Open Government Partnership New Zealand National Action Plan 2018-2020
Progress report for: May 2019 – July 2019
Commitment 5 progress report: May – June 2019
Commitment 5: Public participation in policy development
Lead agency: The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC)
Objective: DPMC will assist the New Zealand public sector to develop a deeper and more consistent understanding of what good engagement with the public means (right across the International Association of Public Participation’s spectrum of public participation).
Ambition: New Zealanders increasingly experience a timelier and collaborative approach to public participation when policies are developed, and consider their concerns, diversity of views, life experience, and time are valued in the policy process.
Improvements in public participation can result in better design of policy and services, and increase their legitimacy. Improving public participation requires an informed approach to applying public participation methods throughout the policy development process. Developing a deeper understanding of what good engagement looks like and providing guidance about best practice methods across government, will achieve a more consistent and coherent approach to public participation
OGP values: Civic participation
Milestones
Milestone 1
Extend existing Policy Method’s Toolbox public participation guidance to include a decision tool that will assist agencies and Ministers to:
- Choose the appropriate engagement approach on the public participation spectrum when they tackle a specific [policy or service design issue
- Understand the characteristics and enablers of effective public participation at whichever point on the spectrum they choose
- Ensure that the engagement approaches selected appropriately include and reflect the diversity of those interested and affected by the policies.
Start/End dates: October 2018/March 2020
Progress: Underway
Milestone 2
Develop and share recent case studies documenting New Zealand innovation success stories in public participation in the policy development process
Start/End dates: October 2018/March 2020
Progress: Underway
Milestone 3
Identify a ‘live’ policy issue in which to trial public engagement in policy development that is higher on the public participation spectrum than inform or consult, as a demonstration project.
Start/End dates: October 2018/March 2020
Progress: Underway
Milestone 4
Widely disseminate the results of the above actions.
Start/End dates: March 2020/June 2020
Progress: N/A
What we have been doing
In the period since the last report until 31 July 2019, the Policy Project (the team within DPMC responsible for Commitment 5) has:
- Met with the Expert Advisory Panel and Open Government Partnerships Officials Group and provided feedback on progress with Commitment 5.
- Held further meetings with engagement specialists and other key stakeholders in public, private and community sectors to assist the project team to develop the detailed design of approaches to implement Commitment 5 and include diverse voices.
- Completed a further draft of a domestic and international literature survey to identify insights about:
- public participation decision tools
- best practice engagement at different IAP2 stages
- enabling diversity and inclusion in stakeholder engagement.
- Further investigated policy initiatives that are potential candidates for the live demonstration project involving public participation on the IAP2 Spectrum higher than “consult”. Briefed the Prime Minister on live demonstration options and gathered further information in preparation for making a final decision on selecting the live demonstration project.
- Continued identifying candidates for case studies of innovation success stories in public participation in the policy development process.
- Held initial discovery workshops with policy practitioners, facilitated by Auckland Co-design Lab, and other activities that will enable us to understand what drives public participation decision-making and user needs for tool and guidance contents.
How we are including diverse voices
The preliminary stakeholder meeting programme has begun the process of incorporating diverse voices by first making contact with representatives of some of those voices.
We are continuing discussions with engagement specialists to identify engagement approaches that will include diverse voices and will balance the need for public engagement with available resources.
We will continue to identify approaches to diversity and inclusion through the review of the literature survey and citizen engagement on the development of Commitment 5.
We will be canvassing central government agencies to assess the nature of current engagement methods involving public participation being used to capture diverse voices in policy making.
How we are keeping diverse communities informed
We will inform stakeholder groups of the value of our engagement with them to date by disseminating our summary of insights.
We will inform the public by publishing the summary of insights and the literature review online (with the next quarterly report).
We will begin involving and collaborating with diverse communities on the Commitment 5 project during our planning and implementation of the design phase.
What's next?
In the quarter ending 31 July 2019, we will focus on:
- Completing the last stage of the selection process for the live demonstration projects and once approved, begin observation of that project and its engagement.
- Preparing a summary of insights gained from meetings with key stakeholders in public, private and community sectors, to assist the project team to develop the detailed design of next steps and approaches to implement Commitment 5 and include diverse voices.
- Analysis of the initial discovery workshops with policy practitioners which will be disseminated to participants in those workshop, and preparation of a high level summary of information and insights (conversation tracker) which will be published online.
- Debrief on analysis of discovery workshops and draft literature review with IAP2 trainer and workshop presenter Anne Pattillo and Auckland Co-design Lab to identify learnings and opportunities for the design phase.
- Complete a further draft of the literature review of domestic and international literature and commence testing of content with key stakeholders in preparation for release online.
- Planning of workshops and other activities in the design phase of the work programme that will include diverse voices, and beginning to implement the plan.
- Continue to identify candidates for recent case studies of innovation success stories in public participation in the policy development process.
Links – Evidence of progress and milestones achieved
- Agendas for the discovery workshops held on 9th and 10th July 2019