Survey on the Riga Municipal Activities in 2006 and 2007
The overall vision on the development of the City of Riga is based on the aggregate of documents on the long-term development plan for the city, approved by the Riga City Council at the end of 2005, which consists of three interconnected documents: the Riga Long-term Development Strategy until 2025, the Riga Development Programme for 2006 – 2012 and the Riga Territory Plan for 2006 – 2018.
The Strategy provides the defined trends and priorities of the development of Riga. The Programme comprehensively describes the current situation in Riga by sectors and the tasks to be performed in conformity with the Strategy and defined by the Strategy to facilitate the social and economic development of Riga. The Plan, in turn, determines the city land usage policy.
To supervise the performance of the Strategy and the Programme, a system has been established that anticipates the annual evaluation of the process and achievements. The City Development Department is responsible for implementing the Strategy Supervision System, using in its work information that comes from the Riga City Council institutions and structural units on events taking place during the reporting year, on the started and finished activities (projects) to achieve the city’s strategic goals, as well as information obtained from external institutions and evaluations provided by experts on quality of services in different districts of the city. In order to expand the assessment process and make it more objective, both Riga City Council specialists and external experts have provided their evaluations.
In 2008, City Development Department employees prepared the first monitoring survey of its kind in cooperation with other Riga City Council institutions and structural units on the Riga municipality activities in 2006 and 2007. The main emphasis in the report is placed on the analysis of strategic goals of the Riga municipality, which include a description of the goal, the opinions of residents, a summary of the Riga local government activities within the framework of the goal, a summary of the resulting indices characterising the goal in the schedule section, a summary on performing the goal, the evaluation of experts from different industries on activities performed by the municipality and proposals for further activities within the framework of the goal, as well as the link of the goal with the national policy planning documents and the European Union funds programmes.
The following information is available in the survey:
• General characteristics of the development of the City of Riga
• Satisfaction of residents with the availability and quality of services of the municipal preschool and general education institutions (schools)
• Quality of the housing environment in Riga as a whole and in residential districts
• Expert evaluations on the quality and availability of services in the Riga localities (2007)
• Proportion of the localities area in the territory of Riga and the amount of residents in the environs
• Amount of the employed and the investments volume in the localities (2002-2007)
• Satisfaction of residents with employment opportunities in Riga
• Satisfaction of residents with active recreation opportunities, quality and accessibility of primary healthcare
• Satisfaction of residents with quality and accessibility of social care and services
• Usage of the Riga municipality budget for performing the social protection function
• Satisfaction of residents with cultural events in Riga and reasons for dissatisfaction with such events
• Satisfaction of residents with the opportunity to receive information on the municipality’s work
• Proportion of Riga’s economic branches in the total added value (%)
• Satisfaction of residents with the quality and availability of public transport and services and the pedestrian roads infrastructure quality
• Satisfaction with the transport roads infrastructure
• How often, on average, the citizens of Riga travel by car
• Satisfaction of residents with the cleanliness and quality of the environment in Riga
• Satisfaction of residents with personal safety in Riga
• Satisfaction of residents with the housing offer and quality in the city
• Satisfaction of residents with the city government
• Amount of available projects, co-financed by the European Union, introduced by the Riga local municipality and its institutions
• Total budget and co-financing of the EU projects annually introduced by the Riga City Council (without the Riga municipal companies) by years in LVL mil.
• Distribution of the available EU co-financed projects introduced by the Riga municipality and its institutions by goals
• And others.
