Co-governance and social innovation for sustainability
The new project, funded by the Swedish Institue (SI), aims to strengthen the understanding and capacity of co-governance and social innovation in the public sector by raising the level of knowledge, provide tools and methods and work together across societal sectors and levels of government. The project will provide new knowledge and policy dialogues as a ground for participating organizations, at national and local level, to develop new projects, develop strategic plans and transfer knowledge and skills to other relevant organizations in their country.
Project members are Dr. Tom Nilsson (photo left; project leader and RUCARR researcher at Global Political Studies, Malmö University), Dr. Fredrik Björk (Urban Studies, Malmö University), Lena Andersson (external expert) and a number of other national and international experts, in collaboration with local partners:
- GEORGIA: Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI)
- MOLDOVA: The Child Rights Information Centre Moldova (CRIC)
- KOSOVO: Education Innovators Kosovo (EIK)
- NORTH MACEDONIA: IMPETUS – Center for Internet, Development and Good Governance (CIDGG)
About the project
The program consists of two dialectic tracks. The first track is a thematic series of bi-weekly seminars, such as social innovation, public procurement, transparency and impact and developmental evaluation. Each theme is structured in a similar way – the first seminar is focused on understanding the area of knowledge, presenting central concepts, research and providing some relevant and illustrative examples. The second seminar is for the participants to contextualise the topic to their own country and identify legal and cultural boundaries, and then compare their country´s status, preconditions and best practices to the other participating countries. The third seminar aims to use the acquired knowledge to discuss ways to develop strategies, projects, and policy revisions.
The second track is to develop a contextual tool-kit for social audits, train local communities in the methodology and in the second half of the program implement social audits. Besides empowering local communities and enhancing local transparency and accountability, the second track will be a pilot example throughout the seminar series. In discussing each theme, the social audits will serve as a case of social innovation and co-governance, and put light on existing limitations and hinders.