From emergency to emergence — Evidence-based learning from the public sector in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark
Short Documentation of the DACH+DK chapter of the OECD/OPSI Government After Shock initiative #GovAfterShock, hosted by Politics for Tomorrow (P4T) and The Futures Project (TFP) by Jose Díaz Mendoza & Caroline Paulick-Thiel
Balancing between security and freedom
Shortly after the first quarter of 2020, COVID-19 became a major driving force for change inside and among public sector institutions. It not only reorganized the list of priorities in terms of public services, it has also upturned bureaucratic structures and hierarchies, opening up for new schemes of collaboration and innovation.
The initial government reactions created both expectations and uncertainty. On one hand, everybody began bringing up the topics of digitalization, improved service delivery, or budget reorganizations. On the other hand, decision-makers realized that it had to be done fast and in unconventional ways, something difficult to achieve given the rapidly changing nature of the emergency.
Based on these scenarios, the DACH+DK chapter of the Government After Shock event organized a two-day collaborative event [18th and 19th November] to gather institutions and people across the entire spectrum of the public and private sectors, as well as academia.
The motto was a clear call for more collaboration to build on experiences of working together digitally and between hierarchies in order to transit from a state of emergency towards one of emergence.
“It’s hard to foresee what consequences will follow these months. We should use this moment to lead a green transformation. We owe it to us and the next generation. To do this sustainably we need education and local communities having access to public data and resource we don’t have yet.” — Diana Arsovic
Our main insights and takeaways
- Public administration plays a crucial role for the future of government. Driven by solidarity, empathy and diversity, public institutions must transform the experience of creating, executing and delivering together and across hierarchies. Digital tools, infrastructure and skills are catalizers of this process.
- Coordination is needed at all levels, especially between local governments and people’s initiatives. Responses must balance different perspectives with new ways of monitoring and evaluating, so that agile governments can keep up with the speed and consequences of the decision-making.
- High-frequency and disaggregated data is more urgent than ever before to tackle misinformation and apathy from citizens towards policy and political decisions. Governments expect compliance, but first they need to build (or regain) trust through data governance and updated competences to collect and work with data. Nonetheless, they must overcome negative sentiments from the people when it comes to the ability of driving changes that involve digitalization.
- Public sector institutions must put in place deep-iterative transforming mechanisms, so that old governance structures, competencies, bureaucracies and data can become open and societally-driven ones. Anticipatory capacities play a critical role here, meaning that they must foresee and prepare themselves not only for what comes next, but also for the unexpected. This is highly linked to the process of building institutional trust.
- Participatory infrastructures should be a non-negotiable service from governments — especially to thriving digital participation. Citizens require new ways of approaching authorities, bureaucracy and the decision-making process, so it is urgent to support a #crowdregulation approach beyond the crisis by implementing holistic digital solutions.
- Wellbeing needs to be at the center at any technological transformation. Governments and the people need new measurements and criteria to evaluate impact and development in a way that approximates us — as a society — to the next challenges (i.e. climate crisis, new wave of social and economic inequality). Our understanding of capital must be expanded beyond growth, and governments must engage in a broader debate to understand “what are we actually measuring?”.
“Check government regulation, go through the rules, tech and routines that hinder change. We can only legitimately talk about big pictures, if we do our homework paying attention to regulation.” — Philippe Narval
Evidence-based learning is key for a transformative public practise, emerging infront of us
At this point there are definitely more questions and “to-do’s” than answers. For that reason, it is necessary to keep creating evidence to drive the pace of the changes and respond accordingly. We encourage all public servants to speak up, advocate and engage in such processes, from wherever they emerge.
If we aim to tackle the institutional status-quo and be prepared for the next crisis, this is the right moment. In that sense, we invite you to keep an eye open for the second round of the Innovation Recorder (#InnoREC) — a survey-based tool that gathers insights from public servants to drive collaborative change within public institutions — and to take the time to contribute. We look forward to learning from you!
Thanks
We are grateful for the contrbutions of more than 200 participants, gathering data, stories and directions during our collaborative #GovAfterShock event during nine different sessions, specifically designed by our partners and experts!
Lene Krogh Jeppesen (National Centre for Public Sector Innovation / DK), Rubina Zern-Breuer (WITI / Deutsche Universität für Verwaltungswissenschaften Speyer / DE), Mike Weber (Kompetenzzentrum Öffentliche IT, Fraunhofer Fokus / DE), Peter Parycek (Digitalrat / DE, Donau-Uni Krems / AT)
Franziska Brantner (MdB Bündnis90/Die Grünen / DE), Ulrich Silberbach (Deutscher Beamtenbund und Tarifunion / DE), Ursula Rosenbichler (Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, Öffentlichen Dienst und Sport / AT)
Diana Arsovic (Centre for Regional Development / DK), Philippe Narval (European Forum Alpbach / AT), Anna Stünzi (foraus — Forum Foreign Politics / CH) und Yantin Fleischhauer (Climate Activist at FFF / DE)
Barcamp Sessions and Expert Workshops with Mujaheed Shaikh, Gerhard Hammerschmid, Sébastian Mena, Danie Stockmann (The Hertie School / DE), Niklas Kossow, Victoria Boeck (CityLAB Berlin / DE), Sabine Junginger (Hochschule Luzern / CH), Alexander Grünwald (Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, Öffentlichen Dienst und Sport / AT), Falk Golinsky (Forum Agile Verwaltung / DE), Monika Ollig (Bundeskanzleramt / DE), Felix Gekeler und Andrea Schätzle (Allianz für Beteiligung / DE), Lene Krogh Jeppesen, Niels Jakobsen (National Centre for Public Sector Innovation / DK), Jose Díaz, Caroline Paulick-Thiel (Politics for Tomorrow)
And a big thanks to Alex Roberts and Heather Buisman for giving us the opportunity to contribute to the international. More information can be found at: https://gov-after-shock.oecd-opsi.org/
