6. Nov. 2020

Upcoming: a new edition of the EU European Social Progress Index

The EU Regional Social Progress Index aims to measure social progress for each region as a complement to traditional measures of economic progress. It follows the overall framework outlined above and is based on fifty indicators, primarily from Eurostat. The Index builds on feedback from public and experts in the field alike. The first version was released in 2016 and the second edition is going to be launched in December 2020!

The EU-SPI pilot project was seeking further input from regional stakeholders. Under the coordination of Intrasoft and in partnership with ZSI as well as Orkestra, Technopolis Brussels and University of Athens, a group of 10 regions has discussed the index and how to use it for policy making.

What has been done?

The following project activities have been implemented:

• Survey: early in the project a questionnaire was completed to feed into the upcoming activities. This task was meant to understand the level of awareness that exists about the index within the EU regions, the level of understanding of its objectives and actual value, the level of use in policy design and policy making and the collection of potential suggestions for improvement.
• Case studies: Desk research were combined with on-site visits to the regions that participated in the study, in order to identify the most prominent topic for covering in the case study and discuss the usefulness of the index in regional policy making, comparison with peer regions and discussion about potential improvements of the index, e.g., inclusion of additional indicators or proposals for other type of use in policy design and policy making.
  • Region of Bratislava (SK)
  • Region of Bucharest Ilfov (RO)
  • Region of Catalunya (ES)
  • Region of Centro (PT)
  • Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly (IE)
  • Region of Eastern Slovenia (SI)
  • Region of Emilia Romagna (IT)
  • Hungary (HU)
  • Region of Upper Norrland (city of Umea and region of Västerbotten) (SE)
  • Region of Western Greece (EL)
• Physical and virtual workshops: A series of physical and virtual workshops have been organised by the consortium addressing issues and topics of interest, as those have been prioritised by the regions themselves. The aim of the workshops was to provide a better understanding of the index logic and design, explain its potential use, deep dive into the individual components and how they are linked to social progress, and examine new proposals of components or indicators that could be added to the index in order to improve more areas relevant to social progress. Through the workshops, the regions were also given the opportunity to share their own experiences and good practices examples and discuss with their peers how these could be transferable.
• Collection of good practices: in collaboration with the regions and utilising the experiences shared, during the case studies and during the workshops, a collection of good practices, relevant either directly to the index use or to other elements of social progress - in regional policy design, strategic planning, funding or training initiatives, etc. - was made and is currently reviewed by all regions before being submitted to DG REGIO for approval and then for publication.

Where can relevant information be found?

Our project website (www.euspi.eu) includes information about all activities undertaken so far. All outputs of our activities are also posted there and are available for download. For example, the iterature review report is availalbe here and the workshops are documented with background papers, factsheets as well as presentations that are uploaded on the respective event website.

Workshops' background papers

• Demography and ageing
• Local tracking of SDGs achievement and links to EU-SPI
• Employment, work and social progress
• Immigration, immigrants and social progress
• How can transport & mobility affect social progress? Examining transport poverty and social dimensions of transport
• Education and Lifelong Learning
• Are cultural indicators a good SPI complement?

Workshops' factsheets

• The comparability issue of indexes
• Well being aspects and social progress
• Education and lifelong learning
• Culture and social progress
• Immigration and social progress

What is still pending?

• Launch of the EU-SPI 2020: save-the-date for 2nd of December, more details are going to be available soon, please watch www.eu-spi.eu for further information
• Project debriefing with the European Commission: this is a meeting between the consortium, the regions and DG REGIO, by invitation only

Related Articles:

• News: Survey on the use of the EU regional Social Progress Index (EU-SPI)
• Event: Work and Employment - Possible Inputs to EU-SPI
• Event: Demography and ageing in the EU-SPI
• Event: Local tracking of SDGs achievement and links to EU-SPI
• News: Learning about the European Social Progress Index (EU-SPI)
• Event: Kick-off meeting of the EU-SPI Pilot project
• Event: Measuring social progress in European regions and cities
• Event: Measuring what matters: The comparability issue in indexes
• Event: Measuring what matters: multilevel governance in European regions
• News: Project Kick-off: ZSI to work on a pilot project on the Social Progress Index
• Project: Pilot Project on the Social Progress Index
• Event: EU SPI Index Launch event

Tags: indicators, peer reviews, regional development, social change, social cohesion, social policy