How to give feedback on the Innovation Declaration

The Draft OECD Declaration on Public Sector Innovation has been open since the 20^th of November 2018, when the draft was launched at the Innovation in Government: Steps, leaps and bounds conference. Public consultation will close on the 22 of February 2019.

To aid people in this last stretch of the consultation, we hosted a webinar where we discussed:

• How Canada developed and used its Federal, Provincial and Territorial Declaration on Public Sector Innovation
• How France developed and used its French manifesto for public sector innovation
• The thinking and innovation model that underpins the OECD Draft Declaration on Public Sector Innovation
• Some practical guidance and examples of what kind of feedback we are looking for, from people in the OPSI public consultation process

In terms of your feedback on this document, we want to hear:

1. What does or does not make sense

• Tell us if the six main directives make sense.
• Tell us if the suggested actions underneath the directives make sense.
• Show us what clear and simple language looks like to you, so we can better speak in words which resonate.

2. Language suggestions

• Part of the function of this document will be to cohere language in a rapidly evolving area of research and practice.
• If we are using terminology that isn’t immediately understood, or means something specific/ different in your context, please advise what needs to be changed or better defined.

3. Proposed or refined actions

• Under each main directive we have a few proposed actions that we think will drive innovation activity. Have we considered all the relevant ones?

4. Potential implications

• The point of this document is to offer a suite of high-level ideas and activities to governments to help them foster innovation in ways that are relevant and useful to their context.
• Its purpose is not to dictate any kind of implementation.
• However, at this stage, we are genuinely open to hearing from people about what implementation implications there might be, so that we can understand now how these directives or actions might be received (or worked on) in the future.

Next steps

After the public consultation closes on the 22 of February, OPSI will review all the feedback and iterate the draft. We fully expect that some comments to be immediately actionable and some to function more as useful context as we think further about the potential use and usefulness of such a document to governments, internationally.

In April, we will present the document to the OECD’s Public Governance Committee for consideration and further discussion. This Committee is made up of representatives from the OECD member countries who will decide whether the Declaration can be something Ministers of their country should consider endorsing. There is more work to do on the Declaration and more opinions to be considered. We will keep everyone updated as the process progresses.