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EBPM Promotion Committee (2nd)

Overview

  • Date and Time: Friday, June 17, 2022 (2022) from 14:00 to 15:00
  • Location: Online
  • Agenda:
    1. Opening
    2. Greetings from the Chairman
    3. Recommendations of the Working Group on the Formation and Evaluation of agile type Policies
    4. Efforts by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau for EBPM Promotion
    5. Digital Agency's Efforts to Promote EBPM
    6. Efforts by the Committee for the Promotion of Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reform related to the promotion of EBPM
    7. Efforts based on the "Guidelines for Judging Provision, etc. of Statistical Data, etc."
    8. How to promote EBPM in the future
    9. Exchange of opinions
    10. Adjournment

Materials

References

Relevant policies

Priority plan for the realization of digital society

Minutes

Date

Friday, June 17, 2022 (2022) from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location

Held online

Attendees

Experts

  • Yukiko Ito (Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies, Tsuda University)
  • Hiromu Ohashi (Vice President, Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, The
  • Daiji Kawaguchi (Professor, School of Public Policy, The University of
  • Yohei Kobayashi (Senior Researcher, Economic Policy Department, Policy Research Division, Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd.)

Members

  • Members of the EBPM Promotion Committee

Proceedings

  1. Greetings from the Chairman
  2. Recommendations of the Working Group on the Formation and Evaluation of agile type Policies
  3. Efforts by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau for EBPM Promotion
  4. Digital Agency's Efforts to Promote EBPM
  5. Efforts by the Committee for the Promotion of Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reform related to the promotion of EBPM
  6. Efforts based on the "Guidelines for Judging Provision, etc. of Statistical Data, etc."
  7. How to promote EBPM in the future
  8. Exchange of opinions
  9. Adjournment

The course of the proceedings

1. Greetings from the Chairman

Chairman, Assistant Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujii delivered an address (read on behalf of the Secretariat). The summary is as follows.

  • I am aware that the Basic Policies have recently been decided, and that each ministries and agencies is currently at the stage of deepening the consideration of the details of the policies toward the request for the estimated budget for FY 2023.
  • In response to the recommendations of the Agile Working Group, which will be reported later by the Administrative Reform Secretariat, it was decided to advance efforts to enable more agile and flexible policy formulation and evaluation, such as promoting decision making based on EBPM in the budget formulation process.
  • I would like to make three points that I think are important for the promotion of policy formulation and evaluation in each ministries and agencies.
  • The first is that for administrative projects involving fiscal expenditure, it is important to quantitatively set performance targets, validation results from the execution stage, and review those that are less effective. In the Basic Policies, it is a big step forward that the Administrative Project Review Sheet will be sequentially reviewed and used as a platform in the budget formulation process toward the implementation of the EBPM method, and we believe that it should be steadily advanced.
  • The second point is the abolition of formal work. Employees of the Original Division of the Original Bureau are busy every day, and in the future, evaluation-related work will be streamlined to secure resources to be invested in policy formulation and implementation. However, we would like to ask you to ensure that you do not increase unnecessary work by abolishing formal work and practicing Yumeyume EBPM.
  • The third point is support for the original division of each ministries and agencies. This time, the Administrative Reform Secretariat is shifting its focus to support each ministries and agencies. We would like each ministries and agencies to actively utilize the support menu of the Administrative Reform Secretariat and other government agencies so that the employees of the original division of each region can focus on substantive policy formulation.
  • There will be a ministries and agencies that is difficult to solve by one Issue alone, but we would like to consult with the Administrative Reform Secretariat without hesitation and work together with the parties concerned to solve the problem by utilizing various opportunities, including the Investigation Committee. We ask for your efforts so that more agile and flexible policy formulation and evaluation can be carried out naturally in Kasumigaseki.
  • Finally, I would like to ask all experts for their frank opinions.

2. Recommendations of the Working Group on the Formation and Evaluation of agile type Policies

The Secretariat of the Administrative Reform Promotion Headquarters explained the recommendations of the Working Group on the Formation and Evaluation of agile type Policies (Materials 1-1 to 1-4).

3. Efforts by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau related to the promotion of EBPM

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau explained the efforts of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau related to the promotion of EBPM (Materials 2-1 to 3).

4. Digital Agency's Efforts to Promote EBPM

Digital Agency explained Digital Agency's efforts to promote EBPM. (Material 4)

5. Efforts by the Committee for the Promotion of Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reform related to the promotion of EBPM

The Director-General for Policy Planning and Evaluation of the Cabinet Office (in charge of economic and social systems) explained the efforts of the Committee for the Promotion of Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reform related to the promotion of EBPM (Material 5).

6. Efforts based on the "Guidelines for Judgment on Provision, etc. of Statistical Data, etc."

The Secretariat of the Administrative Reform Promotion Office reported on the results of the examination of requests and proposals from users regarding the provision of statistics and other data received by the EBPM Promotion Committee (Materials 6-1 and 6-2).

7. How to proceed with EBPM promotion in the future

The Secretariat of the Administrative Reform Promotion Office explained how to promote EBPM in the future. (Material 7)

8. Exchange of opinions

The Cabinet Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Reference 2) made statements on how to promote EBPM in the future.
After that, an expert commented on the promotion of EBPM. The summary is as follows.

Expert Ito

  • I would like to ask one question and make three comments.
  • First of all, I would like to ask about the relationship between the empirical joint research of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau and Special Advisor EBPM from the perspective of what should be done when administrative officers on the ground want to consult with external experts. Is it correct to understand that the Administrative Evaluation Bureau will support if the mechanism of Special Advisor EBPM is introduced as a small start scheme of the Administrative Reform Secretariat and it seems that it can be scaled up a little more like an empirical joint research?
  • As for my comment on this, first of all, I think neutrality as the purpose of evaluation is important. In other words, it is important not to finish the evaluation within the range where you can do it or can achieve good results because it seems to be effective or because you can evaluate it, but to promote what you want to do even if it does not work. In short, I think it is important not to put pressure on people to achieve good results.
  • Second, for researchers, the middle zone between one point advice, which can be done for free, and joint research, which is done by arranging people and money, is very large. If you want to do more than one point advice several times, there will be things that cannot be done by one person, such as wanting to see the data properly. For example, I thought it would be good if you could create a form in which you do not need to be contracted by one person, such as a graduate student staff.
  • Third, I believe that there is surprisingly no place for the presentation of such an evaluation. Aside from ministries and agencies, which has a research institute, in other ministries and agencies, the results of validation have been obtained, but it would be a waste if they were only one slide of the Council. Therefore, if possible, it is necessary to publish such reports as needed. The "PM" of "EBPM" is Policy Making, not Policy Evaluation. Therefore, in order to make the results of the evaluation public and to link them to Policy Making, it is requested that a place for the presentation in which the citations are clear be prepared.
  • In response to the first question, the Secretariat of the Administrative Reform Promotion Headquarters responded as follows.
    • Although it has not been decided at this point in time, for example, as shown in the figure of the Companion Support Network in Attachment 7, I believe that it will be common for the Administrative Reform Secretariat to act as a hub and accept projects, and depending on the content and degree of maturity of the project, cooperate with the empirical joint research of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Administrative Evaluation Bureau.

Expert Kawaguchi

  • Regarding page 4, No. 4 of Attachment 6-2, I think you are pointing out that it is very difficult to list all the necessary data. I think there are unavoidable parts because the guidelines are in such a form, but I would like you to consider reviewing the rules. In addition, I understand that microdata on government statistics will be provided by on-site use from now on, but if so, I think that various Issue will be highlighted, such as the number of data included here is small or the number of years is small, so I would like you to speed up and improve the rules. In addition, if it is used on-site, there is a constraint that government statistics cannot be used unless you actually go to a place called on-site. In light of the situation like the novel coronavirus pandemic, I have heard that you are considering environments where remote access can be made from various locations such as a laboratory, each public authorities, or your home. I would like you to work on speeding up and realizing the rules at an early date.
  • This time, we have received many proposals for support measures for EBPM. At present, there is an aspect that business operators in private sector are conducting such consulting projects. Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to conduct such support projects in a manner that does not put pressure on the private sector. I believe that you have organized why such support projects are conducted by injecting tax money and how they are separated from private business. I would like you to proceed with the discussion while taking care not to put pressure on the private sector.

Expert Kobayashi

  • The various support menus that you explained this time are very important, but I think there is a possibility that people may not know which one to use, so I would like the Administrative Reform Secretariat to be the control tower. Recently, I interviewed the National Audit Office (NAO) in the United Kingdom, but while various efforts are being made in the United Kingdom, I don't know where to go for consultation. If you are going to make it, I think it would be good if it would be easy to understand.
  • It is also related to the guidebook, but if you know where to go for consultation if you are in trouble in what part of administrative practice, the practice of administrative officers will change, so I think it is good to show that.
  • This time, I think there are many proposals to support EBPM on the supply side, but I think it is also important to increase demand together with the supply side. The mechanism that makes you want to do EBPM and have to do it is a little weak in what I heard today, so I think it is related to showing what is required in the review sheet, but I would like you to consider it.
  • I think it is local government that has low supply capacity despite high demand for EBPM. If the government is going to make a variety of support menu, I think it would be good to make a menu that can be used by people in local government.
  • I think it is also important to develop human resources who will take on specialized duties in the administration. I think it would be good if we could create a career ladder in which not only EBPM but also various specialists such as digital, design, and law will grow in the administration.

Ohashi Intellectuals

  • With regard to the policy formulation of the agile type that you explained in your opening remarks, I would like to emphasize once again that this theme is not limited to policy fields with a high degree of digitalization, but rather is a proposal based on the awareness of the problem of how to provide policies that meet the needs of society and the people without delay amid the increasing uncertainty of the situation at home and abroad, and that it applies to all policy fields. I believe that we must consider how to embed such a form of policy formulation and evaluation that is not tied to a fiscal year in practice.
  • I think what the Policy design Lab will deal with is still a future story, but one way of thinking is that we should try a very new approach here. One important point of view is to create a lab that requires high-level coordination and judgment, incorporating the latest knowledge from data analysts, design thinking, and nudge, and making policies that have a certain impact, by creating one, or in some cases, two or more task forces, in which not only employees of the Administrative Reform Secretariat but also employees of the EBPM Promotion Department of the ministries and agencies in charge and experts participate flatly.
  • In order to openly communicate these efforts and stimulate public opinion, it is also important to firmly communicate with the people.

End