Whole-of-government strategies and frameworks

Apart from your agency's own actions and processes, wider whole-of-government policies and practices will impact on your relationships with community organisations and citizens. Relationships between communities and government agencies can also be affected by wider government decision-making processes and historical issues.

In New Zealand, the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship has guided the behaviour of all government departments since 2001. Each agency must consider how it can develop positive relationships with community, voluntary and iwi/Māori organisations and ensure its polices and practices are consistent with the nine core principles.

In 2008, further whole-of-government action was initiated after a 2007 Community-Government Forum confirmed that fundamental areas of concern still existed. Forum participants called for the public service to improve consultation processes and create a more respectful and collaborative culture of engagement.

• 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 Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Aotearoa (ANGOA) was funded to assess government responsiveness to the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship. It explored whether any aspects had been particularly important, what changes had been seen, how stronger relationships and mutual trust could be built between government staff and community and voluntary organisations, and how the effectiveness of such engagement might be measured.

Both projects reported in mid-2009; identifying a desire to see a high-level commitment from Government to strengthening relationships and improving engagement processes.

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 would 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.

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.

Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, so lessons can be learned from the different examples.

The Compact on relations between Government and the voluntary and community sector in England was an agreement between the British Government and the sector in 1998 to improve their relationship for mutual benefit.

There are commitments by both sides. The Compact includes principles such as recognising that groups are independent and have the right to campaign. The Compact applies to:

• central government departments, including government offices for the regions
• executive non-departmental public bodies, which have a relationship with the voluntary and community sector
• a range of organisations in the voluntary and community sector.

In discussion to review the Compact in 2008, the Commissioner for the Compact raised concerns about giving the Compact statutory powers, saying it could impose legal obligations on Third Sector organisations. A refreshed, shorter version of the Compact was published on 16 December 2009.

In 2009, as part of its social inclusion agenda, the Australian Government explored ways to develop a new and stronger relationship with the not-for-profit sector, based on partnership and respect.

It sought comment on the how to do this through a national compact - an agreement between the Australian Government and the not-for-profit sector that outlines how the two will work together to improve and strengthen their relationship. A national compact could also provide a framework for building sector capacity and a platform for discussion and agreement between the Australian Government and the sector about how to achieve objectives that will benefit the community.

Exactly what a national compact will look like will depend on what Australia wants it to achieve and what will best suit Australia's unique government and non-profit landscape.

During this process, a discussion paper entitled Agreeing to Disagree: Maintaining dissent in the NGO sector was produced by The Australia Institute Ltd. Its content explores the pros and cons of a formal compact.

In the USA, President Obama's Office of Public Engagement aims to increase transparency and public participation for a more open government.

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

Our commitment to openness means more tahn simply informaing the American people about how decisions are made. It means recognising that government does not have all the answers, and that public officials need to draw on what citizens know."

                                                                                   Barack Obama

Building on An Accord Between the Government of Canada and the Voluntary Sector, the Code of Good Practice on Policy Dialogue was developed by the Government of Canada and the voluntary sector.

The Code is a tool for deepening the dialogue between the Government of Canada and the voluntary sector at the various stages of the public policy process in order to achieve better policies for Canadians.