 23 June -11 September 2021  Remote participation | Fifth Edition
Organised by the OECD Trento Centre - at the initiative of NextPA
Context
In recent years, the municipalities of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region have been faced with the challenge of their mutual co-operation not only in organising and providing services for citizens, but also in outlining and implementing shared inter-municipal wide-area socio-economic development policies.
Faced with this challenge, starting in 2017, the Summer School for local administrators was conceived as a discussion space for reflecting on the innovative function of municipalities to promote territorial development. Given the small size of many municipalities, developing strategies and planning territorial development with a wide-area perspective and through inter-municipal associations and collaborations opens many new opportunities.
The COVID-19 pandemic is shaking up the world, impacting people's lives, communities, work, business and the wider international environment. It is clear that nothing can be the same as before, as the changes ahead will be radical and difficult to predict. Local governments are at the forefront in facing the challenge, as they are called upon to be a driving force in governing the processes of reconstruction and revitalisation of local economies and societies.
The Summer School, since its inception, contributes to the generation of widespread expertise across the region in driving and governing local development. Each edition of the Summer School brings new local administrators to the Smart Community, i.e. a community of practice made up of all the participants in past editions.
Goal & target group
The Summer School for local administrators - of which this is the fifth edition - is intended as a platform for capacity building and exchange of experiences among local administrators aimed at acquiring knowledge and familiarity with strategic planning and programming. The School helps local authorities to better shape the (long-term) development of their territories including through a more efficient use of public resources, such as regional, national and the EU funds.
The Summer School foresees participation of a maximum of 30 local administrators - 24 from the municipalities of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and up to 6 representing the Veneto Region and the Autonomous Province of Trento. Admission is subject to a selection process after a public call for interest.
Methodology
The fifth edition of the Summer School, held in the current exceptional situation, is based on several essential assumptions:
Conferring and recognising the centrality of governance in decision-making processes
In the scenario determined by the pandemic, everyone - businesses, public administrators, representatives of civil society, research and knowledge actors - will be called upon to play an active role in recovery through new ways of working and collaborating. For this effort to be effective, it is essential that appropriate forms, methods and instruments of governance are identified and competences capable of governing these processes are built.
Exploiting the tools of communication and the digital society
It is necessary to immediately start building a shared vision for the reconstruction and sustainable development in the different territorial contexts. This requires a timely engagement in a process of elaboration and sharing of new knowledge, making full use of the potential of the digital network and the information society, as we have become accustomed to doing in recent months.
The Smart Community: The value of the Community of Practice
In the current situation, it is urgent to strengthen existing relational networks. The Smart Community among local administrators constitutes a substantial opportunity for this process, allowing experiences, projects and specific in-depth studies to be shared.
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Talks cycle on understanding global trends to innovate local governments
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