“Simplify” (“Enkelt Og Greit”) (NO0038)

The government’s “Simplify” project was initiated by the Norwegian Prime Minister in
February 2013. The Project was coordinated by the Ministry of Government
Administration, Reform and Church Affairs, and launched in June 2013. The project was
based on the values in OGP, and the final document is marked with the OGP Logo.
The main goal of the project was, in cooperation with civil society, to identify fields or
issues where the government can simplify the everyday lives of citizens.
In this project, the Government adopted a number of different working methods:
 Dialogue between the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment
(Difi) and civil society organizations (NGOs)
 Consultation between the Prime Minister and representatives from civil
society
 Dialogue between some ministries and the Office of the Prime Minister
 An electronic mailbox on the Internet where the citizens were able to make
suggestions and comments

“Simplify” was worked out by the former government. The new government will
consider this document in connection with its efforts to modernize public sector.

3. “Simplify” (“Enkelt og greit”)

Commitment Text:

The government’s “Simplify” project was initiated by the Norwegian Prime Minister in February 2013. […]

The main goal of the project was, in cooperation with civil society, to identify fields or issues where the government can simplify the everyday lives of citizens.

In this project, the Government adopted a number of different working methods:

• Dialogue between the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi) and civil society organizations (NGOs)

• Consultation between the Prime Minister and representatives from civil society

• Dialogue between some ministries and the Office of the Prime Minister

• An electronic mailbox on the Internet where the citizens were able to make suggestions and comments

These processes resulted in more than 300 proposals from citizens, NGOs and civil servants. Different ministries are responsible for the 45 commitments. The “Simplify” document has 45 commitments.

COMMITMENT DESCRIPTION
Simplify was worked out by the former government. The new government will consider this document in connection with its efforts to modernize public sector.

Responsible institution: Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs

Supporting institution(s): None

Start date: Ongoing               End date: Ongoing

Editorial note: The text of the commitments was abridged for formatting reasons. For full text of the commitment, please see http://bit.ly/1QlVIja.

Policy Aim

Responses to the Norwegian government’s national survey on citizen satisfaction in 2010 indicated some dissatisfaction with the quality of digital services and bureaucratic processes.^{[Note 16: “Innbyggerundersøkelsen,” Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, updated January 14, 2010, accessed September 14, 2016, https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/innbyggerundersokelsen/id591513/.]} This led to the initiation of the “Simplify” project in 2013.^{[Note 17: “Enkelt og Greit,” Office of the Prime Minister (2013), accessed September 4, 2016, http://bit.ly/1LYdm92.]} This commitment addresses related policy processes by committing the Norwegian government to consider a report produced by the Ministry of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs. The report presents recommendations for consultations to determine how access to public services could be simplified.^{[Note 18: Ibid.]} The former government led the production of this report in consultation with citizens through the use of a blog where citizens could offer suggestions.^{[Note 19: Described in “Regjeringen vil gjøre hverdagen enklere for deg og meg,” Fornyings-, administrasjons- og kirkedepartementet, accessed September 9, 2016, https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/enkler-hverdag/id731194/. ]} The blog is no longer available, but the government reports over 200 citizen suggestions were submitted.^{[Note 20: ”Enkelt og greit - 200 forenklingsforslag fra innbygggerne,” Fornyings-, administrasjons- og kirkedepartementet, accessed September 9, 2016, https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumentarkiv/stoltenberg-ii/fad/lyd-og-bilde/2013/enkelt-og-greit---200-forenklingsforslag/id717889/. ]} These submissions provided the foundation for the subsequent report (which noted that over 300 suggestions were received), proposing such simplification initiatives as social media engagement with the recipients of social benefits and the development of infrastructure to receive GPS data and images from callers to emergency telephone services.^{[Note 21: ”Enkelt og greit - 200 forenklingsforslag fra innbygggerne,” Fornyings-, administrasjons- og kirkedepartementet, accessed September 9, 2016, https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumentarkiv/stoltenberg-ii/fad/lyd-og-bilde/2013/enkelt-og-greit---200-forenklingsforslag/id717889/.]} Though the initiative was discontinued with the change in government in 2013, the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation (KMD) notes that the current government has initiated many projects with comparable objectives. These are encapsulated in the government’s policy priority area “En enklere hverdag for folk flest” (A simpler day-to-day for common people), which emphasizes the minimizing of bureaucratic processes, regulations, and taxes.^{[Note 22: “En enklere hverdag for folk flest,” Office of the Prime Minister, accessed September 4, 2016, https://www.regjeringen.no/no/om-regjeringa/solberg/Regjeringens-satsingsomrader/Regjeringens-satsingsomrader/enklere-hverdag/id2397849/. ]}  

Status

Mid-term: Unable to tell from government and civil society responses

The “Simplify” report contained recommendations from the previous government on simplifying bureaucratic interaction with citizens. The IRM researcher found no evidence of any formal processes through which the report had been “considered.”

End-of-term: Complete
KMD reports that “En enklere hverdag for folk flest” includes several activities that are consonant with this commitment, such as the “time thieves” project, which KMD reports identified over 8,000 activities and processes which “steal time” and produce inefficiencies in bureaucratic processes.^{[Note 23: “Tidstyver i forvaltningen,” Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi), accessed September 13, 2016, https://www.difi.no/fagomrader-og-tjenester/tidstyver/.]} Though the way in which the former government’s report (“Simplify”) was “considered” while developing the new government’s approach (“En enklere hverdag…”) has not been documented and remains unclear to the IRM researcher, this end-of-term report assumes that the Simplify report was considered and is at least partly responsible for the consonance in policy objectives across the government transition. The commitment is thus understood to be complete.

Did it open government?

Access to information: Marginal

This commitment is understood to be related to a number of policy initiatives that are directly relevant to the OGP process. Some of these may have marginal implications for improving access to certain types of information. For example, the “time thieves” initiative has resulted in the creation of a public database where public agencies publish information about processes they identified as “time thieves” and the efforts they are taking to mitigate their impacts on citizens.^{[Note 24: Ibid. ]}

Carried forward?

This commitment has not been carried forward in the Norwegian government’s third national action plan, which is available on the OGP website.^{[Note 25: ”Norway’s third action plan Open Government Partnership (OGP),” Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, accessed September 4, 2016, http://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/Norway_2016-17_NAP.pdf.]}