Global: Emerging Tech

Fast forward and imagine the year 2035. For almost three decades, social media – also known as ‘persuasive technology’ – platforms, in that they attempt to influence users’ attitudes and behaviours, have dominated global markets. But now, the fall of established tech giants is in full swing. In this hypothetical near future, people and governments around the world demanded change after experiencing the negative effects of persuasive technologies. In this new world, governments in…

Governments can use artificial intelligence (AI) to design better policies and make better and more targeted decisions, enhance communication and engagement with citizens, and improve the speed and quality of public services. The Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region is seeking to leverage the immense potential of AI to promote the digital transformation of the public sector. The OECD, in collaboration with CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, prepared this report to help national…

A summary report of the Government Beyond Recovery conference, which brought together over 2000 participants to reflect on the importance of innovation, co-creation, agile regulation and inclusion as the world emerges from a period of crisis and prepares for the complex challenges ahead.

Last week, the OPSI hosted a Rules as Code meet-up for government and inter-governmental organisation (IGO) officials. The meet-up was the first of several that the OPSI intends to host in support of a growing movement in public administration inspired by the promise of Rules as Code (RaC). We at OPSI believe in the promise of RaC as an emergent approach, something we explored in our RaC primer. We think that this is something which...

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...

Since late 2019, we have been working to answer the question “why hasn’t blockchain, and its underlying distributed ledger technology (DLT), made a bigger impact in the public sector?”. It has been over two years since OPSI published the report Blockchains Unchained: Blockchain Technology and its Use in the Public Sector, and over a year since the OECD Digital Government and Data Unit published the report State of the Art in the Use of Emerging...

This report explores how governments are upskilling and investing in people in innovative ways. The report is part of the 2020 Trends Report series, an annual trends report developed by the OECD-OPSI and the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Rashid Centre for Government Innovation (MBRCGI).

Despite strong interest and greater awareness, blockchain has had minimal impact on the public sector, where few projects have moved beyond small pilots. At the same time, there is a growing scepticism and cynicism about public sector blockchain. This paper seeks to understand why this is, by analysing the latest research in the area and identifying and analysing government experiences with successful and unsuccessful projects. Although blockchain has yet to affect government in the ways that…

This report explores the powerful new technologies and opportunities that governments have at their disposal to let them better understand the needs of citizens. The research shows that governments must balance the tensions of using data harvesting and monitoring, and technologies that can identify individuals, to serve the public interest, with the inevitable concerns and legitimate fears about “big brother” and risks of infringing on freedoms and rights. The report is part of the 2020…

Convening intentional conversations on crisis implications The crisis of this year has required governments at all levels around the world to respond and adapt. The COVID-19 crisis is unique in the sense that, while many individuals, communities and countries have suffered disproportionate impacts, there has also been a global, collective impact that has spared no one. There has been a terrible shock, one whose aftereffects will continue to be felt for some time. It is...