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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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The program transitions chronically homeless patients from the Emergency Room into permanent supportive housing. Their partner, the Center For Housing & Health, has developed a network of 27 supportive housing providers representing ~4,000 scattered site one bedroom apartments dispersed throughout Chicago. The project has housed 59 patients to date, and has found very high mortality (34%) and high rates of uncontrolled chronic disease. Housing is health - it is as a dangerous health condition.
USE-IT!, Unlocking Social & Economic Innovation Together!, is a whole neighbourhood approach to addressing urban poverty. It innovates by building bridges between the places, the people, the public sector, the private sector and civic society partners in a community so they can co-produce solutions to poverty that unlock opportunities and that fits their needs. By doing this, USE-IT! works by respecting what is already there in a community rather than by assuming what needs to change.
While tens of thousands of refugees are permanently resettled to host countries every year, governments lack the capacity to know which communities to place which refugees. Annie™ MOORE, used by the resettlement agency HIAS, deploys advanced analytics to recommend communities that are most likely to maximize refugees’ odds of being employed. Annie™ boosts employment chances by at least 30% over manual placement and ensures that the needs of refugees and community capacities are both…
School age is the golden age for introducing and instilling the values of clean and healthy living behaviour (CHLB) in children. Encouraging children to adopt CHLB is a key focus of Indonesian primary schools’ activities, with the aim of reducing levels of contagious illness and increasing good nutrition. This is especially important to introduce at a young age, as many schools and homes do not have access to clean running water and lack adequate toilets and hand-washing facilities.
10x is a stage-gated internal investment program for the United States government, modeled on modern venture capital practices, that funds the exploration and development of new product ideas, sourced from civil servants, to significantly improve how the government uses technology to serve the public good.
Sekolah Filial (SELFI) is a high quality formal education service for child prisoners in a special child development institution, Lembaga Pembinaan Khusus Anak (LPKA) Klas I in Palembang. This innovation is a solution to provide educational rights for all, including child prisoners in Palembang. This was a major problem in Palembang because of the high number (191) of cases reached in 2014, far above the national average of 95 cases. This innovation has been able to lead them to a better future.
Drone as a First Responder (DFR) is the new paradigm in emergency management that allows emergency personnel to view live video feeds of incidents before they arrive on the scene. The Chula Vista, CA Police Department (CVPD) routinely deploys drones to emergency calls and provides incident management and a live video feed to officers. This live video, or Decision Quality Data (DQD), gives first responders critical information to plan the best tactics and response to an emergency.
The Internet is a great communication tool. People use it all the time both at work and for leisure, but what about interacting with the government? Even though most of the Portuguese public services are digital, its use was below expectations. The answer was the creation of a network of Citizen Spots, which are multiservice physical counters where a “specialized mediator” assists citizens accessing online public services and teaches them how to perform them autonomously thereafter.
The Arlington Restaurant Initiative (ARI) is a voluntary accreditation program which aims to increase safety and economic viability for restaurants and special events in Arlington County, VA. The Police Department has partnered with County agencies to establish a holistic approach to nightlife management and raise standards of restaurants that serve alcohol. ARI has been successful in reducing alcohol-related violence and building mutually-beneficial relationships with stakeholders.
The former municipality of Molenwaard was the Netherlands’ first local council to operate without a town hall. This innovation came about when three local authorities merged together into one municipality. Despite becoming a much larger municipality they still wanted to stay close to the community. They decided to no longer have a service desk in the traditional sense of the concept. Instead, the local authority goes out into the community and is, therefore, always nearby.