Present-day local governments are deeply innovative and creative, otherwise they would not be able to cope with the times in which they have come to function - times that are constantly challenging, uncertain and unstable. It is also a time of high expectations, which requires a completely different approach, including in administration. On 12 December this year, the Association of Polish Cities, in cooperation with the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS), organized another seminar of the Local Development Forum entitled 'Innovative and Creative Administration'.

'The content of the seminar is somewhat of a paradox: for we always associate local government administration, as well as the main government administration, as stable and unchangeable, and today we are talking about creativity and innovation in administration. This is an element that we assign key importance in local development projects,' said Kamil Wieder, Head of the Assistance Programs Department at the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy. 'Local government administration must be creative and innovative in order to best carry out its tasks. Sometimes this is unfortunately due to a shortage of resources, sometimes due to the large number of very flexible tasks it has to carry out'.

The main goal of local government operation is to provide quality public services. Tomasz Potkański, Deputy Director of the APC Office, reminded us of this and added: 'In order to do this, local governments are obliged to provide high quality of services, but above all they must keep up with the expectations and needs of residents, and often anticipate them, which requires us to constantly work on the organisational culture of our offices; such a culture that will condone innovation, invite employees to contribute to the quality of services'.

'What motivates me as a partner in this project implemented jointly with APC, but also as an employee and team-leader in KS?' - reflected Elita Cakule, Head of the International Projects Department at the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities; 'It's a fact that the work I do is useful and valuable to others in itself. I am motivated by the fact that I do something for others and it is appreciated. I myself need a lot of freedom to make my own decisions and judgments. I need to have the conviction that no matter what happens, I will be able to handle the tasks before me and that I am competent enough to do them. It is also important to me to be able to use my skills, my experience, my knowledge in the expected way in a given project or more broadly in my work. But I also value the opportunity for growth and further learning. It's also important to have a clear division of roles and a focus on high competence - “mastery” - as we call it in Norway. The focus is on the skills of all team members, rather than competing within one team.

The seminar served to provide advice and experience on how such motivations, as discussed by Elita Cakule, can be achieved in local government.

The speakers at the meeting consisted of experts from Norway and Poland - consultants with practical experience, as well as practitioners themselves. Grethe Holtan, who is a coach, a director at Sinius Ltd., who gained experience in technology companies, spoke about the practical implementation of the idea of innovation and creativity in public administration.

An example of innovative human resource management in the municipality of Nordre Follo was discussed by Morten Ellingsen, Head of Information Department at Nordre Foll Municipality. 'Why do Norwegian municipalities need creativity and innovation? Because they have too many tasks to carry out with too small financial resources, they have too high demands and too few people working for them,' he said. And he added that local governments in Norway have come to the not-so-easy observation that 'they simply can't afford everything anymore'. This has forced precise measures to be taken.

The seminar was organized within the framework of the 'Bilateral Initiative 2024-2025' project, which is a continuation of bilateral cooperation between Polish, Norwegian and Icelandic local governments. It exemplifies the establishment of lasting relations after local development projects and the expansion of cooperation in the preparation of the next perspective. The project is implemented with funds from the Bilateral Cooperation Fund, the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021.

It is worth recalling that cooperation between the Association of Polish Cities and the KS has existed for 18 years - this is the third joint project of these partners. Cooperation with the KS means not only study visits of Polish local government officials to Norway (several hundred local government officials have already participated in them), but also Norwegian internships in Poland.