Governments around the world are focused on how to make the most of artificial intelligence in the way they work – and the government of Canada, which in March launched the first AI strategy for the federal public service, is no different.In this episode, three public servants from across the Canadian government spoke about the challenges that come with deploying AI to create more efficient public services and unlocking economic growth.Specifically, they discussed the challenge of garnering trust – both of Canadian citizens and the public servants they work with – on AI projects.This conversation looked at how organisations within the Canadian government are seeking to strengthen responsible AI management practices and unlock the potential of the technology to make better decisions.The speakers discussed how the government can set AI assurance standards to apply to organisations across the public and private sector, and how individual public sector organisations can work to build confidence in the use of AI, as well as how international collaboration can be strengthened to tackle AI risks across borders.This podcast is based on a webinar Building trust in AI to help government deploy it, held on 13 May. Find out more about the session and watch it in full here.AccelerateGOV – Global Government Forum’s public service transformation event – co-hosted by the Government of Canada returns on December 9th 2025. Register your interest now for the conference, which will set oput how public servants can meet the new Governemnt of Canada’s priorities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1:01:23
What the UK government’s procurement reforms mean
The UK government has set out a new National Procurement Policy Statement that will focus on ensuring that public procurement can support the government’s five national missions of boosting economic growth, building green energy, tackling crime, breaking down barriers to opportunity and build an NHS fit for the future.The podcast, based on a Global Government Forum webinar held on 4 March, sets out what the new rules, in the policy statement and the Procurement Act 2023, will mean for what public authorities will want to buy, and how they will do it.Listen to this podcast to discuss the key elements of the new UK procurement approach will mean across the public sector – and beyond.Find out more about the webinar on its dedicated webpage, and download the slides from the session here.Find out about Global Government Forum’s upcoming webinars.Global Government Forum’s Innovation 2025 conference will bring together government innovators from around the world in London on 25-26 March 2025, including in public procurement. Find out more and register to attend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1:08:13
Innovation in government: opening up policymaking to people-powered insight
Governments need to better join-up policy development with operational delivery to ensure they can meet the growing challenges they face – but such collaboration can be difficult to implement in practice.In this podcast, experts from the UK, Estonia and Brazil share best practice on harnessing people-powered insight in policymaking, examining how governments are working to understand citizens’ lived experiences and to turn their ideas into public services that really work. Co-creation isn’t always easy. It often requires the building of trust between a range of stakeholders with competing interests – even bitter contentions – but as we hear, with the right approach, government teams can identify areas of consensus amongst a diversity of perspectives.Showcasing a paradigm shift from designing for citizens to with citizens, the experts give a range of examples of successful innovations: ones that helped iron out Brexit trade issues in a high-charged environment, led to inclusive budget design at local government level, and empowered children to help their families understand what state benefits they might be eligible for. This human-centred approach to policy design and implementation takes much experimentation, testing and learning as well as upfront investment in time and money – but as we find out, the benefits can be huge. This podcast is based on a webinar held on 11 February. Find out more about the speakers on the webinar page: Crowding in innovation: how to open up policy development to people-powered insight, and view GGF’s upcoming webinars to register to join future conversations.Global Government Forum’s Innovation 2025 conference will bring together government innovators from around the world in London on 25-26 March 2025. Find out more and register to attend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1:15:07
How the failure of Healthcare.gov kickstarted US government transformation
The 2013 launch of healthcare.gov – the US government website that helps American’s find health insurance – is most often viewed as a failure. The website crashed on its first day, leading to batch of negative headlines as the US government scrambled to get it back online. But this is only half the story. What is less remembered now is the recovery – how government changed how it worked to get the system working and then spread the lessons across the federal government. In this episode of Government Transformed, Siobhan Benita speaks to Aaron Snow, faculty fellow at Georgetown University in the Beck Center for Social Impact and innovation, about what it means for governments to achieve digital transformation with public good at its core – from his work helping turn round healthcare.gov and beyond. Aaron has been named one of the world's 20 most influential people in digital government. In this interview, he recounts to Siobhan his leadership journey through the digital public service landscape. Starting as a Presidential Innovation Fellow (PIF) in 2012, Aaron became one of the founding members of 18F an organisation set up as a digital expertise arm of the General Services Administration (GSA) to transform public services across America after the problems with healthcare.gov. In this candid conversation, Aaron shares his insight on what it is like to drive digital change across government from this organisation, as well as the day when an organisational restructure moved 18F from a discreet operation into a much larger outfit – and what this meant for its work. On a practical level Aaron details the daunting challenges he and his colleagues faced were dauting – like having to “design a plane while building it, while flying it”. He says the stress of leading in such a high-pressure environment seems “pretty natural in retrospect”. “I didn't know what I was feeling [at the time] because I hadn't been through that before, not at that level,” he adds. In this exclusive podcast, Snow shares his reflections on working in government – from the startup culture of 18F to the bureaucratic obstacles – what he calls the symphony of incentives and requirements that push on people who are trying to improve government service experiences for the public. He emphasises the need for leaders to foster and protect a strong, innovative team culture. He highlights the importance of having regular conversations with people at every level of an organisation so that every competing need, incentive and requirement is fulfilled. He also reflects on his time leading the Canadian Digital Service, and his work now as a fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation at Georgetown University, where he divides his time between the Digital Service Network and the Intergovernmental Software Collaborative. Listen to the episode in full here. FOLLOW US:X: @globegovLinkedin: Global Government Forum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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50:07
How a family bereavement transformed one public servant's outlook on digital public services
Jonathan Finch, acting director of digital experience in the US government’s Office of Management and Budget, is still relatively new to government, having moved into his role after a six-year career at Deloitte. His motivations for making the transition, however, run deep. When Finch lost a loved one, he was forced to navigate complex government procedures which – although Finch and his brother were digitally savvy enough to navigate – left him wondering about the impact such bureaucratic hurdles have across society.As Finch tells Siobhan Benita in this latest edition of the Government Transformed podcast, he had already been considering the switch to government, but this experience provided the final nudge that led him to take up his role to focus on improving government services.In this podcast, Finch and Benita discuss why a seamless digital-first government experience for citizens matters now more than ever. Their conversation also drives home the importance of collaboration between departments to achieving digital transformation, as well as how to ensure such transformation doesn’t leave people behind. Finch says that by establishing cross-functional teams, strong analytic capabilities, smart branding and above all, empathy with end users, governments can take everyone with them on the journey to fit-for-purpose digital public services.FOLLOW US:X: @globegovLinkedin: Global Government Forum Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Digital transformation within governments around the world. Produced by Global Government Forum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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