Helping Governments Prepare for Future Crises

This new report analyzes how a shock to the system of this magnitude has impacted governments’ ability to use emergency dollars for public services, and draws on this analysis to develop recommendations for how states can use future recovery funds to help deliver key services during critical times of need. The report brings a broad-scoped analysis together with examination of three state-based cases, to explore how the alignment

Pathways to Trusted Progress with Artificial Intelligence

National governments have created AI-related strategies, frameworks, and guidelines on the ethical use of AI. Yet while people have faith in AI to produce good and reliable outcomes, they have questions about the safety and security of AI systems. Specifically, this concerns public trust in AI itself, and trust in government to develop mechanisms to successfully deploy and manage such a powerful technology. These issues cover trust in AI in the context of design, development, deployment, and evaluation of public services and public policy.

Issue Brief - Public Management in an Uncertain Environment: Lessons from Enterprise Risk Management

Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus John Kotter has proposed that business organizations develop networks internally to help their traditional hierarchies function in today’s fast-changing environment. Government too finds itself increasingly beset by difficult problems that challenge the ability of departments and agencies to respond promptly and appropriately.

Government Procurement and Acquisition: Opportunities and Challenges Presented by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

However, agencies face enduring challenges in modernizing the procurement process to support mission achievement, including requirements definition, competition, pricing, contractor oversight, federal procurement data, acquisition workforce, and small business participation.

Preparing governments for future shocks: Collaborating to build resilient supply chains

During the last three years, a perfect storm of natural and geopolitical events has disrupted worldwide supply chains in ways that few governments could have anticipated. Even as nations, businesses, and consumers strive to normalize, new interruptions have created bottlenecks in an enormously complicated and interconnected system of purchasing, operation, distribution, integration, and consumption.

A Guide to Adaptive Government: Preparing for Disruption

Government executives and managers should plan for continuous disruption and for how their agencies and departments will operate under continuous turbulence and change. In 2022 alone, the world witnessed war in Ukraine, the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and natural disasters such as Hurricane Ian—not to mention energy scarcity, supply chain shortages, the start of a global recession, record highs for inflation, and rising interest rates.

Preparing governments for future shocks: An action plan to build cyber resilience in a world of uncertainty

During the last half of 2022, the number of cyberattacks targeting governments increased by 95% worldwide, compared to the same period in 2021.1 The cost of public sector data breaches also increased 7.25% between March 2021 and March 2022, with an average cost per incident of $2.07 million.

Partnering for Resilience

Government leaders increasingly agree that “rare unexpected events” are now neither rare nor unexpected. Indeed, they are shocks—more frequent and more destabilizing. One now follows closely on the heels of another, and multiple events occur at the same time. For example, the pandemic continued as the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Various climate challenges arose such as severe flooding in France, drought and bushfires in Australia, water shortages in California, and extreme heat in China.1 Now the economic fallout from the pandemic and the war has the World Bank and others

Eight Strategies for Transforming Government

Importantly, the areas address both individual trends influencing government, and topics that can be addressed with even greater impact if assessed in a way that integrates across trends—such as driving an agile approach to digital innovation that improves outcomes. This integrative approach is especially true for how different trends relate to equity across government programs and foster trust in government institutions,

Enabling a More Resilient and Shared Supply Chain Strategy for the Nation: Lessons Learned from COVID-19

Many government programs, including several top priorities of the Biden-Harris administration, can be conceived as supply chains for the production and distribution of goods, services, data, funds, and other public benefits. The national response to the COVID pandemic involved hundreds of federal, state, local, and private sector entities in the exchange and distribution of information, personal protective equipment, testing, and vaccine administration.

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