Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

2010 Category 1: republic of Korea
excellent facilities (there are 258 to date). Though these projects were initially
launched in the public sector, they are gradually now expanding into the private sector
in this manner.
The Women Policy Division relied substantially on existing human resources and
worked within the pre-approved budget for each department, and in general, there
was enormous support for the project from the public at large. Thanks to such comprehensive
efforts, citizens’ satisfaction in women-related areas increased considerably.
According to the Citizens’ Evaluation of Administrative Services survey, 83.2
percent of respondents reported satisfaction in 2008, up from 68.2 percent in 2007. A
remarkable increase in satisfaction occurred in women’s perception of safety, in particular:
from 46 percent in 2007 to 70.3 percent in 2008.
Replicability and Sustainability
This initiative has been generally accepted and its international applicability widely
recognized. The Ministry of Gender Equality of the Korean central government
drafted and implemented a plan to expand the Women-Friendly City nationwide,
based on the Seoul City initiative. The model has already been adopted by the cities
of Busan, Inchoen and Iksan and by the local governments of Jonlanamdo province
and Gyeonsangbukdo province. Several benchmarks for best practices were derived
from the project by numerous organisations in Korea and abroad. In addition, at the
second Metropolis Women International Network Forum, held in October 2009, participants
from 40 cities in 35 countries around the world, representing four major
international organisations, adopted the Seoul Declaration, which identified Seoul
City’s Women-Friendly City Project as exemplary. The project was also highly commended
by the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2008 and 2009.
Three components contribute to the effective transfer and replication of this initiative.
They are cultural transformation, public-sector cooperation and the establishment
of an appropriate legal framework.
Lessons Learned
The role that leadership and citizen-centric approaches played in the success of this
initiative shows how important these factors are in innovating change. The deputy
mayor led the task force team that resolved problems throughout the process. The
mayor, who was the senior policy decision maker, consistently and thoroughly reviewed
the status of the projects. He also regularly collected opinions and ideas from
his supporting staff and from citizens.
The participation of women, who would be the beneficiaries of change, was also key.
Women took part in the entire processes of devising, implementing and assessing
new policies, and to a great extent, they became the driving force behind the project.
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