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Cooperation with Norwegian Municipalities – what are the options?

Cooperation with Norwegian Municipalities – what are the options?. Gunnbjørg Naavik, Special Adviser, KS – Sofia – 4 March 2008. KS as a national members’ association for local and regional government 430 municipalities, 19 counties and approx. 500 public enterprises

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Cooperation with Norwegian Municipalities – what are the options?

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  1. Cooperation with Norwegian Municipalities – what are the options? Gunnbjørg Naavik, Special Adviser, KS – Sofia – 4 March 2008

  2. KS as a national members’ association for local and regional government • 430 municipalities, 19 counties and approx. 500 public enterprises - Head Office in Oslo. Representation in all Counties. Objective to • Strengthen local democracy • Facilitate and communicate members’ needs, and influence national framework conditions - Develop further the established arrangements for consultations between local authorities and national Government

  3. KS as an interest and employer organisation • Spokesman vis-à-vis central government • Central collective bargaining organisation • Advisory and consultative body

  4. Competence of Norwegian local and regional government • Administration of resources • Implementation of laws and regulations • Provision of services to the inhabitants • Regional planning and development

  5. Norwegian municipal and regional international cooperation • International local and regional cooperation since early 1990’s • People-to-people co-operation • Project cooperation under different Government Action Plans for Eastern and Central Europe and the EU candidate countries (1992 – 2004) • 50 – 60 Norwegian municipalities have been or are involved in municipal international cooperation projects

  6. Liveable Municipalities • A five year program (2006-2010) for capacity building on sustainable development in local authorities in Norway • Agreement between the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities - KS, and the Norwegian Ministry of Environment – MoE. • The overall aim to create more vibrant and sustainable communities through networking amongst small clusters of municipalities • KS has long experience with the method of municipalities working together in small networks

  7. Liveable Municipalities Six priority areas : • Energy and climate issues • Spatial planning and land use policies • Environmental business and trade (sustainable production and consumption) • Cultural heritage • Outdoor recreation, health and quality of life • Cooperation with local and regional authorities in other countries

  8. Liveable Municipalities The networks’ tasks are connected to the local authorities ordinary steering process : • Identify status and areas for improvement on local sustainable development, by use of indicators and ”bench learning” • Involve people to shape the vision for their community, and build strong partnerships across public, private, business, voluntary and community sector • Integrate sustainability in ordinary planning, steering and activities to make sustainability a core business, and to secure a lasting effect when the programme period is over

  9. Liveable Municipalities • An average number of five municipalities in each network • Stress participation from politicians, chief executives and their staff • Networks meet on a regular basis to share experiences and to discuss improvement on a certain issue • Facilitated by 10 advisers working at the regional branch offices of KS • Overall goal to involve 200 of the 431 municipalities in Norway in the programme

  10. Liveable Municipalities • By end of 2007 34 networks were established including 152 municipalities • 20 networks (103 municipalities) on climate and energy and 19 networks (77 municipalities) on space planning

  11. Liveable Municipalities Need to make parallel improvements at national level. Main objectives : • Make national indications on development in the municipalities based on assessment tools • Feed the results into processes to move national policies in a direction that improves local authorities abilities to create a more sustainable development

  12. Green Energy Municipalities • Agreement between three Ministries ; Oil and Energy, Environment, and Local Government and Regional Development - Programme period 2007-2010 • 21 municipalities and 1 regional authority participate • Objective : to encourage municipalities to make efforts within energy efficiency, renewable energy such as bioenergy, and to reduce their emmissions of climate gases - Same work method as Liveable Municipalities

  13. Some concerns from KS’ point of view : • Local and regional governments have valuable knowledge and competence that should be of considerable importance to the national government • Local and regional authorities should be actively included in the national priorities in order to benefit from the Financial Mechanisms in the best possible way • Norwegian local and regional authorities are ready to become partners with authorities and enterprises in Bulgaria and to help exploring the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms

  14. http://www.ks.no http://www.livskraftigekommuner.no

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