During 2024, Population Council Guatemala, in partnership with Diálogos, contributed to the development and pilot testing of a Public Innovation Toolkit.
Why it Matters:
Recognizing that innovation in the public sector is often full of challenges, the collaboration focused on promoting collective ideation processes, guided by principles of user-centered design, experiential learning, sustainability, openness, and scalability.
Approach:
In 2024, the Population Council in Guatemala and Diálogos / Blombos Lab established a collaborative platform to foster open innovation ecosystems in Guatemala’s public sector. By critically adapting global innovation practices to the Guatemalan institutional context, the collaboration between Population Council and Dialogos / Blombos Lab seeks to strengthen public sector performance with a firm commitment to rigor, inclusiveness, and sustainable impact.
The Big Picture:
The toolkit testing and validation efforts were implemented within the framework of the Specific Cabinet for Economic Development (GABECO), a high-level, inter-institutional platform presided over by the Vice Presidency of the Guatemala and coordinated by the Ministry of Economy. GABECO seeks to coordinate and articulate public policies that foster economic growth, employment, infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and equitable wealth distribution. Inter-institutional technical roundtables convened under GABECO seek joint solutions to national economic challenges.
Throughout the toolkit, users follow a methodology that integrates divergent and convergent thinking processes to support both the exploration and validation of public policy solutions.
The pilot application of the toolkit within two of GABECO’s technical roundtables highlighted critical needs for structured guidance, enhanced collaboration, and an evidence-based approach to innovation within public sector institutions.
