A Call to Revitalize the Engines of Government

Bernard Rostker

A Call to Revitalize the Engines of Government

2008

Abstract

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Furthermore, to accelerate the required transformation of government, the report suggests that the international community needs a new kind of metrics that go beyond measuring progress in e-government and ICT-related performance across society. The authors challenge governments to design and implement two new complementary ways of assessing governments' performance. The first set of measures consists of a holistic approach to government performance along the four axes defined earlier as FAST (flatter, agile, streamlined and tech-enabled). The second set of measures focuses on measuring the value of such transformation to citizens. The first set of indicators (FAST Metrics or MGT) will allow the monitoring of the "transformation readiness" of governments, while the second one will allow governments to measure and benchmark improvements in "public value" from the point of view of citizens. Regardless of reform, revitalization and a technological revolution, the reality is that in many developing countries, at least in the foreseeable future, government alone will be unable to develop sufficient capacity to offer basic services to citizens. Yet the experience of the past decades vividly demonstrates that market forces alone will not produce public value either. A range of public-private partnerships and other multisectoral arrangements have opened possibilities for value creation and greater efficiency. In this context, the report highlights the potential of social enterprise, an important way to leverage the innovative potential of entrepreneurship for social and economic development-particularly in settings where neither the government nor the market is likely to produce value using traditional means. The report elaborates on future government architecture (how internal effectiveness and efficiency can be achieved in government operations) and concludes with a number of case studies capturing some of the most important developments in government reform and modernization today, in a range of countries and regions including the OECD, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, and the United Kingdom. Although great variations will remain among governments, there are certain globally valid recommendations, best practices and lessons learned as a variety of countries progress towards more networked governance. The Council seeks to identify cross-cutting areas that are globally relevant and test them for regional variations to get to robust conclusions with global force. This report is a revised and more fully developed discussion paper written by the Members of the Council in January 2011 that served as a springboard for discussions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011. The report will serve as a focal point for discussions at the Forum's regional meetings and elsewhere during 2011. The effective sharing of best (and worst) practices can speed innovation globally. Currently, best practices are gathered, but efforts are fragmented across different regions and managed by different organizations. Bringing these efforts together would speed up the transmission of knowledge and capacity for innovation. The Forum trusts that this process will stimulate creative thinking and a more informed debate among policy-makers and others on the future of government and contribute to sharing best practice and lessons learned within this field. The Forum wishes to acknowledge the Council Members for having taken this very important initiative and especially the Council Chair, Jane Fountain, for her intellectual guidance and strong commitment to this initiative. I would also like to thank the Forum Team for their highly capable management and contributions and the editing team.

Interest Technology represents a blueprint for problem-solving in government and nonprofit organizations. The technologist turned public servant (Hana), and the public sector focused tech translator (Tara) introduce existing and future public servants to the notion of "Public Interest Technology" (PIT)-an indispensable tool to produce substantial and lasting impact in the lives of those the public sector aims to serve. At its core, PIT encompasses a remedy containing three parts (design, data, and delivery) to divorce the public sector from its legacy of inefficiency and ineffectiveness. The triad perspective, however, is not new, nor is it "old wine in a new bottle." Several scholars dedicated their careers to producing empirical evidence highlighting the public sector's challenge with inefficiency and searching for best practices (for optimal results). Nevertheless, PIT's use of a human-centered approach to problem-solving, its employment of real-time data and the agile process to solving the public sector's hardest problems, provide readers with an original compass when responding to public policy problems in the digital age. For this reason, Power to the Public is a must-read for public servants lacking a suitable tool to make a difference in their practice. Power to the Public explores a difficult topic in public administration: the sector's chronic adherence to ineffectiveness and inefficiency. The authors address the critical destiny of both public servants and citizens when outdated methods are continually employed to solve public problems. While the public sector does not embrace the private sector's evolve or die rationale, the authors contend that its monopoly on many services does not allow the public sector the right to remain outdated. Power to the Public engages readers in fruitful discussions regarding the faulty state of problem solving in the U.S., the significance of PIT, the need to refocus on "the people" to design effective policies, as well as the benefits and limitations of technology. McGuinness and Schank not only provide public servants with a new tool to salvage the current state of problem solving in the public sector, but also pave the way for future scholars. The first chapter is an insightful piece of scholarship in which McGuinness and Schank provide compelling evidence that the U.S. government, in its current state, is ill-equipped to solve public problems. The authors identify numerous barriers that the government faces at each stage of the problem-solving process, the majority of which are self-imposed, that obstruct the flow of successful solutions. For instance, producers of public goods, whether government employees or contractors, are appraised based on how 'fast' they work rather than on the 'quality' of their products. The authors additionally discuss the government's tradition to solve public problems with monumental efforts; the perpetual failure to prioritize or consider the need of the user; government's longstanding union with bureaucratic red tape; and the idea that technology is always the answer, something history has shown to be wrong (Muller, 2018; Behn, 2008; Williams, 2003). Furthermore, McGuinness and Schank expose the government's unsecure practice of contracting public services without appropriate planning, i.e. the involvement of personnel cognizant of public services being contracted; constructive competition, i.

Digitisation is viewed as a new source of growth, efficiency and relevance in today's increasingly digital world. Governments and public sector organisations are embracing new and emerging technologies for developing innovative approaches to policy making, service delivery and public value creation. Building on the insights and data collected from 20 OECD member and partner countries, this working paper tries to capture the current state of the art on public sector adoption of emerging technologies, with a specific focus on AI and blockchain. It will discuss some of the associated challenges and opportunities and provide a preliminary set of policy guidance. Key findings include: Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain hold considerable potential for making the public sector smarter, i.e. more agile, efficient, user-friendly and, as a result, more trustworthy. For instance, AI can be used to deliver more effectively personalised services and to foster citizen engagement with public institutions, through the design of human-centric interfaces; enhance operational efficiency and the quality of administrative procedures through increased automation of physical and digital tasks; and, to enable greater predictive capabilities for better decision making and policy outcomes, through the use of algorithms designed to uncover trends and patterns in large volumes of data. Blockchain, if properly applied in a public sector environment, yields significant benefits in terms of increased transparency, accountability and security through stronger data integrity and immutability across agencies; as well as efficiency gains resulting from the reduction of processing time and costs thanks to contract automation (socalled 'smart contracts'). Governments can play multiple roles to strengthen national research capacity and translate technological progress into public sector applications that deliver public value:  Government as a convener, through the adoption of an overarching strategy that showcases high-level political commitment. Many countries have announced national strategies and policy initiatives to advance the digital government agenda and ensure a leadership position in emerging technologies like AI.  Government as financier, typically through the provision of direct or indirect funds to support the research, development and adoption of emerging technologies.  Government as direct user and co-developer, together with public sector organisations, can act through innovative procurement practices, or as a proactive co-developer through public-private partnerships, and other forms of collaboration, to build tailored solutions.  Government as a regulator, as the diversity of challenges raised by the digital transformation calls for a reassessment of existing policy frameworks, holistic approaches to ensure policy coherence and international regulatory cooperation. Governments worldwide are experimenting with emerging technologies to better meet the needs of public-service users and steward coherent use of resources to maximise public value. These projects increasingly centre around the applications of AI and more recently of blockchain. They fall under four broad areas: (i) enhancing the quality of

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