Building government capability

The Building Better Government Engagement (BBGE) project was established to identify ways to improve government engagement with community and voluntary organisations and citizens in policy and service development processes. The BBGE group's discussion paper and final report explored options for building knowledge, skills and values about effective community engagement within the public service.

In September 2009, the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector released a Cabinet paper entitled Government Commitment to Building Strong Community Relationships. This paper proposed a programme of actions to strengthen government engagement with citizens and communities.

The programme of action was in response to the Good Intentions report by the Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Aotearoa (ANGOA) and the From Talk to Action report by the Building Better Government Engagement reference group.

Cabinet agreed that a national Community-Government Forum in November 2009 will discuss development of a Relationship Agreement to replace the 2001 Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship.  A number of other actions were agreed and noted.

The interests of communities need to be represented in policy, planning, and service delivery and in activities in common areas of interest.

Good progress can be made if community-government relationships are addressed at two levels:

• at the governance and planning level. This ensures that the agency's strategic direction is ‘tested’ against commitments contained in the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship
• in practice, by identifying and involving ‘champions’ for the community and voluntary sector within the agency.

Staff working with non-government organisations (NGOs) will need to understand the importance of public participation in government decision-making and have good relationship-management skills.

A government agency needs to signal its intentions to establish good relationships with the community sector throughout the agency and to the wider community.

While New Zealand currently has a short, straight-forward, two-page Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship to influence government agency performance, other countries have special offices, comprehensive agreements and protocols to try to improve their community-government relationships.

           "Government should be transparent, participatory and collaborative. 
                   Public engagement enhances the Government's effectiveness
                             and improves the quality of its decisions."

                                                                                   Barack Obama

The following case studies illustrate different approaches agencies use to shape their relationships with communities and NGOs.  They include memoranda of understanding, relationship frameworks, and induction and development programmes.

Some of the case studies are on our companion website: Good Practice Funding.