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Created by the Public Governance Directorate

This website was created by the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI), part of the OECD Public Governance Directorate (GOV).

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A growing number of challenges face the province from an aging population and growing debt to successive one-term government and a disengaged public service. Given these challenges, there is a growing consensus in the public service that change is needed despite organizational structures and behaviours that favour the status quo. As a result, GNB’s “Innovation and Design services” has evolved to help public servants become better problem solvers and move towards a more human-centred…
Mi Taxi, My Cab, part of Mexico City’s App, was created to boost trust in the public cab network by making the service safer. It provides information about the drivers and the cabs' public concessions. Users can rate the trip and activate a panic button connected to the City’s Intelligence Agency, C5. Negative perceptions of safety among the public lead the Government to grasp the situation faced by drivers and users, particularly women, and thus developed the initial phase of the app,…
Tiger Team is a monthly cross-corporate super team of 25+ passionate people to boldly tackle problems in the administration and city. This collaborative experiment brings together staff, citizens, and community stakeholders for 2.5 hours to understand and explore complex problems, generate ideas and prototype solutions to test with users. By bringing together these diverse perspectives Tiger Team is able to compress timelines, find unexpected solutions, identify change makers, and break down…
“Agora Falo Eu!" is an educational card game consisting of 8 question cards and 120 image cards destined for children between 7 and 13 years old. During the game, participants are invited to answer the question cards with the picture cards they are given.   The game aims to help children explore themes of citizenship and development; define their interests and identify the most suitable media to work on citizenship and civic participation; and promote engagement in democracy.
Minha Vitória: a collaborative platform to share suggestions for Urban Planning with the aim of reviewing and regulating the urban aspects of Vitória, Brazil for the next ten years. Urban Master Planning is a municipal law that establishes rules for the growth and functioning of the city. For the first time in the state of Espirito Santo, the dwellers were also able to make suggestions over the internet through a democratic and participatory process.
"Defensores" is a platform designed to provide public defenders with a tool to register allegations of torture. This project was carried out in partnership with two key actors in the subject: The Ministry of Public Defense (MDP) and the National Mechanism for Prevention against Torture (MNP). Its implementation facilitates the effective and permanent monitoring of torture by public defenders and generates qualified information for different institutions and society in general. It's the first…
New Zealand has developed the Emergency Caller Location Information (ECLI) Service. The Service enables Public Safety Organisations (PSOs) to receive automatically generated geographical information about the location of a caller when an emergency call is connected to a mobile cellular network, from any mobile device. ECLI saves lives by decreasing the time taken to verify location and reduce the average dispatch time to incidents, with controls in place to protect callers’ personal…
In the Northern Ireland Civil Service, over 70% of absence days are due to staff on long-term sick (absences lasting 20 working days or more). Using behavioural insights, the Lab designed a new suite of letters to support employees when they go off sick. The letters reject traditional formal approaches of absence management in favour of empathy, clarity, and empowerment. Both line managers and staff feel the letters are a huge help in providing the support they need when off sick.
We created the BizLab, Human Centred Design (HCD) Training Academy to develop skills public servants will need for the future and create a citizen-centred culture in the Australian Public Service. This is not just another training course. We not only train participants in HCD tools and techniques, but we make that learning stick with our unique Alumni support system
Even though the Finnish education system still ranks highly among international comparisons, it is under pressure to reinvent itself. The Innovation Centre based at the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI) has carried out a year-long, facilitated process, The Experimentation Lab to support teachers, school leaders and local education administrators to co-create local solutions to address complex challenges and simultaneously inspire transformation in education governance.