Innovation Tag: Strategic Design

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.

The Heating Assistance Rebate Program (HARP) helps over 42,000 low income Nova Scotians with the high cost of heating their homes in the winter. In 2016 Service Nova Scotia used an innovative approach to modernize HARP from a paper-based application to an online system to improve user experience and government processes. The modernization of this program was uniquely user-driven with significant user-testing leading the transition process and continuous user-testing for ongoing improvement.

In 2016 the NEB launched the Data Visualization Initiative to face the challenge of producing usable and useful data to go beyond using new technologies to deliver better service to citizens. It created multiple products from the same information to expand public participation in the energy dialogue and enable evidence-based decision-making. These products include interactive data visualizations and other materials, such as high school lesson plans, as a new way to engage experts and nonexperts.

In June 2017 the Government created a Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy Co-Creation Steering Group (SG) to provide recommendations for a Strategy. Based on a year-long process the SG developed 12 recommendations. In response, the Government announced the Strategy’s foundational elements in November 2018 including a $50 million Investment and Readiness program to build the capacity of organization to access social finance and a $755 million repayable Social Finance Fund.

« DK Plus de Mobilité » is an ambitious transportation policy led by the Dunkirk Urban District Council. This project aims to increase the share (less than 7%) of public transit in the Dunkirk area (200 000 inhabitants). The main challenge and specificity of this project – developed in consultation with local population - consists in combining the upgrading and modernization of transport infrastructures with the implementation of free public transport for all.

In Argentina 30% of women do not comply with prenatal check-ups and almost 1 in 10 have their first contact with the health system at the time of birth. "Crecer con Salud" is a virtual assistant based on Facebook Messenger that works outside the health system, identifying and recruiting pregnant women where they are. The bot is designed to accompany women during their pregnancy and the baby's first year with personalized information and reminders of attendance to pre and post natal check-ups.

Αugmented Nature is a set of robotic tools that help animals adapt to the mass extinction. The tools enhance the capacities of so called Ecosystem Engineer species to reclaim and change their own habitats.

AELOUS is a mid-altitude airborne maritime sensor platform which significantly increases the operating surveillance range by increasing the elevation of the monitoring systems. The Aeolus platform can effectively operate at 450m above the ship – increasing the surveillance area in excess of 11 times of what can be monitored with existing solutions. The platform can be used with multiple lifting systems and can be deployed for many hours. It is being trialled by Naval and Search&Rescue…

The council of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is committed to ensuring no residents are "left behind". The population of the borough experiences the highest level of deprivation in the London and has historically struggled with many social and environmental indicators of success. Coupled with central government mandated austerity, the local authority required a strategic decision-making tool to illustrate at a community level where the most investment is needed to improve outcomes.

Climate change requires comprehensive responses at local and regional level which makes local government critical to the delivery of national and international policies. The establishment of four Climate Action Regional Offices (CAROs) as Centres of Excellence based on distinct geographic/topographic characteristics enables them to advise local authorities in their region on climate action strategies ensuring a coordinated response and assisting with the roll-out of national/regional policies at…