Walking the talk: Building public sector resiliency through strategic foresight and innovation – the Western Balkans context (panel discussion) 

The panel will tackle the following indicative) topics: innovative public services, Strategic foresight in the public sector, Management of innovation in PA and innovative capacity of civil servants, capacity development on innovation & foresight, management of public policy and innovation.

The pandemic, the new war in Europe, and other events demonstrate the systemic nature of risk and highlight the need for resilient and anticipatory governance. It means being capable of preparing for future uncertainties—rather than only responding to what has already happened. Strategic foresight can be used to advance anticipatory governance as a means of achieving overall economic and societal development. For this, governments must be anticipatory by nature. Anticipatory governance, which applies foresight, covers all institutional processes in decision-making, planning, and implementation of policies. For the resilience of the public sector, the essential is moving beyond the silos: working together to make faster, inclusive, and holistic decisions

The work of governments remains framed in a silos approach. Therefore, the governments must be able to break away from this siloed approach to work as the complex and systemic nature of the work we are currently involved in requires this. Especially the structures within the centres of Governments must fully embrace their integrator role, both externally with partner organizations and internally within the government current structures, and build an infrastructure of shared ownership and sustained long-term collaboration.

This panel would address building resilient government, organizations and society to address crisis through strengthening strategic foresight and innovation. Participants would be representatives of various administrations from the Western Balkans but also representative(s) from one EU Member State which made progress in building a resilient government and/or EU institution to share experience.

Representatives from ReSPA member administrations will present their experience gained from recent crisis and their actions undertaken in building resilient governments so far, their plans to strengthen resilient governments, resilient organizations and society, the obstacles they face, and what kind of support they need on their way to build resilient organizations.

The session will aim to address the following questions: Cultivating and improving resilience in government is clear but the question is how can we build more resilient governments? Is there a strategic and systematic way of using ideas about the future to anticipate and better prepare for a change? How do we use those ideas to make better decisions and to act upon them? How should Governments respond to changes? Can they deliver services without interruption—during a crisis and in a dynamic context? Do they have the required infrastructure? Resilient organizations transform and adapt: what is the significance of developing civil servants’ capacity for innovation development and implementation in that process? How to build resilient organizations which should plan and invest for disruption, adapt, endure, and rebound quickly?