” The Scandinavian Welfare Model – Four Countries – Four Regional models”,

Conference in Hamar, Norway, 9.5.2007

The Regional Self-government Experiment in Kainuu Region

Juhani Kärkkäinen, Development Director The Joint authority of Kainuu Region (FI)

Kainuu in Finland

568 km

625 km

181 km

KAINUU

KAJAANI

HELSINKI

OULU

IVALO

Puolanka

Suomussalmi

Hyrynsalmi

Kuhmo

Kajaani

 

Vaala

VuolijokiSotkamo

PaltamoRistijärvi

-Percentage of the whole country

8,6 7,3

6,1 3,1

2,9 2,7 2,5

1,9 1,6 1,6 1,6 1,4 1,3 1,2

0,8

Forest area 2003 Total area- 2007

Roads 2006

Summer cottages 2005

Unemployed 2006 Primary production 2004

Population 2006 Number of farms 2005

Pop. with educat qulificat. 2005 Employed workforce 2004

Services 2004 Secondary production 2004

Housing Production 2005 0 2 4 6 8 10

Kainuu in proportion to the whole of Finland

Rural Population 2000

-Populat. over 64 years 2006

Source: Statistics FInland Joint Authority of Kainuu Region

Kainuu municipalities

Renewing Kainuu 

Kainuu Regional Plan 2025

STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT – REGIONAL PLAN 2025

VISION 2025

”Kainuu offers a high quality of living through skills, enterprise and cooperation”

JOINT DEVELOPMENT MISSION

”Improving the appeal and competitiveness of Kainuu as a place in which to live, a location for business and a tourism destination”

STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT – REGIONAL PLAN 2025

Regional plan 2025

Focusing for development

Five industry clusters have been chosen for special development in the future:

ICT, electronics and metal

Tourism, leisure time and culture

Forestry and wood processing

Food stuff production

Welfare

Regional plan 2025Innovation and excellence

Three cores as focus in developing innovations:

Information and Communication Technology Measuring Embedded applications Wireless instrumentation Software products Renewing industry with IT applications

Tourism, leisure time and culture Sport technology applications International products in nature-, culture-, sport- and event tourism Renewing travel industry with IT applications

Welfare New ways to produce services in public and private sector New IT applications in social and healthcare Functional food

THE REGIONAL SELF-GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENT

IN KAINUU REGION

The Act on the Regional Self-government Experiment in Kainuu

* passed by the FinnishParliament in February 2003,

* took force January 1,2005,lasts to the end of 2012

To obtain experiences on the strengthening of regional self-government on

• development of the region• organizing the basic services• citizen participation• municipal administration• activities of the governmental district

bodies• relations between the governmental and

regional administration

The purpose of the experiment(by the law )

REASONS FOR INITIATING THEEXPERIMENT Kainuu (and other similar regions in Finland) are facing major development challenges:• structural trends in industries• declining population with rapidly aging demographic

structure • low rate of employment • lack of entrepreneurship, and • weakening municipal economies to overcome and reverse the negative trends

Kainuu was seen as a suitable testing ground for new types of administrative and financing structures

THE AIMS OF THE EXPERIMENT

• to ensure health care, social services and educational services for all inhabitants of the region

• to bring the guidance of regional State administration of business subsidies into one regional democratic organization

• to better focus regional development activities • to initiate larger, more effective projects • to create new enterprises and jobs

Three main elements of the experiment1. Regional democracy

2. Increased responsibility to the region for its own development – delegation of governmental decision making

3. Provision of basic services on regional level

Regional democracy (1/1)

• For the first time on the Finnish mainland,

a democratically elected regional council was granted administrative powers

that has traditionally been the domain of central government or governmental district bodies

Regional democracy (2/1)

REGIONAL COUNCIL

* the highest decision making body on the regional level

*elected for a four-year term by the citizens

Regional democracy (3/1)

Election of councillors• 39 councillors were elected by secret and

direct ballot, in accordance with the principles of proportional representation

• The first regional election was arranged at the same time with the municipal election in October 2004

Delegation of decision making (1/2)

In the Finnish national budget for 2005

* most of the national funding for the regionaldevelopment of Kainuu has been grouped into a single subsection

Delegation of decision making (2/2)

• Regional council decides on the allocation of resources allotted to the region in the national budget

 

Provision of basic services (1/3)

Why to provide services regionally ?Providing services regionally aims to ensure equal services to all citizens.

The previous, distributed model of service production (by individual municipalities) would have been resulted (in all likelihood) within a short time, in concentrating the activities in the regional centre, Kajaani.

Responsibility for welfare policy transferred from the

municipalities to the region (2/3)

Thus, the region is responsible for• health care and social services (with the exception

of children`s day care)• vocational and upper secondary education and

professional adult education

Financing of the services remains with the basic municipaties.

ORGANISATION OF KAINUU REGIONAL AUTHORITY

FINANCE ADMINISTRATION TECHNICAL AND CATERING SERVICES

REGIONAL COUNCIL

REGIONAL BOARD

AUDITING COMMITTEE

COMMITTEEFOR

COMITTEE FOR

SOCIAL AFFAIRS AND HEALTH

UPPER SECONDARY AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

REGIONAL PLANNING AND PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT

PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT

MANAGEMENT GROUP

• From the viewpoint of Kainuu the experiment is permanent– There is no return to the old system in

2012

• It is important– to create and adopt new and better practises to

meet the challenges we face – to achieve new jobs and enterprises.

The Region of Kainuu

• has proved to be an interesting pilot region that – we believe – is of interest also to European partners

• is interested in changing experiences

• is open to good advice

• is also looking for cooperation, benchmarking and common projects.

The operational values of the Joint authority of Kainuu

• Fairness • Productivity • Trust in future • Customer orientation • Individual responsibility • Transparency and mutual confidence

Programme for Citizen Participation(approved by the Regional Council, 2006)

• Special focus– Children and youngsters– Elderly– Handicapped– Unemployed– Multicultural– Citizen and 3rd sector associations

Programme for Citizen Participation

• Means, examples

– Education, advice, special materials for the schools

– Youth councils– Information (incl. on-line services) – Interactive cooperation forums– Feed-back channels

For further information

Juhani KärkkäinenDevelopment Director

+358 44 7100858juhani.karkkainen@kainuu.fi

www.kainuu.fi