Regional disparities, regional policy & the well-being agenda; City deals, contracts and agreements
Fiona Wishlade and Sara Davies were guests of the Ministry for Modernisation and Local Government in Norway where they led two workshops. The first on regional policy and the measurement of well-being and a second on the use of 'deals' or contracts in regional policy.
Fiona Wishlade's presentation reviewed 'conventional' measures of regional disparity before considering the emergence and evolution of alternative measures focussed on well-being. She concluded with a series of questions which were the basis for group discussion.
- How do you agree on the nature of ‘well-being’ and how to measure it?
- What is the right spatial scale?
- What is the role of regional policy in relation to well-being?
- How do you sustain a well-being agenda?
- How do you translate the measurement of well-being into a policy agenda?
- How do you coordinate policy for a well-being agenda?
Fiona's presentation is here.
Sara Davies reviewed a range of 'contractual' approaches to regional policy, looking at ITIs and CLLDs in EU Cohesion policy and a range of domestic experiences in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Sara's presentation was followed by a 'priority sort' exercise in which participants had to rank the following priorities for regional policy in Norway.
- Supporting equal living conditions in all areas
- Ensuring cooperation between national and county authorities
- Addressing market failures affecting business innovation
- Accountable and efficient management of regional policy funding
- Targeted action for areas hit by industrial closures
- Achieving measurable outputs
- Facilitating the functioning of knowledge-based regional labour markets
- Focusing public funds on high quality investments/projects
- Contributing to national prosperity
Sara's presentation is here.