Innovation in Government: Steps, leaps and bounds

Governments are increasingly expected to match, and even anticipate, the changes happening in the lives of their citizens. New options must be developed and assessed on a continual, consistent and reliable basis in order to be ready for both expected and unexpected challenges. However, although innovation has always occurred in the public sector, it has often been a somewhat reactive, opportunistic or serendipitous process. Innovation efforts have frequently been piecemeal attempts which have generally succeeded in delivering isolated projects and building dispersed and/or disconnected pockets of capability. If citizen and political expectations of the public sector are to be meaningfully addressed, this must change.

In this launch of the first ever OECD Review of a public sector innovation system – of the Public Service of Canada – speakers will share their perspectives on taking a systemic approach to innovation in government. The review, which provided an important contribution to the development of the innovation facets model, outlines some of the key levers that governments can pull in order to develop a more deliberate public sector innovation system