A collaborative study on public sector transformation in times of crisis (2020)
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Table of contents
Context
In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached France and turned everything upside down.Is the future of public policy taking shape before our very eyes, amidst the transformations brought about by a crisis as sudden as it was unexpected? How can we build public capacities suited to the world to come? What initiatives should we undertake, collectively, to bolster the resilience of our regions in the face of future crises?It was to answer these questions that, together with the agencies Vraiment Vraiment and Partie Prenante, we launched the Reflexes Publics project in May 2020 - a collaborative field study on public sector transformation in times of crisis. From this, we have identified around twenty concrete forward-looking avenues to ensure that public sector transformation can effectively reveal and strengthen the resilience of our regions.
Approach
A collaborative field study
Between April and September 2020, our study alternated between sharing workshops, interviews with public officials and discussions with international stakeholders. More than sixty researchers were involved, conducting nearly fifty interviews.
A community of stakeholders
Initiated by the 27th Region, Vraiment Vraiment and Partie Prenante, with the support of the Interministerial Delegation for Public Transformation (DITP) and the Bloomberg Philanthropies foundation, the project brought together around twenty public innovation labs and partner local authorities. Our thanks go to the City of Grenoble and the CCAS Grenoble, the cities of Nancy, Brest, Mulhouse, Chelles, the City of Paris and the DASES, the metropolitan areas of Metz, Nantes, Lille, Rennes, Grenoble, the Dunkirk Urban Community, the Pays de la Loire, Brittany and Occitanie regions, Strasbourg, the departments of Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-d'Oise, Isère and Puy-de-Dôme, and to their staff for carrying out this research with us.
13 observable phenomena as a basis for our research
We began with thirteen phenomena observable during the first lockdown, which seemed to us to be concentrated examples of the transformation taking place: civic reserve, crisis unit, reallocation, public-community partnership, etc. These were structured around six major controversies, covering the key themes of modernisation (cooperation, internal management, steering, etc.).
Learning outputs
Outlining an alternative vision for the modernisation of public administration
The Covid crisis has reinforced our conviction that public transformation and resilience must be more closely intertwined: the former enables the latter, which in turn helps to set its course. This study provides a tangible illustration of this interplay and identifies levers for building public capacities suited to the world to come.
Towards a public administration ‘resilient by design’ ?
This work culminates in a forward-looking vision of a ‘resilient by design’ public administration, one that has integrated the context of high uncertainty and the principles of resilience (robustness, agility, decentralisation, mutual support, etc.) into its management, tools and so on.
Actions to be taken from tomorrow
It proposes around twenty forward-looking ideas, building on the practices observed at the height of the crisis. These avenues could subsequently be translated into field trials or support programmes for public administrations (training courses, calls for proposals).
