Partnerships for employment, growth and social inclusion

One of the projects I have worked with over the last three years is the Community of Practice (COP) on Partnership in the European Social Fund (ESF). From 2009-11, against the background of the economic crisis, the COP examined partnership approaches adopted by the national and regional ESF Operational Programmes (OPs) of EU Member States to promote economic growth, social inclusion and employment opportunities.

ESF regulations on partnership refer to both the involvement of stakeholders, including social partners (trade unions and employer representatives), in the governance mechanisms of OPs, as well as to the provision of financial support to multi-actor projects. In the COP we worked together to develop a working definition of partnership that combined these two distinct areas, at the same time as enabling flexible interpretation of the concept across different EU Member States:

Partnership is a dynamic and complementary relationship between diverse actors in which added value is achieved by working together rather than alone. In the ESF partnerships are used to support policy linkages that promote growth and prosperity across the EU by reducing economic, social and territorial disparities through:
• Encouraging employment and social inclusion at transnational, national, regional and local levels;
• Stimulating the involvement of diverse actors and approaches;
• Clearly defining target groups, objectives and priorities;
• Balancing competition and cooperation;
• Achieving benefits for both partners and wider society; and,
• Building participatory democracy through collaborative decision-making.

COP members exchanged learning through peer reviews that looked at different Partnership Practices, Effects and Opportunities (PEOs):

• P: Partnership Practices of Member States/regions at all levels of governance
• E: Effects of partnership approaches on policies and impacts for ESF target groups
• O: Opportunities for improving policy planning and delivery

Peer reviews, or PEO explorations, were conducted in: Austria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Hungary, Portugal and Sweden. The diverse partnership approaches encountered in these Member States included:

• Austria: Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs) – contracted regional partnerships that promote better policy linkages in order to improve the employment situation at regional and local level.
• Germany: A “T model” combining horizontal partnerships at federal level with vertical partnerships initiated at federal level but addressing regional and local levels.
• Greece: Mainstreaming of EQUAL Programme principles to promote greater empowerment and social cohesion at local level.
• Hungary: Emphasis on the added value of partnership and stakeholder engagement, with special focus on the local level.
• Ireland: Local partnership and community emphasis to reinforce grassroots links and gender equity.
• Portugal: Macro, meso and micro level approaches with two forms of partnership at meso and micro level: ‘formal’ projects developed in partnership with defined access to financing and management; and ‘informal’ partnerships based on the logic of coordinated work.
• Sweden: Regional Structural Fund Partnerships (SFPs) that reinforce improved governance through the engagement of politicians and also serve as selection bodies for “cooperation projects” operating at multiple levels.

The PEO explorations demonstrated that partnerships can foster employment, social cohesion, economic development, environmental sustainability and quality of life, even in times of crisis. Indeed countries and regions with long partnership histories and good cross-sector connections appear to have been better able to withstand the impact of the current economic crisis. While clearly not a panacea, COP members found that well-planned and executed partnership approaches have been able to support improvements in:

• Governance – by mobilising different stakeholders to work together and provide a more democratic policy ‘mandate’ and responsive policy approaches to problem-solving;
• Sustainability – through stakeholder engagement across different levels of society leading to more sustainable solutions to development challenges than when different actors operate separately;
• Transnationality – cross-country linkages and inter-regional cooperation that enable greater access to new ideas, approaches and skills; and,
• Innovation – the sharing of diverse perspectives, ideas and resources that create new solutions for promoting social cohesion and creating employment opportunities.

It is also worth noting that the review process itself was highly successful in enabling fruitful partnership learning. The COP’s work suggests that more dynamic and innovative cross-territorial learning exchanges, where experiences and knowledge are shared and reflected upon “at the same eye-level”, can make a valuable contribution to finding effective ways to address pressing ongoing challenges in the EU such as poverty, unemployment and social exclusion.

For more information on the work of the Community of Practice (COP) on Partnership in the European Social Fund (ESF) and details of the PEO explorations undertaken, please see the Partnership Learning Manual (Vienna, January 2012).

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