Jacobs, Cordova & Associates is working with Deloitte as the main technical experts for the better business environment component in the USAID Sustainable Achievement of Business Expansion and Quality (SABEQ) project in Jordan. For example, we are working to improve Jordan’s performance in the doing business indicators, to improve legal transparency and security in Jordan through better legal publication and consultation practices, and to boost the capacities of private sector trade associations to participate constructively in policymaking. We are also working with Deloitte and the Government of Jordan to boost the advocacy capacities of trade associations, to increase Jordan's ranking in the Doing Business indicators by re-engineering and streamlining business licensing, by offering specialized RIA training, and for exploring application of the regulatory guillotine as a national simplification program. See Project Webpage here: http://www.sabeq-jordan.org/Sabeq_Public/main_Sabeq_Public_master.aspx?site_id=1&Page_id=2&REGION=1&LANG=3

Jordan, U.S. Agency for International Development, 2006-2012.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) asked for the assistance of Jacobs, Cordova & Associates in applying Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to policy/regulatory issues in its work. Adoption of RIA by the ICASA is a natural step in the implementation of the ICASA Act adopted in 2000. We conducted a training session for ICASA staff, and recommended steps for ICASA to mainstream RIA and stakeholder consultation into ICASA’s policy processes.

South Africa, ICASA, 2010.

Enhancing Nigerian Advocacy for a Better Business Environment (ENABLE) is a DFID-funded program to improve public private dialogue (PPD) and private sector advocacy in Nigeria. Jacobs, Cordova & Associates designed and delivered an awareness-raising seminar for senior officials within the Nigerian government (MDAs) to enhance consultation strategies and techniques to improve the business environment. The seminar explored topics spanning but not limited to: 1) Stakeholder Consultation: Issues & Practices; 2) Importance and Impact of effective consultation on the quality of policies, regulations and legislations; 3) Tools and methods of consultation; 4) Assessing the impact of regulations on business and 5) International best practice examples. The seminar was later adapted and organized in the capitals of the two most important Nigeria states--Kano and Lagos--where local participants from policy think-tanks, training institutions, research institutions and consulting firms joined the state officials. The project also included the revision and advice on enhancing the ENABLE-developed diagnostic tool-kit which aims to assess present levels of consultation practices within government.

Nigeria, Adam Smith International (DFID funding), 2011.

The objectives of this assignment were to a) assist the Ministry of Commerce in Kano, Kaduna, and Enugu States to develop more structured processes and effective channels for consultation and engagement with the private sector; b) strengthen the competencies of public authorities to facilitate effective Public-Private Dialogues (PPD) within their respective state governments and c) build the capacity of select officials on effective consultation techniques/methods/processes and communication capabilities. The project intended to set up customized road map around future policies and regulations to be launched in 2012.

Nigeria, Adam Smith International (DFID funding), 2011.

The Council of Ministers of Bulgaria engaged Jacobs, Cordova & Associates, partnering with IME in Sofia, to assist the Government in mainstreaming impact analysis (IA) into domestic policy processes at national and local levels. Jacobs, Cordova & Associates carried out diagnostic work to determine the level of skills and capacities in the Bulgarian administration to carry out impact assessment and, on that basis, designed an impact assessment process for implementation throughout the national ministries, and eventually in municipal governments. Jacobs, Cordova & Associates also designed an interactive Web portal and an IA manual. The impact assessment program is based on good European practice and recommendations of the European Commission under the Lisbon agenda. JC&A and IME also designed a stakeholder consultation process with a consultation manual, as well as a consultation portal for the use of the government. Finally, a national program of training was carried out, and JC&A and IME trained almost 400 civil servants and stakeholders around Bulgaria over 18 training courses.

Bulgaria, Government of Bulgaria (co-financed by the European Social Fund of the European Union), 2009

As part the technical partner of the consortium led by Eurecna (IT) Jacobs, Cordova & Associates is deploying a multi-year project to sustainably reduce net regulatory costs and regulatory risks of Syrian firms through:

• Eliminating, streamlining, and simplifying hundreds or thousands of existing border controls, regulations, licenses and permits to remove barriers to entry, reduce regulatory costs, and improve transparency in the overall regulatory environment. We are doing that through the efficient Regulatory Guillotine™ process.
• Building better regulatory application and regulatory client services by improving transparency and due process for businesses through creation of a central, secure, electronic registry of regulations and business licenses; reform of inspection and testing functions to apply good business-friendly practices, which are recognized as international best practices, and efficient implementation of licenses and permits through rationalisation of delivery mechanisms such as an interlinked one-stop shop system (OSS) at street level.
• Sustaining the gains by assessing impacts and consulting on the on-going flow of new regulations by adopting processes and tools for checking and assessing the quality of new laws and regulations, such as the regulatory impact assessment (RIA) principles of good regulation and meaningful stakeholder consultation at the early stages of regulatory development.
• Speeding up and sustaining implementation by building new regulatory institutions and strengthening the existing ones. This requires the creation of a central “engine of reform” linked to the top of government and a public-private oversight body for quality control of laws and regulations to promote, oversee, and monitor results over the medium-term. Finally, we are creating and reviewing the capacities of infrastructure regulators and competition authorities.

In January 2010, the Economic Committee of the Cabinet gave the green light to a new Regulatory Reform initiative in Syria, the Regulatory Guillotine. See Press Release here: http://www.regulatoryreform.com/pdfs/Syria%20Guillotine%20Press%20Release.pdf

Syria, European Commission, 2008-2011

This workshop sponsored by the International Training Center of the International Labor Organization (ILO) was delivered to high-level officials from the Costa Rica Government in San Jose in June 2007. Its objectives were to raise awareness on the different aspects of a systemic regulatory policy and introduce key regulatory reform tools such as RIA, administrative burdens reduction initiatives and active regulatory consultation.

Costa Rica, ILO, 2007.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates continually monitors the use of Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA) around the world. In our 2006 report, Current Trends in Regulatory Impact Analysis: The Challenges of Mainstreaming RIA into Policy-making, Jacobs, Cordova & Associates examines global trends in RIA. We find that RIA is being mainstreamed into policy processes, but that new issues and tensions are emerging as result. Our conclusion is that, to reach a sustainable level of RIA quality, governments need a clear strategy aimed at the institutionalization of capacities and incentives within the machinery of government. Such a strategy rests on a series of good RIA practices: clearer targeting strategies, development of multi-level consultation strategies, more attention to data collection and data quality issues, more investment in training, effective quality control through central RIA units and ministerial accountability, better use of scarce scientific resources, and better technical RIA manuals. Available at: www.regulatoryreform.com/pdfs/Current%20Trends%20and%20Processes%20in% 20RIA%20-%20May%202006%20Jacobs%20and% 20Associates.pdf

World Wide, 2006.

On August 10, 2005, the Council of Ministers adopted the Governmental Decision on the Registry of Official Acts, so that formally the guillotine fell. The Decision specified that:

• 426 formal acts were included in the new electronic Registry;
• 285 formal acts (or 35 %) were to be amended; and
• 99 formal acts (or 12 % of those relevant to businesses) were to be discarded. Many of these were simply illegal, that is, had not been published or authorized by higher-level laws.

In August 2006, the government of Moldova prepared a new comprehensive regulatory reform law that creates a permanent regulatory review in updating mechanism and establishes a secure electronic regulatory for business regulations Moldova,

The World Bank/U.S. Agency for International Development 2006.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates prepared a series of case studies from around the world on the management of stakeholders in the reform of business registries. Using case studies from 10 countries, this report examines how diverse interests (classified into groups called “stakeholders”) participated in reforms aimed at reducing the costs, delays, and corruption associated with the business registration functions of government. The analysis identifies how reformers can purposefully “manage” stakeholders to expand and sustain the capacity for change within the political economy. The report was published by the World Bank in 2009. Download Publication Here: http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/fias.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/PublicationORP_StakeholderManagement/$FILE/StakeholderManagement_.pdf

Worldwide, World Bank/FIAS, 2007.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates analyzed the environmental institutional capacity in El Salvador to improve institutional coordination, the EIA system, inspection/enforcement capabilities, and public participation in the decision-making process.

El Salvador, The World Bank/IFC, 2005.