A STRATEGY FOR ITALIAN INNER AREAS

Transcription

1 A STRATEGY FOR ITALIAN INNER AREAS Fostering growth through Inner Areas development Teresa Capece Galeota Department for Cohesion Policy _ National Committee on Inner Areas (Coordinator: Sabrina Lucatelli) 10th OECD Rural Development Conference May, Memphis, USA

2 Inner areas: areas located at significant distance from centers that provide essential service Rationale & goals Improving the quality of life and economic well being of inhabitants in order to restore their rights to Citizenship Promoting a sustainable and effective use of untapped natural and cultural resources Reducing social costs caused by depopulation Strengthening key local development factors reverse demographic trends Combined policy measures: improving essential services provision and access local development initiatives Multilevel Governance: Central Government Regions Local Authorities

3 Inner areas at a glance Classification of Municipalities N. % Average elevation Population % KM % Single-Municipality Service Center 217 2, , ,6 Multi-Municipality Service Center 122 1, , ,8 Belt areas , , ,8 Intermediate areas , , ,2 Remote areas , , ,1 Ultra-remote areas 303 3, , ,5 Total , , ,0 Souce: DPS elaboration on Istat - Census % of national territory municipalities 23% of total population Source: UVAL-UVER-ISTAT elaboration of data from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and RFI (Italian Railway Network)

4 Workflow National Committee Assessment of proposed areas Regional identification of prototype area Local development Strategy Program Framework Agreement Projects implementation

5 Two - step assessment process for Area Selection Desk analysis (Inner Areas Open Kit) Each pre-selected area is thoroughly analyzed with respect to a series of demographic and socio-economic parameters: e.g. Population losses and demographic structure, Utilized Agricultural Area (UAA) trends, deforestation, hydrological risk, entrepreneurship, tourism and cultural heritage, quality of education, mobility and health services, Digital Divide, Local Authorities' willingness to collaborate and local leadership, expertise in successful project Implementation Field analysis (National Committee s visits to pre-selected areas) A number of focus groups are organized at local level aiming at meeting territories e.g. local authorities, mayors, public officers in charge of services delivery, School Directors, teachers, students, Hospital managers and doctors.

6 Open method in practice/1 The case of the Region of Molise demographic structure A. General indicators ALTO MEDIO SANNIO FORTORE MAINARDE MATESE REGION Inner Areas Inner Areas REGION MOLISE a.1 Municipalities a.4 a.7 b.3 b.5 b.6 Resident population, 2011 % of population living in inner areas % of population above 65, 2011 Population change between 1971 and 2011 Population change between 2001 and ,9 93,2 62,1 100,0 100,0 100,0 61,1 22,4 27,7 26,8 25,0 21,0 23,5 21,2 22,1 20,8-35,9-27,2-18,6-9,5-13,3 4,6-1,9 9,8-10,4-9,2-4,8-3,1-3,7 2,3-2,2 4,3

7 Open method in practice/2 The case of Regione Molise primary education and health H. Primary education (2012) ALTO MEDIO SANNIO FORTORE MAINARDE MATESE MOLISE Inner Areas Inner Areas MOLISE h.3 % of municipalities with at least 1 school 66,7 91,7 84,6 85,7 78,9 81,1 80,1 85,7 h.8 Turnover rate of teachers 4,1 10,9 0,0 4,3 4,4 5,1 4,3 4,9 h.9 % of classes with a max of 15 pupils 75,3 65,6 76,3 69,7 55,0 34,5 46,1 19,2 h.14 INVALSI tests - Math: average result (standard dev.) - last class of primary schools 48,8 (18,4) 51,6 (17,2) 58,4 (14,2) 60,4 (16,7) - 53,6 (17,6) 53,6 (17,6) 54,9 (17,8) F. Healthcare (2012) ALTO MEDIO SANNIO FORTORE MAINARDE MATESE MOLISE Inner Areas Inner Areas MOLISE f.4 f.7 Avoidable hospitalization rate (reference rate= 570) Rescue time (in minutes) - between the telephone call to the monitoring station and arrival on site 561,0 649,5 472,0 651,7 492,7 583,9 543,6 544,

8 Sharing Indicators with Local Communities The case of Regione Molise: Fortore area Healthcare session The high value of First Aid Measures (Ambulance waiting times) reflects the topography of each territory (comparing with data on accessibility ); The Integrated Home Assistance does not take into account the diffused system of informal assistance; Main remarks: Indicators provide a representative picture of reality but the real world is far too complex to be fully captured!; There s a need to analyze data considering local specificities of territories; People tend to be skeptical over solutions to reorganize the healthcare or school system; It is extremely important to share long-run development objectives with all actors involved. People are not used to tackle daily problems through data & indicators

9 Selected areas: facts & figures At present, 57 areas have been selected: For a total resident population of 1,673,120, which represents the 2.8% of the national population, 53% of which live in remote and ultra-remote areas; with a population loss of 4.3% from 2001 to 2011; For 41,969 sq.km, which represent 13.9% of national land Each area comprises 15 municipalities on average, with around inhabitants. *Geographic distribution of the project areas

10 Moving from Strategy to action Once the local development Strategy is designed, interventions and objectives have to be transformed in commitments and actions; The tool to commit all subjects is the Program Framework Agreement that sets out: terms of engagement and obligations, list of projects, procedures, deadlines, funding, monitoring tools and result indicators Territories define their development path Central Government, Regions and Local Authorities sign the Program Framework Agreement Development objectives are transformed into an integrated development strategy

11 How do we monitor results? Expected results: Result Indicators for healthcare improvements: Better access to healthcare services for citizens Promote social inclusion, fight poverty and all forms of discrimination Increase/qualification of care services and of health and social service infrastructure 1) Reducing the rescue time (in minutes) of the arrival of the first aid (ie. Ambulance) starting from phone call to the emergency medical service 2) 3). 1) Increasing the percentage of population over 65 treated in Integrated Homecare Assistance (ADI) 2) 1) Increasing the specialist outpatient - Services provided x 1000 residents 2).. 3)