Fostering innovation in public services: illustrations from Pakistan

Abstract

The reform trajectories in developing countries like Pakistan have significantly evolved over the past few decades. Public sector innovation has been linked with the reform movements that have transitioned from Traditional Public Administration to New Public Management, and later to New Public Governance. With recent trends like e-governance, collaboration and networks, the reform landscape has witnessed changes in structure and form of governments, ultimately influencing the public service. This chapter discusses three illustrative examples of public sector innovation in Pakistan. The first section discusses reforms and innovations based on the existing literature. The second section presents three examples: Pakistan Education Foundation, Pakistan Citizen Portal and Ehsaas Framework. These examples indicate that public sector innovation in Pakistan has mainly espoused collaborative innovation, citizen engagement and digital innovation. The final section discusses these innovations and concludes that innovative reform practices are hybrid in nature showing mixed characteristics of all three reform movements.