Global: Global Trends

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…

We often hear stories about the interpretations of laws and attitudes of public institutions. This year in Latvia for the first time the initiative “An Official Shadows an Entrepreneur” was launched, allowing for the public servant to broaden his view and “step into entrepreneur's shoes” to evaluate how the regulation is applied in practice and what requires further improvements. The initiative promotes a dialogue between the state and the business to reduce the administrative burden.

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...

Today, we are pleased to launch OPSI’s third innovation primer, Cracking the Code: Rulemaking for humans and machines. Exploring the exciting emergence of Rules as Code (RaC) in the public sector, we hope the primer will equip public servants (and others) to consider, understand and possibly implement RaC in their own work. Rules as Code (RaC) is an exciting concept that rethinks one of the core functions of governments: rulemaking. It proposes that governments create...

Cracking the Code is intended to help those working both within and outside of government to understand the potential, limitations and implications of Rules as Code (RaC), as well as how it could be applied in a public service context.

This report finds that governments are focusing on the overlooked by leveraging innovation to broaden their scope of action to specifically address the needs of segments of society that are at risk of falling through the cracks or otherwise need additional support to achieve equitable outcomes. 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).

Research and analysis reveal that the most innovative countries and cities are taking action to eliminate points of friction between governments and those that they serve. This approach enables them to re-imagine the ways in which governments can collaborate and consider future scenarios. 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).

The Ministry of Possibilities is a virtual ministry created to incubate and solve the systemic impossibilities of government. It works by creating time-bound departments experimenting together to ask impossible questions and disrupt the conventional systems with leapfrog solutions that are yet to be explored Its focus areas & mandate are: To IDENTIFY impossibilities To INCUBATE virtual, timebound departments/teams to solve and explore the impossibilities To EDUCATE and train on the mindset of…