ISBN Number: 9789264056800
Publication Date: October 2010
Pages: 140

Doing more with less

Government intervenes in a myriad of ways at the local level, and rarely are these interventions co-ordinated effectively. Most of us are familiar with policy "silos". Such divisions are often taken for granted, blamed on historical working relationships ("it has always been like that") and organisational cultures ("they don’t work like we do").  However these divisions come at a cost. The issues and challenges facing local communities are often complex, and require a holistic approach to be resolved. In the context of the economic recovery and public budget cuts, policy silos and fragmented short-term policy interventions have also become luxuries that our economies can no longer afford.

LEED has just published a new book ‘Breaking out of policy silos: doing more with less’, which provides concrete advice to policy makers at both national and local levels on how to better align policies and reduce duplication and waste. It is based on comparative analysis of 11 countries (Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania and the United States) and combines rankings on where countries stand in terms of the integration of employment, skills and economic development policies, with concrete examples of successful policy integration on the ground.  One featured example is the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where joint working between the McAllen Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the Workforce Investment Board (Workforce Solutions), and local colleges, schools and universities was integral to a strategy to transform a region of high unemployment and low incomes into a rapid response manufacturing centre attracting new companies and higher skilled jobs to a cross-border region with Reynosa in Mexico.