Measurable objectives for public services provision

The Measurable objectives for public services provision for the South represent an initiative that involved cohesion policy from the start of the 2007-2013 programming period to the reorganization of the governance of the interventions financed with the Development and Cohesion Fund (FSC) by the means of the establishment of Development and Cohesion Plans (pursuant to art.44 of Legislative Decree n.34 of 30 April 2019 and subsequent amendments).

With this initiative, for over a decade, the Department for Cohesion Policies - taking advantage of the technical assessments of the ex NUVAP and the active participation of the regional and central administrations concerned - has promoted, supported and monitored the level and quality of public services in four areas defined relevant for the quality of life of citizens and the development perspectives of the territories of the South in order to contribute to:

  • raising students' skills and the learning capacities of the citizens;

  • increasing personal care services (nursery schools and Integrated Home Care for the elderly) by facilitating families and removing burdens with a scope to increase the participation of women in the labor market;

  • protecting and improving the quality of the environment in relation to the urban waste management system;

  • protecting and improving the quality of the environment in relation to the integrated water service.

Formally introduced with CIPE Resolutions n. 82/2007 and n. 166/2007, the Measurable objectives for public services system foreseen a performance reserve (3 billion euros; in addition to an allocation of 8.2 million to support system initiatives) as a leverage to incentivize the participating Administrations - the 8 Regions of Southern Italy and the Ministry of Education for the sole objective relating to Education - to define and implement, through a specific Action Plan, a unitary programming of all available resources aimed at achieving targets defined on the basis of national standards for the eleven indicators statisticians through which the four Measurable objectives for public services were measured.

With Resolution n. 79/2012, the CIPE revised the mechanism linked to the "Measurable objectives for public services", maintaining many elements of the original system (the definition of Action Plans, indicators, targets, observation and accompanying activities), but effectively transforming the initial reward mechanism into a result-oriented form of programming. The 2012 resolution therefore attributed to each of the 9 Administrations involved the resources remaining from the original allocation, which - to cover emergent emergency needs in other areas - had been reduced with CIPE Resolutions n. 62/2011 and n. 78/2011 to 1,031.8 million euros. These resources were subsequently programmed taking into account the targets envisaged in relation to the Measurable objectives for public services.

With the new FSC governance introduced in 2019, which brings all the planned interventions back to the resources of this Fund within the new Development and Cohesion Plans, also unifying the management and monitoring procedures, the specificities of the Measurable objectives for public services system are overcome and the interventions financed by CIPE Resolution no. 79/2012, which are therefore fully part of the new course.