JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance

Minutes of the Advisory Committee Meeting, May 25th, 2016

Co-chairs: Angelica Berrie and Yossi Bachar

Executive Summary:

  • The fourthmeeting of the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Leadership and Governance took place in Jerusalem on May 25th, 2016.
  • The Committee was informed of recent activities and highlights in the Institute, from the areas of the work with NGO's and lay leadership, municipal and regional development and the work with Government leadership on adapting digitalization and innovation, the launching of the Social Cohesion program, and more. (detailed in minutes)
  • The Institute's strategic process, which is in its midst, was presented and reviewed. Discussion took place on the mission, the four areas of expertise which the Institute holds and plans to continue to develop, and future steps
  • The strategic four areas:
  • Implementing digitalization and innovation in public services
  • Access to public resources
  • Assuring quality of services
  • Partnering with civil society & lay leadership
  • The suggested strategic focus that was agreed upon: The Institute will enable effective interfaces between all sectors to improve provision of social services
  • The next phase of the process was described, in which four teams of professionals from the Institute with outside experts will research and detail recommendations for the continued areas of development for the Institute.
  • Through the process, the Institute will reevaluate the measurement and key success indicators
  • A presentation of the on-going process will be given at the next meeting, in September
  • There is a need to continue to clarify and simplify the message of the work that is being done in the Institute through case studies and examples
  • Important upcoming dates:
  • July 11th, 2016 – "Israeli Hope", a conference on Social Cohesion in a regional perspective, in collaboration with President Rivlin's office and the Ministers of Interior and Finance
  • November 8th, 2016 – The National Annual Lay Leadership Conference
  • There is continuous ongoing activity in the Institute. If you are in Israel, please let us know so we can plan site visits

Next Advisory Committee Meeting: September 26th, 2016, 3:00-5:00 pm.

Attending Advisory Committee Members

Name / Position
Angelica Berrie / Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee of the JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance, and of the JDC Board Subcommittee
Dr. Yossi Bachar / Co-Chair of the Advisory Committee of the JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance
Helen Abeles / JDC Board
Penni Weinberg / JDC Board
Stephen Weinberg / JDC Board
Lynn Jacobs / UJA Federation of NY
Sandy Antignas / UJA Federation of NY
Marc Suvall / UJA Federation of NY
Clare Hedwat / UJA Federation of NY
BinnyShalev / RussellBerrie Foundation
ItzikDevash / Lay Leader
Iris Florentin / Deputy Director-General, Division of Social and Personal Services, Ministry of Welfare
Dr. Mohammed Alnabari / Mayor of Hura
Ophir Katz / Lay Leader
Dr. Sigal Shelach / Deputy Director, JDC Israel
Prof. Jack Habib / Executive Director, Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute
Rani Dudai / Director, JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance
Michal Ben-Dov / JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance

Attendees from the JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance

Keren Doron Katz, Area Head of Municipal and Regional Development

Ori Gil, Area Head of Civil Society

Guy Avrutzki,

Micha Fraind, Strategic Advisor

Committee Members unable to attend:

Kathy Manning, Co-Chair of the JDC Institute for Leadership and Governance Subcommittee, JDC Board

Martin Paisner, TheWohl Legacy and JDC Board

Jeff Swartz, JDC Board

Prof. Yossi Tamir, Director, JDC Israel

Dr. Michal Almog Bar, Director, Center for the Study of Civil Society and Philanthropy, Hebrew University

Dr. Michal Tabibian Mizrahi, Deputy Director, Ministry of Education

Shira Greenberg Gelbwaser, Education and Health Coordinator, Ministry of Finance

Yehonatan Almog, Director, System-wide Impact & Measurement Division, Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute

Minutes

Angelica:

  • Welcomes everyone to the meeting
  • Describes the JDC-Israel board meeting in NY, on the topic of Inclusion and Diversity.
  • Commends Sigal Moran (mayor of Bnei Shimon local council in the Negev) and Rani on their excellent presentation and updated that it was a successful meeting which engaged the board members and exposed them to the Institute's Regional Clusters program

Yossi Bachar:

  • The main objective of the meeting is to update the committee on the progress of the strategic process of the Institute
  • We will also go through a strategic exercise to learn which topics the Institute will focus on

Sigal Shelach:

  • Apologizes on behalf of Yossi Tamir that could not attend the meeting because he was at the Knesset
  • Relates to the recently published report by the State Controller that shows that only 28% of government decisions are implemented. Therefore, what the Institute does in its activity of removing some of the barriers for implementation is very significant
  • Reports on a very positive meeting with representatives of government ministries on the long-term partnership that is being built with the Institute, as well as a new partnership focusing on digitalization of public services that the Office is heading in the government

Staff updates:

Ori Gil (area head of Civil Society):

  • updates on the recently launched synergy program (training senior management of business to become board members of NGO's) with Visa-Cal and Strauss
  • Lay Leadership Conference, scheduled for November. The planning involves a very active committee of lay leaders, that are committed to the Institute's vision of creating a wide, effective, connected network of lay leadership that will strengthen NGOs and civil society

Keren Doron-Katz (area head for Municipal and Regional Development):

  • Updates on the contract with the Ministry of Interior for the Clusters program. The first phase, which lasted 3 years, is ending. The new contract has been signed.
  • The Ministry of Interior conducted an evaluation of the program. The evaluation highlighted the essential work of the Institute in the development of the Clusters and the integration of the vision and values of the JDC

Iris Florentine added that the government would not have been able to get the Clusters to this point in their development without the help and guidance of the Institute

  • Examples of the strength and significance of the Clusters: The Ministry for Environmental Protection allocated 100 million shekels through the clusters for garbage disposal and removal; 50 million shekels were allocated to the Eastern Negev Cluster. Two examples that show that the government is now seeing the Clusters as a formal entity which can bring development to an entire region. Proof of the success and broad impact of the program.
  • Updates on a conference that we are planning with the President's office, to highlight regionalism as a base for mutual life and social cohesion between the "4 tribes" that President Rivlin describes as segregating Israeli society.

Michal Ben-Dov (on behalf of Merav Horev, area head for Government):

  • Updates on the two new cohorts of Digital Leaders opening in the near future. A second cohort of the national Digital Leaders program, and a new cohort of Regional Digital Leaders, with participants from local municipalities and regional organizations

Clare Hedwat:

  • Updates on the opening of the Social Cohesion program. Describes the group, which is comprised of very accomplished professionals from all sectors. Spoke about the depth of the conversation and the special dynamics that she experienced in the opening

Rani Dudai:

  • Updates on conversations taking place with Cisco – almost confirmed grant for the Institute to work with the PMO on the digitalization of public services
  • Updates about an outcome that came out of the Digital Leaders program, an example for a social solution through an on-line application to educate about health for the Arab sector. Over 5000 children reached in the Arab sector.
  • New program opening for mid-management in the welfare field, opening June 20th

Itzik commends the Institute for the professional work on recruiting and screening some 200 applicants and forming a strong group of 30 participants.

  • Update on the cross-ministerial government committee dealing with racism against the Ethiopian community, headed by Emi Palmor, which the Institute is guiding and facilitating
  • Update on the"Urban initiative" is a multi-sectorial project aimed at developing tools to promote a better urbanized Israel. The project is part of the activity of the UN agency for Housing and Urbanization, UN HABITAT, led by the Ministry of Construction Housing and the Institute.

Guy Avrutzki (head of measurement and evaluation)

  • Updates on evaluation reports we have on the Digital Leaders program, senior civil servant program, government-civil society initiative, shared space program
  • Speaks on the on-going measurement of the activities at the Institute, the Institute logic-model that guides and defines the outcomes we are aiming for
  • Marc: there should be coordination with other leadership programs such asWexner,Maoz, Atidim and Mandel. Suggests coordinating with JFN on environmental issues

Yossi and Rani run through Presentation (attached as an appendix)

Insights and comments:

  • Angelica: the mission is still too general and there is a missing piece regarding the quality of life of the residents of Israel
  • Sandy: need to add "positive social impact" to the mission
  • Binny: need to emphasize that all sectors are involved
  • Yossi: we need to focus on systemic issues. A process that involves:

Creating infrastructure, bringing leaders together, providing an interface and platform to collaborate all for the positive provision of social services

  • Sigal: the basic assumptions written on the slide are too basic. Need to be more detailed
  • Clare: social cohesion, although a basic comment, needs to be highlighted. It is NY Federation's end game
  • Itzik: the advantage of JDC is that it is flexible and creative, can easily bring innovation, R&D, piloting and then scaling up. The benefit which the government has when working with JDC
  • Jack: reminds that in previous meetings it was also discussed that the Institute would work on a broader capacity building of the government
  • Mohammad: are we also speaking about the private sector?
  • Helen: we are limiting our mission if we only speak about "public services"
  • Yossi: we are working to define what the Institute should be doing not for a marketing purpose, but for substantial strategic direction and development
  • Itzik: what will success look like?
  • Mohammad: gives the example of government decision 922 regarding Arab municipalities. What they need is capacity building, on two levels: on the national and local level. So that the local municipalities will understand the language of the government, and vice-versa, and they will be able to work together, access funding and implement the decisions. Important to build sustainable, long-term solutions
  • Lynn: important to highlight that the Institute deals with complex issues that no sector alone can solve
  • Sigal: there are three barriers to access to public funds: trust, skills, and whether the decisions and funds are actually compatible to the needs
  • Mohammad: a budget should be allocated to local entrepreneurship and innovation. No one in the government in Jerusalem can tell me what the needs of my city and residents are. Money should be allocated to local initiatives
  • Yossi: 70% of funding is not utilized because it doesn't fit the needs. This is where we (the Institute) should step-in
  • Micha: we should focus on the interfaces between the sectors specifically to each issue, because there are different relationship between the sectors for each issue
  • Rani: four issues:
  • Connecting GOI with the tech industry to implement digital solutions that support efficiency and effectiveness of public services
  • Connecting GOI with civil society to leverage mutual advantages in mitigating evolving social challenges
  • Connecting weaker municipalities to GOI to improve access and utilization of public resources
  • Connecting GOI, civil society & municipalities to develop quality assurance of public services as a joint, transparent and results-driven effort
  • The three ways we work:
  • Development cross-sector leadership
  • Development organizational platforms
  • Designing and piloting new work processes
  • Rani: we will create teams to research and make recommendations for each of the issues
  • Sigal: the teams should also relate to measuring the outcomes
  • Helen: asks how much of the Institute's activity go towards these issues?
  • Rani: about 80%, but it is already set up and based on our existing platforms, assets, and partnerships. It means that is mostly fine-tuning our current activities, such as the Clusters, the lay-leadership and civil society, digitalization through Digital Leaders, Negev Circles 2.o, etc.
  • Angelica: no need to reinvent the wheel. Important to look at best practices, for example in the issue of digitalization
  • Micha: the Institute will now build its expertise on these issues, quire new knowledge and then suggest how to do things better
  • Itzik: where do we want to be in 10 years? Need to add distinct goals and predictable outcomes
  • Marc: important to focus on measurable results and outcomes
  • Yossi: important to learn from success stories in Israel and abroad. Highlights that we usually can't choose the leaders we work with, have to work with existing leadership