Description
The project's objective is strengthened institutional capacity and human resource development in public institutions, local and regional authorities in Hungary, through cooperation and transfer of knowledge with similar institutions and authorities in Norway. The project promotes the reduction of economic and social disparities in the EEA through different capacity-building tools based on Norwegian - KS and VOX experiences; the strengthening of bilateral relations between Norway and Hungary by aiming at establishing opportunities for personal contacts and professional cooperation on the most important areas of municipal operation both of the countries. The project will focus on different aspects of good governance both on central and local level. The economical aspects will domain at the part of the project with aim to increase the capacities of local governments. For the programme’s specific objective we implement the project through Norwegian methodology with possible further development of bilateral cooperation, which could help the development of the Norwegian municipalities as well. The project will enable for the professionals of governmental organizations and local governments to have deeper insight into the Norwegian solutions into elderly care, home care and challenges for municipalities with low number of inhabitants; and how to fit the equality policy into the governance system; and how to create learning partnership on local level. The project will strengthen with different tools and products the capacities of local governments, and its public servants, township offices and local government associations. The results in indicators (from Hungarian side) 356 (number of institutions on local level with strengthened capacity). We will train at least 1000 persons during the 32 month of project implementation.
Summary of project results
The project implementation of the Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities (TÖOSZ) was continuous and very successful, so it managed to finish its project according to the original plan. MANORKA project aimed at developing local democracy through strengthening the experience exchange of Hungarian-Norwegian local government associations, the role of women in public life; the promotion of work-life balance; the support of the cooperation of local government and township offices through the public administrative reform; increasing the efficiency of local government interest-representation, the renewal of the system of professional dialogue between the state and the local governments. 4 main pillars in the project structure with the following content and activities: Work Package 1: contains the project management, coordination, Work Package 2: contains the evaluation Work Package 3: contains the communication Work Package 4: Equality between man and women at local level Work Package 5: Capacity building of local government associations Work Package 6: Cooperation program between district and municipal offices Work Package 7: Fighting poverty and supporting social enterprises through local government training Due to the effective management of the Project Promoter and the excellent cooperation with the DPPs the implementation has been finished on planned schedule. The results of the pre-defined project of TÖOSZ has exceeded the original targets. It developed the Norwegian-Hungarian local government relations and focused on local government cooperation. The quality of leadership greatly influences the level of local public services and community life, thus experience exchange and learning are the keys to efficient developments – in the framework of this project more than 3600 staff was trained. The project strengthened local government interest-protection through Norwegian experiences and proficiency. Official website:
www.manorka.net
Summary of bilateral results
The development of professional exchange program (for elected women on local level from Norway and Hungary on equal opportunities and work life balance) was successfully implemented which has also resulted further bilateral relations. Study visits were also very useful for the small settlements. In the frame of another study visit there was an opportunity for very effective experience exchange between high level state representatives of Hungary and Norway. The last study visit was held in 2016, at the final stage of the project implementation. It provided excellent learning opportunities for the Hungarian stakeholders thanks to the perfect organization of the professional program by KS on the challenges of local governmental reform. In Norway, representatives of the Ministries and local governments shared their views and approaches to the reform of the systems of the local governments. As in Hungary, the same challenges will emerge, the comparison and experiences were very useful both for the governmental and the local governmental side. As an interest- representing organization, TÖOSZ gained knowledge and inputs from KS, the sister-association in Norway for its development of key strategies. The possibility of personal interactions, common events and online development of documents was the most effective tool for strengthening bilateral relations. The project promoter strongly focused on strengthening bilateral relationship at project level. They organized conferences, workshops, study tours and different trainings in order to exchange experience and learn from each other.