European Territorial Cooperation

SustainabilityTransferabilityCapitalisation

Pietro Celotti

EIPA European Instituto of Public Administration 11 December 2012

Project sustainability

A project is sustainable when it continues to deliver benefits to the project beneficiaries and/or other constituencies for an extended period after the Commission’s financial assistance has been terminated.

Source: European Commission (2006) Directorate-General Education

and Culturehttp://eacea.ec.europa.eu/tempus/doc/

sustainhandbook.pdf

Project sustainability

• Sustainable problems with the classical donor-controlled project approach have become increasingly evident:

Inadequate local ownership of projects, with negative implications for sustainable benefits

..Source: European Commission (2004)

PCM Guidelines http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/multimedia/publications/documents/tools/europeaid_adm_pcm_guidelines_2004_en.pdf

Transferability

• Transferring project results and solutions to other bodies/organisations external to the partnership is one of the keys for sustainability

• This implies a sophisticated analysis of the external need for project results and solutions

• The analysis must be projected in a future time frame

Transferability

• Transferability process is a natural follow-up for a pilot project

• Transferability is based on the ‘production and distribution’ of tools that allow to share the approach experimented in the pilot project

• It is particularly difficult to monitor the actual use of the project results and solutions after the end of the project

Transferability Communication

Inform

Promote

InvolveTrain

Web-based

“Traditional”

Online tutor

Web 2.o

Website

Mailing listWorkshops

Events, exhibitions

Press coverage

Capitalisation

In the area of Territorial cooperation these issues are dramatically emphasised. “Capital isation” is a term used to stress the necessity to consider the l ink of the project with other projects and with the programme as a whole.

Why territorial cooperation• Solution of common problems• Through joined actions• Within a wide area of cooperation• With limited resources (if compared to other

programmmes)

• With specific financial rules (risks of low local ownership of the projects, costs generated by separate management/financing/monitoring arrangements)

Intangible effects

Strategy to reduce common

problems

Experimentation and innovation

Awareness of new common

problems

Improvement of competencies

Exchange of practices

Relationships and networks

Territorial cooperation

Territorial cooperation

• Territorial cooperation effects can not be compared to those generated by other programmes belonging to the cohesion policy

• They are strictly related to the intangible assets of the players

• Intangible assets do not belong to a unique lead partner or to a individual partnership – it is necessary to consider the whole policy cycle

Policy cycle

FormulationImplementationIdentification

Capitalisation

MAIN STEPS• Awareness of

project effects and relevant policy cycle phase

• Involvement of the policy players

• Impact on the policy (identification of a new problem, formulation of a pilot model of intervention...)

Policy evolution

Experimentation

Relations Networls

Competencies

Capitalisation

Identification of the policy cycle

phase

Identification of possible

synergies

CAPITALISATION

Involvement of players

Evaluation

CommunicationCAPITALISATIO

N

Policy development

Alpine Space Programme (ASP)It is the EU transnational cooperation programme for the Alps. Partners from the seven Alpine countries work together to promote regional development in a sustainable way. During the period 2007-2013, the programme is investing 130 Million € in impact-oriented projects in which key actors develop shared solutions on specific Alpine issues.

ASP analysis

Literature

• Alpine Space Interact, Espon documentation; territorial cooperation evaluations

• Academic publications on capitalisation

Survey

• Questionnaire (10 questions)• Answers: 65% (100% 1° and 2° call for proposals)

Focus Group

• 4 focus groups• 60 participants

ASP findings

Literature

• Policy development and capitalisation are in the middle of the debate … but definitions are still confusing

Survey

• For the beneficiaries it is difficult to identify their role in the process

• It is hard to involve the “politicians”

Focus Group

• Several projects have started capitalisation processes unintentionally

• Projects are mainly at policy formulation level

ASP conclusions

• The main impacts of ASP concern the support to the policy cycle evolution

• Specifically ASP provides an important support to the formulation phase (piloting actions – experimentation)

• Capitalisation is the process of making the project effects (mainly intangible) impact the policy cycle

ASP conclusions

• All projects shall embody and develop a capitalisation process

• In ASP capitalisation process follows 3 main steps: awareness and sharing of the results among partners, communication and dissemination outside the project, integration with other policy tools

ASP conclusions• A project focused on policy identification

should be promoted by centres of research, SMEs/workers/volunteers associations, chambers of commerce...

• A project focused on policy formulation should be promoted by ministries, regional/local councils…

• A project focused on policy implementation should be promoted by local authorities, regional agencies…

Beneficiaries of political action

Civil servants

Political decision makers

Political elected representatives

International organisations Universities

and research Non profit organisations

Representatives of other

groupsBusiness

Volunteers associations

Grow

ing

influ

ence

on

the

polic

ySt

akeh

olde

r

Rele

vant

ac

tor

Policy action

Targ

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A recent paradox!• In 2012 Alpine Space Programme is

carrying out a complex stakeholder dialogue process

• Italian stakeholders (about 160) tend to stress the necessity to “capitalise” the projects even more than the urgency to solve problems registered on the field

• How to interpret this evidence? See you again somewhere in 2013…

ASP guide on capitalisation is available

http://www.alpine-space.eu/fileadmin/media/National/Italy/Capitalization_Guide_IT.pdf

www.t33.itp.celotti@t33.it