Short description

Title of the project: Capacity-building in municipalities through Norwegian-Hungarian cooperation

Aim of the project:

• · reduction of economic and social disparities in the EEA through different capacity-building tools based on Norwegian/KS and VOX experiences;
• · strengthening of bilateral relations between Norway and Hungary through aiming to establish opportunities for personal contacts and professional cooperation on the most important areas of municipal operation both of the countries.
• The project involves the Hungarian and Norwegian Ministries with major impact to local governmental operation: the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, Ministry of Human Resources from Hungary.
• The project adapt the successful Norwegian social dialogue model both on local and on national level: we will create effective cooperation on national level between the local government associations and governmental organizations, and relevant trade union; and on local level with relevant stakeholders as well.
• Project Promoter: Hungarian National Association of Local Authorities (TÖOSZ) www.toosz.hu
  
• Main Donor Partner: Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) www.ks.no
  
• Donor Partner: VOX, Norwegian Agency for Lifelong Learning www.vox.no
• Partners:

• Hungarian Village Association (MFSZ) www.faluszovetseg.hu
  
• National Association of Small Cities (KÖOÉSZ) www.kisvarosok.hu
  
• Association of Life Long Learning (SZETT) www.nyitok.hu
  
• Trade Union of Hungarian Civil Servants and Public Employees (MKKSZ) www.mkksz.org.hu
  
• Ministry of Interior (BM) http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-interior
  
• Ministry of Public Administration and Justice (KIM) http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-public-administration-and-justice
  
• Ministry of Human Resources (EMMI) http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-human-resources

Total budget:1.408.962,53 EUR

Project timeframe: from 25th of September 2013 until 30th of April 2016

• We established 4 main pillars in our project structure with the following content and activities:

  -              1. Equality between man and women at local level (WP (work package) 4): supporting gender policy in local government through Norwegian experiences and exchange program of women elected representatives and implementing pilot projects based on Norwegian examples aiming to support the work-life balance of citizens in 5 Hungarian municipalities. On national level with campaign to tackle or handle stereotypes in the Hungarian society; sharing knowledge about good governance: how to include effectively the equality policy in decision-making and governmental functioning. In Hungary the National Social Inclusion Strategy was recently adopted, which expects that municipalities create new equality plans with more relevance for effective actions on local level. In 2014 we will collect the best practices from local governments and exchange experiences with Norwegian municipalities. We will organize a conference in 2015 to reach more elected leaders and offer them to gain better knowledge about strategic planning and policy making in equality policy.

  -              2. capacity-building of local government association in Hungary from different aspects:

  - A) (WP 5.1) in cooperation with government: involving relevant Ministries with Norwegian expertise, examples and support from relevant counterparts: creating dialogue structures for the newly constituted National Cooperation Council of Local Governments (ÖNET). Ministry of Interior as leading organization of this consultation forum is committed to maintain a real dialogue with local governments based on their knowledge and aspects together with other relevant sectoral government institutions. Hungarian stakeholders (leaders and experts of Ministries and government institutions and local government associations) will study in beginning of 2013 the Norwegian mechanism for consultation between KS and Ministries. They will work together and agree on identifying information sources, detailed rules and mechanism on cooperation and develop guidelines and agreements which will be adopted by highest governmental level .

  - B) (WP 5.2)in the economic area: we will focus on Norwegian examples in supporting local service provision through development of companies owned by local governments (KS Bedrift). We will collect information on their activities, results, possibilities and create a reference group with KS moderation, who will study the KS Bedrift operation and make a SWOT analysis to achieve better positions on the market.

  - C) (WP 5.3) in accessing information: we will establish the Local Government Information and Coordination Centre by purchasing premises (up to 10% of total project budget) in Budapest. We do not presently to have an official venue for local government meetings or trainings, however, most of the events will be held in the capital because of the features of the Hungarian traffic system. The maintaining organization will be the project promoter, TÖOSZ with providing possibilities to have working places for MFSZ and KÖOÉSZ as well. For the purposes of the project all project partners and local governments in Hungary will be entitled to use free of charge this Centre.

  - D) (WP 5.4 and 5.5) in providing public services by local governments: Creation efficiency network for small municipalities (leading Partner MFSZ) and in elderly care (leading Partner KÖOÉSZ).The new local government act emphasizes the task division between the different types of municipalities, which means that the small local governments will have more opportunities in the field of leading and organizing the local communities. MFSZ will collect best practices from villages and disseminate them in the form of publications. They will have regional workshops (9) in 2013 and in 2015 in order to create forums for discussion of special problems and needs of small municipalities. MFSZ will study the solutions of Norwegian local governments for similar problems.

  KÖOÉSZ will lead a program targeting small cities in Hungary in order to learn from each other best practices and solutions in elderly care. As the different challenges are urgent and important for Norwegian municipalities too, we will organize sharing experiences between Norwegian and Hungarian small cities. In both efficiency network of local governments will dominate the relevant professional information and data and we will disseminate the results and best practices in the frame of a national conference.

  -E) by training activities: Councillor Training Program (WP 5.6) : based on KS method TÖOSZ adapted a Hungarian program should be changed because of the new local government regulation. We will update the training material and will have 40 trainings after the local election in 2014.

  WP1 contains the project management, coordination, WP2 the evaluation and WP3 is the communication. All of them will accompany through the 32 months of the whole project duration.