UAE-PPF-2020: UAE Public Policy Forum 2020 InterContinental Dubai - Festival City Dubai, UAE, February 17-18, 2020 |
Conference website | http://www.uaepublicpolicyforum.ae |
Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=uaeppf2020 |
Abstract registration deadline | October 15, 2019 |
Submission deadline | November 30, 2019 |
UAE-PPF-2019: UAE Public Policy Forum 2020
at InterContinental Dubai - Festival City
Dubai, UAE, February 17-18, 2020
Conference website http://www.uaepublicpolicyforum.ae
Paper Submissions: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=uaeppf2020
Call for Papers
Abstract submission deadline : October 15, 2019
Full Paper Submission deadline: November 30, 2019
The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) is hosting the 4th Annual UAE Public Policy Forum on February 17-18, 2020 at the InterContinental Festival City in Dubai. The UAE Public Policy Forum is an annual global discussion platform bringing together government leaders, the academic elite, and experts from all over the world who are dedicated to enhancing government policymaking in the UAE and the region. Each year, the two-day event sheds light on a unique theme by addressing several related pillars. The theme for the 2020 conference is "Agile Government: Becoming Future-Proof."
The Conference Organizing Committee is seeking high-quality papers on the theme of Agile Government. We invite you to submit paper (s) - conceptual or empirical, and case studies (both success and failures) that can contribute to the development of the field of Agile Government and hence can advance policy lessons from the multitude of government practices and projects in this field. For example, the UAE has articulated a plan until 2117. The significant shifts in the market place, the race for space, government services, or technological advances require a proactive mindset to solving challenges and seizing opportunities. While the conference focuses on the UAE, this call for papers is not limited to the UAE as a geographic focus.
As a sub-discipline of public administration, the agile government is not a new field[1]. There are few papers in this area, mostly in the field of I.T. and project management, with only six academic studies, majority of which being experience reports, suggesting that this is an area for scholarly development and focus.[2] In the government sector, the field (under new public management) began to overlap with digital transformations, but the high failure of e-government projects during the past two decades, in the region[3] and worldwide (35% total failure and 50% partial failures),[4] and the “the unrelenting waves of technological and social changes that show no signs of easing off”[5], have resulted in renewed thrust to focus on Agile Governments to better prepare for the future.[6] In simple terms, agility refers to “the ability of an organization to react to changes in its environment faster than the rate of these changes[7]
Governments face three key tension areas[8] when becoming agile.
Tension 1: The ability to create policies that can take into account the uncertainty and ambiguity of the future: Policies and regulations are often created in response to issues highlighted and not always in anticipation of the future trends. This tension of predicting the future (foresight) yet being fluid enough not to discourage innovation and entrepreneurship is a difficult one. For this, there is little doubt the way forward is the ability to attract, train, and retain the right talent. Agile governments need to attract talented people and free them to do their best work, which means managing the stifling bureaucracy and irradiate the poverty of imagination, poverty of innovation, and poverty of action.[9]
Tension 2: The ability to adapt to complex challenges. The challenges facing governments are often wicked problems, which are not easy to breakdown nor find solutions. Wicked problems need many collaborators to find an optimum solution, and because the first set of solutions may be wrong, it is essential to be able to admit mistakes, learn from them and move on - hence the government must develop the qualities of versatility and resilience. The topic agile government has tensions with transparency and governance as “agility conveys the idea of informality, simplicity, experimentation," but governance highlights "the idea of mechanisms, control, accountability and authority.[10]
Tension 3: The ability to create stability in the face of change and increasing volatility. Citizens look to their governments as a reservoir of trust, and rapid and continuous change erodes morale as is seen with the increasing uncertainty of jobs and global market slowdowns. This loss of trust is being reflected in surveys like those being conducted by the Edelman Trust Barometer and the 2017 BCG report.[11] The fact that we are running out of time to reach the Global Goals (Sustainable Development Goals) by 2030, and this requires a global citizenship effort add to the growing concerns of governments.[12] Four topics are highlighted below that are relevant to this conference on Agile Government. They are (1) Government Innovation & Entrepreneurship (2) Wellbeing & Resilience: Agile Mindset (3) The Digital Transformation & Future Government and (4) Agile Finance. This list of themes proposed below is to stimulate ideas, and is not exhaustive or intended to restrict submissions from other related domains.
I. Government Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Embedded in the concept of Agile Government is the ability of the organization to innovate and be entrepreneurial.[13] Public sector entrepreneurship occurs whenever a political or governmental actor is alert to and acts on, potential political profit opportunities, thus equilibrating the policy subsystem in which the actor is embedded and moving it toward a new equilibrium.[14] Government innovation is about creating new value.[15] Government entrepreneurship is about contributing to: (1) Economic facilitation and regulation; (2) Civil political service and (3) Commercial market participation.[16]
The role of evidence in policymaking in all stages from agenda-setting to getting buy-in from the actual beneficiaries should not be neglected.[17] Despite the process being highly political, innovative policies will involve some degree of risk-taking. The recent growth of reg-labs, government accelerators, experimentation departments, and policy sandboxes are some methods being embraced. Most new projects (close to 50%) fail when scale.[18] To scale projects - the simple formula is - hard work.[19] Agile innovation needs a re-invention of management roles, practices, values, and communications.[20]
Keywords: moonshots, open challenges, innovation platforms, smart city, soft power, living labs, reg labs, policy sandbox, pilots, replication, scaling, social innovation, grassroots innovation policy, P.P.P., advocacy, evidence building, governance and transparency, policy transfer, public sector entrepreneurship, proactiveness, risk-taking, entrepreneurial discovery, value co-creation, open innovation, policy entrepreneurs.
II. Wellbeing & Resilience: Agile Mindset
The UAE National Wellbeing Strategy 2031 heralds a new approach to government work and the policymaking process. The strategy has a three-pronged approach focusing on the nation, communities and the individual and looks at both physical and mental health. Agile methods use strong social processes, which have a positive impact on teams’ enthusiasm as does the perception of benefits.[21] Agile projects work only around motivated individuals.[22] The key to agile innovation is tapping into three types of knowledge – explicit, embedded, and existential.[23] For various reasons, informal knowledge transfer remains a critical issue. For an agile mindset, we need to reskill employees, empower teams, and rebuild the culture. Without empowerment and a redesign of our H.R. polices, we will not achieve a culture shift. Leaders need to understand the pressure of ‘agile working’ and accordingly reflect this in their values[24] and organizations need to identify enablers and barriers to an agile culture.[25]
A resilient organization is prepared (by scanning or future foresight), but an inherent tension exists when there is a need for a speedy recovery and timely adaptation.[26] What is the institutional design parameters?[27] Is resilience top-down or from the grassroots level up? What role does the community play in recovery? We are living in unprecedented times of change and culture takes time to build, so how do you achieve a culture shift?
Keywords: culture, well-being, skills, H.R., empowerment, teams, collaboration, future of work, global citizenship and value, gig economy, mentorship, performance appraisal, KPIs, failure, trust, leadership, storytelling, barriers, enablers, resilience, social resilience, crisis management, contingency planning, reputation risk, legitimacy, tolerance, mental health, agenda-setting, security, emergency planning
III. Digital Transformation & Future Government
Digital transformation uses boundary spanning and transformative innovative digital solutions to predict, prepare, make, implement or evaluate digital government decisions in response to the changing political, technological, economic, environmental and social landscape.[28] This changes the information landscape within the government and the relationship with the government and other institutional players, the citizens and those in the world stage.[29] These digital transformations are usually associated with “wicked problems”,[30] and manifested in a variety of different formats - smart government, virtual governments, e-governments, smart cities and use of AI agents bring with it questions of participation, exclusion, inclusions and ethics. These transformations and their associated challenges are clearly recognized today globally and within the UAE and its wider region.[31]
The tensions between ethics and policies also need to be debated.[32] As much as technology will create new jobs, it will fist displace jobs creating fear and uncertainly unless employees are reskilled. Technology will raise questions of trust (which governments do you trust with your data, which programs are reliable and fair), and this will have implications for nation-level competitive strategies. Advanced technology requires the ability to foresee the future and the impact of the spillover the innovation effect - the so-called ‘adjacent possible'[33] or the ‘hummingbird effect”.[34] Take for example the AI agent and human teams. Future space explorations will be dependent on human-AI teams. However, without safeguards, AI could lead to loses (financial, human, emotional). More research is needed in AI-Human teams[35] and decision-making, data reliability, training data, privacy issues, and now human-AI interfaces.
Keywords: A.I. for good, A.I. regulations, A.I. ethics, big data, human-AI (agent) teams, human-AI decision making, assisted intelligence, human-AI interfaces, governance, A.I. re-training, national competitiveness, transparency, explainability, big data, use cases, technological disruption, Industry 4.0,
IV. Agile Finance
Agile Finance as a concept was highlighted by a recent Oracle (2019) report. The study finds that 80% or more of respondents reported that their finance function has a leading role to play in driving business agility, but only 30% agreed or strongly agreed that their finance function provided the support needed to become agile. As the more conventional business models get disrupted by cloud solutions, new payment forms like cryptocurrency, A.I., data visualization, and analysis, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) needs to be able to deliver forward-looking analysis that leads to innovative and flexible strategies. For governments; this may mean rethinking budgeting to allow the reallocation of capital and resources as the situation dictates looking at automation and new financial technologies, the adoption of new metrics, and reassessing data being used to predict the future. Future focus on blockchain for all transactions, bio-security etc. will also raise questions on regulations, privacy, and cybersecurity. For the UAE, Islamic Finance has the potential to shape financial instruments and networks that fit the local and regional context.
Keywords: Agile Finance, financial planning, strategic insights, agile governance, national bonds, public Finance, finance policies, Islamic Finance, debt management, tax,
Who Should Submit?
- The conference will bring together academics, practitioners, and policy makers who are involved with sustainable development.
- As a policy-focused conference, submissions with clear policy focus are preferred.
The conference will bring together academics, practitioners, and policymakers who are involved with various forms of Agile Government, as explained above.
- There are three types of papers that participants can submit:
- Academic papers that contribute to theory in agile government (5000 words)
- Policy cases - they are practice-based cases that discuss policy challenges, evaluating practices, documenting and critiquing policy responses, and proposing policy roadmaps and recommendations. (2500 words)
- Working papers in the field that can offer an insight relevant to the topic of agile government. (2500 words)
- We particularly welcome papers discussing policy challenges, evaluating practices, documenting and critiquing policy responses, and proposing policy roadmaps and recommendations.
- The Forum also welcomes practical cases and experience papers adhering to academic rigor within the conference’s theme (limited to 2500 words).
- We encourage contributions from all major disciplines of social sciences including public policy, public administration, governance, development studies, information systems, political economy, sociology, as well as multidisciplinary papers.
Important Information
- The deadline for all abstract submissions is September 15, 2019.
- Full paper submission deadline is October 30, 2019.
- Abstracts should be no more than 300 words (please refer to the format).
- Full papers should be no longer than 5000 words.
- Research in Progress, Practitioner Reports, Experience Papers should be no longer than 2500 words
- Note that In case of acceptance, at least one author must have to attend the conference on 17-18 February 2020 for the paper to be included in the proceedings.
We look forward to welcoming you in Dubai for this highly engaging and impact-driven experience at a critical juncture of creating Agile Governments that are Future-proof.
Publication
- Successful papers will be included in the 2020 UAE Public Policy Forum’s Proceedings by the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.
- The best papers will be considered by the academic committee for publication in a number of publication streams by the MBRSG. These include:
- MBRSG Policy Briefs Series
- Edited Volume Series on Public Policy Perspectives
- Case Studies series
- Policy Working Papers series
Submission Guidelines
Format for Paper Submissions
Papers must be written in English, in M.S. Word format, according to the following criteria:
- Single Spacing
- Cover page containing:
- Title
- Authors’ names, affiliations and contact details for correspondence including e-mail address
- Abstract of not more than 200 words
Type of Paper:
Contest of Study: [field, place, type of organization] and background of this paper
Contribution of Study to Agile Government theory: How does the paper add value to the current debates in public management?
Contribution of Study to Agile Government Practice: How can other organizations/countries benefit from the findings of your study?
-
- Full Research Papers limited to 5000 words for text including abstract, diagrams, tables and references
- Research in Progress, Practitioner Reports, Experience Papers, and Reflections should be limited to 2500 words of text including abstract, diagrams, tables and references.
- Please include a 50 words biography with your submission.
References
[1] Pollitt, C. (2009). Bureaucracies remember, post-bureaucratic organizations forget? Public Administration, 87: 201
[2] Dikert, K., Paasivaara, M. and Lassenius, C., 2016. Challenges and success factors for large-scale agile transformations: A systematic literature review. Journal of Systems and Software, 119, pp.87-108.
[3] Salem, F. (2006). Exploring E-Government Barriers in the Arab States Policy Briefs Series (Vol. 2). Dubai: Dubai School of Government, The Dubai Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School. Available at: www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/DSGeGOVBRIEF_egov_fadi.pdf
[4] Heeks, R. 2003. ‘Most eGovernment-for-Development Projects Fail: How Can Risks be Reduced? iGovernment Working Paper Series, Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, Manchester, U.K., http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/NISPAcee/UNPAN015488.pdf . Accessed July 19, 2019.
[5] Dunleavy, P. and Margetts, H.. 2010. The second wave of digital era governance. Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Conference, Washington September 4 (unpublished). Available: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27684/1/The_second_wave_of_digital_era_governance_%28LSERO%29.pdf (accessed July 19, 2019): 29.
[6] O.E.C.D. (2015). Acheiving Public Sector Agility in Times of Fiscal Consolidation. See paper by Doz and Kosonen (2008)
[7]." Kruchten, P., 2011). Contextualizing agile software development. J. Softw. Evol. Process 11. doi:10.1002/smr
[8] Stephens, M., Spraggon, M., and Vammalle, C. (2019)[8], Agile Government Policy Paper, No. 13.
[9] Wilkinson, A (1976). Teaching a Hippo to Dance. The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol. 33, No. 1 (Winter, 2009), pp. 59-62
P. 60; Mergel, I., 2016. Agile innovation management in government: A research agenda. Government Information Quarterly, 33(3), pp.516-523.
[10] Luna, A.J.D.O., Kruchten, P., Pedrosa, M.L.D.E., Neto, H.R. and de Moura, H.P., 2014. State of the art of agile governance: a systematic review. arXiv preprint arXiv:1411.1922.
[11] B.C.G. report (2017): The Smart and Simple way to empower the public sector: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/smart-and-simple-way-to-empower-the-public-sector.aspx
[12] Sayani, H., & Salem, F. (Eds.). (2019). Accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals through Digital Transformation (Vol. 3). Dubai: Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (3rd UAE Public Policy Forum 2019). Available at: https://www.uaepublicpolicyforum.ae/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Proceedings_3rd_UAE_Public_Policy_Forum.pdf
[13] N.E.S.T.A., D.I.Y., Available: https://diytoolkit.org
[14] Shockley, G.E., Stough, R.R., Haynes, K.E. and Frank, P.M., 2006. Toward a theory of public sector entrepreneurship. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 6(3), pp.218.
[15] Sundbo, J., 1998. The theory of innovation: entrepreneurs, technology and strategy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
[16] Dhliwayo, S. (2017). "Defining public sector entrepreneurship: a conceptual operational construct", The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Vol. 18, No. 3, 153-163.
[17] Sutcliffe, S. and Court, J. (2005), Evidence-Based Policymaking: What is it? How does it work? What relevance for developing countries?, ODI, https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/3683.pdf
[18] Pina, V., Torres, L. and Royo, S., 2009
[19] Spicer, N., Bhattacharya, D., Dimka, R., Fanta, F., Mangham-Jefferies, L., Schellenberg, J., Tamire-Woldemariam, A., Walt, G. and Wickremasinghe, D., 2014. ‘Scaling-up is a craft not a science’: Catalysing scale-up of health innovations in Ethiopia, India and Nigeria. Social science & medicine, 121, pp.30-38.
[20] Denning, S., 2013. Why Agile can be a game changer for managing continuous innovation in many industries. Strategy & leadership, 41(2), pp.5-11.
[21] Syed-Abdullah, S., Holcombe, M., & Gheorge, M. (2006). The impact of an agile methodology on the well being of development teams. Empirical Software Engineering, 11(1), 143-167; Whitworth, E., & Biddle, R. (2007, August). The social nature of agile teams. In Agile 2007 (AGILE 2007) (pp. 26-36). IEEE
[22]
[23] Wilson and Doz, Y. 2011. Agile Innovation: A Footprint Balancing Distance and Immersion. California Management Review 53 (2): 6-26.
[24] M. Hummel, A. Epp, "Success Factors of Agile Information Systems Development: A Qualitative Study," in 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Science (H.I.C.C.S.), pp. 5045-5054, A.C.M., 2015
[25] Küpper, S., Kuhrmann, M., Wiatrok, M., Andelfinger, U. and Rausch, A., 2017. Is There a Blueprint for Building an Agile Culture?. In Vorgehensmodelle (pp. 111-128).
[26] Westrum, R., 2017. A typology of resilience situations. In Resilience engineering (pp. 55-65). C.R.C. Press.
[27] Goodin, R. E., editor. 1996. The theory of institutional design. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
[28] Janowski, T. (2015). Digital government evolution: From transformation to contextualization. Government Information Quarterly, Volume 32, Issue 3, July 2015, Pages 221–236,
[29] Luna-Reyes, L. F., & Gil-Garcia, J. R. (2014). Digital government transformation and internet portals: The co-evolution of technology, organizations, and institutions. Government information quarterly, 31(4), 545-555.
[30] Fountain, J. E. (2019). The Wicked Nature of Digital Transformation: A Policy Perspective. Dubai Policy Review, 1, 40.
[31] Salem, F. (2017). Digital Transformations and Societal Trends in the Age of the 4th Industrial Revolution., The Arab World Online Series (Vol. 3). Dubai: Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government.
[32] Calo, R., 2017. Artificial Intelligence policy: a primer and roadmap. U.C.D.L. Rev., 51, p.399.
[33] Kauffman, S.A. (2000) Investigations (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
[34] Johnson, S., 2015. How we got to now: Six innovations that made the modern world. Riverhead books.
[35] Urlings P. Human–machine teaming. PhD thesis, University of South Australia, Adelaide, 2004