The Centre for Public Impact (CPI) Podcast: Recent Episodes
Centre for Public Impact
The Centre for Public Impact is a not for profit foundation dedicated to improving the positive impact of governments. Check out our stories of government effectiveness and impact from around the world.
*The Centre for Public Impact, a BCG Foundation, is not affiliated with Public Impact, an independent education research and consulting firm dedicated to improving learning outcomes for all children in the United States.
Nadine Smith spoke to BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour about ministerial plans to reform the UK Civil Service by moving it out of London, warning that one-off measures won't be enough to bridge the gap between citizens and government.
Over the past 18 months, we have looked at how young people feel about their power to change what government thinks of them and their power or desire to be ‘one of them’ - diversity in government is something we have found is important for legitimacy.
The UK has a particularly tricky time letting young people into mainstream debates and young people have a hard time communicating back with power they know little about, not even how it truly impacts their own lives and communities. This is a tragedy and it is having profound consequences.
We recently spoke to an inspiring group of young women about their relationship with government.
Listen to what they told us.
What do you get if you bring together 700 people from 43 countries into one room, organise a whole day of sessions, including yoga and Lego, and then you let them all decide who they want to talk to and when? Well, One Team Gov Global did exactly that and the outcome was truly amazing.
Listen to our latest podcast, recorded live at #OneTeamGovGlobal, where we talk with a host of attendees on how the One Team Gov movement is building momentum in public service.
What do you get if you bring together 700 people from 43 countries into one room, organise a whole day of sessions, including yoga and Lego, and then you let them all decide who they want to talk to and when? Well, One Team Gov Global did exactly that and the outcome was truly amazing.
Listen to our latest podcast, recorded live at #OneTeamGovGlobal, where we talk with Kit Collingwood, co-founder of One Team Gov, and a host of attendees on how the One Team Gov movement is building momentum in public service.
Tony Blair served as Prime Minister in the UK from 1997 - 2007, the only Labour leader in the party’s 100-year history to win three consecutive elections. Like many of his predecessors, Blair’s time as Prime Minister was not without its challenges. Under his leadership, 'New Labour’ aimed to implement reforms to reduce poverty, health waiting times and unemployment, while focusing on improving living standards. However, a key challenge was how government itself was run. His time in government is equally recognised for his bold reforms to the way the centre of government worked with departments to transform and manage public services several of which (e.g. Delivery Units) have been replicated around the world.
In our latest podcast, Adrian Brown sits down with Tony Blair, now Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, to discuss the challenges and reflections of his time as Prime Minister.
They also discuss 'The Future of Government' a topic we're researching at CPI and we hear Tony Blair’s thoughts on how government needs to adapt to reflect societies changing needs.
Enjoy the recording and let us know what you think. Do you agree with him?
How can public sector organisations transform themselves while ensuring that the business of government continues unabated? This is just one of the questions tackled in the latest CPI Podcast.
Our guest is Agnès Audier, whose career has taken her to the top of the public and private sectors in France. A physicist by training, she began her career as a product engineer for a chemistry group and later a top strategist with Vivendi, the Paris-based global Advertising and Entertainment Company. In government, meanwhile, she has served as technical advisor to Simone Veil, the then Minister of Social Affairs and Health, as well as as principal private secretary to Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who at the time was minister of small business, trade and craft industries.
Here, she sits down with CPI's Margot Gagliani to discuss how governments can best embark on transformation projects, whether it is harder for the public sector than in business and much more.
Comment les organisations publiques peuvent-elles se transformer tout en maintenant le niveau de qualité des services rendus aux citoyens ? Voilà l’une des nombreuses questions abordées dans le dernier Podcast CPI.
Notre invitée est Agnès Audier. Son parcours professionnel s'est construit au plus haut niveau des secteurs public et privé en France. Physicienne de formation, elle a commencé sa carrière comme Ingénieure Produit pour un groupe de chimie, puis l’a poursuivie comme Stratégiste en chef chez Vivendi, l’entreprise mondiale de divertissement et de publicité basée à Paris. En parallèle, elle a occupé diverses fonctions dans le secteur public : Conseillère Technique de Simone Veil, alors Ministre des Affaires Sociales et de la Santé, puis Directrice de Cabinet de Jean-Pierre Raffarin, alors Ministre des PME, du Commerce et de l'Artisanat.
Aujourd’hui, elle est à mes côtés pour évoquer comment la manière dont les gouvernements peuvent transformer avec succès l'action publique.
Gina Miller is someone that few would have heard of a couple of years ago. But her legal challenge against the government of the UK forcing ministers to seek approval from the UK Parliament before starting the formal process to leave the EU changed all that.
In the latest CPI Podcast, she sat down with our director of communications, Nadine Smith, to discuss what it was like to be in the eye of a media and political storm, her ongoing role in the Brexit debate, the state of legitimacy and democracy today, and much, much more.
In this special podcast we present details about our research projects, as well as speak with our co-chairman, Sir Michael Barber, about CPI’s story so far.
First, we hear from Danny Buerkli, CPI’s programme director, about Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Government. Nadine Smith then explains how we have been helping governments Find Legitimacy by strengthening their relationship with citizens to improve public impact. And finally, our executive director, Adrian Brown, sits down with Sir Michael, our co-chairman and his former boss at the Number 10 Delivery Unit. They talk about CPI’s progress, and where we should focus in 2018...
2017 has been quite a year. In this special podcast, our executive director, Adrian Brown, our global communications director, Nadine Smith, and our programme director, Danny Buerkli, look back on the tumultuous events of the past 12 months, and how CPI has contributed to the ongoing drive to improve government performance.
From the impact of new leaders – this time last year Presidents Trump and Macron had yet to take office – to the increased focus on artificial intelligence and the ongoing challenges surrounding legitimacy for governments around the world, it has been a period of considerable turbulence and change. Find out what Adrian, Nadine and Danny made of these dramatic events, and hear about their plans for 2018.
Welcome to the Centre for Public Impact Best of 2017 podcast. Here, we have selected clips from some of our most popular podcast conversations from the past 12 months. We hope you enjoy their insights about improving public impact.
Changing a university curriculum is not something to be done lightly – and that's precisely why it's crucial for the proposals to have legitimacy, says Sherry Glied, Dean of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, in the latest CPI podcast.
She tells Katie Rose about her experiences in public service (she served in many senior roles in Washington, DC), how she and her team are training students to develop the soft skills necessary to become effective policymakers and much more.
Innovation is something that enjoys strong resonance across the public and private sectors. But while individuals and organisations many seek it, actually achieving it is far harder. That's why the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, Seattle, has made it a key priority for its students.
In this latest CPI Podcast, Katie Rose sits down with Dr. Sandra O. Archibald, Dean and Professor of the Evans School, to talk about why innovation is so important and how it might take deeper root in government.
Transparency, governance and government legitimacy were just a few items on the agenda when Alasdair Roberts sat down with CPI's Katie Rose in Washington, DC recently.
Roberts, who heads up the UMass Amherst School of Public Policy, explains why he believes governments generally perform well when it comes to their fundamental responsibilities, but challenges remain in how they stay connected and relevant to their citizens.
Few – if any – countries are as closely identified with digital technology as Estonia. It has been blazing a digital trail for many years and continues to lead the way in its deployment of cutting edge systems that are delivering a raft of citizen-centric services to its population. One man who knows all about their approach is Ivar Tallo, a former Estonian parliamentarian who also co-founded the country's e-Governance Academy, an organisation set up to create and transfer knowledge and best practices on e-governance, e-democracy, national cybersecurity and open information societies.
He sat down with CPI's Danny Buerkli recently to discuss Estonia's digital track record, what makes it different to other countries, the importance of trust in digitisation and much more...
So, what does a 'Futurist in Chief' do all day? Noah Raford tells us about his role looking up to 50 years in the future as part of his role with the Dubai Future Foundation.
He sits down with CPI's Danny Buerkli to discuss how he identifies emerging opportunities and trends, and work with partners in the government and colleagues in the private sector to translate them into prototypes and, ultimately, policies. They also talk about the lessons that can be drawn from Dubai – and the UAE's – transformation, his experience in the Prime Minister's Office and much more.
"It's a new way of looking at really entrenched problems," says Derval Usher, head of office for Pulse Lab Jakarta. You can say that again.
She sits down with CPI's Danny Buerkli to explain how she and her team help facilitate the adoption of new approaches for applying new, digital data sources and real-time analysis techniques to social development in Indonesia and across the southeast Asia region. They discuss how they go about harnessing the power of social media to help the government understand the priorities and needs of the Indonesian population, particularly in relation to pressing social issues such as the annual blight of forest fires.
Find out how they are giving voice to the people and helping Indonesia's policymakers develop an 'early warning system' for emerging issues and challenges.
Made up of more than 1,000 small islands, 200 of which are inhabited, The Maldives is not the easiest of environments to govern – but that's not getting Lahfa Fathimah down.
The performance director of The Maldives Civil Service Commission sits down with CPI's Danny Buerkli to discuss the challenges of public administration when two-thirds of the population are dispersed across a multitude of often remote small islands. They also talk about the reality of providing public services to the inhabitants of these islands, why decentralisation and digital technology have a key role to play, and her priorities for the performance management of individual public servants and government departments alike.
How has a small country like New Zealand made such a global impact when it comes to its use of digital technology to improve government services? That's just one of the issues we investigate in this latest CPI Podcast.
We hear from Maria Robertson, who serves as deputy chief executive, service delivery and operations, in the country's Department of Internal Affairs about rethinking public services as a whole, rather than just digitising them. We also talk about New Zealand's continuous development of digital services, empowering the frontline and why they are interested in "intelligence" – not just artificial intelligence...
Listen to Nadine Smith's keynote speech to our Impact and Legitimacy Focus Group at Innovation Labs World, Singapore.
Malaysian Youth Leader, Dato’ Lokman Hakim Bin Ali, shares how Malaysia is engaging the views of 1.6 million young people about its 2050 Transformation Plan?
The Centre for Public Impact participated in Innovation Labs World, a day-long event in Singapore which brought together more than 700 public servants from across south-east Asia to discuss innovation and public service delivery in the 21st century.
Nadine Smith hosted a workshop which looked at ‘Achieving Impact and Legitimacy’, which links back to our ongoing #FindingLegitimacy project.
Listen to Nadine's keynote speech to our Impact and Legitimacy Focus Group at Innovation Labs World, Singapore.
How to get more young Malaysians involved in the policymaking process is the task facing Dato’ Lokman Hakim Bin Ali, Secretary-General, Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia. He took time out to sit down with CPI's Nadine Smith in the latest edition of the CPI Podcast series.
He tells Nadine about how they have gone about engaging approximately 1.6 million youth around issues such as the environment, the arts, and social and economic matters. They also discuss how the government is seeking to incorporate their viewpoints into future policy proposals.
There's no doubt that use of artificial intelligence in government has its opponents and supporters. Someone who is firmly in the latter's camp is Josh Tauberer, founder of GovTrack US, a website helps ordinary citizens find and track bills in the US Congress and understand their representatives’ legislative record.
In this latest CPI Podcast he tells Joel Tito why he is so optimistic about the deployment of AI in the public sector, the use of algorithms in generating citizen outcomes and much more...
As dean of studies at Mexico's CIDE, centre of research and higher education for social sciences in Mexico, Professor Guillermo M. Cejudo is ideally placed to observe and comment on his country's evolving political scene.
He sat down with CPI's Jorge Hargrave recently to discuss how Mexico's policymakers approach the challenge of public impact. From Professor Guillermo's perspective, impact as a concept and mindset has permeated through the government – but there is still more to do. In this podcast, he talks about the disconnect between plans and reality, the issue of legitimacy, as well as the current challenges of public administration being experienced by those working in Mexico's government.
How does the culture of impact permeate the Mexican government? For Dr Magdalena Alcocer, professor of strategic intelligence at Mexico's Universidad Anáhuac, it comes down to the government having a long-term strategy rather than looking for short-term projects.
Impact, citizen outcomes, and legitimacy were just some of the topics discussed when she met up with CPI's Jorge Hargrave in Mexico City recently. They also go on to consider issues including Mexico's rule of law and its ongoing security challenges, as well as social development and how to tackle the country's tackle stubbornly-high levels of extreme poverty.
How do governments ensure citizens feel and experience the actual benefits of reform programmes? It's a question facing policymakers the world over, and is one that is high on the priority list of Dr César Camacho, a leading figure in the Mexican Congress, whose previous roles include serving as governor of the state of Mexico.
Dr Camacho took time out from his busy schedule to sit down with CPI's Danny Buerkli to discuss the importance of communication as a core aspect of governance as well as the role of the legislature in ensuring that citizens benefit from government policies.
Who wants to talk about the end of the world? CPI's Joel Tito and Data & Society's Anne Washington certainly do – and it's this discussion point which kicks off our latest podcast.
Washington, a digital government scholar whose work addresses emerging policy needs for data science, tells Joel about what she is most afraid of when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) and its application to government. She also explains that while AI can make processes more efficient and better streamlined, it shouldn't be used for "really complicated human decisions". Find out why here, as well as if she thinks we should seek inspiration from the Romans or ancient Greeks when it comes to AI and government...
The pitfalls and potential of algorithms in government are among many topics in this conversation between renowned author Cathy O'Neil and CPI's Joel Tito.
O'Neil is the author of several books on data science, including Weapons of Math Destruction. She is also the author of the blog, mathbabe, and took time out from her busy schedule to attend our recent event in New York which examined AI and the future of government.
While she was there, she sat down with Joel to discuss ethics, accountability and accuracy – and much else – when it comes to algorithms in government.
Ever been worried about the differences between artificial intelligence (AI) and humans when it comes to decision-making? Professor Francesca Rossi, one of the world's leading research scientists on AI, believes that there's no need to panic. On the contrary, she says that humans and AI are "very complementary". And she should know.
A professor of computer science at Italy's University of Padova, her research has a particular emphasis on preference modeling and reasoning, constraint processing, multi-agent systems, and voting theory. She has published more than 170 papers in international conferences or journals, edited 16 volumes, and is the current president of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
She took some time out from her hectic schedule to discuss her work and research programme with CPI's Joel Tito. Find out how she thinks humans and AI can best work together, why she can't "think of a single task that will not be transformed" by AI and much more in our latest podcast...
Few know more about how governments can best deploy digital technology than Aaron Snow.
He is is a founding deputy commissioner of the Technology Transformation Service and also co-founded 18F, the 200-person digital agency at the heart of the US government. Aaron is also a former Presidential Innovation Fellow, where he focused on improving the US government's technology procurement process and tools.
He took time out from his current role as chief operating officer of cBrain. North America, to sit down with CPI's Joel Tito and discuss the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in government. Find out why he believes AI is similar to magic, why he sees an algorithm as an "automated decision recommendation system" and why he thinks there will always be a "very human component" helping citizens interact with digital systems when it comes to government services.
Claire Bassett, chief executive of the UK’s Electoral Commission, is our latest CPI podcast guest. The Electoral Commission is the independent body which oversees elections and regulates political finance in the UK. This means that it offers support and guidance to those involved in elections and referendums, as well as seeking to ensure voters know everything they need to know about the process of casting their vote. And it also works to make sure people understand the rules around political party finance, taking action when the rules are broken and publishing regular information on political finance.
Claire sits down with CPI's Nadine Smith to discuss the UK's recent general election, the Brexit referendum, countering voter apathy and much more...
Eddie Ndopu has quite a story to tell. Originally from South Africa, he is the former head of Amnesty International’s youth programme for Africa and is also a former research analyst for the World Economic Forum. He lives with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and has been using a wheelchair since the age of seven. He is the first African student with a disability to be accepted into Oxford University, where he is currently studying for a master’s in public policy.
He talks about his experiences and shares his insights with Jorge Hargrave in the latest CPI podcast. Find out why he thinks his life "is the manifestation of possibility", why his plan to become the first disabled person in space is not about having an adventure, but actually about making a political statement, and much more...
Wendy Woods is the latest guest in the CPI podcast series. A board member of the Centre for Public Impact, Wendy is also a senior partner and managing director at The Boston Consulting Group, where she leads the firm's social impact practice.
She sits down with Adrian Brown to discuss our recent Solutions Summit, an event co-hosted with the Alight Fund, that focused on economic opportunities for host countries and forcibly displaced communities. The humanitarian needs of the world's refugees, the pressing need for fundable projects and how to get different groups to work together were just a few of the items on the agenda.
Recorded live at the Solutions Summit in London, Adrian Brown sits down with John Kluge and Christine Mahoney, co-founders of the Alight Fund, an investment platform for refugee, displaced, and host country entrepreneurs. They discuss how different stakeholders – from NGOs to governments to private sector to investors – can come together to both help alleviate the economic situation of displaced people and support the communities that host them. Find out why they believe progress is possible – but only if new partnerships and innovative financing can deliver the creative and sustainable solutions that are so urgently needed.
Recorded live at the Digital Governance Forum in Ottawa, Adrian Brown meets with Dr Kate Darling, a research specialist at the MIT Media Lab and a Fellow at the Harvard Berkman Center. In their conversation, she and Adrian discuss artificial intelligence and the issue of privacy, especially pertinent given that these systems rely on the collection of rich data-sets, as well as how governments are already using these technologies to reshape their services to citizens.
Recorded live at last month's Digital Governance Forum in Ottawa, Adrian Brown sits down with Don Tapscott, one of the world’s leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society. He has authored over 15 books including, most recently, Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Underlying Bitcoin is Changing Business, Money and the World, which was co-authored with his son Alex Tapscott.
They discuss how blockchain and the associated technologies are likely to change government, as well as the ways they are likely to impact public services. Find out why – thanks to blockchain– he thinks we are poised to enter "the second era of the internet", and why it can help strengthen legitimacy, value and identity...
Recorded live at last month's Digital Governance Forum in Ottawa, we present a series of conversations around the subjects of digital government, legitimacy and how policymakers can harness new technologies to improve services and meet fast-rising citizen expectations.
Brexit, the impending general election in the UK and the impact of automation and AI on the world of work were just some of the items on the agenda when CPI's Adrian Brown sat down with the Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the UK's Trades Union Congress for the latest Centre for Public Impact podcast.
Picture credit: © Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk
Dr Vanessa Kerry is our latest Centre for Public Impact podcast guest.
Vanessa is the co-founder and chief executive of Seed Global Health, a Boston-based non-profit which trains the next generation of local doctors, nurses, and other health workers in five countries across Africa. She also works as a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Here, she sits down with CPI's Nadine Smith to discuss why we face a global shortage of 18 million health workers by 2030, the pivotal role of local leadership in sustaining growth in a nation's health workforce, and why healthier developing countries lead to better health, prosperity and security around the world.
The Rt Hon.Harriet Harman is the latest guest to appear in a Centre for Public Impact podcast.
Recorded live in her office in the Palace of Westminster, Harman tells CPI's executive director, Adrian Brown, about her 35 years of service as a British Member of Parliament. She also discusses her efforts to deliver parliamentary reform, encourage more women leaders in British politics and her experiences as a senior cabinet minister. Her memoir, A Woman's W
Beth Blauer, Executive Director of the Centre for Government Excellence at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, is our latest podcast guest.
One of the world's leading experts on government performance, she began her career on the frontline working in juvenile protection. She soon rose to work alongside Governor Martin O'Malley, where she oversaw Maryland's award winning StateStat initiative which helped pioneer the use of data to improve performance. And now at GovEx, she is working alongside Bloomberg Philanthropies to support its What Works Cities programme.
She sits down with CPI's senior editor, Matt Mercer, to discuss her long career promoting better government performance; the importance of data and analytics to effective policymaking; the next generation of mayoral leaders in the US and much more.
Ben Page, chief executive of Ipsos MORI, is the latest podcast from the Centre for Public Impact. He sits down with CPI's executive director, Adrian Brown, to discuss the key ingredients to a successful policy, how the tumultuous events of 2016 have impacted polling companies and much else...
Transformation - both government and digital - is the theme of the latest podcast from the Centre for Public Impact.
CPI's Danny Buerkli sits down with former UK Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude and Mike Bracken, founder of the UK's Government Digital Service (GDS), to discuss how to deliver change, save money and why GDS has become an organisation that many other countries have sought to emulate.
Mike Bracken knows a thing or three about government digital transformation. The founder of the UK's Government Digital Service tells the Centre for Public Impact's Danny Buerkli about his experiences reforming an institution from within and why true digital change is about far more than fixing the websites...
Tom Steinberg, the founder and former director of mySociety, is the latest guest in CPI's podcast series.
mySociety is an international not-for-profit group which builds and popularises digital tools that give citizens power over institutions and decision makers.
Here, Steinberg sits down with Danny Buerkli to talk civic tech, the role of government in enabling citizen-centric solutions and how civil society organisations are increasingly shaping policy around the world.
Matthew Mendelsohn sat down with CPI’s Danny Buerkli recently to discuss his role leading the Canadian government’s new secretariat for results and delivery. How’s he been getting on?
Digital governance, civil service reform and political legitimacy were just a few of the topics under discussion when the Centre for Public Impact met Maryantonett Flumian of Canada's Institute on Governance recently...
Canada's minister for small business and tourism, Bardish Chagger, sits down with the Centre for Public Impact's Danny Buerkli to talk digital technology, civic engagement and much more...