Development of Public Management Commitments (IT0085)

Problem addressed:

The development of public employee skills, along with recruiting, simplification, and digitalisation, represents one of the main intervention areas of the PNRR. In 2023, the Directive on Training and Competency Development was issued to provide methodological and operational guidelines for the planning, management, and evaluation of training activities by administrations. An investigation conducted in 2023 on PNRR & Open Government revealed the need to disseminate open government skills in administrations involved in the Plan's management and implementation. Additionally, various open government training courses have been conducted in the last two years in collaboration with SNA and integrated into the Syllabus platform for free access by all public administrations. However, these skills are still not widely spread. Consequently, the national strategy for open government pays particular attention to skills and leadership. Skills acquisition should become a constant goal of the human resources training plans of central and local administrations. They should be embedded in human capital management strategies increasingly oriented towards competency-based models and serve as a vehicle for public value for the reference community. Special attention should be paid to the initial training of public leaders, not only for profiles connected to decision-making powers but also to produce the cultural change necessary for openness policies by introducing new role models and activating leading by example mechanisms. Moreover, activities such as civic monitoring and the co-creation of public policies and services through participatory and deliberative processes, often supported by inclusive technologies, require citizens to possess certain competencies.

Description of the commitment:

Institutionalise the training offer for the skills necessary to implement open government policies through the main channels for providing training and updating for public personnel and leadership. The expected resultfor entry-leveltraining is the experimentation and formalisation of a training module for open government as an integral part of the Public Managment Course-Competition program provided by SNA. Follow-up meetings will also be scheduled for those who have received the training to support the creation of the necessary commitment of public leadership towards open government policies. At the on-the-job training level, the course offer, on open government competencies, already included in the Syllabus, will be integrated, with particular attention to promoting a culture of integrity in the public sector. Paths for disseminating competencies among personnel and civil society representatives involved in participatory processes at the territorial level will also be tested.

How will the commitment address the problem?

First, by spreading competencies among new senior hires, to create conditions for further dissemination of open government values (transparency, accountability, participation, integrity, inclusive digitalisation) through the principle of leading by example. Second, thanks to continuous training through the regular offerings of SNA and the Syllabus, open government competencies will gradually become part of the public sector's administrative culture. For the parallel dissemination of competencies in civil society, the spaces offered by the Community of Practices within the Participation Hub and the RPCT Community of Practice at SNA will be utilised, and possible ways of disseminating training content produced by CSOs present in the OGP Italy Community will be evaluated.

Why is this commitment relevant to the OGP values?

To disseminate open government practices more widely, it is crucial to define places and times for training the necessary skills: how does one learn the attitude towards participation, transparency, integrity, and accountability that guides public personnel in their decisions, activities, and information management? Is it through formal learning, starting at university and consolidating through on-the-job training? Or through informal learning, such as experiences in activism or political representation? And how possible is it to imagine training paths for new generations already in school? This commitment addresses these questions with the concrete goals of defining tools for training and programming training actions carried out in dialogue with civil society, targeting strategic groups. It is relevant to OGP values because it aims at entry-level training for central administration leadership and utilises the Syllabus, which is also accessible to territorial administrations

Description of the activies and outputs:

Evaluation of catalog courses carried out in 2023 and 2024, in collaboration between SNA and DFP and with the involvement of CSOs, for the planning of SNA courses 2025. Output: Integration of open government courses into the SNA 2024/2025 catalog (October 2024)
Production of new courses on open government for the Syllabus of skills catalogue.
Output: Insertion of 3 new courses in the Syllabus (December 2025)
Definition and experimentation of the training module on open government in the program of the Ninth entrance exam for public management
Output: Program of the Ninth entrance exam (by October 2024)
Evaluation of the results of the training provided and design of follow-up initiatives for
managers who entered service following the Ninth entrance exam
Output: Report on the evaluation of trainees and follow-up initiatives (February 2025), Standardisation and implementation of the training program on open government for subsequent editions of the entrance exam (from July 2025)
Definition of skills for the implementation of participation policies through: Initiatives for comparison with stakeholders and civil society at the local level for the participatory management of common goods,
Updating of the profile of the expert in the design, management and evaluation of participatory processes for the regional level
Output: Definition of a training program for the dissemination of participatory skills for
shared administration at the local level (June 2025), Modeling of training paths for the development of skills of the various actors of public participation (June 2025)
Design and implementation of initiatives to promote the demand for training on open government for civil servants and public managers in service
Output: Program of initiatives (April 2025)
Design and implementation of reuse initiatives during the OG Weeks, including courses and materials produced to inform interested citizens by CSOs or interested PAs
Output: Program of initiatives 2025 and 2026 (April 2025 - April 2026)