Citizen‘s Charter

Kick-off seminar, 16-17 May 2006

Organisers

• SIGMA, which is a joint initiative of the OECD and the European Commission, principally funded by the EC (www.sigmaweb.org)

General Objectives

• To make participants familiar with service charters
• To identify with the participants how to integrate the charter initiative into their current modernisation strategy
• To enable participants to draft the first version of a service charter

General Topics

• Objectives of service charters
• Types of service charters
• Basic concepts of performance management

Target Groups

• Top managers and politicians at local and regional levels.
• Quality managers in public service organisations.
• Managers of strategic planning and citizen participation units in the public sector.

Programme - Day 1

•  9'15-10'00   Opening of the seminar
  Welcome to the participants
  Introduction of the participants (interactive session)
• 10'00-11'00   Objectives of the pilot programme on service charters
  Presentation of the seminar programme
  Clarification of the objectives (interactive session)
  What performance indicators would suggest the success of the charter initiative?
• 11'00-11'15   Coffee Break
• 11'15-12.45   Workshop: Defining your key stakeholders
  Presentation of different types of service charters
  Group exercise: Stakeholder mapping to identify which stakeholders would benefit from having a charter
• 12'45-14'00   Lunch
• 14'00-15'00   Workshop I: Objectives and performance indicators
  Presentation of basic concepts of objective- led management
  Group exercise: establishing a hierarchy of objectives
• 15'00-15'15   Coffee break
• 15'15-16'15   Workshop II: Standards and targets
  Presentation of basic concepts of performance management
  Group exercise: Defining performance indicators and standards
• 16.15-16'30   Wrap up of the first seminar day
  Comments and suggestions of the participants

Programme - Day 2

•  9'15-11'00   What will charters be like in practice?
  Session I: evaluating charters from a users' perspective (with plenary feedback)
  Session II: evaluating charters from the organisation's perspective (with plenary feedback)
• 11'00-11'15   Coffee Break
• 11'15-12'30   Organising for the charter initiative in your organisation: setting up your team and deciding your work programme
  Presentation on team-building concepts, project management and issues involved in designing the work programme
  Group discussion
• 12'30-14'00   Lunch
• 14'00-15'30   Workshop: Getting started on the charter
  Drafting sections of your charter
  Providing group critiques of these first drafts
  Identifying potential problems and potential solutions
  (interactive session, individually and in groups)
• 15'30-16'00   General Discussion: Conclusions and Next Steps

Biographical notes of the trainers

Elke Löffler
Dr. Löffler is the Chief Executive of Governance International (http://www.govint.org). She worked previously as a staff member of the Public Management and Governance Service (PUMA) of OECD. She has been a consultant for the World Bank, OECD, SIGMA, UNDP, UK Cabinet Office, IDeA and other agencies in Germany and Switzerland. She was the Scientific Rapporteur (together with Christopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert) at the Third Quality Conference for Public Administration in the EU in Rotterdam in September 2004 and will perform the same role at the Fourth Quality Conference for Public Administration in Finland in September 2006.

Salvador Parrado
Prof. Parrado is Professor of Public Administration at the Spanish Distance University (UNED). His main research interests are local governance and HRM in the public sector as well as comparative public administration. He has carried out several consultancies for OECD (on partnerships and e-government), for SIGMA (on e-government in Bulgaria and quality issues in Czech Republic), the World Meteorological Organisation of the United Nations (on governance in water resources) and for public agencies in Mexico, Spain and Rumania.