It is difficult for the Dutch to accept, but in Belgium, they do better. And we're not only talking about French fries, pure development of the Dutch language or popular comic books. The Belgians are also actively improving government achievements. While in the Netherlands piles of reports have been written about institutional renewal and ICT, Belgium took the learn-do-learn approach and accelerated the process of modernising the public sector. And so did Denmark, Finland, Germany and the US!

KL used the Belgian success as an example to wake up the media and politicians in The Netherlands. In February 2003, the Committee 'Belgium Does Better', which consists of prominent people such as Arthur Docters van Leeuwen, Wim Deetman, Ivo Opstelten, Roel in 't Veld and Marco Pastors, has great concerns about the organisation of Dutch government. In the Netherlands, policy-making is a time eating and extensive process, and innovation remains a utopia. If you consider the number of disasters and embarrassing incidents that took place over the past few years, it becomes clear that the Dutch government underperforms when it comes to project execution, maintenance and cooperation. Apparently, de organisation of public governance is incapable of solving today's social problems. The Commission calls, therefore, for a radical modernisation of the public sector, in which execution of policy is the key.

Over the past months, the report received a lot of attention in different circles within the public sector. You can download the report (written in Dutch) as a PDF-file. A printed version is also available for €12.50 by using the online order form. More information about this project (including all documents) can be found on the www.belgendoenhetbeter.nl( Belgians Do Better - in Dutch).

The Committee Belgium Does Better is an initiative of Zenc, United Knowledge and the KnowledgeLand Foundation. Under supervision of the Committee, these organisations conduct research and give advice on how to improve the performance within the public sector. They also organise chain simulations and brainstorm meetings about themes central to the Committees' aims.