Case Study Library

Despite ambitious climate pledges, a persistent “last-mile” gap remains: individual climate actions are often undervalued within existing frameworks. Gyeonggi Province addresses this gap by converting verified citizen actions into measurable public value and rewarding participants with local currency to support local economies. By reinvesting these rewards in climate technologies, the initiative transforms citizens from policy beneficiaries into active co-creators of a sustainable future.

The "Programa Justiça Cidadã" in Brazil's Roraima state, led by the State Court of Justice, extends legal services to remote regions, including indigenous and riverside communities, addressing the needs of Venezuelan migrants. Through permanent service points and digital integration, it promotes inclusivity and accessibility, ensuring all residents can access legal support.

In order to enable strategic ministerial expansion without increasing costs, ColaboraGov centralizes the sharing of administrative support services among 13 ministries. It ensures savings in resources, gains in scale and quality, and standardized service provision. It comprises more than 41,000 civil servants, 374 services and has an impact on 10 areas - such as human resources, finance and logistics - thus making it easier for the government to direct its efforts towards final public policies.

Incheon City initiated a demonstration project utilizing AI technology to assist tourists and multicultural citizens in effectively communicating their symptoms to healthcare professionals. Mediark Inc. was chosen for this project through a public tender. The city supports the AI technology's development and demonstration costs, collaborating with Mediark Inc., the Incheon Medical Association, and the Pharmaceutical Association. Mediark Inc. introduced the SIMTOMI app in November 2023.

Public services play a crucial role in shaping citizens’ experience of society. This handbook is aimed at professionals working in public services and focuses on concrete pratices to strengthen trust and democracy in everyday service encounters. It helps to make public services more effective by initiating and maintain trust, enhancing participation and agency, and through them delivering better learning, better safety, and better welfare.

In 2022, INDECOPI identified that 23 universities and 10 professional associations were imposing +700 bureaucratic barriers, affecting the employment insertion of +36 thousand new professionals. Given this, the Voluntary Elimination of Bureaucratic Barriers Programme was implemented to open regulated professional services at the subnational level. Based on behavioral tools, INDECOPI engaged with universities and professional associations to eliminate 786 bureaucratic barriers in 17 regions.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a component of the United States’ Federal Government, has fully reimagined its DisasterAssistance.gov website to make applying for disaster assistance faster than ever. This change will reduce time burdens for survivors post-disaster, when they are in greatest need and the most overwhelmed. This effort has been built on decades of feedback from disaster survivors and is expected to reduce the registration time by more than 15%.

13 Fellows from 10 different African countries in 8 institutions of the African Union to build a culture of digital innovation: the AU Digital and Innovation Fellowship is the first supranational initiative to make administrative processes in the African Union more user-centred and effective. The challenge: 12 months to integrate innovation into the African Unions processes and products. The results: 11 products in diverse AU institutions and units. And that is just the start!

Thematic Innovation Clinic was implemented to encourage and increase number and quality of innovations in Pontianak City. This program succeeded in increasing the number of innovations within the Pontianak City Government to 165 innovations in 2022, and to 196 innovations in 2023. With a design thinking approach, the innovation clinic increases the number of innovations, fosters the spirit and culture of innovation, and cross-party collaboration to deliver optimal public services to community.

In the U.S. government, community members have experimented with designing the government services they will use. Their lived experience improves service outcomes, builds better relations with the government, and creates greater ownership over the service. This is new; normal participatory design of government services just includes community members for certain activities at certain points, never throughout, and never allowing the community to lead and frame the project or choose methodologies.