Steady Progress on Community Outcomes

Today, the first Hawke’s Bay Community Outcomes Regional Monitoring Report has been released. The monitoring report is a requirement of the Local Government Act 2002 and reports on progress against the community outcomes identified by the public in 2004.

Purpose

The purpose of establishing the outcomes was to get the community’s view on the things it considers important for its long term wellbeing. They serve to provide:

•  A regional context for the ongoing work of the public, private and community sectors in the region
•  A common strategic focus for these sectors
•  A series of long-term development goals for the Hawke’s Bay region to aspire to
•  And a basis for monitoring the region’s progress against the outcomes or goals.

The community identified 9 high level outcomes and a further 25 sub outcomes broadly covering economic, social/cultural and environmental wellbeing in the region.

Specific indicators have been identified for the various sub-outcomes to enable regional progress on them to be monitored and measured over time.

These are outlined in the report along with a broad evaluation of how the region has fared over the past decade in terms of outcome achievement.

“A key objective of the first report was to setup a framework for the future monitoring of regional progress towards the outcomes, and to develop a benchmark for measuring future progress of the region towards the outcomes,” Hastings District Council, Strategy Manager, Lex Verhoeven said.
“Future reports on the progress made by the community in achieving the outcomes are required every three years and enhancements and refinements to the monitoring and reporting framework will be made,” he said.

Progress Highlights
Of the 44 monitoring indicators, a broad assessment shows that 39 had showed a generally improving trend over the past decade and five had worsened, which represents overall steady progress,” said Mr Verhoeven.
The region had done particularly well in the areas of economic, tourism and rural sector growth, however the negative impacts associated with the economic downturn are now being experienced in Hawke’s Bay along with the rest of New Zealand.
Good progress has also been made in terms of protection and development of cultural and heritage assets, he said.
“However, there is still plenty of work to do, with specific issues in some indicator areas needing to be addressed, and in some areas, Hawke’s Bay is tracking below the Local-National comparison,” Mr Verhoeven said.
A summary of the full report will be included in the next Hawke’s Bay Regional Council issue of its Big Picture publication.

Copies of the full report are available from the five Hawke’s Bay local authorities or available on their respective websites.