The Governance Innovation Case Study Series

What are the challenges, opportunities, and decision making tradeoffs that bureaucrats face when designing public sector innovations within resource-constrained governments? Over the winter 2022 and summer 2023, MIT GOV/LAB’s Governance Innovation Initiative worked with six graduate student fellows and various public sector innovation labs, agencies, and other actors in the Global South to co-produce practitioner-friendly case studies that illuminate context-specific innovations. The first pilot case was researched by Mariama N’Diaye, as part of her MIT Morningside Academy for Design Fellowship with the MIT GOV/LAB, while the first cohort of summer research fellows were launched in collaboration with Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center (PKG) and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI).

You can find the case studied chronicled on our Medium site, or as downloadable PDF links.  New case studies will be released throughout Fall 2023, so check back for more soon.

[Case Study 1: Sierra Leone] Whole-of-Government Innovation in Sierra Leone: The Challenges to user-Centered Design in Government Innovation Case Researcher-Writer: Mariama N’Diaye, MBA and Masters’ Candidate in Urban Planning 

[Case Study 2: Kenya] Market and People Solutions to Access and Accountability: The eCitizen story in Kenya Case Researcher-Writer: Deepika Raman, Masters’ Candidate at MIT’s Technology and Policy Program (TPP)

Header photo by Carlos Centeno.