2. Setting the vision, strategic planning and prioritisation

CoGs are crucial in stewarding a country’s vision, long-term strategy and priorities. From their unique central positioning, they set the overall vision and co-ordinate strategic planning and prioritisation across the public administration. The data collected through the OECD (2023) “Survey on strategic decision-making at the centre of government” (hereafter the Survey) demonstrate that this is a core role of CoGs. In 2023, 73% of OECD member and accession countries reported that formulating a long-term vision is a top or significant priority for their CoG and 58% of surveyed parties described setting priorities as an important function.

Translating vision and priorities into co-ordinated action benefits from a co-ordinated approach across the government and planning of the necessary resources to deliver on the priorities. CoGs are, thus, often performing these functions: 73% of CoGs reported that ensuring alignment across documents and with the budget is a significant or top priority (OECD, 2023[1]).

Strategic planning and prioritisation are activities that tend to involve actors from several areas of the administration as well as external stakeholders. CoGs, therefore, need to ensure consistent quality across the administration and build the overall planning capacity of officials: 88% of CoGs mentioned that setting frameworks, standards, guidance and building capacity for strategic planning is a priority.

The institutional structures of CoGs vary across countries and according to their functions and priorities. “With easy access to senior government leaders, but relatively small budgets and staff, CoGs embody the ‘engine room’ of decision-making and are well situated to bring together both people and issues to set the direction of travel” (OECD, 2018[2]). For strategic planning activities, 18 out of 26 countries surveyed reported having a dedicated unit or team for strategic planning, while 11 indicated having a dedicated structure for visioning or foresight (OECD, 2023[1]).

This chapter will explore the CoG’s role as a steward of setting the vision, strategic planning and prioritisation through the following structure:

  • Formulating a long-term vision and strategic planning.

  • Supporting priority setting.

  • Ensuring alignment across strategic documents.

  • Setting frameworks, standards, guidance and building capacity.

Tackling challenges through long-term policy planning and strategising is more urgent than ever (Schiller, 2022[3]). Governments are faced with increasingly cross-cutting issues and crises while operating in a growingly complex environment (OECD, 2023[4]) and tightening fiscal landscape. This can create a risk for CoGs to overfocus on short-term risks and action. Yet, maintaining long-term vision is essential for countries to combat climate change, achieve their development ambitions.

CoGs lead work on strategic planning and on the definition of the country’s long-term vision. They do so by defining overall government long-term visions, then translating this into shorter-term plans and action. The specific vision for the future of the country is the element that underpins most of the strategic planning process and the content of planning documents (OECD, 2018[2]). According to the Survey, in 69% of countries, CoGs lead the formulation of the government’s long-term vision, through national development plans for example. Such plans provide a common framework for all ministries to align specific actions.

In some circumstances, CoGs may be directly involved in the development of long-term plans for certain sectors, for example in infrastructure. According to data from the OECD 2020 Survey on the Governance of Infrastructure, in 2020, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, and Türkiye reported that the CoG is the primary institution responsible for assessing the country’s long-term infrastructure needs.

In a rapidly moving environment marked by disruptions and uncertainty, governments need to adjust their efforts continuously. Hence, long-term visions can benefit from periodic reviews and revision updates to ensure they remain relevant to changing circumstances and national trends (OECD, 2022[5]). Boxes 2.1 and 2.2 present the case of Finland and Latvia and their long-term-vision approaches.

Approaches such as foresight and long-term insights can support the development of long-term visioning. Yet, the adoption of strategic foresight and related methodology in planning processes by CoGs remains low. According to the Survey, in 19% of countries, the CoG is primarily responsible for undertaking future thinking, foresight or modelling activities (OECD, 2023[1]).

In those that do, OECD research has shown that a central dedicated foresight unit can help integrate foresight into strategic planning processes, for example in Finland. Box 2.3 provides an example of New Zealand’s integration of long-term foresight insights into their planning processes. Box 2.4 provides an example of their foresight approach from Portugal. Australia has also piloted a long-term insights process into their planning approaches, recently released by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Engaging with stakeholders is crucial to informing strategic planning, for example to bring in knowledge and expertise of others and to build collective buy-in. CoGs’ central positioning allows them to co-ordinate the engagement of stakeholders to integrate different perspectives and harness expertise and support from a wide range of parties (Brown, Kohli and Mignotte, 2021[13]).

First, CoGs can draw on the knowledge, expertise and experience of line ministries and other government agencies in strategic planning processes. This ensures that sectoral priorities are fed into the overarching strategies and helps line ministries to understand and support the government’s vision. CoGs can use different methodologies to engage with line ministries, including inter-ministerial meetings, committees and retreats/seminars at the highest levels.

Experiences in OECD member countries show that when planning and prioritisation processes are open and underpinned by external stakeholder engagement activities, they can enhance legitimacy and buy-in for high-level national goals (OECD, 2020[14]). Box 2.5 demonstrates the importance of external engagement in Estonia’s long-term planning processes. While the CoG leads direct engagement in some cases, in others, it is responsible for ensuring that strategic documents or instruments prepared by other areas of the administration adhere to consultation requirements. This is the case in 62% of CoGs surveyed as part of the Survey.

Having a long-term vision provides an overarching frame for policy and resource allocation decisions. Governments must reconcile the immediate nature of challenges, such as rising inflation or the global energy crisis, with other long-term objectives and policies. This leads to the difficult task of prioritisation, which is a priority function for 88% of the CoGs surveyed in 2023. How the role is carried out varies greatly across surveyed countries, with 56% of CoGs leading this function and 40% sharing the lead with line ministries (OECD, 2023[1]).

Prioritisation is a crucial part of the early stages of strategic planning and policy formulation. It enables more realistic commitments and increases the likelihood of follow-through (OECD, 2020[14]). Inadequate prioritisation can create issues such as duplication across ministries or incomplete work (Plant, 2009[17]). Prioritisation approaches are often about creating alignment and collaboration of the public administration on what matters most.

The strategic planning ecosystem includes a series of processes, instruments, actors and interactions that come together to create effective strategic planning for government action. It is a priority for 92% of countries surveyed and requires consideration of the whole system (OECD, 2020[14]). In 35% of countries surveyed, CoGs play a leading role in this.

Complicated or ineffective planning systems can be a challenge, for example in cases where there is a high number of inherited plans from previous administrations in addition to new documents. Countries have identified several approaches to manage this issue. For instance, in some countries such as Finland, the Prime Minister’s Office is auditing over 100 planning documents with the aim to reduce their number. Another option to address this issue is the definition of a hierarchy across different instruments. Latvia (Box 2.7) has embedded this in its legal framework with the objective of increasing policy coherence and coverage (Government of Latvia, 2018[19]).

CoGs are naturally positioned to guide good public administration practices, including strategic planning. In 2023, 62% of surveyed CoGs indicated setting frameworks, standards, guidance and building capacity in strategic planning as top priorities. In 42% of the countries, CoGs are the lead structure for defining the standards, requirements or guidance for line ministries or agencies about setting the vision, priorities and strategic planning. The use of new or contemporary approaches, such as systems thinking, has increased in 42% of the surveyed CoGs (OECD, 2023[1]), through offering toolkits or handbooks for example. CoGs also provide reviews and feedback on draft documents in 69% of surveyed countries. Half of the CoGs develop guidelines or templates for strategic planning.

Through a synthesis of information collected through country practices, desk research, interviews and the experiences shared by participants of the informal OECD Expert Group on Strategic Decision Making at the Centre of Government, the following key considerations can be identified:

  • CoGs are finding it more difficult to balance long- and short-term priorities and trade-offs. This is due to shifting national agendas, policy complexity and continued disruptions and crises. Relatedly, ensuring that planning documents are aligned is difficult even where there are clear hierarchy frameworks because of shifting priorities or cross-cutting issues.

  • Developing a long-term vision supported by key actors can be difficult in an increasingly polarised environment. CoGs might face a trade-off between defining a specific vision that only reflects a small share of the population and a broader vision that could be perceived as vague.

  • Dealing with cross-cutting issues requires a whole-of-government approach for the development of strategies and plans. However, administrations typically work in functional silos. CoGs are increasingly trying to overcome these silos through more collaborative planning approaches.

  • Engaging with citizens has proven to be a challenge for some CoGs. Several CoGs have identified low citizen participation in the long-term planning process as a challenge to inform the development of national priorities and strategies.

  • Clear roles and responsibilities around strategic planning processes and co-ordination are key to effective strategic planning processes, along with the government’s national agenda clarity.

  • Putting in place the building blocks to support the CoG in addressing long-term commitments while delivering on short-term government priorities should be considered, for example in allocating budgets and resources dedicated to both long- and short-term priorities.

  • A clear framework for the hierarchy of high-level strategic plans can be useful to avoid inconsistencies and promote continuity across strategies.

  • CoGs should continue to use a collaborative strategic planning approach, including across ministries and with other stakeholders. The CoG’s convening power can support this including through periodic, face-to-face meetings where representatives from the CoG and ministries can address relevant topics or meet with experts and stakeholders.

  • Enhancing strategic thinking and planning capabilities in the administration is helpful, first and foremost for the CoG and across line ministries, through ministry planning focal points for example.

References

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[15] Government Office of Estonia (2021), Estonia 2035, https://www.valitsus.ee/en/node/31 (accessed on 10 May 2023).

[9] Latvijas Republikas Valsts kontrole (2022), Ar kādiem izaicinājumiem saskaramies, sagatavojot un īstenojot Latvijas Atveseļošanas un noturības mehānisma plānu? Situācijas izpētes ziņojums.

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