Achieving more together: International Success

Mannheim’s public administration modernization process CHANGE²  was chosen as one of the five finalists of the European Public Sector Award (EPSA) main category „Smart Public Service Delivery in a Cold Economic Climate“.

A total of 274 project proposals from 32 countries were entered into the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) contest. Member of the jury Michael Burnett, EIPA expert for the financial sector and responsible for the EPSA category „Smart Public Service Delivery in a Cold Economic Climate“ declared: “By targeting what they do and how they spend their money towards services for citizens, Mannheim are truly living up to their aim of “Achieving More Together“, and they deserve to succeed because of the way they have brought all staff on board with the process.”

Lord Mayor Dr. Peter Kurz was pleased with the result: „It is excellent that Mannheim has already received international recognition for its change process after such a short time”. “This goes to show that on the whole we are on the right track.” The manager of the public administration architecture specialist group Ulrich Hörning is also proud of the contest result: “All the projects entered were top quality. The winner of our category, Bilbao, has already been working with a strategic budget management for 14 years and has produced excellent results”. The fact that Mannheim has been placed in the same league as the city of Bilbao is outstanding.

Only one of the 15 finalists operates on the national level; ten of them were municipalities. The Lord Mayor concluded: “This shows us yet again that it is the municipalities that modernize administration and improve processes in the interest of their citizens”. It is for the most part the commitment of the local community that triggers change to the public administration culture.

Patricia Popp, head of the regional citizen’s service and Gerd Schick, department manager of the department for education were two of the Mannheim delegation who presented the CHANGE² project in Maastricht. They are convinced: “A change process must be driven by management and employees together, all of whom must be consulted be able to contribute their ideas.” This is the only way successful modernization can be guaranteed.

Here you can find the presentation for the final round in Maastricht.