The GEN Atlas Spotlight series identifies interesting individual examples of innovative policy making. The first selection of case studies spotlighted have been chosen for the differing approaches to providing evidence of impact. GEN Atlas categorizes programs into five groups based on type of evidence provide:
- No Evidence: programs that provide no metrics to evaluate the impact of their work
- Level 1 – Participation: programs that reveal only basic information such as number of participants, program completion rates, and levels of activity
- Level 2 - Outcomes: programs that demonstrate they have hit specific goals relating to entrepreneurship such as number of course graduates going on to start a business, number of products successfully developed, number of business relocations, costs saved for startups etc.
- Level 3 – Wider Economic Impact: policymakers can cite improved economic stats that correlate to their program such as an increased investment, GVA, job creation, survival rates, business creation, increased exports etc.
- Level 4 – Direct Proof Impact: policymakers have used academic methods to demonstrate the direct impact their program has had on economic measures
Spreading a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship is at the heart of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) which is what makes the subject of this edition of Atlas Spotlight a fascinating case study. The Innovation Tel-Aviv-Yafo Model (ITAY) is an innovation challenge – launched within the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo – that is designed to stimulate innovation amongst the 15,000 employees of the administration and its 50 municipal companies. The central goal of the program is to overcome the structural limitations operating within a complex bureaucratic organization places upon innovation and creative thought.
ITAY was launched in 2016 having been pioneered Rinat Guy, the Chief Innovation Office of Tel Aviv-Yafo, who developed the model without a budget or team of staff at her disposal. Since then, it won second place at the 2017 European Capital Innovation Competition that rewards innovative approaches taken by city governments.
Science, Technology and Innovation
We live in a time of transformation and upheaval. Technological breakthroughs in areas such as AI, quantum technology, cleantech, and biotech promise to solve some of humanities greatest challenges whilst also completely reshaping the way we work and conduct our daily lives. To policymakers this is both a huge opportunity to improve society and boost economic productivity but also a great burden for them to bear as they grapple with ethical considerations that would have been confined to science fiction just a couple of decades ago. To do this effectively, policymakers need to have their fingers on the pulse of change, constantly looking for ways to expand digital infrastructure, increase digitalization of government services and businesses, incentivize research and experimentation, and ensure that government policy is not impeding the development of cutting-edge technologies.
ITAY is attempting to grapple with this challenge by using the innovation challenge policy mechanism to stimulate innovation and new ways of operating within a large-scale bureaucracy.
The program works by inviting employees from different departments and municipal companies to participate in a 3-month program that takes innovative ideas generated from its participants and transforms them into practical projects designed to improve the lives and experiences of Tel Aviv residents.
The program identifies a diverse human cluster – including employees, teachers, students, researchers and residents – and then facilitates their collaboration around finding innovative solutions to policy challenges that the city and community face. They adopt a four-step model:
- Problem investigation (ethnography)
- Ideas development (co-creation with different stakeholders)
- Service delivery preparation (including prototyping)
- Service delivery with different scaling strategies
As well as participating in workshops and courses, employees have the opportunity to participate in an annual innovation competition. Participants present their proposals in the style of TED talks in the presence of the mayor, city council and 500 guests. The best ideas get a budget for piloting and successful pilots will be implemented fully.
Impact Level 2: outcomes delivered
As of 2022, over 3000 employees of Tel-Aviv-Yafo Municipality have participated in the program with over 100 ideas being submitted every year. 22 ideas have been fully funded and implemented by the Municipality. In addition to that 194 employees have been trained to become innovation ambassadors within their departments.
The program achieves the GEN impact rating of level 2 as it is able to demonstrate that it has achieved goals set at the outset of the program, namely to increase the spread of innovative ideas around the municipal government of Tel Aviv-Yafo. It is clear from the data provided that the policy has been hugely successful in engaging a large number of employees to develop innovative practices and generate policy solutions of which several have been fully funded and implemented.
ITAY fails to achieve a higher impact level as it does not provide any data to indicate the wider impact of these innovations on economic measures such as growth, job creation, business creation or investment.
Having accurate and compelling evidence for the success of entrepreneurship policy is essential in the spreading of ideas and effective support. Nevertheless, there is substantial lack of reliable impact evaluation in this field. Sourcelink has recently outlined the importance of evidence gathering in a post that identifies the key purposes of impact assessment:
- Quantifying impact of policies on job creation, economic development and innovation.
- Identifying gaps and opportunities that exist within an ecosystem. Recognizing these weaknesses is essential for improvement.
- Effective resource allocation by allowing policymakers to direct their efforts towards areas with the greatest impact.
- Tracking progress of policies over time
- Holding stakeholders accountable for their contributions to the ecosystem.
- Aiding strategic decision-making using data-driven insights
- Encouraging community engagement by highlighting the impact of individual and collective efforts
- Attracting investment by demonstrating the measurable impact of their investment
While ITAY is a highly innovative program and worth celebrating, it is important to highlight that it falls well short of being able to deliver the outputs outlined by sourcelink that would make this a gold-standard case study.
Read the full case study for ITAY by clicking here.