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International Competition Network

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Working Groups Profile, Part 1

ICN’s core work occurs in its project-oriented working groups. Interested members and non-governmental advisors come together to develop specific project proposals, share experiences, discuss issues important to competition policy and enforcement, and ultimately produce work product. Annual conferences have traditionally served as a forum for presentation and discussion of working group achievements. This update highlights the conference sessions offered by the ICN’s Advocacy and Agency Effectiveness Working Groups.

Advocacy Working Group

The Advocacy Working Group session takes place on Day 1 of the conference.  The mission of the Advocacy Working Group (AWG) is to improve the effectiveness of ICN members’ advocacy activities in advancing the adoption of competition principles in government and promoting the development of a competition culture within society.

Wednesday, April 24 (Day 1)

14:15  AWG Plenary panel: Competition Advocacy and Reform

15:15  Advocacy-related breakouts

The AWG breakout discussions will address:

• Explaining the benefits of competition. The AWG project on Explaining the Benefits of Competition seeks to provide ICN members with knowledge of, and strategies and arguments for explaining the benefits of competition in support of their competition advocacy efforts with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders.

• Promoting competition culture. The Competition Culture Project seeks to define competition culture, and learn how members interact with the constituent parts of a competition culture and what role each constituent plays or potentially could play.

• The ICN as an advocate. The ICN’s Steering Group Chair, Eduardo Perez Motta, leads an ICN effort to increase the visibility of competition policy by supplementing local efforts by its members to place competition issues on the agenda of national and international (regional or global) organizations and fora. Work such as the AWG’s Competition Assessment Project aims to link competition concerns with existing policy goals and providing concrete, comprehensible, and implementable guidance on general principles for competition-friendly policy formulation.

Agency Effectivness Working Group

The Agency Effectiveness Working Group (AEWG) session takes place on Day 2 of the conference.  The AEWG’s work examines a variety of factors that affect how competition agencies achieve their objectives in an efficient and effective way, including strategy, planning, operations, and investigative tools and procedures.

Thursday, April 25 (Day 2)

8:00 Optional Breakout: ICN’s Curriculum Project

The mission of the Curriculum Project is to create training modules, consisting of video lectures and accompanying materials from a diverse group of international academics and practitioners, to provide an on-line educational center for competition authorities from around the world. In 2012-13, the Curriculum Project team developed new modules on planning an investigation, competition advocacy within government, and challenges faced by competition agencies in developing countries. Join this optional breakout for a discussion of the future direction of the project.

9:00 AEWG Plenary panel: Competition Agency Investigative Process

10:00 & 15:00 Agency Effectiveness breakouts

The AEWG breakout discussions will address:

• Investigative Process. In 2012, the AEWG began a multi-year project on competition agencies’ investigative processes. The Investigative Process Project seeks to provide a forum for members to discuss how they conduct investigations, with a view to improving the effectiveness of agency processes and decision-making.

• Human Resources management at competition agencies. ICN’s human resources-related work focuses on an area of paramount importance to the success of any competition agency: the quality and effectiveness of its people.

• Knowledge management at competition agencies. ICN’s knowledge management work examines the various ways in which competition agencies manage institutional knowledge, including a variety of activities, processes, and technologies.

Friday, April 26 (Day 3)

12:30 Breakouts: Working Group meetings

Each Working Group will hold its first meeting of the 2013-2014 ICN year on Day 3. Join the AWG or AEWG – or any one of the featured ICN working groups – in a breakout room to learn more about the working group’s plans and how to get involved.