LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND THE ROLE OF “WIDE AREAS” IN STRATEGIC PLANNING The Case of Inter-Municipal Territorial Unions of Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy) January 2018 2 │ OECD Working Papers should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its member countries. The opinions expressed and arguments employed are those of the authors. Working Papers describe preliminary results or research in progress by the author(s) and are published to stimulate discussion on a broad range of issues on which the OECD works. Comments on Working Papers are welcomed, and may be sent to CFE Directorate, OECD, 2 rue André-Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Cover image: Designed by welcomia / Freepik © OECD 2018 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgment of OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) [email protected]. LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND THE ROLE OF “WIDE AREAS” IN STRATEGIC PLANNING © OECD 2018 FOREWORD │ 3 Foreword The OECD LEED Trento Centre is currently undertaking a project to support capacity building of local governments on wide area development, strategic planning and programming in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Italy. The project is carried out by the OECD in collaboration with the Directorate of Local Autonomies and Co-ordination of Reforms of Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region and with ComPA FVG, Public Administration Competence Centre of the Regional Association of Municipalities. The OECD’s approach towards the project assumes that in general terms integrated, locally-tailored approaches proved to be more effective in stimulating growth and tackling exclusion issues than one-size-fits-all, top-down and uncoordinated programmes. Effective local policy design and implementation can stimulate investments, build resilient labour markets, and improve entrepreneurial and business ecosystems. It requires a deep understanding of how policies interact and how different levers can be combined for maximum impact. Friuli Venezia Giulia Region in north east Italy has re-organised its local government system according to Regional Law 12 December 2014, no. 26 – “Reorganising the Regional-Local Government System in Friuli Venezia Giulia. Guidance to the Inter- Municipal Territorial Unions and to the Reallocation of Administrative Functions”. In this context, Inter-Municipal Territorial Unions (so-called UTIs, as they will be referred to in the text as per the Italian acronym) are in charge of an articulated set of functions concerning the provision of local public services. These services were previously under the individual responsibility of municipalities. In addition, UTIs are taking over some of the services formerly of the provinces, which are being decommissioned according to Regional Law no. 20/2016, and others passed by the region itself. This regional regulation gives UTIs a primary role in socio-economic development policies for their territories. New and more demanding functions are therefore becoming fundamental in local authorities’ missions in the FVG Region; such a perspective calls for building new capacity to enable them to play a proactive role in the development of policy formulation processes. Like the rest of Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia is characterised by many small municipalities. This phenomenon is similar to other European and international regional areas, and all municipalities need to build new development capacities. The capacity building project has been organised in two main phases: Capacity building action for young municipal administrators (<40 yrs old) to attain better know-how towards policy innovation at local level on issues of integrated development and programming A short report, in the form of the present Working Paper (WP), addressing the main challenges faced by local agglomerations of municipalities, such as the UTIs LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND THE ROLE OF “WIDE AREAS” IN STRATEGIC PLANNING © OECD 2018 4 │ FOREWORD in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, when dealing with their local development strategy, according to a wide area approach. The WP is conceived as a discussion document, offering a contribution to the open debate on inter-municipal associative processes for wide area local development policies. LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND THE ROLE OF “WIDE AREAS” IN STRATEGIC PLANNING © OECD 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS │ 5 Acknowledgements This Working Paper was prepared by the OECD LEED Centre for Local Development (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in close collaboration with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region – Directorate of Local Autonomies and Coordination of Reforms and ComPA FVG, Regional Public Administration Competence Centre. The project was supervised by Mr. Stefano Barbieri, Senior Policy Analyst (OECD). The work was co-ordinated by Mr. Paolo Rosso, Policy Analyst (OECD). The Report was written by Prof. Alberto Bramanti (Bocconi University, Milan – Italy), and Mr. Paolo Rosso. The OECD LEED Centre for Local Development would like to extend its sincere gratitude to Mr. Paolo Panontin (Regional Minister for Local Authorities of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region), Ms. Antonella Manca (Director of the Directorate of Local Autonomies and Coordination of Reforms, Friuli Venezia Giulia Region), Mr. Mario Pezzetta (President of ANCI FVG), Mr. Franco Brussa (President of AICCRE FVG), for the invaluable support provided to the project. Sincere gratitude is also extended to Mr. Daniele Gortan and Mr. Gianni Ghiani from ComPA FVG for their highly valuable inputs and for all the information and data disclosed in this report. The extended availability and collaboration of Mr Andrea Carli (Mayor of Maniago), Mr Luciano Gallo (Director of UTI Valli e Dolomiti Friulane), Mr Mario Pezzetta (President of ANCI FVG), Mr Riccardo Riccardi (Councillor of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region) interviewed during contextual analysis and data collection were of crucial importance. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the contribution of various colleagues to each of the phases of the project, particularly Ms. Elisa Campestrin from the OECD Trento Centre who was of invaluable assistance in editing and preparing the working paper and Ms. Kay Olbison for her very accurate language final proofreading. LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES AND THE ROLE OF “WIDE AREAS” IN STRATEGIC PLANNING © OECD 2018 6 │ TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents Foreword ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................ 5 Acronyms and abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 8 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 9 2. From small towns to functional wide areas ................................................................................... 11 3. Attractiveness and competitiveness of places ................................................................................ 15 4. “Demand-side” and “supply-side” for the development of places .............................................. 18 5. The experience of UTIs in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region ....................................................... 22 5.1. The development goals of Inter-Municipal Unions .................................................................... 24 6. Conclusions and looking ahead ...................................................................................................... 32 6.1. Governing development, strategic planning and implementation............................................... 33 6.2. Organisational challenge ............................................................................................................. 34 6.3. Local Leadership ......................................................................................................................... 35 6.4. Administrative burdens vs. adaptive thematic approach and scale ............................................. 36 6.5. Funding mechanisms .................................................................................................................. 38 6.6. Concluding remarks .................................................................................................................... 40 References ............................................................................................................................................ 43 Annex A. Administrative boundaries of UTIs