Questions/Answers

Seoul’s welfare budget is KRW 11.2 trillion, which accounts for 31.2 percent of the total budget. However, it is unable to meet its increasing welfare needs. In addition, it is no longer possible to resolve important social problems such as poverty, polarization, gender violence, and environmental issues, through government-led initiatives. In these circumstances, Seoul’s objective is to generate social capital through the formation and operation of governance in cooperation with the public. Seoul Welfare Governance is a permanent private-public entity consisting of citizens (women, elderly, children, people with disabilities, immigrants, and activists from related civic organizations), experts, and administrative officials, established to discuss tangible policies based on actual welfare services offered, identify necessary agenda, and implement them. The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) established the Seoul Welfare Governance to pursue field-based discussions, initiate projects to encourage cooperation in diverse areas, identify welfare blind spots, and implement policies to eliminate them. The Seoul Welfare Governance aims to create a welfare ecosystem in Seoul to improve the quality of people’s lives and ultimately contribute to restoring networks, which are the basic elements of social capital.

The ultimate objective of Seoul Welfare Governance is, of course, to deliver inclusive and equitable services to all who need them. To identify a policy agenda based on people’s lives, a total of 190 members participate in 10 SMG divisions in the Seoul Welfare Governance. Of those, 20.4 percent are civil servants, 49.4 percent are involved in social welfare organizations, and 30.2 percent are experts and citizens (professors in related fields, researchers, and civic activists). Through such collaborative effort, inclusive and equitable welfare services are more likely to be identified and implemented.

Seoul Welfare Governance brings together people in need of welfare, such as the elderly, people with disabilities, those in rehabilitation, mental health, women’s welfare, children, families, and foreign residents, as well as academics, welfare workers, and government officials in a cooperative relationship. Through such a broad range of participation, SDG goal 10, reducing inequalities is addressed by reflecting people’s welfare needs and demands and turning them into policies. To do so, SMG first acquires an open channel guaranteeing the participation of a majority of residents, and then it allots equal power to all regardless of their positions.

The welfare scene is a place where the characteristics of the times and culture appear in complex and multidimensional ways. Causes and solutions to most problems arising in welfare tend to be complex, and therefore require integrated cooperation from various areas. Integrated cooperation determines the effectiveness and efficiency of the policy. However, the current administrative system has been segmented by area, and it is difficult to go beyond the “partitions.” The private sector in the frontlines of welfare performs comprehensive activities and can remove these partitions by participating in the policy making process. The Seoul Welfare Governance is an integrated system to resolve the “silo-problems” through the participation of broad range of people and institutions including those public and private. Through this process, it is possible to create a naturally close-knit network system based on trust and information.

Seoul Welfare Governance has a systematic structure for producing tangible policy results. First, the system is organized into several divisions, such as the planning and coordination committee, charged with the overall direction of the governance. The executive committee is for integrated activities and implementations, and subcommittees that discuss and implement activities in each division. Second, each division has two parts—internal operation support and cooperation with other divisions. Even small activities are shared. Third, participatory training is ongoing for those involved to develop the skills to understand policies and mediate various demands.

The Seoul Welfare Governance is the first of its kind in Korea. Its method of operation has been developed in a unique way, different from that of public-private cooperative organizations. The current operational method and principles were established through discussions and negotiations of participants through the process of identifying and addressing issues. The process of transitioning the operation of the initiative, at first centered on the heads of committees and administrators, to cooperative, division-based operation was also conducted.

Seoul Welfare Governance has become a role model for other regional governments. SMG has published a white paper containing the activities and changes it has brought on, allowing other regions to benchmark Seoul’s initiative. For instance, the Gyeonggi Welfare Governance was created in Gyeonggi Province in 2016, and the Gwangju Welfare Governance was formed in 2018. Gyeonggi Welfare Governance was formed building on the experience of the Seoul Welfare Governance.

Seoul Welfare Governance was initially created through voluntary participation. To enhance the role of the Seoul Welfare Governance, SMG hired two cooperative support officers to administer governance activities and oversee its operation. In addition, officials have been assigned to different areas within the governance. Since 2017, KRW 300 million has been budgeted to support conference activities and pursue basic projects to identify policy agenda. Policy projects identified by the Seoul Welfare Governance can be implemented with the allocated budget or entered into various policy proposal programs, such as the participatory budgeting system.

Seoul Welfare Governance was launched in 2014. This initiative is sustainable for reasons that can be gleaned from its activities. Seoul Welfare Governance was created when the people demanded a system to address the issues of social welfare. Through the governance, numerous conflicts were resolved in working environments and other impending issues in welfare. However, after these welfare issues were resolved, the Seoul Welfare Governance faced a crisis as it was once losing its purpose and identity. Fortunately, this crisis became an opportunity for the Seoul Welfare Governance to develop improve the existing governance structure by communicating with others to gain an understanding of areas outside of their expertise and creating more extensive private-private networks. Through this process, various sectors and fields began to cooperate together in the Seoul Welfare Governance. Now the Seoul Welfare Governance has become essential part of identifying the agenda for addressing social welfare issues and promoting citizen participation In other words, SMG cannot adopt welfare policies or programs without Seoul Welfare Governance. The reason this initiative must continue is clear, and it is not about financial or human resources.

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To evaluate the achievements and limitations of the Seoul Welfare Governance and the role it plays as a private-public entity, the SMG requested studies from the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family (2016) and the Seoul Institute (2017). The first study focused on the five women and family related divisions of the total ten divisions in the Seoul Welfare Governance and evaluated the operation, limitations, and possibilities of the governance. In the second study, surveys and FGIs of the participating members were conducted to learn how to reorganize functions, roles, and the operation system of the governance to strengthen its effectiveness.

The indicators for the evaluation include: 1) Level of understanding of the Seoul Welfare Governance, 2) Awareness of Seoul Welfare Governance, 3) Effects of Seoul Welfare Governance on policy environment, 4) function of Seoul Welfare Governance, 5) Leading authority and active agent, 6) Role of the governance, 7) Awareness of cooperative relationships and operation, 8) Division of roles among the participating agents and their accountability, 9) Awareness of the agenda development process, 10) Level at which proposed agenda was incorporated in Seoul’s overall policy initiatives, 11) Crucial factors and hindrances for improving the effectiveness of the governance.

Based on the results of the study conducted by the Seoul Institute, the SMG in November 2017 held a seminar titled “The Role of Private-Public Governance in the Era of Welfare” and discussed the policy direction for Seoul Welfare Governance. Proposals at the forum included: expansion of participants, operation of governance based on horizontal private-public and private-private partnerships, and discussion of agenda incorporating citizen participation and addressing social issues. The feedback from evaluations has been used to improve the system through the process of creating an agreement at a workshop and incorporating it to the operational plan.

The Seoul Welfare Governance is a participatory and cooperative organization based on partnership and inclusiveness, created to meet the sustainable development goals in welfare, women and family, and citizens’ health. Initially, the Seoul Welfare Governance consisted of administrators and social welfare workers. During its operation, the government recognized the need to expand the program’s reach to include those at the receiving end of welfare. Therefore the participation in the third Seoul Welfare Governance in 2018 was expanded to include welfare recipients, civic groups, scholars, social welfare workers, and civil servants. The Seoul Welfare Governance is not a decision-making body that determines the private-public governance policy and projects, but an intermediary that connects citizens and the administration. The operation process of the Seoul Welfare Governance is as follows: discussion of policy initiatives and the direction of promotion → identification and proposal of policies through citizen participation → deliberation on policies by area → public discussion → review of incorporating proposals in policy → implementation → monitoring → feedback. A total of 190 Seoul Welfare Governance members participated in detailed plans by policy area in this process, and many citizens are participating in Seoul Welfare Governance by proposing and evaluating policies.

Process is important in policy development through public-private governance. The Seoul Welfare Governance defined the role of their members for private-public cooperation and established equal and democratic principles for their meetings. Through transparent disclosure of the process, SWG is expanding its network. This process has built trust among the administration and the people. It was the key to creating viable welfare policies. And this democratic process and a sense of genuine cooperation between public and private will have to continue to sustain this effort.