The Government and Society Administration at the Prime Minister’s Office is publishing for the first time the recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Team for innovation in Government, with the intention of creating a leap forward in increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of services and responses to the public. This will be achieved by laying down a strategic, holistic, and implementable action plan for concentrating efforts, connecting and leveraging initiatives, and by identifying, accompanying, and accelerating innovative initiatives and projects continuously, and by removing systemic barriers to their advancement.
The cornerstone for the establishment of the Government innovation hub was also laid – by the Accountant General Yahli Rotenberg and the Deputy Director General of Government and Society at the Prime Minister’s Office Liron Henetz – during which the guiding principles underlying the team’s recommendations were presented. The establishment of the Government innovation Hub, which is being set up by the Accountant General in the Ministry of Finance and the Prime Minister’s Office, and with the accompaniment of the Inter-Ministerial Team for the Advancement of Innovation in Government – constitutes an experiment and implementation of the strategic principles in the report – in practice.
Recently, as part of the formulation of the recommendations and the Administration’s activities on the subject, the Government of Israel joined the OECD’s Government Innovation Community (OPSI), which provided process and professional guidance to the team’s work, in light of international trends in the developing field and through in-depth learning from meetings with government officials in various countries and a comprehensive comparative review.
In this context, Israel’s Ambassador to the OECD, Shi Cohen, noted that this is one of the organization’s core issues in its efforts to assist effective governance in member states, including the implementation of innovation in government. Cohen added that for Israel, cooperation with the OECD on innovation, and within that, innovation in government, is a top priority.
The Inter-Ministerial Team at the Government and Society Administration at the Prime Minister’s Office is composed of senior representatives from the Center of Government (COG) – the Ministry of Finance, the National Digital Bureau, the Ministry of Justice, and the Civil Service Commission, in consultation with various government and external bodies. The team was established with the backing of the Directors General of government bodies in July 2023 and has been working since then to advance the important issues that arose from the work.
Among other things, the professional work lays down the first operational plan and doctrine for institutional-process innovation in government, which includes a comprehensive approach to efforts in this regard, and is not solely focused on digitalization and digital innovation aspects.
Main Recommendations:
– Creation and management of a broad and measurable government effort portfolio based on a shared definition and operational doctrine
– A hybrid model for innovation management that supports, encourages, empowers, and values initiatives and innovations emerging from the ground up, and on the other hand, creates a strategic framework/professional conceptual umbrella for the field from the COG perspective.
– Removal of barriers to innovation as a central effort to enable innovation
– Acceleration and accompaniment of entrepreneurs and initiatives throughout the government towards realization and leveraging of capabilities, including in dedicated spaces
– Skills and tools for human capital – with an emphasis on focused development and implementation capsules
– Incentivizing government bodies and managers to manage risks that enable and promote innovation
Acting Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, Drorit Steinmetz:
“We will continue to act with a commitment to promoting more efficient, smart, and effective public services for the benefit of the citizens of the State of Israel. The team’s recommendations for innovation in government strengthen our ability to advance the efforts made so far and connect them to bring greater benefit together. I would like to thank everyone involved in this endeavor.”
Deputy Director General of Government and Society, Liron Henetz:
“Innovation in government is not a luxury but a necessity. Therefore, in the first framework of its kind in the country that we are presenting today, a professional doctrine is being created for a developing global field in light of OECD principles, which aims to permeate innovation through all government channels, develops and accelerates innovative initiatives, and connects them for overall capability leveraging – for the benefit of the public. The Start-Up Nation must include the public sector and not remain the domain of the business sector alone.”
Link to the full report
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