Global: Cross-Border Innovation

KAFACI and AfricaRice jointly developed the Africa Rice Development Partnership project to increase rice productivity in Africa. Using modern breeding technology that shortens the breeding period from 10-15 years to 3-5 years, and by crossing Korean Japonica rice with African varieties, five high-yielding varieties were developed and registered in three countries. The newly released varieties directly benefited farmers, consumers, retailers and policy-makers due to their high yield and quality.

The West Africa Health Informatics Team (WAHIT), based at the West African Health Organization (WAHO), is a team of software developers and health information system experts that provide on-demand technical assistance to countries while building local capacity. Originally founded in the wake of the Ebola outbreak as a proof of concept to test innovative models for building local health informatics capacity, WAHIT evolved into a foundational component of WAHO’s leadership in health in the…

Governments have increasingly adopted remote work due to COVID19. So far, there has been no comparative assessment of how teleworking has affected the public sector. The People in Government Lab, together with an international team of researchers from 12 universities is running a study in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and the United Kingdom to understand the organisational advantages of teleworking, and to evaluate how behavioural sciences can improve public employees’ wellbeing and performance

The Government of the Republic of Korea has implemented an ICT-based agricultural data management system through digitalization and a human capacity building program, which allows innovative data collection, analysis, and sharing in 6 ASEAN member countries. Through this, the governments have improved the paperless work process on agricultural statistics, accumulating the data and human resources for enhancing food security in the ASEAN region.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has developed an open source blockchain system to advance responsible consumers’ choices and business conduct in the cotton market. Through the system, industry actors can track and trace sustainability and circularity claims for cotton made clothing, from field to shelf, based on the UN standard for traceability and transparency of value chains.

Governments traditionally don’t share information and learnings and they are often slow to evolve. OneTeamGov is an innovative community that spans the globe, bringing together individuals who are committed to radically reforming government services and learning from each other. OneTeamGov are an entirely volunteer-run network of individuals who continue to share ideas, project learnings, new ways of working, and continue to push government to be better for all.

Berlin, London, New York and Paris have come together to share emerging innovation and test new approaches to support economic recovery. Through a digital collaboration platform, the initiative is supporting the launch of an open innovation competition to invite passionate people with great ideas to deploy solutions in local test-beds in each city. Innovators will co-develop pioneering solutions to shared COVID-19 challenges, alongside datasets and innovation assets from industry.

Hundreds of organizations want to create innovation laboratories but do not know how to do it. ILabthon is an event created to foster this creation with the support of the best specialists in the public sector. The event helped to create more than 130 laboratory projects across all regions in Brazil and 3 others countries in a single weekend, boosting the Brazilian public sector's innovation ecosystem.

The Internet's potential to enable micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to conduct international commercial transactions has yet to be fully realised. With an emphasis on computational approaches to trade policy design and delivery, SUBREI has launched a pilot programme to contribute to an open repository of rules in a digital form: an 'Internet of Rules' (IoR). The IoR will expand access to cross-border transactions and improve use by people and machines alike.

Procurement organizations have limited resources and decide which procurement solutions to pursue that will bring the greatest benefit to their public sector customers. The Emerging Markets initiative solicits insights directly from the private sector, offering an opportunity to provide ideas that are innovative and forward thinking, to anticipate and proactively meet the needs of multiple governmental entities throughout the country.