects) and development of human capital and lifelong learning (25,1%), the two pillars strongly attracting the above-mentioned types of policies. Projects focusing on mployability pillar refer to regional OP in Obj. 1 and 3 areas (respectively 29,3%, 23,5%); development of human capital and lifelong learning is preferred by projects implemented under national OP for Obj. 1 (44,3%), nop Obj. 3 (31,0%), rop Obj. 3 (23,1%) and Leonardo Programme (36,4%). Most of the projects implemented under Art. 6 (16,8%) and the nop for Obj. 3 (31,0%) gravitate towards adaptability pillar while qual projects (24,6%) concentrate on promotion of integration of disadvantaged categories in labour market. A further analysis regarded the linkage between practices in atalogue and current programming. One of priorities of the atalogue was to perform the function to disseminate information on best practices as well as to support and accompany towards the new programming. Quiet all actions of projects in atalogue (apart 4,5% of cases) can be linked to programming and show consistency with the Priority Axe mployability (26,9%) and Human apital (28,8%), thus representing a valid support for Managing Authorities future programming activities. In particular most of the best practices focus on the improvement of labour placement for women with a decrease of gender inequality (51,1%) and an increase of participation to life-long learning opportunities and increase of learning and knowledge levels (45,9%). Further projects covering other Priority Axis and national Ops can be a support to programming actions. A glance to each programming enables to reveal the consistency between the concentration of projects policies in atalogue and action strategies underlying the different operational programmes. ata show that projects implemented under Obj The on-line atalogue The National atalogue of Italian SF best practices, programmes and ommunity initiatives, is available on-line and free at Its database collects the successful 16
18 Incidence of best practices on S pillars (%) Adaptability Tackle regional employment gaps Promote active ageing Financial incentives for labour attractiveness ntrepreneurship mployability qual opportunities Promote integration of disadvantaged groups Promote development of human capital and life-long learning Turn black labour market into regular employment Link between best practices and programming (%) Adaptability mployability Social Inclusion Human apital Transnationality and Interregionality Technical Assistance Institutional apacity National OP No Links with programming programming experiences co-financed by the SF within the Obj.1-3 Operational Programmes, both national and regional, the qual ommunity initiatives, the Innovative Actions envisaged by the Art. 6 of the Reg. 1784/99 and the ommunity Programme Leonardo da Vinci. The atalogue database can be browsed through a variety of research criteria most suitable to satisfy users needs: central and regional Managing Authorities, provinces, social parties, actuators, promoters and the public. Best practices atalogue can be browsed through a research by typology of policy and 17
19 project reference context, programming, period, programming instruments, project beneficiaries up to a more detailed level of research through coordinator and project title. The project newsletter provided updated information on documentation available, web news and project events. The atalogue project activities also included workshops illustrated in the documentation on-line in the Media kit section to share early results and exchange experiences among stakeholders. Topical focus was on best practices within the field of social inclusion, research and security, full employment and good job, systems innovation. Further activities regarded events to share technical, statutory and methodological documentation as well as the implementation of a bibliographic collection of documents on best practices, BPs identification, selection and collection processes and analysis results. ocumentation available on regulation framework, SF ommunity programming of and periods, methodological information, surveys reports on contexts similar to the SF best practices atalogue provide a great sharing and learning opportunity to think over results attained in the past programming and development for current one. 6. The national SF best practices atalogue: an instrument for an evaluation glance backwards programming and a support for programming The national atalogue, in addition to being a useful instrument to collect, select and disseminate the projects financed in 7yearslong SF programming, represented a valid litmus test for the Managing Authorities and all stakeholders, both institutional and non-institutional, involved in the processes of atalogue implementation to actively partake in identification, selection and assessment of best practices. Building the atalogue enabled to set the evaluation criteria to consider a project eligible to best practice. Such criteria were transferred to different stakeholders involved in best practices identification, evaluation and cataloguing processes, thus contributing through different ways, strengths and results to develop an evaluation culture in wider extent than within SF programming. In such a way evaluation culture was spread at level, both regional and national, of Managing Authorities and single actuators. Partaking in catalogue building the Managing Authorities and local stakeholders developed their self-analysis and self-evaluation capacity necessary to know, recognize, identify and select best projects, and improved their ability to programme on the basis of achieved results and system capacities developed. In addition to this added value of implemented experience, it must be recognized that the central coordinating and ruling the initiative structured the atalogue in such a way to satisfy the aims of policy identification, governance of processes and innovation development through standard collection criteria set since the programming step and through measuring and evaluation criteria of best practices. This last aspect is even more relevant if linked to another function of the national atalogue, that of being a useful instrument to support SF programming for period. The atalogue, as often highlighted, was implemented in a bridge period of transition from one programming period to another. In such a view the atalogue seemed to have a strategic mission to set the principles for an appropriate and efficient employ of public resources, as well as to maximise the results of mechanisms activated through such an employ. As highlighted from the results achieved up to now the atalogue has the potential to be on one hand a valid support to the programming processes of the Managing Authorities and on the other a guide to support potential coordinators in project planning, thus contributing to the concrete transfer of methods and instruments, ideas and solutions. At this point it is evident that the atalogue can provide the key variables to interpret the programming (national and regional) in a way to foster borders crossing of information and the exchange of best practices, thus being a source of innovative planning quality although the necessary adjustments to transit from period to the new programming. It is an instrument for mutual learning to share and compare the programmes co-financed by the SF, thus contributing to promote a partaken governance for the new programming. It represents a good starting point to enter into dialogue with other new uropean realities. 18