Building good practice

Our work to build good practice includes:

• Two online toolkits that guide government agencies when they are funding
  and developing relationships with non-profit organisations.
  » Go to the Good Practice Funding website
  » Go to the Good Practice Participate  website

• A series of interactive good practice in action seminars to promote the sharing of information
  and experience between government agencies and their community partners. 
  Content from these seminars is then incorporated into the
  Good Practice Funding and Good Practice Participate toolkits.
  » Learn more on the good practice in action seminars page

• Community engagment seminars exploring different ways of getting
  participation by community and government people.

 

In December 2008, the OCVS commenced a series of free seminars focusing on different aspects of community engagement. 

The seminars are approximately 90-minutes long, and are held in the Ministry of Social Development Auditorium, Level 3 of Bowen State Building, Bowen Street, Wellington.

Our next seminar will probaly be in late November or early December - watch for details soon.

Stakeholder engagement
- Steps, actions and tools developed by the Ministry for the Environment
(23 September 2009)

Organisations face a growing need to work in an integrated fashion across different sectors. To achieve successful results from stakeholder engagement, we need sound knowledge of stakeholders’ needs and understanding of how to work collectively.

The presentation by Kate Irvine and Peter Barton from the Ministry for the Environment’s Stakeholder Engagement team provided insight to the Ministry’s systematic approach to building key relationships.
There was particular interest in the toolkit the Ministry developed to help staff implement planning techniques to build a sound knowledge of stakeholders’ needs and an understanding of how to work collectively. 

To request permission to use material (including images) from the presentation below, please contact:
Communications Manager, Ministry for the Environment, PO Box 10362, Wellington, New Zealand.
E-mail: david.venables@mfe.govt.nz  

 

Brokering cross-sector partnerships (12 June 2009)

Trish Hall of Thought Partners spoke about effective partnerships - see her presentation for more details.

 

Debunking myths about community engagement and establishing realistic expectations  (22 April 2009)

Vivien Twyford has extensive experience in designing public participation processes in Australia and New Zealand, and providing training for local, regional and central government agencies. The seminar challenged participants to rethink their allocation of time and resources between planning, implementing and evaluating.   Vivien explored and explained the implications of her statement:

“The command and control theory of management was designed to reduce uncertainty and vagueness and deal with complexity in war.  This approach to community engagement can place a community in the role of the enemy.  Planning using this approach often focuses on tools to manage and influence the community to agree with expert decisions.”

 

Encouraging equitable public participation (11 Feb 2009)

This seminar, by Dr Trish Nickel, considered the ideal of public participation, its criticisms, and contemporary methods to overcoming these challenges.  Dr Nickel's presentation included a specific focus on the Open Space Technology approach.  

Dr Nickel is a lecturer in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University. Her research explores the theory and practice of civil society and governance. She has worked for six years on public participation and governance in Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and the United States.

 

Public participation for better decisions (9 Dec 2008)

This fast-paced, participatory seminar, presented by Anne Pattillo, outlined a framework for good practice in community engagement, including the International Association for Public Participation engagement spectrum and core values.

The OCVS can provide information on training courses available to enhance the skills of public servants when they engage with community groups.  This includes IAP2 training developed by the International Association for Public Participation.

Those with a strong interest in extending their skills in participation knowledge and processes may want to enrol in one of the official IAP2 Certificate in Public Participation courses.  These include:

• 2-day Techniques in Effective Public Participation course
• 2-day Planning for Effective Public Participation course
• 1-day Effective Communication for Public Participation course

The training companies offer other Certificate courses throughout the year.

» Check Pattillo’s schedule of Certificate in Public Participation courses in Wellington and Auckland

» Check Twyford NZ’s schedule of Certificate in Public Participation courses in Wellington

The Policy Development Toolkit is a single point of access to New Zealand policy development guidance documents and websites. The Toolkit is primarily aimed at New Zealand public sector policy analysts, so it is hosted on the Public Sector Intranet. If you have ideas about content, e-mail the team putting it together (details on the PSI).

» Public servants can access the toolkit  on the Public Service Intranet. 

In 2005, the OCVS created guidelines for central government agencies that distribute information through New Zealand’s network of 87 Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB), and provided copies to all government agencies that distribute, or may distribute information through CAB in the future.

The guidelines will ensure that agencies communicate regularly with the NZ Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NZACAB) about new and updated information. They will also help to reduce the NZACAB’s administrative costs in this area, allowing the CAB network to focus on its core role of providing information and advice to the community.