Developing a Public Sector Capabilities Index — what it is and why we are doing it
By Ruth Puttick
To effectively respond to problems and challenges, city governments are increasingly creating teams and seeking new methods, structures and ways of working to improve public sector performance. But how can city governments better understand what capabilities they require? And just as importantly, how do they know if they are effectively deploying them? This is where the Public Sector Capabilities Index comes in.
The UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, is developing a Public Sector Capabilities Index. The aspiration is that it will be the first global measure of where city government capabilities are strong and where critical skills — such as engaging residents through innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and leveraging data infrastructure and digital platforms — must be built up.
It feels timely. From a rather depressing perspective, it is very needed: coming when governments face a seemingly relentless wave of crises and problems. But on a more optimistic note, it is coming at a time when we can draw on more than a decade of excellent research and practical work into how governments effectively innovate, problem solve, and improve performance to benefit residents.
This gives us a lot to learn from. Cities around the world are often leading the charge in tackling a range of issues. For example, Bogotá, Colombia, has transformed its Care System to improve the lives of more than 546,500 women and their families. Kigali, Rwanda, has introduced a smart-waste system that has improved the city’s sanitation and water quality. We can also learn from how city governments are developing their internal capabilities, from the rise of innovation labs and teams, data functions, to horizon scanning functions and policy labs.
And beyond cities, there is much to be learnt from other levels of government. An earlier example of a government effectively structuring itself to rapidly improve performance is Tony Blair’s Prime Minister Delivery Unit (PMDU). Created in 2001 with a relatively small budget and 40 staff, by 2005 it had helped push through radical public service reform to address a range of policy priorities, including cutting patient waiting times for hospital operations, reducing crime, and improving railways. Sitting alongside delivery and implementation, were units dedicated to other core capabilities, including strategy, policy and communications. The Prime Ministers Delivery Unit model has since been replicated in cities and nations around the world.
COVID-19 responses are another example of governments across the world rapidly reshaping their services to meet the crisis. However, such responses and their often-fleeting nature also tell us that such dynamic capabilities are difficult to develop and perhaps even more difficult to sustain in public organisations.
Yet we know that it is an ambitious task to develop a globally relevant index that can both effectively identify, measure and help boost capabilities in city government. City governments vary enormously within and across countries and continents, and even the same city isn’t static. As one expert we spoke recently said, “Mexico City at 10am is very different to how it is at 4pm and then it has changed again by 11pm”.
Then there are challenges inherent to city government capabilities. There is a lack of shared language both in academia and governments to identify and discuss them, complicated by the fact that they are often intangible and diffuse. This then makes measuring capabilities and their impacts incredibly complex. Furthermore, there is not often a clear “owner” for capabilities in city government — whose job is it to ensure that the capabilities are in place, and they are effectively achieving government priorities? But then, 15 years ago, innovation labs and teams were virtually unheard of in a government context, now they are increasingly ubiquitous. Will advances in our understanding of the importance of capabilities see the rise of new roles and teams to take ownership of them?
The development of the Public Sector Capabilities is a timely and ambitious undertaking. We want to make its design and development open and collaborative as we seek to learn from others around the world. If you’d like to get involved or would like to find out more, please contact Ruth Puttick, r.puttick@ucl.ac.uk
