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Current Work

We are currently working on these projects:

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Local Governance, Property and People – presentation by Pat Hanley to Residents 2010 Conference

SCPI partnered with the Federation of Wellington Progressive and Residents' Associations in organising a conference at Parliament on 10 April which provided a forum for people involved in local democracy and community activism to meet, network, and discuss critical issues mostly involving local government. The one-day conference was hosted by Ohariu M.P. the Hon. Peter Dunne and included six workshops focusing on internal and external issues relevant to residents of the Wellington Region.

The Proceedings from the Residents 2010 Conference are now available online at www.residents.org.nz.

The conference was attended by 91 delegates, mostly representatives of residents associations. The conference proceedings contain two important speeches - by Chief Ombudsman Beverley Wakem and the Chair of the Social and Civic Policy Institute, Pat Hanley. It also has reports of the six workshops held, a summary of research undertaken during the conference and - most importantly - a list of the seven recommendations made by delegates and the follow-up action.

The Residents2010 Task Group has been formed by the organising partners in the conference. It was recognised that the group needed to continue to meet until the recommendations made by the conference were either completed or assigned to a permanent home. This also goes some way toward fulfilling recommendation six "that a group of interested people convene to consider- and report back a strategy to provide support and coordination for residents' associations that is web-based and focuses on specific issues".

The task group is made up of:

Conference Recommendations

Recommendation One

That an independent panel made up equally of community and Council representatives be formed to investigate how to improve relationships between local government and communities.

Recommendation Two

That a programme of promotional activity be developed, highlighting how individuals can engage with their community, and the function- and importance of residents' associations; supported by local authorities and the private- and community sectors.

Recommendation Three

That Councils and residents' associations respect and trust the ability of citizens to be involved in decision-making, and this would be enhanced by better technologies leading to better decision-making. Trust the people.

Recommendation Four

That a resource kit be developed for residents' associations to include content such as: making submissions, Council processes, developing business cases, and examples of successful engagement with communities.

Recommendation Five

That a strategy be developed to deliver an education programme for residents' association committee members, to improve our ability to access- and knowledge of the law and associated processes.

Recommendation Six

That a group of interested people convene to consider- and report back a strategy to provide support and coordination for residents' associations that is web-based and focuses on specific issues.

Recommendation Seven

That the Wellington regional residents' associations facilitate a citizens' forum consisting of all interested citizens in the Wellington Region to enable their voices to be heard on issues of concern including the implications of the amalgamations of Councils.

Action taken to implement recommendations

Recommendation oneprovided a mandate for the Task Group to form an independent panel to review the relationship between Councils and the communities they serve. The first step in this project is the formation of a Working Party to determine the Terms of Reference for this panel.

The Working Party is comprised of representatives from the Social and Civic Policy Institute, Draco Foundation, International Association of Public Participation, Local Government New Zealand, and residents associations from the Auckland and Wellington regions.

The Chair of the Working Party is David Robinson, who can be contacted at davidjrobinson@xtra.co.nz.

Recommendation sevencalled for residents' associations in the Wellington Region to facilitate a citizens' forum. There is only one established umbrella group for residents' associations in the region, that is the Wellington City-based Federation of Wellington Progressive and Residents Associations (FWPRA).

FWPRA has agreed to facilitate this forum and is working on contacting every residents' association in the region to invite them to appoint a representative. The Forum will be officially launched at the FWPRA Annual General Meeting on August 23rd.

Contact Tom Law at lawt@clear.net.nzfor information on how to become involved.

Recommendation twoand recommendation fourcall for the development of resources and training for residents' associations. The Draco Foundation (NZ) Charitable Trust has been working on developing a suite of resources and training materials for the past 18 months, and has volunteered to take responsibility for these recommendations.

Resources could include templates, pamphlets, print brokerage on behalf of residents' associations, and the provision of materials free-of-charge on the www.Residents.org.nzwebsite.

Training could include train-the-trainers programmes, specific training for committee members, and resources to empower residents' associations to deliver community education in their area.

The Task Group will revisit Recommendation five at a later stage once resources have been developed. Future approaches to this recommendation could include working with the Office of the Ombudsmen, Citizen Advice Bureaux, Community Law Centres, ANGOA and the Office of the Community and Voluntary Sector.

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Government–Community Engagement

A reflective paper on recent initiatives in the United States and New Zealand looking at how the governments can better engage with their public, Government–Community Engagement was written by Kayt Robinson as part of a fellowship with the Kettering Foundation in 2009. There is also an accompanying comparative Government–Community Engagement table and research background.

In the past year, both the United States and New Zealand governments have re-examined the way in which they engage with their publics, calling for public opinion into how they can improve the relationship between government agencies and the people and communities they serve.

While each initiative has asked different questions and, it appears, will inevitably come to different conclusions, both centred around the need for government to foster a more collaborative and transparent relationship with the public, as well as strengthen trust between citizens and those who govern them.

In the United States focus has centred on opening up lines of communication and allowing the public freer access to government information; whilst in New Zealand the approach has focused on building more direct interdependent relationships between government agencies and the community and voluntary sector.

Even though the United States and New Zealand appear to have taken very different approaches for tackling similar concerns, each initiative is a worthy example of the way in which governments around the world are re-examining their relationship with their constituents and striving for a more engaged approach to politics and the running of their nations.

Just over six months on from when President Barack Obama announced the Open Government Directive committing the US Government to "creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government" in order to "strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government" whether these aspirations have been attained is subjective and open to debate.

At the end of 2009, the President announced that every Federal department was required to develop and publish Open Government Plans by 7 April 2010. These plans were to provide concrete and specific roadmaps for making operations and data more transparent, and expanding opportunities for citizen participation, collaboration and oversight.

The Directive required that the Chief Technology Officer and Chief information Officer create an Open Government Dashboard to assess the state of open government. It tracks agency progress on the deliverables set out in the Directive, including each agency's Open Government Plan.

See also our article on US Open Government Directive.

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Community Governance Project

The Social and Civic Policy Institute is exploring the changing nature of Council relationships with community groups (including Residents Associations) as well the roles and structures associated with community governance.

We are organising, in collaboration with other community groups, a series of events on community governance and Council/ community relations. Key issues include the roles, forms of organisation, membership, functions and relationships with local and central government and the community of:

"Locally based community associations that cover areas smaller than those served by formal Local Authorities; that are formed voluntarily (not by statute) and are concerned with issues of governance in their communities as well as carrying our activities or providing services."

Our objective is to provide an opportunity for active citizens, as represented by residents associations and similar organisations, to share their stories of working within their communities for positive change.

The SCPI Community Governance Project is:

  1. Collecting international papers on community governance and the impact on social and community well-being
  2. Collecting case studies of local community activities and reviewing them in terms of “community governance”
  3. Holding workshops (initially in Wellington and Auckland) to provide an opportunity to explore these issues
  4. Planning a national conference in 2010 which will include the relationships between community groups and Council agencies

A range of organisational types with a variety of community roles and innovative strategies have been developed to address needs and opportunities in the communities where they are located. However, there is little literature or research related to these developments especially on the impact that taking part in community governance has on building community well-being (as well as in influencing policies).

Papers on Community Governance

SCPI’s interest in community governance, participation and their relationship to social capital started long before the current discussion around the reorganisation of local government in Auckland.

The following two papers were written and presented in 2000, — one for a World Bank Study Tour seminar (Social Capital, Participation and Consultation), which raises the issue of risk management, and the other (Social capital and links to urban governance and management) for presentation at a conference on urban government in St Petersburg. The issues they raise remain relevant to our present discussions.

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Relationships between Citizens, Councils and Council Agencies

The establishment of the new Auckland Council, Local Boards, Council Controlled Organisations and special purpose advisory bodies has raised interest in Auckland and elsewhere in New Zealand about the proposed and preferred (from a community perspective) ways in which community groups will engage with local government.

SCPI is exploring and developing a framework and guidelines from a community perspective in response to the question:

What are the opportunities, barriers and complexities in creating positive relationships between citizens and their wide range of community associations and the new Auckland Council and its subsidiary agencies? [4].

This includes collection and analysis of:

  1. The current situation regarding such relationships in each of the existing Auckland Councils.
  2. What is planned by the Auckland Transition Agency.
  3. Examples of positive relationships in similar situations elsewhere in New Zealand and internationally.
  4. Identifying the opportunities, barriers and complexities in creating positive relationships in the new Auckland Council environment.
  5. Working with community groups in Wellington to identify solutions to similar issues in that region.

We are concerned with both formal and informal forms of association. Enabling connections with informal associations includes consideration of the existence and relevance of community meetings places where citizens can exchange views and experiences. The background to this project is outlined in Relationships between citizens and the new Auckland Council.

The impetus to streamline and simplify structures that flows from the amalgamation of existing councils systems and structures may lead to the entrenchment of the status of those with privileged access to decision makers. It is critical that easily accessible channels of communications are made available to all citizens of the new Auckland city.

4 Including Council Controlled Organisations, special purpose committees such as the Maori Advisory Group, Ethnic Advisory Group and Social Policy Board.

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Deliberation and Sustained Dialogue

Since the late 1990s SCPI has developed a working relationship with the Kettering Foundation based in Dayton Ohio, USA. Each year SCPI sponsors several associates to participate in training courses, discussions and/or meetings of the Kettering Foundation and National Issues Forum in Dayton.

The Kettering Foundation promotes the use of a deliberative approach by communities to identify critical issues and develop responses to them. In New Zealand there has been growing interest in moving to a process that enables communities to engage in ongoing, in-depth discussion. This requires dialogue rather than debate, a willingness to listen to other views and commitment to an ongoing dialogue. Along with the Kettering Foundation, SCPI believes that an educational approach on its own is not sufficient. Simply providing information about difficult issues without allowing the opportunity for people to share knowledge of their own situation and experiences is unlikely to lead to improved relationships. Going beyond a legal solution to issues requires a personal investment of energy.

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and SCPI have co-hosted two visits to New Zealand by Hal Saunders, Director of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue and International Director of The Kettering Foundation. SCPI also organised a visit by Teddy Nemeroff from IDASA (Institute for Democracy in South Africa) in 2005. SCPI has supported community dialogues around the theme of "living together in New Zealand" which involve members of the refugee, migrant and host communities in the wider Auckland area. A hand book on the use of deliberation in New Zealand, 'Public Politics in Practice - a handbook on deliberation", 2000, is available from SCPI at NZ$15 a copy including post and packing.

A reflective paper on recent initiatives in the United States and New Zealand looking at how the governments can better engage with their public, Government-Community Engagement was written by Kayt Robinson as part of a fellowship with the Kettering Foundation in 2009. There is also an accompanying comparative Government-Community Engagement table and research background.

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