Finland is dedicated to enhancing the leadership capabilities of local governments and regional authorities through the implementation of tools of the Council of Europe Centre of Expertise for Good Governance.
Twenty-four elected representatives and senior civil servants from Finnish municipalities and the newly established well-being counties are currently engaged in the first edition of the Leadership Academy Programme (LAP) in Finland.
On 22 May 2023, discussions focused on good democratic governance and its 12 principles as core values defining a common vision of European democratic governance. “It is an integrated framework which is highly relevant to overcome the isolation of different services within the municipality”, one participant said; while another emphasised that the 12 principles are indeed very relevant for enhancing the capacity of public authorities to strengthen community resilience against the erosion of democracy, even at the local level.
The programme, delivered by HAUS Finnish Institute of Public Management and the Council of Europe experts, is a truly interactive leadership training programme that provides a framework for peer learning, sharing ideas and working together.
This three-day event represents the first phase of the LAP and it is interconnected with the European Label of Governance Excellence (ELoGE), a tool that provides an opportunity for municipal administration to benchmark the 12 principles and design evidence-based improvement policies for the municipality. ELoGE is also being introduced for the first time in Finland and on 19 May HAUS and Council of Europe experts started to work together to adapt it to the local context.
The LAP and ELoGE are outstanding capacity building components of the project “Delivering Good Governance and Balanced Local Economy in Finland”, which is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument 2022 and implemented by the Council of Europe’s Centre of Expertise for Good Governance, in cooperation with the European Commission.
