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Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Public Sector Innovation Changemakers Journey & Playbook for civil servants
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is a lack of locally relevant guidance and tools for civil servant to innovation within the context of public sector of Vietnam. How might we provide locally relevant guidance and tools for civil servants to innovate within the context of public sector of Vietnam, so that they can improve their capacity, skills, and resources to design and implement effective policies and programs that respond to complex and emerging development challenges?
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Viet Nam has a history of change and reform since Doi Moi in the 1980s, it continues to look for new ways to grow that’s rapid and sustainable. While dealing with many emerging challenges, such as global economic downturn, middle-income trap, climate change and environmental degradation. These problems require innovative solutions that involve the communities and understand their needs. The public sector plays a key role in finding these solutions, but it needs to innovate itself and find ways to bring in more diverse voices to the policy-making table.
Since 2016, the Vietnamese government has adopted the idea of “Chính Phủ Kiến Tạo” (Constructivist or Developmental Government). This means a government that enables and empowers all sectors and forces of society to participate in development; that fosters innovation and creativity; that uses digital transformation and smart governance; that ensures transparency, accountability, and integrity; and that responds proactively and flexibly to emerging challenges. This shows a willingness to move from traditional top-down state management to serving people and putting citizen needs at the center of development. This mindset change is not unique to Viet Nam but has been influenced by global trends, such as budget cuts in the public sector, environmental degradation, rising demands from more educated and globally aware population.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Over the past decades, Viet Nam has made remarkable achievements in economic development based on innovation and the application of advances in science and technology. The Global Innovation Index (GII) 2022 showed that Viet Nam ranked 48 out of 132 countries and territories and belonged to the group of countries that have made the greatest progress over the past decade. Studies at Viet Nam Venture Summit 2022 showed that Viet Nam was in the golden triangle of Southeast Asia for investment in innovation in general and startups in particular.
According to UNDP and NIC report, process innovation is the most common type of innovation in the public sector of Vietnam (54.5% of respondents in MPI and 60% of respondents in 3 provinces implementing process innovation), followed by product and service innovation. However, the percentage of respondents who said that their units have promulgated regulations on innovation is still low, indicating a lack of institutional support and guidance for innovation activities.
The report also reveals that public officials in Vietnam still lack the capacity to take risks and willingness to accept change/innovation. They also face financial difficulties and lack of information technology equipment and machinery for innovation.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Researcher such as Mariana Mazzucato has shown with evidences that the role of public sector has been crucial, contrary to popular belief, in enabling and funding technology such as Internet, GPS, its touch-screen display that eventually led to the creation of ground-breaking product such as the iPhone.
Some practitioners claim that entrepreneurial state bureaucracy is necessary to fuel national innovation ecosystem. One of the key insights that Accelerator Labs observed across the globe is that Innovations don’t just happen in shiny labs and Silicon Valley, we recognize that innovation, especially at grassroot, occurs all around us, in villages and farming communities. We believe that a more sustainable future is possible when the public sector goes beyond the Silicon Valley model, to create policies that systemically support people living closest to the problems create spontaneous, effective, sustainable solutions
UNDP is recognized there is a lack of skills, knowledge, tools, resources, incentives or collaboration among public officials at national provincial levels. At the same time, there has yet to exist a Criteria Framework for Measuring Innovation among public servants in Viet Nam.
There is also a lack of particular regulation and policy for innovation. The policy to promote national innovation ecosystem in Viet Nam is unsystematic and comprehensive, and biased towards innovation for start-ups, science and technology. Policies are dispersed in different aspects and are ran by different ministries, departments and sectors.
Another challenge is a lack of the view of the research team on innovation in the public sector to suit the political characteristics and identity of Asian countries since most of the international measurements of innovation in the public sector are from Western countries.
According to the World Bank, Vietnam has a low level of science, technology and innovation performance compared to other countries in the region. Citing the following weakness:
- Low levels of productivity and income.
- Inadequate framework conditions and disincentives for innovation.
- Limited access to finance for enterprises.
- Inefficiencies in state-owned enterprises.
- Infrastructure deficiencies.
- Weak performance of the teaching and learning system.
- Low level of sophistication of production and exports.
- Little innovation and even less research and development capacity in the business sector.
- Weak performance of public-sector research.
- Weaknesses in the S&T infrastructure as regards laboratories and research equipment.
- Seriously underdeveloped information base for innovation policy making.
- Inadequate STI governance arrangements and policy implementation.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
Over the past few years, UNDP Viet Nam is seen by Viet Nam government counterpart as one of the key international organizations that is able to provide the technical expertise and support suited to its development needs. In this challenge, Accelerator Lab Viet Nam is the connecting bridge between government partners to build innovation capacity for leading government agencies that are working on innovation in Viet Nam and connect key innovation drivers towards a common goal which is to improve innovation ecosystem in Viet Nam.
As a public sector organziation UNDP is well-positioned to provide PSI relevant support because of the unique selling points:
Has agreement with Governments through international treaties and policy frameworks
Bring international experience and perspectives on what work and what doesn't from a member-state perspective
Provide context-relevant solutions and options from our network of expertise to inform better decision-making .Empower civil servants innovation capacity with sustainability expertise and accompany gov champions throughout the journey
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
Unlocking innovation potential in Vietnam's public sector! Our PSI Playbook equips civil servants with tools, fostering innovation for complex challenges. Partner with us to shape a brighter future. #PublicSectorInnovation #VietnamInnovation
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development, Ministry Of Science and Technology – Government
National Innovation Center, Ministry of Planning and Investment – Government
Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Fullbright University Vietnam – Academia
Academy of Policy and Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment – Government
National Academy of Public Administration, Ministry of Home Affairs – Government
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
UNDP is partnering with National Agency for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Development (NATEC), National Innovation Centre (NIC), innovation specialists, Fullbright University working on public sector innovation to develop a suitable innovation playbook. Gathering different key public agencies, such as the Academy of Policy and Development, Ministry of Planning and Investment and the National Academy of Public Administration, Ministry of Home Affairs in this journey is also a way to transfer innovation knowledge and skills from UNDP to the government and connect key innovation drivers towards a common goal which is to improve innovation ecosystem in Viet Nam.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What content (tools, innovation approach, mindset...) would be most helpful for Public Sector Innovation Playbook as a companion guide for public servants in Viet Nam?
What does public sector innovation mean within the current and past context of Viet Nam's socialist republic governance structure?
What's the ideal/expected organization capacity to develop innovation culture (Human resources and capacity)?
Which are international PSI tools that are suited to everyday usage of public servants, in their implementing work? (Practical tools for Playbook)
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Playbook Design Sprint and Co-Creation: Collaborative development of the PSI Playbook and capacity building, involving public champions' insights and step-by-step progress.
Transformative Leadership Frameworks: Utilizing frameworks like Theory U for deep listening, co-creation, and guiding participants in system innovation stages.
Case Clinics: Peer coaching to identify innovative solutions for immediate challenges, enhancing accountability and problem-solving.
Iteration: Encouraging experimentation, reflection, and playbook content adjustment based on participant learning
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
For this learning question, we are utilizing innovative data sources at the policy level to incorporate valuable youth voices, insights, critical thinking, and arguments into the public sector innovation playbook. Fulbright's talented students will actively participate and contribute, particularly during the conclusive Design Camp. This camp will serve as a platform to gather youth insights, propose practical solutions, and present compelling case studies, thereby enriching the playbook and enabling civil servants to finalize it with a youth-centric perspective.
Existing data gaps when incorporating youth voices and critical thinking in policy recommendations for public sector innovation in Vietnam addresses limited youth participation and representation, inadequate understanding of nuanced youth needs, challenges in fostering collaboration between youth and policymakers and insufficiency in diverse critical analysis.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Engage with key government partners, such as NATEC and NIC, and inform champions in the government about the initiative's progress to policy makers can shift innovation mindset and enhance innovation practices in their daily work. Gathering different key public agencies in this journey is also a way to transfer innovation knowledge and skills from UNDP to the government in practice, contributing to developing a system thinking culture.
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9Industry, innovation and infrastructure
16Peace, justice and strong institutions
17Partnerships for the goals
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