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Citizen-centred innovation in public administration
Published on 07 February 2018
Slovenia
Zahodna Slovenija
This is the good practice's implementation level. It can be national, regional or local.
About this good practice
In December 2017, the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia has launched the Inovativen.si project.
Its objectives are
1) to design more desirable citizen-centered solutions and services
2) create a more open and agile public administration
3) to participate in overall shaping of engaged, competitive, prosperous society open to co-creation and cooperation.
The goal of the project is to introduce new design-driven innovation approaches across public administration when designing new policies, governmental strategies, introducing new laws and public services, while at the same time promoting the opportunities for design and raising the importance of innovation and creativity as fundamental traits of life-long learning.
The project aims to develop innovativeness as a horizontal capacity covering the entire public administration (15,000 staff). At the beginning tackling “wicked problems” within public administration will be done by procurement of external experts - the project team will actively respond to the challenges submitted by the governmental organisations, and form groups from the expert pool (service designers, anthropologists, UX designers, programmers, etc).
The design of new systemic solutions will be done using different design methods, involving citizens and public servants. Besides project work on the concrete challenges with outside experts, the Inovativen.si will be used to develop design competencies of public servants.
Its objectives are
1) to design more desirable citizen-centered solutions and services
2) create a more open and agile public administration
3) to participate in overall shaping of engaged, competitive, prosperous society open to co-creation and cooperation.
The goal of the project is to introduce new design-driven innovation approaches across public administration when designing new policies, governmental strategies, introducing new laws and public services, while at the same time promoting the opportunities for design and raising the importance of innovation and creativity as fundamental traits of life-long learning.
The project aims to develop innovativeness as a horizontal capacity covering the entire public administration (15,000 staff). At the beginning tackling “wicked problems” within public administration will be done by procurement of external experts - the project team will actively respond to the challenges submitted by the governmental organisations, and form groups from the expert pool (service designers, anthropologists, UX designers, programmers, etc).
The design of new systemic solutions will be done using different design methods, involving citizens and public servants. Besides project work on the concrete challenges with outside experts, the Inovativen.si will be used to develop design competencies of public servants.
Expert opinion
The practice represents an interesting initiative to promote innovativeness within public administration. Based on a successful pilot project, the practice can serve as inspiration for how to use a design-approach as the starting point for systemic change. This approach should have a high potential of transfer.
Works at
Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform
Resources needed
The budget for the Inovativen.si project is €1m (2017 - 2022), where 80% is contributed by the European Social Fund. The project team consists of 6 public officials, well-seasoned in Slovenian Public administration environment.
Evidence of success
Inovativen.si project is a new initiative based on a successful pilot. For the past 2 years the Ministry has been running Partnerstvo za spremembe (eng. Partnership for change) a Public Administration development Strategy program, where public servants worked on challenges together with the private sector. The project grew gradually since its inception, in the 3rd round (2017) it involved 75 participants (15 in 2015), 36 companies (15 in 2015) and 6 ministries (1 in 2015).
Potential for learning or transfer
Innovating public sector is challenging in all European regions. Slovenia has tested new, design-driven approaches in three rounds od successful pilot projects before deciding to roll out the programme throughout the public administration. The project Inovativen.si is designed to establish a challenging creative environment for public officials, learning about design-driven methods and testing new design solutions as well as promoting a shared understanding of the opportunities for design across the public administration. Working horizontally on systemic problems the project team aims to break down the public administration silos structure, that occur due to very traditional hierarchical structure, eventually optimising the inter-ministerial cooperation.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
Ministry for Public Administration
Slovenia
Zahodna Slovenija
Contact
Project Manager