Capacity Building Programs

The debate around topics like transparency, anti-corruption, public consultation, engaging citizens in the decisions at the local or central government level has been a constant subject on both public authorities and civil society organizations around the world during the past years. The need for innovating governance processes is dictated by an increased number of issues that are being addressed by government reformers, practitioners both in the government, civil society, development partner organizations in their attempts to address public sector reforms through new lens. AI, Blockchain technology, open contracting, open government data, are just few emerging examples of thematic areas ...

In our capacity building programs we depart from adult-learning principles, critical thinking methodology for training and learning, learning by doing, in on-job coaching and mentoring, online and offline activities, and in building a vibrant community of resourceful practitioners. While there are several platforms for learning both online and offline, most of them provide longer term courses which are hard to be attended by public servants, CSOs, or anyone with an extremely busy agenda.

At Innovating Governance we are different in this regards, and we aim to provide fast solutions. Our approaches are anchored in the very idea that there are no right or wrong solutions, there are solutions which work in some contexts and do not work in others; and it is up to each participant/learner (depending on the context of his/her country/institution) to contextualize the proposed approaches and frameworks.

What is unique about the training & learning models at the Innovating Governance is that they provide a mix approach bringing content/expertise and soft skills building together. Information about open government, open contracting, legislative openness or extractive industries, beneficial ownership or open data, etc is available through numerous online and offline sources. What poses a challenge are practical ways of How one uses, integrates these concepts and approaches into the day to day activities of the organization (public/INGO, CSO), and what kind of skills one needs to advance these emerging issues to the high level political decision making factors.

Thus, we are designing our programs around the following capability/competency building models.

• One-week programs on "Innovating Governance" in Vienna focusing on promoting a dialogue on governance affairs among individuals who can help shape and innovate the future of their public institutions and accordingly, of their countries. Participants of the program are from the public sector primarily, however, the program is open to private and non-profit sectors representatives working on governance issues as well. Most participants have achieved impressive professional success and have the potential to obtain even greater leadership roles in governance both in their organizations, countries and the world.

The one week program focuses on several aspects among which government effectiveness, anti-corruption, data transparency, process transparency, deliberative transparency and transformative transparency; digital tools for corruption prevention and government effectiveness & efficiency, the role of open government data, citizen’s role in shaping and framing government policies. Trainers, experts and speakers come from renown organizations and institutions based in Austria, are senior practitioners, and world-class experts.

Main objectives of the one week program are:

• To promote among emerging government reformers and leaders a dialogue leading to increased awareness and cooperation around governance innovation and improving governance;
• To expose participants to, and therefore broaden their understanding of, the major issues in the governance agenda through direct contact with top international organizations and players based in Vienna;
• To establish and cultivate an ongoing network crucial to strengthening cooperation and areas of agreement among government reformers and leaders in the global community.

• Future of Governance CLUB in Vienna - it meets once in three months and is open to anyone interested to contribute to the topics, share views and reflections, papers, most recent research, and approaches. We will get back soon with more details about our first meeting.

• Annual face-to-face meetings of the members of the Community of Experts (focused on specific skills building, peer knowledge and sharing among members). We are looking to extend our experts' community and broaden it so that it is as inclusive, gender balanced, regionally balanced, and covers all the emerging thematic areas of the GOVERNANCE.

• Coaching - online and face-to-face coaching, particularly to government reformers. We will get back shortly with more details about this Program.

Our Capacity Building programs include delivery of the following services:

1. Conducting a needs assessment both among potential participants and organizing partners;
2. Review and evaluation of the already existent curriculum and/or training contents;
3. Curriculum elaboration (designing Trainers’ Guidebook, Participants’ manual, piloting the curriculum, final review, submission for approval to the relevant central public authority);
4. Trainer of Trainers (ToT);
5. Final elaboration of all capacity building contents/materials.

Members of our Community of Experts bring a rich experience in organizing and hosting tech camps, hackathons, open space events, etc. in addition to the ones mentioned above.