Convergence of Social Policies – One-stop service

The extent of the innovation of 50+Policy came from its convergent nature of the policy. Resistance from different level of policy actors was in place at the early stage of policy development. A series of consultation processes with stakeholders took place to clarify the roles and responsibilities among the existing entities and the 50+Foundation on aging issues to create synergy effect. The meetings with the elder welfare institutes were held and it was agreed to set up a mid-and-long term cooperative system by creating a consultative group to avoid double-efforts on welfare services. The convergence of different services area has enabled the 50+Policy to provide a one-stop service from counselling and education/training to social engagements.

50+Driven/Powered Policy

The SMG has taken a “50+generation-oriented” approach to tackle the aging challenges. While increasing efforts were made by the national government to integrate aging issues to its economic and social development agenda, the policies were mostly designed at a policy provider’s viewpoint targeted to senior citizens (aged over 65) and socially marginalized elderly. However, the SMG continuously interacted and communicated with the 50+generation to collect the generation’s voice to ensure 50+ becomes a driving force to the policy implementation. The SMG’s approach to the 50+Policy is to harness the skills and experiences of 50+ as a capital to resolve social issues together with the 50+generation. Thus, the 50+Policy has been designed as a “50+driven/powered” public service, which means all projects engage the skilled and experienced 50+ in its implementation phase of the policy. “Together, and Apart” Approach Seoul is a big city and has dimensional features in each district. The 50+Policy reflects local-specific features to its implementation strategy dependent on whether it be densely populated areas, university or office areas. For example, the Western Campus is housed at the Seoul Innovation Park and thus, its focus is on innovation, social economy and town projects while the Central Campus focuses on start-up and job creating given is proximity with the Seoul Startup Hub. What makes the 50+Policy complementary is the perception that under the umbrella of the 50+Foundation, 50+campuses and centers go together, while alternating among them is justified via balancing the “apart” approach.

The foundation will institutionalize a platform through its 5-year phased plan of , and . The current focus is:

(a) early settlement and successful operation of the multi-50+campuses;

(b) research to lead 50+policies;

(c) creating and promoting a jobmodel for 50+ and the society. As of August 2017, more than 15,000 people have been registered to the 50+programs; 112 communities, participated by 917 people, have been organized by the 50+generation, 13 different streams of have been participated by about 600 people. From 2018, focus will shift to evaluating projects and further diffusing lessons to 50+centers and other local authorities planning to replicate our case.

From its development stage, multi-stakeholder partnerships were sought to build a cross-functional convergent policy - covering 50+counselling, job, and education/training, and to catalyze and accelerate policy changes connected to a broad movement for innovation. The partnership and collaborations with different stakeholders were essential and it was key to reinforcing the innovation by (a) agreeing on the medium-and long-term cooperation system through coordination with the representatives from senior and social welfare institutes and convening a consultative groups; (b) dividing roles and responsibilities between entities working on aging and social welfare issues to reduce overlapping conflict and to create a synergy through encouraging broader and sound competitions. For instance, it was agreed that the Seoul Welfare Foundations to conduct a research on the older aged while the 50+Foundation focuses on the younger aged of 50+generation.

The innovation rests on engaging multi-stakeholders upon its development process; going beyond the SMG’s authority, the approval of the national government was a mandatory requirement to establish a city government invested/ affiliated agency ‘the Seoul 50 Plus Foundation’. The foundation was established after an approval process of the national government, which associated consultations, deliberation and resolution stages. Apart from the 50+Foundation and campuses, 50+centers were planned at the regional level and the consultations with the regions of Seoul were conducted in parallel. A coordination with the stakeholders took place to clarify the division of functional roles and responsibilities between the existing Seoul Welfare Foundation and the Foundation on aging issue and to set up a mid-and-long term cooperative system. The institutionalized framework of 50+Policy now serves as a foundation to promote good governance and take a preemptive approach to cope with aging issues.

This innovation model was underpinned by the conviction that 50+ can live purposefully in their 2nd half of life by contributing to the society, if appropriate supports are provided. We have deployed various on/off-line medium to bring greater policy impact by communicating with the broader audience. The 50+Policy has played as a tool to recognize the potential of the 50+generation’s role in our society. Expected impact of the policy is as envisioned in our mission; to create a new life vision for Seoul’s 50+ and with our current focus on; ‘Creating a foundation for the 50+Policy,’ ‘agenda and partnership development,’ and ‘to operate various pilot programs,’ results expected are as below;

(a) Early settlement and successful operation of the multi-campus by establishing and fully-operating six campuses by 2020 and to provide 50+tailored education and counselling contents

(b) To conduct policy and practical research; to coordinate 50+led research; to publish regular policy briefs; and to organize (international) 50+Policy forums

(c) Creating and promoting a 50+job-models for public and private sectors; expanding the social contribution type job model through the Seoul-city driven paid volunteer job titled ; operating 50+startup venture competition, incubation program and encore outplacement programs and by enabling environment for 50+job employment through establishing on/off-line 50+job infrastructure

(d) Building an eco-system to promote 50+culture and cooperation through public campaigns, integrated marketing communication, 50+group support, 50+culture promotion, 50+platforms; and to enhance 50+partnership through setting up a cooperative system

(e) Establishment of an information system to be the 50+hub which will provide an integrated service to Seoul citizens and to collect precise data and statistics to measure policy effectiveness.

The main challenge was to identify the policy identity. The SMG was encountered to address whether the policy was an employment or lifelong education as the policy was deemed a welfare service for a demographic group of 50+ distinguishing itself with the existing welfare programs. Nevertheless, the SMG has taken a new approach of “50+driven/powered movement,” to address multiple issues faced by the 50+ in their post-retirement period and to create a new life vision for their latter life. Additionally, while the existing welfare policy focused on socially marginalized group, the 50+Policy is a more comprehensive plan. 50+Policy is faced with voices that the policy should be designed to have an immediate linkage to the employment. With a little understanding of the “Encore Career Transition Model” – which emphasizes ‘work opportunities’ than ‘being hired to an employer’, our challenge is to communicate our purpose effectively amid a pressure for a training for immediate employment.

Two critical elements factored into the success of the 50+innovation; a strong political leadership and a human-powered approach. A strong political conviction building up from experiences from a NGO-led initiative and pilot operation was a driver to the innovation. Mayor’s strong political commitment to take the 50+initiative as his election pledge, coupled with a social consensus on the necessity of the 50+Policy support within the social and economic context of the aged country enabled systematic change through laying a firm institutional and legal grounds – thus establishment of the 50+Foundation/campuses/centers by the SMG. In the meantime, the idea of 50+driven/powered approach shows that the local authorities have phased to a relational state with the general public from a delivery state. It was a route to build social resilience and for the government to achieve common goals with its people.

Considering Korea’s rapid demographic change, the government has been making efforts on the post-retirement support for the middle-aged. But, with the fragmented approaches taken by different ministries, the post-retirement support was not successful in attracting beneficiaries. The 50+Policy shares the value of the “tailored and sustainable 50+Policy,’ through one-stop counselling service, education and job models and pursues a “50+Policy for all” that enables social integration and inter-generational exchanges. 50+Policy has become a benchmark point to local authorities planning to establish a similar infrastructure. Further, the national government has recently announced a cross-ministry initiative to establish a social infrastructure for 3rd act life planning for the new mid-lifer, which the initial idea was adopted from 50+Policy. As a front-runner, we plan to improve our performance through exerting our leadership by establishing a systematic policy implementing mechanisms.

It was critical to collect different voices and coordinate among related stakeholders to avoid potential conflicts and double-policy efforts. The 50+Policy is a universal welfare service, that converges wide range of areas which cannot be solely provided by the 50+Foundation/campuses/centers along. Thus, it is important to fill the gap along the service value chain through public-private partnerships and networks. To further scale the 50+initiative, this will lay the groundwork for the next steps to a participatory and collaborative governance. In this manner, we are currently organizing international/national policy forums to create a consensus to our work and to show our leadership in the agenda-making. Our challenge now is how to create a shared value with, particularly, private sectors by not impeding their markets and to develop 50+specific contents.

In less than a two-year journey of 50+Policy implementation, we have explored the potential of the 50+platform through higher participation and interest of the 50+generation. Despite backlashes and concerns emerged in the early stage, we are currently making our case a front-runner case across the country and share knowledge with concerned stakeholders. We aim to provide creative and innovative 50+infrastructure through providing both hard and software infrastructures. In the years to come, we will launch an on-line 50+portal to serve as a one-stop 50+information portal.