When the French State and local authorities unite their efforts to invent a new culture of public administration

French public transFormationlab

new program 2014 > 2017

* Public Re•actoR

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Doing better with less - or Doing otherwise ?in a period of budget pressure and radical transformations a growing number of pio-neer governments, administrations and local authorities from all over the world are exploring ways to create and implement public policies more citizen-driven, inspired by disciplines such as design, ethnography, social innovation and «makers» movements.

in France, a cross-regional Dynamic that began in 2008in 2008, la 27e Région started its activities as a not-for-profit “do-tank”, working in, with and for the 26 french regional governments. other local authorities have joined the movement by creating their own innovation teams and labs: counties such as Val d’oise or loire-atlantique, cities such as lyon... in Strasbourg, “la Fabrique de l’Hospitalité”, a creative lab focused on patient-driven medical services, was created within the public hospital administration. lately, the French State has also launched its own innovation program, “Futurs Publics”. all of them have been working closely with a growing com-munity of service designers, architects and sociologists gradually engaged in design for public policy.

re-acteur public, a new alliance to boost «Design For public policy»

Now it’s time to go further. after a first set of 16 tests spread all across the country and dealing with issues such as education, health, mobility, democracy, or procure-ment (“territoires en Résidences”, program started in 2009), and after 4 prototypes of “public innovation labs” embedded in regional governments (“la transfo”, program launched in 2011), la 27e Région enters a new phase of dissemination. in partnership with the French State and local authorities who have decided to unite their efforts, la 27e Région has set up a new four-year programme - Re-acteuR Public - led by a large consortium of different public institutions. ReacteuR Public is designed as a vehicle to scale up the methods, processes and thinking developed during the past six years.

re-acteur public : 4 years, 4 DirectionsRe-acteur public was officially launched on May 13th 2014 by the French Minister of Reform Marylise lebranchu, together with representatives of French public administra-tions, both local and national. This consortium will explore 4 areas of work until 2017 :

SkillS building design ca-pacities among civil servants through training sessions

Community bringing together all the practitioners of design for public policy

Future exploring possible futures of the admi-nistration

PubliShing launching a collec-tion of books, cases and prototypes

i know la 27e région as an absolute front-runner in the field of design-led

innovation in the public sector. the organisation has built an impressive range of results and

stands as the most legitimate and well-known organisation of its kind in France. la 27e region

is also recognised globally as a leader in driving change in government. in a time of unprede-

cented challenges for France, the moment has clearly come to strengthen and upscale la 27e

region as a nation-wide hub for public sector innovation. not only would this serve French

interests, it would be a tremendously valuable contribution to the growing movement of public

design globally.

la 27e région has proven

itself to be one of the most important

organisations supporting innovation in the

public sector, and is watched with interest

by others around the world. the new pro-

gramme focused on spreading the essential

skills for innovation is very timely. against

a background of fiscal pressures and high

expectations, public organisations will

have to innovate more effectively – but

many lack the basic skills and manage-

ment practices to do so well. the proposed

combination of futures thinking, training,

collaboration and communities of practice is

intelligently designed to draw on experience

about how to achieve lasting change.

today, when the need for new solutions in the public sector is increasing,

la 27e région stands out as one of the most exciting initiatives in europe. what makes

them unique is their mixed and broad competence base where they both are well an-

chored in politics and administration as well as in innovation and new design methods.

they also combine creative and concrete interventions with a long-term learning stra-

tegy to build up a strong foundation for public sector innovation. with a professional,

humble and respectful approach they demonstrate a rare ability to navigate among and

mediate between very diverse practices, work cultures and professions, both inside and

outside public organisations.

team & contacts christian Paul, presidentStéphane Vincent, directoranne tavernier, finance and administrationMagali Marlin, project managerJulien Defait, designerlaura Pandelle, designeranna lochard, researchMyriam traore, administration

email: infos@la27eregion.frtwitter: la27eregionwww: la27eregion.fradress: 8 passage brulon, 75012 Paris, FRaNce

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Christian Bason, Director, MindLab (Denmark)

Per-Anders Hillgren, Senior researcher,

Malmö University (Sweden)

Geoff Mulgan, Director, Nesta (UK)