Since 2016, OPSI and the UAE Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (MBRCGI) have worked in partnership to surface key activities and case studies in public sector innovation, resulting in a series of annual reports on key innovation trends. However, this year is not a normal year, with 2020 being one of the most challenging years in most of our lifetimes. The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly and drastically changed the daily lives of nearly...
Posts on Innovative Capacity
Steps towards a New Data Deal: Prototyping an evidence-based innovation panel for the Portuguese Public Administration A rigorous, realistic, and actionable knowledge of current innovation practices is indispensable in order to meet the present challenges and proactively prepare the future of Public Administration. From the outset, innovation practices in Public Administration must understand the specificities of public service guaranteed by the State. For the Experimentation Lab for Public…
This OPSI guest blog, written by Thomas Gegenhuber (Leuphana University Lüneburg/Johannes Kepler University Linz), Johanna Mair (Hertie School/Stanford University), Rene Lührsen (Hertie School/Leuphana University Lüneburg) and Laura Thäter Lührsen (Hertie School/Leuphana University Lüneburg) shares insights gathered from the #wirvsvirus hackathon on how to carry forward the ideas produced in hackathon environments into concrete action and projects. Moving from sprint to marathon…
As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in the lead-up to Government After Shock, OPSI is seeking and collecting different reflections and perspectives about the crisis and its implications for governments – particularly around their need to take a deliberate and consistent approach to innovation). This guest post by Benjamin Kumpf, Head of Innovation at the UK Department for International Development, provides a perspective from the international development angle. Trade-offs…
The Observatory is conducting an analysis of the public sector innovation system of Latvia, and we would like to share a project overview and update for anyone interested in innovation systems, the research approach, or how international lessons learned can help officials understand their own contexts. To begin: what is a public sector innovation system? A public sector innovation system can be seen as the set of organisations, capacities, laws, policies, processes,…
In a year marked by sudden and massive change, there is a duty amidst all the turmoil to take stock of what public governance gaps are revealed, and where we can learn lessons. At the core, this leads to three questions: What do we need to leave behind? What do we want to keep? What should we do differently? As the States of Change Learning Festival wrapped up, we wanted to try to capture the...
The world is facing major societal challenges such as climate change, health and digital transformation. Rapid advances in technology are unleashing innovation in many sectors that could help resolve these challenges. This calls for more proactive and cross-sectorial public policy development. The Swedish Government has appointed the Committee for Technological Innovation and Ethics (Komet) to address…
To equip the Welsh Government to become more open, innovative and adaptive to change, the Education Directorate commissioned the OECD to undertake an assessment of the capacity of the Directorate to develop as a learning organisation (LO). This article explores the outcomes of the LO assessment and provides an early insight into the next steps. To get an overview of what learning organisations are and the OECD’s work in Wales, read OPSI’s previous blogs on...
Advice for Making Your Strategy Stand Out Over the past few years, innovation has become a popular term in the public and private sectors. Many are beginning to look for ways to make their company or unit more innovative, wanting to offer a service, product, or policy that is different and more creative than what currently exists. But when everyone else also tries to think ‘differently,’ how does one actually do so? This challenge can...
Innovation is essential. Now more than ever, that is clear, with the coronavirus crisis bluntly hammering home the need for the public sector to do things differently. All of a sudden, things that were unthinkable have become demanded. And as my colleague Sam has outlined and we have been tracking and observing, governments are already innovating in response, working with partners to quickly try new things for one of the most important reasons – in...