- New era of global public health partnerships emerging post-pandemic in response to the need for better health preparedness
- Public expectations for integrated services spurring demand for connected government agencies, fueled by data and advanced technologies
- Digital divide being addressed to help disadvantaged populations access services and social care
- Social care leaders adopting human-centered mindset to design and deliver more holistic “wraparound” support
Deloitte Global has released its Government Trends 2022 report, which identifies the leading 10 most transformational trends in the public sector today. The report has a strong focus on how governments are striving to become future-ready in a post-pandemic era.
“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to present unique challenges for governments—mainly a health crisis combined with economic disruption and unprecedented demands for social support,” says Shargil Ahmad, Partner, Consulting, Deloitte Middle East. “Even so, governments are focused on transforming for the future to better respond to both crises and everyday needs alike.”
Resilience, connectivity, inclusion
This year’s trends are grouped within three themes that have emerged across the public sector in response to the pandemic and other major shifts:
Building resilience: Governments are cultivating the ability to successfully respond to disruptive events and trends, including:
- Climate-resilient government: Climate resilience has risen to the top of government leaders’ agendas, who are increasingly linking climate action to their mission. More and more government agencies, even those not directly linked to the environment, are making climate a priority.
- Reshoring and “friend-shoring” supply chains: Supply chain problems are creating shortages for both suppliers and consumers. Governments are encouraging the reshoring of critical supply chains to reduce external dependencies. Where reshoring is not possible, nations are “friend-shoring” by creating a network of trusted suppliers from friendly countries.
- Future-proofing the labor force: The pandemic and exponential technological advances are constantly altering the labor landscape, widening the skills mismatch and demand-supply gap for specific jobs. Governments are trying to bring labor policies in line with this new economic reality, including changes to education, skills training, credentialing, and employment frameworks.
Connected for greater value: Governments are arranging agency structures around “problems” rather than departmental boundaries, allowing them to better respond to complex societal matters.
- Linked up government: Silos within and between agencies administering government programs have long been obstacles to addressing problems, delivering services, and achieving collective results. Governments are now creating interagency structures that break down silos and connect government agencies to respond to citizen needs.
- Data-fueled government: Effective data-sharing requires underlying infrastructure such as cloud and advanced data management tools. As agencies that lack these tools struggle to catch up, those that do use collaboration derive greater benefits from shared data.
- Government as catalyst: Rather than attempting to do all the heavy lifting, governments can catalyze innovation—serving as enabler, funder, convenor, or ecosystem integrator. Governments are accelerating solutions by linking external innovation capabilities to public problem solvers or by advancing next-generation technologies.
- New era of global public health partnerships: The pandemic showed how interconnection can help develop a collective and coordinated response to a crisis. More and more governments are collaborating with international organizations to develop early warning capabilities, accelerate scientific research and development, and build health capacities in less developed nations.
Government for all the people: The pandemic has shone a spotlight on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Leaders are seeking ways to address digital divides as well as reimagine social care programs.
- Digital access for all: The use of remote work, virtual classes, telehealth and other digital tools during the pandemic focused attention on the digital divide and equity issue. In response, governments are improving availability, affordability, and adoption to bridge that divide.
- Designing for inclusive engagement: Government’s ability to cut through the noise and deliver accurate, important messages to the people who need them is crucial to the success of public sector programs. Governments are now focusing on how to engage marginalized communities and how to use new mediums.
- Reimagining social care: The pandemic has compelled governments to re-examine how they provide equitable, seamless, and effective social care services. Now, social care leaders are increasingly integrating data across multiple sources to develop early interventions, adopting a human-centered mindset to design and deliver programs.
About the trends
To be included in the report, trends must be evident in governments around the world as well as have relevance in governments and economies of various sizes. Each trend must also have moved beyond experimentation but should still be emerging rather than a universal practice.
“With the upheaval of the pandemic also came insight into a range of challenges society has been and may be facing,” says Ahmad. “Being ahead of the curve and understanding what trends are shaping the public sector is critical to building strong, resilient governments going forward.”
