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Strengthening national capacities to design and implement a public sector innovation strategy for accelerating progress toward the SDGs (October 2024 - September 2027)

Light bulbs to depict innovation

 

About the project: 

While innovation in the public sector is often overlooked due to its gradual and understated nature, it holds immense potential as a catalyst to accelerate the implementation of SDGs. However, innovation rarely occurs spontaneously or in isolation.  It requires clear intention and deliberate effort in an organizational culture that nurtures creative thinking, cultivates strategic partnerships, and tolerates reasonable risks.  

It is also necessary to broaden our understanding of public sector innovation beyond technological and digital transformation and view it holistically as a new approach to policymaking, internal processes, and service delivery for enhancing the public sector's effectiveness, responsiveness and inclusiveness.

The project aims to assist the efforts of governments in four target countries - Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, by encouraging the prioritization of innovation practices and fostering innovation experimentation in the public sector in line with their existing national development plan or SDG implementation plan.  The project will support the formulation of public sector innovation strategy and/or framework.  The first phase is a global study to identify good practices, strategies, policies, and institutional frameworks for promoting public sector innovation. It will be followed by national studies in each target country to analyze and assess the current public sector innovation landscape and identify the most appropriate approach to optimize public sector innovation.  Ultimately, the project will assist the target countries in taking the most appropriate action to promote innovation in the public sector—either by drafting a public sector innovation policy and strategy and/or establishing an institution framework dedicated to the public sector, such as an innovation unit or Chief Innovation Officer.

While having an innovation strategy or creating an innovation unit is not an end in itself, it can provide a clearer roadmap for achieving the SDGs and position governments at all levels to better utilize their limited resources to promote inclusive development.

Objectives:
To strengthen the national capacities of target countries to develop an integrated strategy and/or framework for public sector innovation.

Beneficiaries:
Direct beneficiaries include government officials from ministries and governmental institutions at the national and sub-national levels in the four target countries. Indirect beneficiaries include citizens and communities at large.

Key Accomplishments:

(i)    Enhanced capacity of target countries to assess the national development plan or SDG implementation plan to address gaps and identify opportunities for an innovation strategy or institutional framework to assist in SDG implementation
(ii)    Enhanced capacity of target countries to draft, update or implement innovation development strategy or institutional frameworks such as national innovation unit or ecosystem or dedicated Chief Innovation Officer at cross-sectoral level or cross-jurisdictional level.

Expected activities:     

     
(i)    Global study and international workshop on good practices, strategies, policies and institutional frameworks for promoting public sector innovation
(ii)    National studies in each target country on the legal and institutional landscape for public sector innovation
(iii)    Engagement of national stakeholders through national workshops and other activities in each target country 
(iv)    Comparative study on strategies for public sector innovation, based on the lessons learned from target countries' experience which can be used as a reference in future capacity building activities

 

Project Document

 

Lead Division:
UN DESA/DPIDG
Partners:
RCOs in respective countries, UN country teams
Donor:
People’s Republic of China
Funding Source:
Peace and Development Trust Fund
Budget:
$ 481,115
Time Frame:
October 2024 – September 2027
Thematic Area:
SDG 16, SDG 17
Region:
Asia and the Pacific
Focus Countries:
Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam