Innovation Tag: Systems Change

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the United States’ Federal Government, has fully reimagined its DisasterAssistance.gov website to make applying for disaster assistance faster than ever. This change will reduce time burdens for survivors post-disaster, when they are in greatest need and the most overwhelmed. This effort has been built on decades of feedback from disaster survivors and is expected to reduce the registration time by more than 15%.

The Government of Canada is experimenting writing existing laws and proposed regulations into code. Encoding rules allows us to run legal simulations in the regulatory drafting room, which helps us detect ambiguities, loopholes, and gaps in the rules that often go unnoticed. However, existing tools designed by and for programmers are not intuitive for rule-makers. In response, we set out to develop one – an open-source Rules as Code tool called Blawx.

Baia Mare has developed a community-driven approach to decontaminate heavy metal-polluted land using plants, addressing a critical public health issue. The project combines phytoremediation, smart mapping technology, and a digital reward system to encourage environmental action and sustainable development. This innovative model empowers citizens, improves urban health, and creates new green economic opportunities.

The National Internship Program, coordinated by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Human Resources Office, is a nationwide program designed to assist youth employability and school-to-work transition. It involves all public institutions and voluntary employers with the aim of providing internship opportunities for university students with principles of equal opportunity and merit ensured by its platform. The Program helped and encouraged candidates to engage in activities for their…

In 2023, Estonia was the first in Europe to star using a nationwide food card, giving people the freedom to buy the food what they want and how they want. Aid is loaded on the card each quarter and must be used by the end of the quarter. If there is not enough money on the card, the remainder can be paid by bank card or cash (the balance can be checked on a receipt, at self-checkout or by customer service). Recipients in need have the autonomy to curate their own food baskets, tailoring their…

Good Coffee is a Vocational Engagement Enterprise that organises a chain of social cafes for people with complex psychosocial disabilities.  The cafes provide vocational rehabilitation on a work place and for some, introductory training is already given during their hospitalization in Mental Health Centers. The model enables continuity of care and transition between the realms of Health, Social Services and Employment. Good Coffee also reduces public funding, increases independent living and…

In New Zealand, a new unit in the Ministry for the Environment / Manatū Mō Te Taiao was set up. This new unit was a deliberate decision to focus on behavioural science, systems thinking, design thinking and human system-dynamics to help the organisation, designing for the systems we focus on. It is innovative because it is bringing this type of thinking together in a single team, embedding this in a policy organisation, using the multidisciplinary skills.

The Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC) has embraced human-centred design to transform the way regulation is developed and applied for small businesses in Western Australia. The SBDC partnered with 22 local governments to deliver the Small Business Friendly Approvals Program, which involved reviewing the approvals journey from the small business’ perspective and designing reforms to streamline processes. The Program has ignited transformational change and made it easier to do…

Born in Belgium Professionals is a RIZIV project that offers a digital tool, developed by and for professionals who work with or for (vulnerable) pregnant women. The tool is an online, shared platform that centralizes information about the psychosocial situation of the pregnant woman and makes it available to her care providers and healthcare providers from the (para)medical and social sector, fully in accordance with privacy legislation (GDPR).

Suwon City, a municipality in South Korea, has streamlined its 12 public institutions by establishing a private cloud-based integrated business service. This boosts work efficiency by providing quality services without constraints on specialized personnel and server room operating environments. Integration of common tasks ensures data transparency and cost-effective operations.