Trends Identified
By the 2030s, we'll be ready to move humans toward the Red Planet
What’s more, once we get there, we’ll probably discover evidence of alien life, writes Ellen Stofan, Chief Scientist at NASA. Big science will help us to answer big questions about life on earth, as well as opening up practical applications for space technology.
2016
Eight predictions for 2030
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Invisible to visible
Standard practices can render the insights, perspectives, and opinions of individual citizens and residents invisible to those in government who are responsible for making decisions that affect them. Likewise, governments can face challenges in perceiving different scenarios and envisioning the various paths to positive future outcomes. Only once visible can these insights, perspectives and opinions become tangible and meaningfully engaged with. Governments are now taking innovative steps to make these invisible factors visible. By leveraging these newly visible elements, they are better equipped to make better decisions that affect their people, and to nudge citizens and residents to make better decisions as well.
2019
EMBRACING INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT-Global Trends 2019
OECD
Opening doors
Traditionally, the complexity and opaqueness of government has served to limit participation and minimise public value for underserved and at-risk populations. Only those with the means or knowledge to navigate this environment have been able to maximise the value of government. However, new technologies, open data and the emergence of new business models in the private sector are creating space for government to explore a range of possibilities. Such mission-oriented and adaptive innovations seek to explore ways to open doors for everyone to access the public value of government, while also embracing the major shifts occurring in people’s everyday lives.
2019
EMBRACING INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT-Global Trends 2019
OECD
Machine-readable world
In recent years, governments have started to discover the power of machine readability, with energy devoted to building open government data programmes that help to fuel innovations both within government and in the broader economy. They are now setting their aims even higher by developing innovative new projects that have the potential to completely reconceive one of the most foundational roles of government – creating laws and other rules that impact the daily lives of citizens and businesses. Governments are also seeking to digitise human characteristics, senses and surroundings to deliver innovative services and interventions. This growing wealth of machine-readable content serves as fuel for a new generation of innovations that use emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. While these advances show tremendous potential, they can also pose major risks and raise significant ethical questions. Governments should seek to understand and experiment with these technologies, but should do so in an informed and ethical way.
2019
EMBRACING INNOVATION IN GOVERNMENT-Global Trends 2019
OECD
Identity
Every citizen, resident and business needs to have an identity to access government services and participate in society and the economy. While this seems simple, the process is often complicated and in many contexts can be controversial. Governments are conceiving of new ways of providing identities to individuals though biometrics and emerging technologies such as blockchain. They are also helping businesses make better decisions about their brand identities in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and helping citizens demonstrate the unique combination of knowledge, skills and experiences that make up their own personal identities. In the modern interconnected world, governments and individuals are also raising questions about national identity and re-imagining what it means to be a citizen in an increasingly borderless world. Government innovators are exploring these many aspects of identity and pursuing initiatives that serve as essential building blocks of innovation.
2018
Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2018
OECD
System approaches
The complexities of today’s problems require systemic change rather than simple, incremental responses. Technology, environmental challenges and citizens’ dissatisfaction with “business as usual” are all putting pressure on governments to change their working methods and reach beyond simple solutions and linear equations of cause and effect. This marks an innovative paradigm shift in governance. Rather than layering interventions on top of one another, the public sector should repack policies in ways that allow them to get to the real purpose of change and deliver value to citizens. Human wants, needs and desires are complex, and the systems created to satisfy them are even more so. If simple models are used to analyse them, they will produce simple answers. As human lives and the problems that affect them are intertwined, innovative working methods are needed that take this complexity into account and provide solutions that actually work. One way to address these challenges is to apply a more systemic approach to innovation.
2018
Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2018
OECD
Inclusiveness and vulnerable populations
In the face of migration and ageing populations, uncertainties about the future of work and job automation, and continued gender and economic inequalities despite decades of attempted reforms, world governments are turning to innovation to help create more inclusive societies where no one is left behind – especially those who are most vulnerable. Many countries have rallied behind global initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while some have acted on their own initiative when confronted with unexpected threats to the well-being of their people. The last few years have seen record levels of people displaced from their homes due to violence and conflict and environmental factors such as climate change, as well as global waves of nationalism that limit the ability of these migrants to integrate well into their new communities. The same period has witnessed targeted gender-inclusion initiatives and a reckoning for gender-based mistreatment, as well as continued disparities in pay and political inclusion. Other major issues are visible on the horizon, such as ageing populations and the displacement of jobs through automation. The world is at a crossroads with governments challenged to acknowledge new realities and create new solutions through innovation.
2018
Embracing Innovation in Government: Global Trends 2018
OECD
The rise of the global middle class
With regard to global and regional income distribution and associated societal developments, our research identified six major trends. First decreasing inequality between countries, second the rise of a new global middle class. Third, European and North American share of the global middle class fall significantly over the coming decades. Fourth, in addition, there is evidence that the middle class in these regions is on the decline. Fifth, the relation between inequality and the future strength and composition of the global middle class. Sixth, global middle-class growth will engender the flourishing of democratic and ‘self-expression’ values.
2013
Europe's Societal Challenges: An analysis of global societal trends to 2030 and their impact on the EU
RAND Corporation
Growing and ageing population
The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data on demographic change helped identify three major trends as particularly relevant. First, the global demographic profile will be characterised by population growth, led by middle-income and lower-income countries, about which the literature and projections strongly agree. The second major demographic trend analysed in the literature has to do with population ageing, initially in high-income countries and subsequently in the rest of the world, starting with middle-income countries. The literature points to a third trend that is likely to develop in the European Union and other developed economies in the future, namely transformations in the structure of families and household sizes.
2013
Europe's Societal Challenges: An analysis of global societal trends to 2030 and their impact on the EU
RAND Corporation
Employment and the changing labour market
Four major trends have been identified with regard to employment and associated labour market developments. First, global population growth and population ageing are projected to have a significant impact on the workforce in the future. The second trend analysed focuses on the changes in labour force participation and growing vulnerabilities in the work place. The third major trend that resonates strongly in the literature concerns the diverging demand and supply of skills and patterns of employment creation. Finally, the working environment will be influenced by technological developments. New modes of production and manufacturing technologies are expected to advance further.
2013
Europe's Societal Challenges: An analysis of global societal trends to 2030 and their impact on the EU
RAND Corporation