Intergenerational Justice on trial: development of the Intergenerational Justice Check launched

How do laws affect different generations?  On behalf of the BMBFSFJ, the NIPAG is developing the Intergenerational Justice Check — a new instrument for assessing the impact of legislation that addresses precisely this question.

The National Institute for Public Administration Germany (NIPAG) has launched its development of a new tool for policy impact assessment on behalf of the The Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ): the  Intergenerational Justice Check. Its aim is to systematically review the German government's legislative proposals for their impact on intergenerational justice.

The assesment tool is designed to not only raise awareness for possible impact on specific generational groups in both administraiton and policy making, but also assist in drafting legislation that is equitable across generations. The instrument combines qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social sciences in order to provide differentiated insights into general effects and, above all, generation-specific effects. The project is divided into two phases: In the development phase, the tool is designed and tested using existing legislative proposals. In the subsequent pilot phase, the tool is applied to current draft legislation under real conditions and refined as necessary.

The Intergenerational Justice Check serves as yet another addittion to the NIPAGS portfolio of innovative policy assessment tools. It thus builds on established, successful assessment tools such as the Competence Centre Youth-Check (ComYC), the Youth-Checks at the state level, and the Equality Check—all of which succesfull developments by the NIPAG.