Are you a motivated individual, eager to take on innovative projects and push the boundaries of what’s possible in the public sector? OPSI is searching for talented individuals to join our team for a six-month internship experience in Paris or remote (with the possibility to extend to 12 months)! The deadline for application is Sunday, 23 April 2023, 23:59 CET (instructions below). The OECD Internship Programme is designed to provide highly qualified and motivated students…
Strategic foresight and innovation policy analysts Josh Polchar and David Jonason discuss what is really needed to make foresight adequate, proportionate, and regular. Strategic foresight experts are sometimes a bit like dentists. For us, the “surgery” of strategic foresight interventions is a main part of our profession. It’s what we specialise in, and it can be highly interesting and rewarding to work with organisations who can benefit. But we make a mistake when we present...
Innovation portfolio management enables not only commercial actors but also public sector organisations to systematically manage and prioritise innovation activities according to concurrent and diverse purposes and priorities. It is a core component of a comprehensive approach to innovation management and a condition to assess the social return of investment across an entire portfolio. The OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) has worked in this space for a number of years. By…
With staff shortages in executive organisations, the impact of digitalisation, increasingly diverted and individualised parliaments and rising public’s expectations of public services, governments are gradually recognising the importance of innovation in their goods and services. A new era has emerged with governments professionalising their innovation processes through the establishment of dedicated innovation departments. In Europe, rarely do we see so many public organisations moving in the…
We are on the lookout for game-changing, freely available toolkits that can ignite innovative thinking and drive progress in governments worldwide. As the hosts of OECD Toolkit Navigator, one of the world’s largest compendia of public sector innovation toolkits, we’re excited to collaborate with you to identify fresh, forward-thinking resources to support governments and public servants in the design and delivery of better policies and services. Five minutes – that’s all it…
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Project LIMinal: Strengthening anticipatory innovation governance in Lithuania, Italy and Malta
In a world where change is the only constant, the ability to anticipate and adapt to the future has become a vital survival skill for governments and public sector organisations. A reactive approach to policymaking is no longer enough. It is increasingly important to anticipate policy challenges and take action to proactively steer towards preferred futures. We are seeking peers and experts to join us on this ambitious journey. Building on experiences strengthening anticipatory…
Finland conducted its first public sector innovation barometer in the Central Government. The results are in and once again reaffirm that Finland gets many things right. 93% of organisations innovated during 2020-21. Innovation activities are motivated in particular by the needs of citizens and clients, productivity and new technologies. Drivers of innovation activities are also reflected in individual innovations and their effects. Innovation Barometer: what and why? The Innovation Barometer is…
The world is in a state of climate emergency, a ‘code red’ for humanity. The twin climate and biodiversity crises demand urgent, co-ordinated action to transform existing social-technological systems. Simply accelerating what we are doing now cannot avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. As Secretary-General António Guterres stated in his opening remarks at COP27, we need “a Pact in which developed and emerging economies unite around a common strategy and combine…
Looking back, this last year has once again been very challenging yet ambitious for Nido, the innovation lab for the Belgian public sector. We have racked up a number of successful and exciting achievements. Yet getting there in the face of a tenacious status quo has, all too often, required a Herculean effort from our staff. This made me reflect on how the lab and its staff should best act and react in order to move...