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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 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.
Combining Design Thinking and Rapid Impact Evaluation methodologies allows for a user-centered counterfactual to measure the impact of the current program design, while simultaneously identifying programmatic design flaws and generating solutions for improvement. The participative process for co-developing the counterfactual triangulates multiple user perspectives and data sets to provide new lines of evidence to pursue innovative solutions and offer a more iterative approach to evaluation.
Societal challenges such as demographic change affects rural areas in particular. The Social Foresight Lab is an innovative participatory approach towards rural development and technology transfer to address these challenges. It combines foresight, needs assessment and strategy development. Rural areas benefit, as it takes into account regional characteristics, initiates new cooperations among regional stakeholders, and integrates technological and social innovations into regional development.
In most countries residents are entitled to a number of social benefits, but few people ultimately claim these benefits as they may be unaware of them, of who is eligible, how to apply for them etc. Israel was no different, until recently when Kol Zchut developed www.kolzchut.org.il, which holds over 6,000 information pages, serving more than 6 million unique users annually (>50% of Israelis), dramatically increasing public accessibility to information, and boosting claims to benefits.
Rescuebusters is an interactive 3D-animated game that specializes in youth safety education. It is an unique teaching tool that brings practical examples alongside theoretical learning with animated, real-life based tasks. Rescuebusters offers an immersive world with distinctive, sympathetic characters, unique game mechanisms and development tracking which take teaching to a whole new level.
Community Connects is a pilot project that came out of the Transportation Innovation Lab. Problem/Opportunity: Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) is a region with high levels of poverty and unemployment. Innovation: Taxi service, doorstep pick-up, defined drop-off points, flat rate: $7 seat. Why innovative? In short, the approach (social innovation lab) and those that were engaged (first-voice participants).
The Collaborative Partnership to Improve Work Participation (the Collaborative Partnership) is a unique public-private sector alliance to drive fresh approaches to improving work participation for Australians with a temporary or permanent health condition or disability that impacts their ability to work. The Collaborative Partnership is responding to stagnating work participation rates in Australia following a work-related injury or illness and employment rates among people with disabilities.
GovTech is a Portuguese public competition that rewards innovative products and services provided by Startups and addressing at least one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It intends to stimulate the national Startup ecosystem, by promoting a sustainable economic growth, fostering innovation and opening new economic opportunities based on the 2030 Agenda. The use of blockchain in the voting phase opened to the public was one of the perks of this competition
The Client Centric Policy Playbook strengthens the ability to engage clients in the design of program and service policies. Through extensive engagement with policy experts and employees on-the-ground, the Playbook has brought together innovative best practices, tools and resources for engaging clients. This solution enhances client experience by giving clients an opportunity to be part of the policy generation process and by ensuring that programs and services are reflective of their needs.
With a citizen-centric approach and a strong focus on co-creation, SIMPLEX is a simplification and modernization program focused on improving public service efficiency and designed to facilitate the citizens and businesses everyday life, and their interaction with the public administration. Launched in 2006, it had several editions since then and resulted in the implementation of hundreds of initiatives that cut red tape, reduced context costs and used ICT to deliver better public services.