Steering priority policies with results: the PILOTE tool and the public action barometer

In order to continuously improve public policies and correct any deployment difficulties, the French Government has set up a data-driven steering system that allows it to monitor the results of more than 60 priority policies across all departments in its territory. This system is embodied by an internal steering and monitoring tool (PILOTE) and a citizen information site presenting the results in open data.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

The French State has several public policy evaluation bodies, but they all rely on an ex post evaluation method. To address this, France wanted to set up, through its Interministerial Directorate for Public Transformation (DITP), a system aimed at improving the management and monitoring of public policies. This system has three objectives: 1) to provide the Government with a regular and real-time overview of the state of policies throughout the country and their impact on French users and citizens; 2) to detect and assess difficulties in implementing these policies in order to quickly provide concrete solutions; 3) to initiate an accountability process towards citizens by publishing the results. To meet these objectives, the DITP has set up a governance system to monitor public policies through data and results. Indicators have been defined to evaluate each public policy. Based on these indicators, national and local officials are responsible for defining targets and achieving results. The achievement of these results is the subject of interministerial monitoring meetings that make it possible to align the various objectives and make decisions. To share these results with local and national officials, the DITP has developed a tool to monitor public policies through data and results. Thus, the PILOTE digital dashboard makes it possible to visualize and comment on the results obtained (in the form of progress rates for various indicators) throughout the territory. From PILOTE, national and local stakeholders can exchange and report the actions necessary to successfully implement the policies followed. Some of these indicators and their data are published as open data via the data.gouv.fr portal and the public action barometer. They allow each citizen to know the impact of each policy for their department, region and at the national level. This mode of governance through data and the tools used have enabled a new dialogue between stakeholders at the local and national level, by breaking down the traditional silos of the administration. It makes it possible to evaluate the performance of senior executives. In this respect, the prefects, responsible for the deployment of these policies at the departmental or regional level, are evaluated each year. Part of their compensation is now determined based on the results transmitted via PILOTE. From now on, more than 60 policies are monitored in PILOTE. Their results are analyzed using nearly 750 indicators. Their deadlines are set for the year 2026.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

PILOTE is innovative on two levels:

1/ First, because it brings together two traditionally separate fields: that of monitoring and evaluating the results of public policies and that of their management. In France, the evaluation of public policies is mainly carried out a posteriori via parliamentary committees or dedicated institutions (Cour des Comptes, France Stratégie) while the management of policies is carried out at the level of each responsible administration.

2/ Second, because it is a system that goes beyond the traditional silos between ministries. By displaying indicators and managers for each policy and territory in a single tool, PILOTE allows senior political and administrative authorities (Presidency of the Republic, Prime Minister and prefects at the local level) to ensure the coherence of public policies and to arbitrate between objectives that may be contradictory.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

This innovation was piloted by the DITP, with the political support of the General Secretariat of the Elysée and the Chief of Staff and the Prime Minister who chairs the bimonthly follow-up meetings. It required the involvement of all central administrations and prefectures for the creation of a network of managers and the recovery of data for each policy at the national and local level.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

Stakeholders can be categorized into three groups: 1/ Those responsible for implementing public policies are responsible for providing information and explaining the results. 2/ The beneficiaries of the tool at the interministerial level use the tool to compare public policies and territories and identify difficulties. 3/ Civil society can consult the Government's priority policies and some of the indicators used in an Open Government approach.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

Since 2021, the governance of priority policies has made it possible to improve the deployment of several policies. For example, the establishment of an intermediation system for the payment of alimony was completely redesigned after the first months of implementation. The PILOTE tool had in fact demonstrated that the methods initially envisaged did not allow this measure to be deployed quickly enough throughout the territory and to the target audiences. Similarly, the monitoring in PILOTE of aid for the purchase of electric vehicles made it possible to demonstrate that if the aid was correctly deployed in several territories, it was necessary to readjust it in order to guarantee its use by the target and priority audiences.

Challenges and Failures

The implementation of this project required knowing the available data heritage, selecting the relevant indicators and having them validated by the stakeholders. The support of all administrations is also necessary in order to provide high-quality data that is regularly updated. In addition, in order to quickly make digital tools available in a proof-of-concept approach, proprietary tools were used. These tools did not meet the needs. The DITP recruited an internal team to develop sovereign and adapted tools, the source codes of which are now freely available.

Conditions for Success

We identify three conditions for the success of such a system: 1/ High-level political support with authority over all ministries. This support makes it possible to disseminate this new method of governance across a wide range of administrations with different cultures and organizations. 2/ The interest of senior executives responsible for implementing priority policies increases their attention to the system and makes it possible to make the information visible in the tool more reliable. 3/ The creation of a coordination team at the interministerial level and of referents in each administration makes it possible to run the system at the different levels affected.

Replication

The innovation has been used in other use cases for the French Government. The methodology applied and the PILOTE tool were used in particular to monitor the recovery plan after the Covid-19 epidemic. Several use cases have been identified to reuse the PILOTE governance and its tool, including in particular the monitoring of long-term measures for the ecological transition as part of the France 2030 plan or the monitoring of the carbon footprint of French government services.

Lessons Learned

We have found that, in order to integrate all administrations into a single system, we must confront organizational obstacles (specific territorial organizations, poorly exploitable data, etc.) and cultural obstacles (reluctance to share data and communicate on results). Various levers have enabled us to respond to these obstacles: 1/ A high level of political support offers an argument of authority, 2/ Listening to users, taking into account their requests and the specificity of their organization facilitates adhesion, 3/ Technical support to provide data in the right format guarantees the quality of the information displayed.

Anything Else?

Improving data updates will be a next step in the roadmap for this innovation for 2024. In particular, it will limit gestures and steps to ensure good quality data that is updated regularly. It will be based in particular on the use of connectors to retrieve data directly from native information systems within the various ministerial administrations.