Social Innovation for Public Service Excellence

This discussion paper provides an introduction to the philosophical underpinnings of social innovation, and an overview of some of the more important methods, approaches and trends being employed around the world to contribute to the development of public policies and the delivery of public services. It includes initiatives emanating from within and outside government, and provides nearly 100 examples of social innovation methods and references to key research papers. Though inevitably partial given the global scope and emergent nature of the field of social innovation, this paper does discuss in detail the routes as well as the concerns in order to achieve social innovation. The primary audience for this paper are reflective practitioners and policymakers in low- to middle-income countries, especially in South-East Asia. Many examples in this paper were drawn from such countries and are therefore directly relevant to the target audience. Also included are examples from high-income countries, where current ‘state-of-the-art’ and more mature social innovation systems are most found.