Why and How the Finnish Government Works With the Third Sector

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Why and How the Finnish Government Works With the
Third Sector

• Johanna Nurmi
• Counsellor
• Ministry of Finance, Finland
• 24.4.2007

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Why did we start?

• The income level and the educational level of the
  citizens are higher than ever better
  preconditions for participation
• The voting rate has declined in Finland as in
  many other countries, even when traditionally the
  rate has been very high
• Conventional forms of participation are still
  preferred over protest natured ways
• The number of active people satisfied with the
  possibilities to participate has declined the
  passive people have less and less faith in
  participation
• Trust study 2000
• Central government reform 2000-2003
• Civic Participation policy programme 2004-2007

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Where did we start?

• Openness and dialogue in public administration
  are considered to be profitable for Finnish
  Economy.
• They are traditional strengths of Finnish
  administration.
• A lot of effort has however been devoted to these
  areas also in recent years
• Access to information legislation from 1951
  renewed in 1999
• A Project Register (www.hare.vn.fi)
• Participation project at municipal level

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Citizen Participation Policy Programme 2004-2007

• Horizontal Policy Programmes a new tool setting
  out key priorities of the Finnish Government
• Civil Participation Policy Programme included
  tens of projects in four areas
• Democratic Structures and Methods
• Citizen Participation
• Functioning of Civil Society
• Active Citizenship
• The Programme also addressed efficient and
  appropriate administration of democratic issues
  in the Government

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Civic Participation Policy Programme
Schools
Youth NGOs
Learning democracy
Youth participation
Government communication
Government National Local
Hear the Citizens
Parliament
Democracy audits
Electoral systems and voting
Political parties
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Organisation of the Policy Programme

• Minister of Justice responsible for the programme
  supported by a ministerial group of the following
  ministers
• Minister of Culture
• Minister of Social Affairs and Health
• Co-ordinate Minister for Finance
• Minister of Regional and Municipal Affairs
• Appointed Programme Manager (and his staff) at
  the Ministry of Justice supported by a group a
  civil servants from
• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Finance
• Ministry of the Interior
• Ministry of Social Affairs and Health
• Prime Ministers Office

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Case - Hear the Citizens

• Background study
• International practices
• Consulting organisations and ministries
• Work areas
• strategies for ministries
• information strategies should be more interactive
• training for civil servants
• guidelines, handbook
• discussion forum to continue
• pilot projects

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Hearing Citizens in Ministries
The right to say
The right to be heard
The right to know
Resume
Preparatory work begins
Consulting
Political decsion making
Implementation
Political agenda
A wider knowledge base
Better preparatory work
Better decision-making
Easier implementation
Preparatory work in ministries
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Guidelines for Civil Servants
Remember consultation in each projectproportion
it according to the significance of the project
Make sure that all parties involved are consulted
and that all those interested can send comments
Reserve enough time for the consultation
Make a resume bring out also those comments,
that did not lead to changes
Evaluate how well you succeeded
Planning
Project
Decision-making
Use language that is simple
and unambiguous
Inform about every phase and make sure that the
project is in the project register
(www.hare.vn.fi)
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Financial Support to NGOs

• How the overall funding of NGOs in Finland is
  organised?
• By sectoral ministries through state budget in
  their respective areas e.g.
• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Social affairs and Health
• Ministry for Foreign Affairs
• Which are the arguments for supporting NGOs
  financially by the state in Finland?
• democratic society the watchdog role of the
  NGOs
• quality of life of the citizens the activities
  organised by the NGOs
• support to the official policies - the
  activities organised by the NGOs and the
  knowledge base they create through their
  activities
• contributing to public service provision system
  the services NGOs provide in addition to public
  services

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Financial Support to NGOs (2/2)

• Which NGOs are supported from the state budget
  and on which circumstances?
• NGOs operating nationally (local NGOs supported
  by the municipalities)
• NGOs which meet the characteristic regulated in
  the respective law
• NGOs which in their application can prove they
  are able to meet the targets set for the funding.
  

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Some Results of the Policy Programme (1/2)

• The Democracy Unit established at the Ministry of
  Justice to promote citizen participation. It is
  i.a. responsible for
• the drafting of the democracy policy,
• organizes co-operation between Ministries in the
  area of citizen participation and
• is in charge of the maintenance of the discussion
  forum otakantaa.fi and the portal kansanvalta.fi
• Advisory Board of democracy policy has been
  established, consisting of
• relevant ministries, National Board of Taxes,
  National Board of Patents and Registration,
  representatives of different NGO categories and a
  representative of industry and commerce and a
  representative of academia.

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Some Results of the Policy Programme (2/2)

• Government Decision on Principle (May 2007)
• aim to safeguard the operational preconditions of
  the NGOs by different further actions e.g.
• clarification on the taxation of their activities
• improving the possibilities of the NGOs to
  foresee the impacts of decisions to be taken by
  the government
• setting target levels for the Finnish NGO policy
  on national and international level.
• In the new Government Programme (Vanhanen II,
  April 2007)
• a Pilot project to test electronic voting in
  local elections in 2008
• developing the election districts to secure the
  territorial representativeness in the Parliament.
  

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• For further information,
• please contact me at
• johanna.nurmi_at_vm.fi