Complex societal challenges: Politician forum meets

New parliamentary term — new opportunities

Congratulations to you who, as new or re-elected regional and municipal politicians, have assumed the duties of elected officials. A new term offers new opportunities to ask curious questions, disrupt existing practices and enter into new collaborative relationships. For those of you who are in the midst of election periods in the Folketing or the European Parliament, there is also new energy to be drawn from cooperation with the new and re-elected local politicians.

We therefore hope that you will all participate in Politikerforum, which brings together elected representatives from across municipalities, regions, the Danish Parliament and the European Parliament around key cross-cutting themes. It increases the chances of you each and every one of you succeeding in your political leadership. As early as 20 January 2022, we are focusing on four complex societal challenges: health, climate, growth and education.

The Importance of Working Across

There are many good reasons why we in Denmark have a municipal, regional, national and supranational political level. Some tasks are best solved locally and call for strong municipal political leadership, while other tasks are best performed by politicians elected at higher levels. But very often there is a need for politicians at the different levels to work together.

For example, all levels have a key role to play in solving the climate crisis. The same is true if we are to increase opportunities to promote growth and development at a time when markets are changing at lightning speed, to ensure well-functioning and coherent education for children and young people, and to safeguard public health at a time when the health sector is facing major challenges.

Sustainable policy solutions must take into account both the broad picture — the societal perspective — and the close perspectives. It requires the cooperation of politicians across the political levels. This is especially true when facing major complex and turbulent societal challenges, and there are many of them in these times.

As a politician, you are part of a political body. A city council. A regional council. Or a parliament. At the same time, you are part of different geographical and relational communities. A neighborhood. A commune. It's a region. A country. A world. These communities are embedded in each other. Denmark is made up of local communities that depend on the functioning of the national framework. And vice versa. That is why you cannot shut yourself up about your own political body.

It goes without saying that you are most responsible for the municipality as a community if you are a municipal politician, and the nation if you are a parliamentary politician. But in order to succeed optimally, as a politician, one must also take responsibility for both the wider communities and for the communities that are part of the community for which one is elected. This is especially true for solving complex societal challenges.

The nature of complex societal challenges

It is important to work together across the board because there are challenges that cannot be solved at one level. And that requires familiarity, respect and trust in the other levels. When Politikerforum focuses on the cross-cutting, complex societal challenges, it is due to a desire to contribute to Danish politicians taking a position on how they can strengthen their opportunities to solve these challenges. But it can also increase mutual trust through greater knowledge of each other and an increased respect for each other's contribution to solving challenges. One hand should preferably know what the other hand is doing — and respect the contribution.
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It is becoming increasingly necessary because society is constantly evolving towards more complexity and turbulence. What does that mean? First, there are often no known recipes for solving important problems. When you have to make policy solutions that work, there must be room for experimentation and for you to constantly learn from each other, because the conditions for success are changing rapidly. Secondly, in many cases there is a need to change pace and direction in a short time.
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There are “slow” periods and then just as suddenly a need for very quick action. It requires politicians at different levels to know each other and trust each other — and to be able to exchange experiences on both what succeeded and what went wrong. Otherwise, we will not be able to act quickly and confidently together. And third, this interdependence between the political levels is becoming ever greater. This is what we learned during the Corona crisis, among other things.

Health

It is probably no secret that the health sector is challenged, and politicians at all levels need to work closely together to deal with issues such as the recruitment of health and care workers to hospitals and municipal care for the elderly. While municipal and regional politicians work with the very concrete challenges of creating a coherent health service, the Danish Parliament sets the framework. In order for each of us to solve these tasks as well as possible, it is necessary to know something about the conditions of the other political levels and the considerations underlying the decisions. Which frameworks provide the best local task solution, and why do the frameworks look the way they do? It may come for the day in a closer dialogue between the levels.

Managing health care is not easy, because there are very difficult political priorities that need to be made, for example, around the investment in treatment vs. prevention. There is a great need to avoid antagonizing each other to ensure legitimacy about health care. Politicians at all levels have an important role to play in building and maintaining such legitimacy.

Climate

In the area of climate, too, politicians at different levels can benefit greatly from talking more together. In fact, it provides insight into the impact of the decisions each one makes on other levels. It is inspiring to exchange views on the policy goals and strategies each one develops and how they are envisaged to be realised. Such conversations can prevent unintended incidents that everyone would like, regardless of political standpoint.
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While there are many different political positions on climate, there is also much that can be agreed upon. The key is to talk openly about the dilemmas in climate policy, such as how international and national goals challenge local planning and citizens' protests against, for example, wind turbines and solar cells in their 'backyards'. Interaction on common goals is strengthened if politicians understand each other's challenges and conditions and seek cooperation across levels.

Consistent growth

Politicians at different levels can also learn a lot from each other when it comes to setting the direction for growth and development in Denmark. It can inspire local politicians to discuss the big perspectives and strategies with parliamentary and EU politicians, who have as much to learn from conversations with politicians who work to support local business, rural development and a well-functioning labour market.
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Again, it is not about agreeing, but about understanding each other better and becoming good at learning from each other — and not least getting new and innovative ideas together on how to create both sustainable growth and prosperity in the countryside and in the cities. Some of the discussions on coherent growth relate directly to the fourth complex societal challenge that we will highlight on 20 January — education opportunities locally, regionally and nationally.

Education

Youth, vocational and higher education all contribute to ensuring that the human opportunities for coherent growth are in place. But again, there is a long way between the snatch solutions. There continue to be many young people who do not receive a secondary education and may not even complete the Primary School final exams. Many of the craft trades and welfare training courses are also still short of qualified applicants.

When education is a complex area, it is also because decisions have far-reaching — and indeed highly predictable — effects. Children and young people's learning opportunities are also linked to their upbringing and the social conditions they receive in the family and in the local community, which is why cooperation with parents and community life are also key. At the same time, it is difficult to foresee the need for manpower in five years without dialogue with business -- and it is even harder to assess what we as a country should focus on in the future in global competition. The area therefore calls for cross-cutting political leadership, because we need to have a discussion about what is most desirable and why.

What can you do as a political leader?

Among other things, it is about setting direction, looking across and creating long-term solutions through thorough debate and broad negotiations. The first step is to assume responsibility as a political leader. As a politician, you don't have just one role. They represent different interests. Priority is given on behalf of and in dialogue with citizens. And then there is also political leadership in the sense of setting the direction for the future development of the Community.
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It's a big responsibility. We've all heard the phrase: “With great power comes great responsibility”. But no one is alone in the responsibility. Public management is an interaction between political and hired managers, just as many non-executive employees also contribute to solving management tasks. Taking political leadership ensures that hired managers and employees can take leadership and succeed in their tasks. If we don't know where we're going, success is not an option. Political leadership is about taking responsibility for us as a society to figure out where we are going and then doing what it takes to get there in cooperation with citizens, business, educational institutions and associations.

Event on January 20, 2022

It sounds a bit pretentious, and one might think: “And where is it that you, as a newly elected politician, can embark on this task?” Start by registering for the event on January 20th. There are many good reasons for that. First, you gain influence on the cross-cutting solution of the complex challenges via your sound arguments. Second, you learn from the experiences of your fellow politicians in a forum where the focus is on political leadership and learning. Finally, you expand your network across the classical partials. It gives you inspiration on how you want to work and collaborate with others to solve the many complex societal challenges. See you on January 20!