Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

approach for carrying out municipal tasks. The aim is to achieve economicand above all functional benefits so that universal access to highqualityservices can be secured. At the moment, there are 228 regionaljoint municipal authorities producing services for more than one municipality.Health care and education are by far the most common basicservices provided by these organs, even though there is also regional cooperationbetween municipalities in other basic services.” (OECD PUBLICMANAGEMENT REVIEW, FINLAND—64)The demand for municipalities to find joint solutions to welfare serviceprovision problems will increase dramatically in the coming years. Theshift in Finland’s dependency ratio, in conjunction with internal migrationdrains from certain areas of the country, will leave some municipalitiesinsufficiently prepared to provide adequate welfare services.The region of Kainuu faces a particularly rapid ageing of its population,reporting a projected 6% population decrease by 2030 (Statistics FinlandPopulation Project 2009-2060). As a result, the employment outlook in Kainuuis dismal, and core public services are under threat.Because it falls within the 20,000 population figure, which the governmentconsiders ideal for effective welfare service delivery, Kainuu is currentlyacting as a bellwether for the other municipalities with regard to thecoming service delivery problems. In response to this critical situation, theregion of Kainuu, with the aid of the national government, has opted to trya new centralized regional government and service structure for two terms.“The experiment increases regional authority and cooperation betweenmunicipalities and other actors…The highest decision-making of theregion has been centralized into one organ, the Joint Authority of theKainuu Region, consisting of fifty-nine members. It was elected througha direct public election process. A centralized arrangement of basic publicservices enables securing the service quality, availability and economy inKainuu in the long term, despite the threatening population forecasts. Atthe same time, the citizens living in the eight Kainuu municipalities willhave equal opportunity to receive basic public services.” (Kainuu RegionDriving Development)Welfare services and funding are arranged at the regional level in anattempt to improve quality, availability, and cost-effectiveness. This restructuringof government at the regional level will have significant effects onthe way welfare services are delivered:“The social and healthcare services have been divided into three levelsbased on the customer’s service needs: services which the residentsof Kainuu need almost daily are offered as local services; these includehome care services…Services that are needed less often are provided ona regional scale…Services requiring special expertise that are needed302