Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord

• Key Information
• Where we're going
• Review of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord
• Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord Engagement Guide
• Open Government Partnership
• Where we've been
• The Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord in languages other than English

Key Information

The Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord was signed in 2011 and is an important symbol of commitment between the government and communities to engage effectively to achieve social, economic, cultural and environmental outcomes. It sets expectations about how government agencies and communities will work together. 

• Read the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord
  • download a .pdf (260k)
  • download a .doc (144k)

The Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord is also available in nine languages besides English.

• Fact Sheet about the Accord
  • download a .pdf (143k)
  • download a .doc (82k)

Where we're going

The Department of Internal Affairs continues to work with communities and other government agencies to champion the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord, and to promote emerging good practice.

Review of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord 2015

The Department of Internal Affairs completed a review of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord in 2015. The focus of the review was to assess the current state-of-play of community-government engagement practices; finding out what is working well and what can be improved.

The Department of Internal Affairs worked in partnership with Hui E! to develop two surveys; which assessed feedback from community organisations and government agencies.

Summary of survey results for communities

Approximately 60% of respondents experienced examples of good engagement. However, 20% of respondents were aware of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord.

What worked best were:

• face to face and personal communications;
• supportive advice, information and help;
• clinics, workshops and seminars; and
• collaboration and partnership.

What could be improved included:

• listening more; collaboration;
• discussion and more meaningful engagement;
• simpler forms and online services; and
• clearer signposts to “the right person”.

Summary of survey results for government agencies

Approximately 80% of respondents felt their engagement with communities was built on trust and mutual respect, good faith and inclusiveness. However, more than 60% of respondents did not know or were not aware of any resources available that could assist them in strengthening their engagement with communities.

What worked well were:

• collective responsibility;
• acting in good faith; and
• work built on trust and mutual respect.

The top challenges were:

• limited resources;
• inconsistent messages; and
• meeting deadlines

Overall key message from both surveys

How government engages with the community sector from the outset determines the overall success of an initiative and/or project. There are many examples of good community-government engagement practices we could draw from. However, there were also examples of initiatives that experienced difficulties when the principles of trust and mutual respect, good faith, and inclusiveness were not being applied.

For more information, see our one page summary and the full document.

The full report

Read the full report below:

• Review of Community-Government Engagement Practices - September 2015 (PDF, 7.7MB)*
• Review of Community-Government Engagement Practices - September 2015 (DOCX, 1.2MB)

One page summary

View the page summary of the report:

• One page summary: Review of Community-Government engagement practices (PDF, 135KB)*

The one page summary contains the following information:

Community findings:

• 25,496 survey by Hui E!
• 991 (3.9%) responded
• 600 (60%) had experienced examples of good engagement
• 200 (20%) were aware of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord

• Department of Internal Affairs: "The DIA partnership with our Project has worked very well. The DIA rep who works with us has done a superb job of supporting us and guiding us over various hurdles."
• Ministry of Social Development: "MDS capability building

   

  engagement was good."
• City and District Councils (various): "The Council proposed many items in the LTP consultation process and provided many public meetings, on-line information and documents were available throughout the district."
• Ministry of Health: "The Ministry of Health recently made a concerted effort to ensure good representation of NGOs at workshops on the review of the NZ Health Strategy."
• Department of Conservation: "We have a strong working relationship with DOC."

Where in New Zealand?

• Auckland
• Hamilton
• Tauranga
• Hawke's Bay
• Wellington
• Nelson
• Christchurch
• Dunedin
• Invercargill

What worked best?

• Supportive advice, information and help
• Communication: face to face and personal
• Collaboration and partnership
• Clinics, workshops and seminars

What can we do better?

• Listen more
• Collaboration, discussion and more meaningful engagement
• Simplify forms and online services
• Signpost us to "the right person"

Government findings:

• 35 responses from 16 agencies (via SurveyMonkey)
• 80% felt their engagement with the community was built on trust and mutual respect, good faith and inclusiveness

What worked well?

• Collective responsibility
• Acting in good faith
• Work built on trust and mutual respect

What were the key challenges?

• Limited resources
• Inconsistent messages
• Meeting deadlines

• Over 60% of respondents did not know or were not aware of any resources to assist with community engagement

Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord Engagement Guide

Following the review of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord in 2015, the Department of Internal Affairs has refreshed the Ready Reference Engagement Guide to help give effect to the principles of the Accord.

The refreshed Guide provides practical information on how to build strong relationships, plan and undertake engagement processes. This includes effectively engaging with Māori and Pacific people, ethnic communities, people with disability, and online. In addition, the Guide encourages officials to discuss engagement practices within their agencies.

For more information, see our one page summary and the full Guide:

• The Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord Engagement Guide - WORD version (.DOCX, 2MB)
• The Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord Engagement Guide - PDF version (.PDF, 845K)
• One page summary infographic - WORD version (.DOCX, 862K)
• One page summary infographic - PDF version (.PDF, 485K)

Open Government Partnership 

The Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international forum where countries work together to ensure that member governments are more open, accountable and responsive to citizens. As part of New Zealand’s commitment to joining the OGP in 2014, an Action Plan of how the Government will implement the OGP principles includes the 2015 review of the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Acord. Further information on the OGP is available on the State Services Commission’s website: http://www.ssc.govt.nz/open-government-partnership-ogp

Where we've been

Lunchtime seminars

Seminars to promote the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord were hosted by the Department of Internal Affairs in 2013 and 2014. The seminars were held during lunchtime in Wellington. Presentations at the lunchtime seminars were delivered by Inspiring Communities; the New Zealand Rugby League Association; Platform Trust; Charities Services of the Department of Internal Affairs; the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; and the Ministry of Social Development.

Championing agencies

There are six champion agencies within government that developed case studies in 2011 that, demonstrate the Kia Tūtahi Relationship Accord's principles in action.  These included:

• The Department of Internal Affairs
• Ministry of Health
• Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs
• Ministry of Social Development
• Sport New Zealand
• Te Puni Kōkiri