Virtual Conference – Government Beyond Recovery: Towards a future-fit public sector: 18-19 October 2021 As we hurry to buy plane tickets to the next tropical destination or catch the latest James Bond movie in theatres, the sudden and dramatic restrictions we all experienced in early 2020 can feel like a distant memory. In the early days of COVID-19, many of us reflected critically on the things that mattered most in our lives and work; committing...
Posts on Events
Editor’s note: This is a guest blog by Benjamin Kumpf, Innovation Team Lead in the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate and was co-authored by Angela Hanson and Alex Roberts. It summarises the event ‘Government Capabilities for 21st Century Challenges: What Types of Innovation Do We Need’, co-hosted with the Observatory of Public Sector Innovation on 21 April, 2021. The governments of tomorrow cannot be the same as the governments of yesterday. Change is needed – but...
Last week, the OPSI hosted a Rules as Code meet-up for government and inter-governmental organisation (IGO) officials. The meet-up was the first of several that the OPSI intends to host in support of a growing movement in public administration inspired by the promise of Rules as Code (RaC). We at OPSI believe in the promise of RaC as an emergent approach, something we explored in our RaC primer. We think that this is something which...
After Government After Shock we invited event hosts to share with us recordings of their events, any write-ups of their event or some after-the-event reflections on their event and what they learnt. This blog post provides an easy reference point to help interested people navigate between these. You can also find these materials on the relevant event listing on the Government After Shock site. Event recordings We have created a YouTube playlist where you can find a...
A reflection on a year of crisis and a deliberate start to 2021 While many of us are ready to dive into 2021 and never look back, we can’t race towards “normal”. We are facing a critical juncture where governments must choose to deliberately build on the learnings of this year to be better prepared for the complex future ahead. The Government After Shock event held in November focused on this challenge: reflecting on the...
In the lead up to Government After Shock we undertook a number of interviews with a range of leaders and practitioners to hear about perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic and what the associated crisis was revealing. The culminating event of Government After Shock was part of our collaboration with the European Commission through the H2020 programme, and these interviews helped provide us with a richer understanding of how innovation works in practice, with the crisis...
With over 60 confirmed events happening on (or just before) the 17th of November and a distinguished line up of participants on the 18th of November, Government After Shock is shaping up to be one of the biggest international gatherings to explore the implications of the crisis for governments. This event is an important opportunity to take stock. From early on in the year, we saw the hard work being done by different public services…
This year has been rich in learning. The terrible pandemic has provided a lot of insights and required all of us to do things differently. As part of the preparation for Government After Shock, OPSI has been pulling together examples and analysis about the innovative responses seen across the world, undertaking some sensemaking and doing some workshops with different communities about the crisis, and learning from other events and practitioners. One thing we have…
Convening intentional conversations on crisis implications The crisis of this year has required governments at all levels around the world to respond and adapt. The COVID-19 crisis is unique in the sense that, while many individuals, communities and countries have suffered disproportionate impacts, there has also been a global, collective impact that has spared no one. There has been a terrible shock, one whose aftereffects will continue to be felt for some time. It is...
The last few months have been a period of immense growth and learning, personally and within governments and organisations. This crisis has demonstrated an overwhelming need, opportunity and business case for why innovation is essential and possible in government. We have collectively experienced a terrible shock – and while the crisis continues and evolves, we need to make sense of that shock, to understand how we need to change and adapt to a world that will never be…