Case Study Library

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the United States’ Federal Government, has fully reimagined its DisasterAssistance.gov website to make applying for disaster assistance faster than ever. This change will reduce time burdens for survivors post-disaster, when they are in greatest need and the most overwhelmed. This effort has been built on decades of feedback from disaster survivors and is expected to reduce the registration time by more than 15%.

The Government of Canada is experimenting writing existing laws and proposed regulations into code. Encoding rules allows us to run legal simulations in the regulatory drafting room, which helps us detect ambiguities, loopholes, and gaps in the rules that often go unnoticed. However, existing tools designed by and for programmers are not intuitive for rule-makers. In response, we set out to develop one – an open-source Rules as Code tool called Blawx.

In the U.S. government, community members have experimented with designing the government services they will use. Their lived experience improves service outcomes, builds better relations with the government, and creates greater ownership over the service. This is new; normal participatory design of government services just includes community members for certain activities at certain points, never throughout, and never allowing the community to lead and frame the project or choose methodologies.

Baia Mare has developed a community-driven approach to decontaminate heavy metal-polluted land using plants, addressing a critical public health issue. The project combines phytoremediation, smart mapping technology, and a digital reward system to encourage environmental action and sustainable development. This innovative model empowers citizens, improves urban health, and creates new green economic opportunities.

The National Internship Program, coordinated by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Human Resources Office, is a nationwide program designed to assist youth employability and school-to-work transition. It involves all public institutions and voluntary employers with the aim of providing internship opportunities for university students with principles of equal opportunity and merit ensured by its platform. The Program helped and encouraged candidates to engage in activities for their…

Karolinska University Hospital is piloting a new model for nurse-led innovation. The model consists of a framework for enabling nursing organisations to work with innovation and a nurse-led innovation hub concept, where nurses can collaborate with the industry to co-develop solutions for healthcare. Through this, the hospital puts nurses in the driving seat of innovation in healthcare to both develop better solutions for healthcare and promote a sustainable work life for frontline staff.

In 2023, Estonia was the first in Europe to star using a nationwide food card, giving people the freedom to buy the food what they want and how they want. Aid is loaded on the card each quarter and must be used by the end of the quarter. If there is not enough money on the card, the remainder can be paid by bank card or cash (the balance can be checked on a receipt, at self-checkout or by customer service). Recipients in need have the autonomy to curate their own food baskets, tailoring their…

Good Coffee is a Vocational Engagement Enterprise that organises a chain of social cafes for people with complex psychosocial disabilities.  The cafes provide vocational rehabilitation on a work place and for some, introductory training is already given during their hospitalization in Mental Health Centers. The model enables continuity of care and transition between the realms of Health, Social Services and Employment. Good Coffee also reduces public funding, increases independent living and…

UNDP has introduced a digital system that allows better reporting of public health data in rural communities in Lesotho. It consists of tablets and software designed to fit the needs of Village Health Workers, the Ministry of Health unit that collects the data, whose staff has low digital literacy. The initiative led to increased reporting frequencies (essential for monitoring fast-moving epidemics) and reduced costs; as a side effect, it increased the rates of digital literacy of the personnel.

The NEMO program is a forward-thinking initiative reimagining Hamburg's public registry offices to meet future demands by integrating digital transformation with user-centric services. Developed in response to an urgent need for modern, efficient public services, the program orchestrates a holistic transformation by managing 16 interconnected projects aiming to digitize citizen interactions by including agile management, cross-sector collaboration, and advanced technology.