Introduction
The programme “Intergovernmental Cooperation: Strategies for Building Effective Partnerships” develops professional practice in Public Service. It connects the subject with workplace challenges by examining existing evidence and practices and choosing methods appropriate to the organization and its available resources.
The learning progresses from public service development and policy outcomes to governance, accountability, and compliance management, with practical work on strategy formulation and prioritization, human resource planning and job analysis, procedure analysis and work simplification. Participants prepare outputs to support workplace application and review the quality and results of implementation.
Learning objectives
- Analyze a public service and connect its improvement to beneficiary needs and accountability in an application related to “Intergovernmental Cooperation: Strategies for Building Effective Partnerships”.
- Translate strategic direction into actionable objectives and initiatives.
- Connect workforce and job requirements to objectives and required capabilities.
- Redesign a procedure to reduce delays and rework while maintaining controls.
- Define decision-making authority, accountability mechanisms, and obligation monitoring.
Learning areas
1. Public Service Development and Policy Outcomes
- Define the public value targeted by the service and its beneficiary groups, and review jurisdictional boundaries and responsibilities across agencies.
- Analyze the beneficiary journey, requirements, time, and access channels, and identify barriers affecting equity and ease of use.
- Collect the evidence needed to design service improvement options, distinguishing changes that require a procedural adjustment from those requiring a regulatory decision.
- Define indicators for outcomes, quality, efficiency, and beneficiary satisfaction, and mechanisms for receiving complaints and reviewing responses.
- Prepare a service initiative covering agency roles, resources, data controls, and a plan for piloting and monitoring achieved results. The application examines a case related to “Intergovernmental Cooperation: Strategies for Building Effective Partnerships”.
2. Strategy Formulation and Prioritization
- Analyze the internal and external environment using available data, and distinguish opportunities from assumptions that require verification.
- Define a specific strategic problem and connect it to the organization's mission and the value sought by beneficiaries and stakeholders.
- Set measurable objectives with a baseline, target, and time horizon, and assign a clear owner to each objective.
- Prioritize initiatives according to impact, feasibility, resources, risks, and interdependencies, explaining the reasons for the trade-offs.
- Build an implementation roadmap covering phases, owners, resources, review gates, and a mechanism for adjusting priorities when circumstances change.
3. Human Resource Planning and Job Analysis
- Analyze workforce demand according to workload, services, and anticipated changes, and document estimation assumptions.
- Inventory current skills, jobs, and vacancy risks, and compare the current position with target requirements.
- Prepare a job description covering purpose, responsibilities, relationships, competencies, and performance indicators without confusing the job with its incumbent.
- Select options for closing gaps through recruitment, development, redeployment, and work design, estimating resources and impact.
- Build indicators to monitor vacancies, workforce movements, retention, and skill coverage, and review the plan when organizational needs change.
4. Procedure Analysis and Work Simplification
- Define the procedure's start, end, owner, inputs, and outputs, and collect data on processing time, waiting, and rework.
- Map the actual workflow between roles, identifying approvals, handovers, bottlenecks, and duplicate data entry.
- Analyze the value added by each step and the controls it provides, and propose combining, removing, or running steps in parallel with reasons for the choice.
- Document the improved procedure with clear authorities, forms, timelines, and standards, and review its effects on beneficiaries and delivery teams.
- Test the procedure on a limited case, measure time, errors, and output quality, and document adjustments and the rollout plan.
5. Governance, Accountability, and Compliance Management
- Map decision-making, oversight, and execution levels, and identify separation of roles and potential conflicts of interest.
- Review policies, committees, delegated authorities, and reporting frequency, and connect each responsibility to clear authority and limits.
- Create an obligations register specifying the source, scope, responsible party, and compliance evidence, and review applicable local requirements.
- Define disclosure, accountability, complaint handling, and misconduct reporting mechanisms, and protect information confidentiality during follow-up.
- Assess a practical governance case and prepare a gap remediation plan with review indicators and evidence of action closure.
Practical outputs
- A public service profile, stakeholder map, and improvement plan.
- A strategy map and a priority matrix for proposed initiatives.
- A workforce plan, job description, and capability gap map.
- An improved procedure map, service profile, and acceptance criteria for implementation.
- An authority matrix, obligations register, and escalation and review mechanism.
Who should attend
- Practitioners, specialists and supervisors whose work relates to the programme subject.
- Managers and teams working in public service, according to their practical responsibilities.
- Professionals responsible for applying the outputs of “Intergovernmental Cooperation: Strategies for Building Effective Partnerships” within their organizations.
Prerequisites
- Working familiarity with the programme field and the ability to discuss a professional case or challenge.
- Confirm the suitability of your experience and any specialist prerequisites with the Union before participation.
Conclusion
The programme “Intergovernmental Cooperation: Strategies for Building Effective Partnerships” brings together concepts, case review and a practical application. Participants prepare steps that can be adapted to their responsibilities and organizational resources, with an indicator to follow application and review results after returning to work.
Participation arrangements and any special requests are specified in the confirmation issued by the Union.