The goal of this 3-month project is to provide a technical and legal advice to the Government team as needed in drafting Strategy for Inspection Reform in Kosovo. In particular the project aims at assisting the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in the design of a transparent, integrated, streamlined and objective-based inspection regime in Kosovo. For this, the project is organized into three inter-connected components:

• Ensure an up-to-date inventory of all legal and regulatory measures linked to business inspection
• Advice the MTI on establishing an effective institutional architecture for a modern inspection system through merger, consolidation and the establishment of an encompassing Law on Inspection
• Provide customized recommendations for launching reforms, including deploying “risk-based” approaches to inspection.

Importantly, the three components are underscored by overarching training and capacity building activities and communication initiatives to raising competencies and build a political constituency for reform.

Kosovo, Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2012.

The project focused on the need to improve the skills and competences of the Ministry’s staff by means of the transfer of know-how from similar organisations in EU Member States, through a series of training courses and study tours, and the functional implementation of the policy cycle in the strategic departments of the Ministry, through a number of pilot exercises on current policy issues. The project also delivered increased skills and competences for the formulation, approval, monitoring and evaluation of the Ministry’s policies.

Ministry of Administration and Interior, Romania, ( 2010-2011)

The project aimed to improve the capacity of the local public administration institutions in Romania to develop new policy initiatives (regulation) using an evidence based approach. The project included the development of 20 RIA’s at different levels of local public administration (counties and municipalities). These pilot exercises which were a new development  on this scale in Romanian public administration, followed the formal stages of the RIA process. The experience gathered was used in the preparation of a guide for the formulation of public policy at local level.

Ministry of Administration and Interior, Romania, ( 2010-2011)

Study Tour to the United States designed for members of the Serbian Council for Regulatory Reform and the leading experts from the Serbian Secretariate, to get hands-on experience about best practices and organizational structures in the performance of Regulatory Reform and RIA.

Serbia, World Bank, 2010.

With this project, Jacobs, Cordova & Associates assisted the Kosovo Ministry of Trade and Industry to better understand and make strategic use of the different international investment climate indicators through an in-depth analysis of the current set of indicators, their methodological and data gathering structures and through the development of an Observatory of Investment Indicators.

Kosovo, Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2010.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates assisted the Government of Kosovo in preparing an inventory of all business licenses and permits and assessing with an adapted Standard Cost Model methodology, the administrative burdens of the most problematic ones. The final report contained general and license specific proposals for reforming the most burdensome.

Kosovo, Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2010.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates developed and implemented a package of six workshops to support the ongoing regulatory reform work in South Eastern Europe and to help improve policy-making processes. The content of training modules and courses were designed for South East Europe participants comprising senior and mid-level decision-makers, including parliamentarians, and public servants and analysts in governments in charge of designing, drafting, and implementing regulatory reform initiatives and tools like Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), Standard Cost Measurements (SCM), Regulatory Guillotine^TM or other tools such as focus groups. This package comprised one-day, three-day and four-days workshops on RIAs and other Regulatory reform tools and techniques.

South East Europe, The World Bank/IFC, 2009.

The objectives of this high-level project were to assist the Prime Minister of Albania to assess the results of Albania’s business environment reforms and map out the policy options for the next government. As a first step, we analyzed and took stock of the work done on licensing and inspections in Albania over the past 5 years (including but not limited to understanding the reasons behind the poor ranking of Albania’s World Bank Doing Business indicators). Based on this diagnostic, we advised the Prime Minister on the best way to define the next steps in the reform process in line with the proposed work done by the donors on these reforms, and to monitor progress on this reform. One of the key recommendations was the design of a methodological approach – based on impact assessment techniques – to discuss, evaluate, and decide on a inspection reform policy for the country.

Albania, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy (METE), 2008.

In September 2009, the NATP-3 project was awarded by the European Commission to a consortium of Regulaid and Jacobs, Cordova  & Associates Europe. The general objective of this contract is to support and to further improve mutually beneficial Information Society cooperation between Europe and the Mediterranean Partner Countries, building on the achievements of NATP II and other Regional initiatives and consequently to facilitate the creation of a harmonized and investment friendly environment in the electronic communications sector. NATP assists the regulatory authorities in the Mediterranean partner countries, Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey,

European Commission, 2009-2013.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates undertook the first Regulatory Guillotine^TM in the Eastern Balkans in the Republika Srpska, working with Chemonics in the USAID/SPIRA project. Around 330 formalities and 2,473 inspection-related regulations were reviewed in four months. Some 21% of formalities and 58 % of inspection regulations were eliminated as unneeded for the Republic’s economic needs, and 23% of formalities were simplified. The results were announced by Prime Minister Milorad Dodik in September 2006. Since then two registries for inspection-related measures have been set up.See a sample of the working registry here: http://www.regodobrenja.net/index.php?akc=inspekcije&jezik=3 And a description of the system here: http://www.regodobrenja.net/index.php?jezik=3

Republika Srpska, BiH, U.S. Agency for International Development, 2007.

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 and 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 course.

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

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates assisted the Bulgarian government in 2006 in evaluating its pilot RIA program, and in charting a course to institutionalize RIA into legal and regulatory development. We drafted for the government a “convergence program” with ten recommended reforms to assist Bulgaria in developing a national regulatory management program that would converge most quickly with good European regulatory practices.

Bulgaria, Commercial Law Reform Project, USAID, 2007.

Mr. Jacobs headed the Jacobs, Cordova & Associates team to modernize the business registry in Bulgaria, working with the USAID Commercial Law Reform Program (CLRP) and Bearing Point. The new business registry – transferring registration from the courts to the Ministry of Justice -- was adopted in the new Business Register Act in March 2007. Documents include: Reform of Bulgaria’s Business Registration System: Draft Implementation Plan with Workload, Staffing, Budget, and Revenues Estimates (Feb 2005), Modernizing business registration in Bulgaria: Options for change.

Bulgaria, U.S. Agency for International Development, 2003-2005.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates assisted the Croatian government (as part of a joint USAID/World Bank (FIAS) project headed by DAI) to quickly modernize the regulations governing business activity using the Regulatory Guillotine^TM approach. Around 1,500 regulations were reviewed in 9 months by a special taskforce called HITROREZ, 26% of regulations were eliminated as unneeded for Croatia’s current economy, and 28% were simplified. The results were announced by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in June 2006 The evaluation by the IFC showed that Croatian businesses are enjoying cost savings of US$ 65.6 million/year or 0.13% of GDP, for the reforms actually implemented.

Croatia, World Bank/U.S. Agency for International Development, 2006-2008.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates participated in the EBRD funded training program for the Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) during 2010 which had as its objectives firstly, to strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of the authorities; and, secondly, to broaden awareness of modern communications/ competition concepts amongst officials, commercial operators and consumers. Overall, the Program comprised an assessment of the specific training needs of the regulator and ministry; the development of a comprehensive training program covering all key aspects of regulation, with the goal of meeting the regulators specific needs for development of its staff’s regulatory skills. The Program also had a practical aspect, whereby Jacobs, Cordova & Associates assisted with practical case work of the regulatory authority in two specific areas over the course of the six months program implementation.

Georgia, EBRD, 2010.

Georgia has made significant progress in regulatory reform, particularly licensing simplification, and is now emphasizing the institutionalization of regulatory impact analysis (RIA) capacities into the public administration to improve the quality of regulation into the future. In this project, Scott Jacobs analyzed the ongoing plans for introducing a RIA program, and identified eight recommendations for strengthening the useful work that has already been done on the RIA program.

Georgia, Ministry of Economic Development of Georgia, 2007.

In the framework of the Kosovo Business Environment Technical Assistance (BETA) Project funded by the World Bank, Jacobs, Cordova & Associates assisted the Ministry of Trade and Industry to improve the inspection climate through improvement of Market Surveillance inspections and through the preparation of an inventory of the all measures related to business inspections. This analysis also encompassed an assessment of the existing setting and organization of inspections at all levels in Kosovo.

Kosovo, Ministry of Trade and Industry Kosovo, 2010.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates led a major technical assistance project under a World Bank program to assist the Government in implementing a Regulatory Guillotine^TM of Business Licenses and Permits and launching a pilot RIA. This work builds on a earlier project focusing on the institutional design for systemic Regulatory Reform.

Macedonia, World Bank, 2008.

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.

Preparation of training materials and delivery of 5 days of Training for Trainers in Regulatory Impact Assessment

Moldova, DAI/U.S. Agency for International Development, 2006.

Since 2007, Jacobs, Cordova & Associates has assisted the World Bank/IFC/FIAS to develop and implement a systemic reform strategy to improve the regulatory environment at sub national levels of government in the region. Most of the work focused on launching regulatory guillotines in 3 municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), 4 in Serbia and 3 in Montenegro. For each ‘municipal guillotine’, a complete registry of licenses and permits was created and posted on internet. This inventory has then be reviewed by stakeholders and by a task force of lawyers and economists verifying the legality, necessity and business friendliness of all formalities listed by public authorities. Only those publicly justified have been included in an internet-based registry. Overall, the municipal guillotines have permitted a 10 to 40 % reduction of the number of formalities and the simplification of more than 2/3 of the remaining ones. Many of the reforms have targeted costly formalities documented in the Doing Business Reports. In parallel, JC&A supported the development of two pilots RIAs at national and at regional level as well as improving the inception systems in one of the regional entities of BiH. In 2008, World Bank IFC/FIAS asked JC&A for further support to assist the review and the creation of new registries in more a dozen of municipalities in Bosnia, Serbia, and Montenegro and continue its work on RIA, Guillotines and inspection reform.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, and Montenegro, The World Bank/IFC/FIAS, 2007-2009.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates held RIA training courses for the Regulatory Reform Council.

Serbia, World Bank, 2005.

http://www.regulatoryreform.com/pdfs/LetterfromMinisteBubaloSerbiaSep2005.pdf

Serbia, The World Bank, 2001-2005

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates designed and delivered UNDP's 2nd Regional Training on Ex-ante Policy Impact Assessment with special focus on social inclusion issues and vulnerability patterns.

Slovakia, UNDP, 2009.

As part of the USAID Support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BizPro) project led by DAI, Jacobs, Cordova & Associates with our full-time Associate based in Kiev, Andrey Astrakhan, evaluated the implementation of the RIA requirements in the Regulatory Policy Law of 2003, and worked with the State Committee for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship (SCRPE) to boost the quality of RIA. JC&A held RIA training courses for the State Committee on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship.

Ukraine, Support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development (BizPro ), U.S. Agency for International Development, 2006.

Jacobs, Cordova & Associates placed a fulltime regulatory reform expert in Kiev to work with the State Council on Regulatory Reform and Entrepreneurship and local governments, under the USAID BizPro project led by DAI. This expert provided diagnostics, solution design, implementation assistance, and legal drafting to improve Ukraine’s legal and regulatory environment for business growth, including RIA, the national system of One Stop Shops, and the rapid deregulation approach based on the Regulatory Guillotine™ method.

Ukraine, U.S. Agency for International Development, 2004-2006.