The need for strategic foresight and anticipatory governance cannot be overstated. Governments worldwide are grappling with the challenge of preparing for future uncertainties while ensuring their policies and strategies are resilient and adaptive. The OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) is working to develop a curriculum and guidebook to bolster anticipatory governance capabilities based on our ongoing learnings from project LIMinal, with the governments of Lithuania, Italy, and ..read more

As Head of Nido, I am constantly looking to stimulate civil servants to innovate faster and smarter. I thrive on calculated risks, ones that we have dissected and are thoroughly understood. Unforeseen mishaps are not my cup of tea. This inclination can be traced back to my previous role as an Internal Control Manager (risk manager). This experience provided invaluable insights into how an organisation structures its aspirations and operations. The public sector is traditionally ..read more

Do you have a project that uses behavioural science to facilitate the green transition? Submit your project by April 14th to the OECD Call! Amidst global efforts to accelerate the green transition and achieve Net Zero targets, governments stand as pivotal agents of change, balancing societal perspectives with effective policies that align environmental and economic goals with social fairness. At the heart of this transition lie public policies which shape the trajectory of societal change ..read more

Innovation has always happened in the public sector and often in response to crises. Necessity is the mother of invention and crises force governments to act and innovate as we go, but who is capturing those insights, adapting dynamically, and changing the way “business as usual” is carried out in the public sector? As a recent experience revealed in Sweden, for successful proactive and anticipatory governance, suspension of disbelief and rehearsal are key, as are ..read more

The International Sludge Academy, launched in 2023, is a partnership between the OECD and the Government of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia. Over the course of 5 months, 16 teams from 14 countries completed sludge audits on government processes and public services. Learn more about the Academy and the sludge audit approach in our previous blog: “Spotting the sludge: Behavioural audits to improve public services across countries.” Have you ever felt frustrated by an ..read more

I am noticing higher levels of interest for innovation in the Belgian public sector. At the same time, I observe organisations often confuse the disciplines of change management and innovation management and, as a consequence, whether to include all or only some employees and managers in innovation trajectories. All too often change management and innovation management are thrown into one basket: Innovation and change management are two distinct and important concepts within business management ..read more

Years of experience of working with governments on harnessing innovation in the public sector have shown that innovation challenges are often common across governments. By the same coin, many governments have experiences of successfully overcoming a comparative challenge. They can act as beacons, shedding light and expediting innovation learnings and solutions. To bring a collaborative and transformative leap in overcoming innovation obstacles, the OECD is launching a Government-to-Government ..read more

Despite the concept’s widespread popularity, the terminology surrounding missions can come across as convoluted. This is understandable, given that the term – which denotes ambitious, time bound, cross-sectoral and measurable policy objectives to address grand societal challenges such as climate change mitigation, biosphere restauration or tackling health inequities (more on this below) – has proven to be both deceptively intricate and remarkably versatile. It has evolved into a catch-all ..read more

It has been 10 years since Professor Mariana Mazzucato’s influential book “Entrepreneurial State” came out. It has inspired the European Union, states, agencies, regions, and cities around the globe to launch missions and mission-oriented policies (and yes, these are different – read more from our blog here). This flurry of activity has led to a wave of different types of mission-oriented approaches (bottom-up, top-down, outsourced etc.) all with the aim of solving complex challenges ..read more

Governments are constantly searching for enablers to help them to keep up with changing times, move beyond the constraints of traditional approaches, and leverage innovation to improve public policies and services. Public innovation labs belong to this stream of change. They aim to boost the ability of governments to navigate emergent threats and opportunities and provide sustained, inclusive and proactive responses to people’s needs and expectations. The last 20 years have seen a surge on ..read more