The world in which we live today calls for governments to find solutions to the most pressing challenges, and governments are falling short. Experimentation offers one particularly promising way for navigating the uncertainty and the rapidly changing circumstances of the 21st century. Latvia’s Innovation Lab embraced the transformative potential of experimentation and teamed up with Demos Helsinki and the OPSI to introduce the approach to the whole government function. As a first step, Demos Helsinki produced the Experimentation Guidelines for the Latvian Public Sector.
Experimentation is not a new topic in Latvia. However, it has so far been explored mainly as an opportunity to improve established practices incrementally. This means that a whole set of possibilities remains untapped. To fulfill its potential, experimentation should be linked to the core activities and strategic objectives of the Public Administration.
The Guidelines define different types of experiments and propose the many ways they can enhance policy-making in Latvia. Also, they provide practical tools and methods on how to encourage a culture of experimentation in governance, and how to conduct and implement experiments from preparation to validating, to communicating the results.
The guidelines were conducted in a co-creative process with the emerging community of experimentalists in the Latvian public sector.
For further inquiries:
Senior Policy Expert, Johannes Mikkonen
johannes.mikkonen@demoshelsinki.fi
Head of Governance Innovation, Mikko Annala
mikko.annala@demoshelsinki.fi
Consultant, Helén Marton
helen.marton@demoshelsinki.fi