Latvia

Una Klapkalne

Ref Batch
E
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
3
Critical Tasks
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Yoni Friedman
Name
Una Klapkalne
Interviewee's Position
Chief Executive Officer
Interviewee's Organization
National News Agency
Language
English
Town/City
Riga
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Una Klapkalne describes the policy formation system and strategic planning implemented during her time at the State Chancellery. She describes the development of a policy formation system based on the production of specific documents. To implement this new system, her team at the Policy Coordination Department trained the ministries and reviewed their documents, as she details in this interview. She describes how the ministries increased the quality of their policy planning documents as they adapted to the new system. She also details how the department persuaded the ministries to support their changes. The team incorporated a new annotation system in to the policy formation process, which she says was to help administrators understand the cost each policy. In addition to explaining the policy formation system, Klapkalne discusses the process of ex-ante impact assessments and ex-post evaluations and the strategic planning system the team put in place. The team also increased cross-sectoral coordination, which she explains happened through the department’s mediation and by doing some harmonization at a lower level instead of the ministerial level. Klapkalne discusses how this change reduced the workload and meeting time for the cabinet officials.     

Case Study: Moving Beyond Central Planning: Crafting a Modern Policy Management System, Latvia, 2000-2006

Profile

Una Klapkalne was the Chief Executive Officer of the National News Agency, a position she had held since 2006. Until that point, she had been the head of the Policy Coordination Department at the State Chancellery. She joined the department in 2000. She started working in the administration immediately upon graduating, working her way up from an economic consultant to the deputy director of the state Civil Service Administration. From there she moved to the Ministry of Defense, where she served as the deputy state secretary. When the state secretary left for a year, she became the acting state secretary. She served as an advisor to the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior before joining the Policy Coordination Department.  She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and a Bachelor’s of the Arts in Economics from the University of Latvia. Additionally, she has earned certificates from the National Administration School of France in Management Effectiveness and from the Adam Smith Institute.   

Full Audio File Size
68 MB
Full Audio Title
Una Klapkalne - Full Interview

Baiba Petersone

Ref Batch
E
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
6
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Jonathan Friedman
Name
Baiba Petersone
Interviewee's Position
Director
Interviewee's Organization
Latvia School of Public Administration
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Latvian
Town/City
Riga
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
In this interview, Baiba Petersone describes various tasks ministries assigned the Policy Coordination Department, particularly the civil service reforms she led. In her first few years in the new department, the main task was to survey Latvia’s policy-making system. From this survey, Petersone explains the department knew its first task was to create a policy system. They developed a process based on several types of documents, each with a different purpose. The department also created an annotation system to include information such as the costs of a proposal. The next step was to implement an inter-ministerial consultation system. Petersone discusses how the department chose its priorities and the sequence of its reforms. Finally, she details the civil service reforms undertaken, which she was in charge of. Her working group proposed abolishing the contract system and reforming how the government sets civil servant salaries. She describes the options considered and how the economic crisis of 2008 affected their ability to implement their changes.
 
Profile

Baiba Petersone was the director of Latvia’s School of Public Administration. She began her career as a researcher in the Academy of Sciences. After entering politics during Latvia’s independence, she spent seven years as an active politician. In 1996 she entered the civil service as Director of the Department of Education Strategy in the Ministry of Education. From there she joined the State Chancellery as a member of the Policy Coordination Department. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy, though at the time the field really consisted of social science. 

Full Audio File Size
70 MB
Full Audio Title
Baiba Petersone - Full Interview