6.7 Capacity Building: Bidding Capacity, Shared Evidence Base, Future

6.7 Capacity Building: Bidding Capacity, Shared Evidence Base, Future Proof and Anticipating Economic Structural Changes

An inherent part of the Strategy is the building of institutional capacity to enable an effective implementation and to respond to emerging challenges.

Bidding Capacity

REGIONAL POLICY OBJECTIVES:

With the introduction of competitive bids as part of Project Ireland 2040 and similar frameworks to draw down funds from other sources such as EU funds, there is a need to ensure that all local authorities and local stakeholders have sufficient capacity to scout funding sources and to prepare professional and robust applications (bidding capacity).

Shared Evidence Base

RPO 6.36: Design and implement a basic framework with the CSO to build a common, up-to-date, dynamic and shared evidence base and monitoring framework at regional and local level with information on assets, economic base, settlement functions, and economic performance, to be published as open data where appropriate.

REGIONAL POLICY OBJECTIVES:

Future Proof – Readiness to Address Emerging Challenges

Bidding Capacity

RPO 6.35: Design and implement a framework to provide technical support to local authorities, government agencies and regional stakeholders to develop and strengthen their bidding capacity, that is their capacity to identify infrastructure deficits and opportunities, to prepare strong business cases, to identify funding sources, to bid, and successfully attract competitive funding.

Developing the RSES requires a thoughtful consideration of conditions that may affect the intended outcomes. This leads to the need to take actions to prepare and be ready to address emerging issues. For this purpose, a foresight exercise is considered appropriate. When planning and designing strategies, an assessment of whether or not assumptions or current conditions will maintain or change over the Strategy timeframe is extremely important. In this regard, the National Risk Assessment40 continuously scans for potential risks.

Common and Shared Evidence Base for REPs, LAPs, LECPs and CDPs

There is a variety of emerging issues such as BREXIT, international tax developments, US trade and investment policies, technological advances, and climate change. On the basis of this foresight exercise, the EMRA will seek to develop a prevention or contingency plan which provides preparedness and readiness for the economy of the Region, to be delivered in line with the provisions of Chapter 12 on Implementation and Monitoring. Likewise, the use of ‘Pivot Strategies’ for businesses that may be affected by emerging economic risks, such as BREXIT for instance, can be beneficial.

Through a systematic collection of relevant regional data economies of scale can be achieved and this common and shared evidence base will inform the forthcoming reviews of REPs, local area plans (LAPs), LECPs and city and county development plans (CDPs).

It will facilitate an alignment to the RSES and national policy, and it will simplify the identification of specific issues relevant to their localities. The evidence base should consider greater insights of the industrial evolution of towns and localities in order to have a better understanding of how towns and localities have developed to date, thus enabling the identification of growth constraints, the assets and the growth opportunities.

REGIONAL POLICY OBJECTIVES:

Economic Risk Management System

RPO 6.37: Prepare and operate an economic risk management system, with preventive action plans, considering social and environment factors.

40 The National Risk Assessment is conducted annually by the Department of the Taoiseach. It identifies risks under the following headings: geo-political, economic, environmental, social and technological.

Figure from page 149

Economy & Employment

Anticipating Economic Structural Changes

REGIONAL POLICY OBJECTIVES:

It is important to recognise that, given changes in the industrial and economic landscape, some sectors find themselves under pressure which can result in jobs loses. Therefore, mechanisms are needed to support people engaged in declining industries by means of up-skilling, lifelong learning and communication strategies to redirect their activities and skills towards alternative uses.

Anticipating Economic Structural Changes

RPO 6.38: Support enterprise agencies, REPs, LECPs, Regional Skill fora and local stakeholders on their introduction of contingency plans and pilot projects based on the strengths of the Region to counteract the effects from industrial decline and potential external shocks in the Region. This may include lifelong learning programmes, appropriate business supports and upskilling to facilitate moving to alternative sectors in the locality or region, for example the Bord na Móna Regional Transition Team for a comprehensive afteruse framework plan for the peatlands.

Figure from page 149

Figure from page 150

Regional Spatial & Economic Strategy

7 Environment and Climate