Het kind- en jongereneffectrapport (JoKER) in de weegschaal - Desmet, E.; Op de Beeck, H.; Vandenhole, W.
In 1997, the Flemish Government (Belgium) established a 'Child Impact Report' (KER), which was extended to a 'Child and Youth Impact Report' (JoKER) in 2008. JoKER is an ex ante impact assessment carried out by the Flemish administration with respect to draft decrees that have a direct impact on the interests of persons under the age of 25. The Flemish Government requested the Children's Rights Knowledge Centre (KeKi) to subject JoKER to an in-depth evaluation. Five data collection techniques were used: a literature review, a document analysis, an electronic survey, focus group discussions and an expert consultation. The three most important tensions identified were (1) the fact that although JoKER is internationally recognized a a 'good practice', knowledge about this instrument among the involved actors can still be strenghtened, (2) the precarious balance between integrating JoKER in the (more general) Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and maintaining the particularity of JoKER and (3) the 'weight' of the JoKER process, where an adequate impact assessment must be strived at, without overburdening the workload of the civil servants.
