4th Regional Development and Governance Symposium
Changing dynamics of globalization have profound effects on the objectives, mechanisms and implications of development policies. Today, development is defined as a process which can be achieved through the formation of new governance mechanisms at a multi-level scale with the participation of regional/local actors along with national and supranational actors, as opposed to the development policy implications of the past, i.e. a top-down approach applied by central government based on state intervention. On the other hand, along with the globalization process, new social problems have been arisen, which did not exist before. Solution to these problems does not only depend on the regional economic development policies but also on the fairer distribution of resources.
One of the main objectives of the regional development policies is to reduce regional disparities, formation of which is mainly driven by an economic efficiency approach, using various tools such as, improvement of regional competitiveness and internationalization. However, social policies are not handled as a main policy area in regional development policies and for reducing regional disparities. Instead, social policies are seen as a functional tool to solve social cohesion problems in the areas where development policies are implemented. On the other hand, there is still a close connection between regional development, social development and social policy areas.
Among many factors affecting social development, there exist governance policy formation and implementation processes as well as resources, tools and actors, mobilized to achieve expected fair results. In this Framework, the main discussion area of the 4th Regional Development and Governance Symposium is determined as "Governance of Social Policy". The interaction between social development and regional development and the governance processes of social policies will be brought into discussion in this Symposium.
Regional Development and Governance Symposiums are organized annually by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) in cooperation with local and regional actors. The Symposium is one the leading events in Turkey, contributing to the policy discussions related with regional development, regional planning and good governance . The 4th Regional Development and Governance Symposium will take place in mid-November 2009, in Ankara.
The main objective of the Symposium is to bring, academicians, researchers, practitioners and other related actors together in an interactive discussion platform to produce concrete outputs. Domestic and foreign experiences and research studies will also be introduced in the Symposium.
Theoretical Framework
In the keynote session, the theoretical framework will be formed and relevance of the topic for Turkey will be discussed. This session is dedicated to discussions around the following questions: How social policies are handled in local, regional and national levels; what should be the relationship between regional development, social development and social policies and in what way these fields affect each other.
Institutional Structure and the Public Management Processes
Secondly, the institutional structure of social policies will be brought into discussion. Constraints of policy formulation and service provision structures of local governments and central government bodies' local branches, and how should an ideal policy formulation process be especially in designing social policies will also be discussed within the context of Turkish public administration system in this section. For example, which stages exists from policy formulation to the service provision in a selected area of service provision, how priorities are set and varied as to local and regional differences, and the roles of central and local government actions in this process are the issues to discuss.
In this session, which reforms may be needed for efficient and effective provision of social policy, possible positive or negative effects of devolution of authority in certain fields will be discussed around examples from Turkey and abroad. It is planned to give way to a comparative evaluation of different social policy formulation and implementation examples from different countries and Turkey.
Coordination Mechanisms
In the third session, there will be presentations from regional and local initiatives, civil society organizations, urban councils , and other coordination and participation mechanisms which meet local needs in different localities in Turkey. In addition, findings of the institutional analyze realized by TEPAV within the context of two projects-Economic and Social Integration Project in Major In-Migrant Destinations and Internal Migration Integration Project- will be presented. Finally, the possible roles of development agencies and other institutions on development will be discussed in this session.
Social Development Projects
Projects that are supported by international institutions and projects funded and implemented by public institutions, out of the existing service provision and expenditure structure will be presented in this session. The relations of the projects with the general public strategies and social policy framework and their contributions to implementation will be discussed via examples from selected projects. Lastly in this session, the perspective and role of EU in development and social cohesion will be discussed.
Tools of Policy Formulation and Implementation
Tools of social policy formulation and implementation will be discussed in the fifth session. In this context, the applications of poverty maps, life quality indicators, strategic planning and local area agreements which are used for determination and harmonization of local and national priorities in Turkey and abroad will be introduced and experiences will be shared.
Last session is dedicated to the general evaluation of the symposium and policy recommendations. In all sessions, there will be presentations on the governance of social policy experiences and best practices from different countries. In order to create an interactive discussion platform, all sessions will be composed of presentations and round table discussions. Papers presented in the symposium and the discussions will be published afterwards.
