The Strategy Day of the Opinion Journey brings together policy makers and discussion leaders from across Estonia

Eili Lepik, Deputy Strategy Director at the Government Office and leader of “Estonia 2035”, said that this year’s Opinion Journey went very well. “The number of ideas and proposals put forward as a result of the discussions totally exceeded our expectations,” said Lepik. “But the commitment with which people organised the discussions and gave us feedback is even more extraordinary.” “The innovative discussion format and method of the Opinion Journey was highly rated and many discussion leaders said that the same method could be used in the future as a practice of open governance in direct communication between the state and the people.”

According to Lepik, the substantive work on the ideas and proposals is just beginning. The Strategy Day of the Opinion Journey for discussion leaders and policy makers is the first step, which makes it possible to jointly give feedback to the solutions identified by the people participating in the Opinion Journey on the 12 topics and the free topic proposed by the discussion groups, and on whether and how policy makers could start implementing them.

According to Mai Timmi, one of the organisers of the Opinion Journey and the leader of Kasvulava, the feedback from the discussion leaders also reflected the need to develop a discussion culture at the national level. “The people of Estonia have faith in discussion culture,” said Timmi. “It’s important to value the process of listening to each other and thinking about issues as much as the process of making decisions. This is particularly necessary in difficult times, as it’s the only way we can move from opposition to understanding in communities as well as in society on a broader scale.” Timmi added that the format of the Opinion Journey was highly regarded as a direct link to the state and the need to continue this direct communication and to regularly “practice” discussions was also emphasised. The Opinion Journey was also described as educational entertainment for adults, with the aim of making it part of our communication culture.

The Strategy Day of the Opinion Journey will take place on 14 December from 13.00-17.00 at the Club of Different Rooms in Telliskivi Creative City, Tallinn. The event will conclude with a stand-up performance by actor Henrik Kalmet on the topic of the “Estonia 2035” Opinion Journey and everyone who participated in the discussions across Estonia are invited to join the event online. The performance will start on 14 December at 16:30 and can be watched live on the website of the Opinion Journey at www.arvamusrannak.ee. The performance will be available to watch for seven days, until 21 December.

The discussions of the Opinion Journey were held in November in all Estonian counties and one even in Helsinki. The largest number of discussions took place in Harju County (34), Tartu County (27) and Võru County (20), followed by Valga County (12), Viljandi County (9), Ida-Viru County (6), Põlva County (6), Lääne-Viru County (5), Pärnu County (5), Järva County (3), Saare County (3), Hiiu County (2), Lääne County (2), Rapla County (2), Jõgeva County (1). The Strategy Day debates will be added to the almost 140 discussions held during November, which will bring the total number of discussions held during the Opinion Journey to almost 150.

Based on the feedback from the discussion leaders, the ranking of the topics proposed by policy makers and NGOs for the Opinion Journey was as follows: the new relevance of libraries; mental health awareness; human-friendly and sustainable settlement; the pros and cons of rural life; health-promoting choices; the challenges of a caring society; the future of school education in the face of teacher shortages; NIMBY or readiness for change; the role of the state and people’s responsibility; the climate crisis and biodiversity; the bottlenecks of responsible business; artificial intelligence in public services.

One of the most active contributors to this year’s Opinion Journey was the national network of libraries, both as an organiser of the discussions and as a participant, and many communities, organisations and various stakeholders also made their contributions.

Any adult could write down discussions and invite others to join in – all people from all over Estonia were welcome to participate. Guidance materials were prepared to assist the discussion leaders, as well as short instructional videos to support the planning and conduct of the discussions. Ideas and feedback were collected using an online questionnaire. The thematic pages and other materials on the Opinion Journey can be found at www.arvamusrannak.ee.

The Opinion Journey is part of the Estonian Open Government Partnership Action Plan, which brings together activities to help increase co-creation and knowledge-based policy making. The Action Plan includes initiatives that extend the scope of open government beyond digital solutions for the state, covering support for innovation and experimentation in the public sector as well as the development of data-driven decision-making.

Further information:

Eili Lepik
Deputy Strategy Director at the Government Office, leader of “Estonia 2035”
e-mail: [email protected]
telephone: 506 7123

Heleri Reinsalu
Adviser at the Strategy Unit of the Government Office, organiser of the Opinion Journey “Estonia 2035”
e-mail: [email protected]
telephone: 5666 2036
www.arvamusrannak.ee