Presentation by David Sousa, Cabinet of the State Secretary for Administrative Modernization, Portugal, at the 6th Expert Meeting on Measuring Regulatory Performance: Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement in Regulatory Policy, Reporting back, Breakout Session 1, The Hague, 16-18 June 2014. Further information is available at http://www.oecd.org/gov/regulatory-policy/

1. BREAKOUT SESSION 1
EVALUATING STAKEHOLDER
ENGAGEMENT: PRACTICES IN OECD
COUNTRIES

2. Questions
1) What are key good practices in evaluating government
systems to engage with stakeholders in the regulatory
policy cycle?
2) How can countries assess:
– The inclusiveness of consultation?
– The transparency of the consultation process?
– Whether stakeholders’ views are adequately considered
and integrated into the decision-making process?
3) What are key challenges in assessing the engagement
with stakeholders and how can they be overcome?

3. Key good practices
• Setting the goals for stakeholder engagement
• Clear process requirements
• Starting simple, eventually with only one piece of
legislation
• Considering adequacy of budget and tools
(efficiency)
• Independent evaluating body
• Different tools, different evaluation criteria
• Lessons from RIA evaluation: in depth case
studies, not perception surveys

4. How to assess inclusiveness, transparency and
adequate consideration of stakeholders’ views?
Inclusiveness:
- Complete list of stakeholders upfront (RIA)
- Sweden: consulting the list across administration
X Mailbox-type consultations preselects biased sample
Transparency:
- Bottom line of publicity
X Openness vs. limited number of stakeholders with valuable
information
X Disclosing strategic information
Consideration:
• Evaluating stakeholders’ perception of the process

5. Key challenges
• Output vs. outcome
• How to isolate effects of public consultation
• “Starting simple vs ambitious approach”
• “Considering adequacy of budget and tools
(efficiency)”