Strategy for Public Governance Renewal

Abstract

The Finnish society is in the midst of an upheaval because of e.g. ageing population, migration and digitalization. In order for the Finnish public administration to be able to respond to the changes in the society, a project was set up to prepare a common strategy for public governance and services in accordance with the Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government programme. The public governance strategy will guide and strengthen the renewal of public governance as a whole from 2020 to 2030. A consistent and determined renewal of governance as described in the strategy, will streamline everyday services, ensure legal cer-tainty in society and create new opportunities for business and communities. The strategy seeks to strengthen good governance across the country and in both national languages. It strives to improve digital accessibility and encourage wider use of plain language in administration. The direction and means of administrative reform were defined together with various administrative sectors, municipalities, civil society, researchers and various stakeholders as the promise, goals and policies of public governance in the 2020s. The participatory process of preparing the strategy has therefore played an important role in strengthening cooperation between the state, municipalities and future welfare regions, as well as the interaction between governance and the rest of society, and in building a common understanding of the need and direction of public governance development.