Institutional innovation and institutional design start to garner media attention

| By | News

The idea that societies should build new or update old public-benefit institutions to reflect ever-evolving needs is gaining traction. Societies have always built new institutions, but the design aspect has often been treated as synonymous with policy. However, institutions are more than policy—they breathe life into issues in structural and systemic ways that policy alone cannot always address.

We are writing this in March 2025, as we gear up for the first and largest collective effort to explore innovative institutional forms at the UNDP’s Istanbul Innovation Days. In the lead-up to this global initiative, institutional design is beginning to gain recognition as a key lever for long-lasting change.

Here are some additional reading materials from the past month:

From Taiwan’s open-source democracy platforms to Finland’s experimental approach to social policy, the time has come to renew public institutions—or build new ones. In this piece, Sir Geoff Mulgan highlights how traditional institutions are struggling to adapt to declining trust, funding constraints, and geopolitical fragmentation. While figures like Trump and Musk fuel skepticism, the deeper issue is structural inertia. Mulgan calls for a new generation of institutions—agile, experimental, and responsive to today’s complex challenges. (Also reposted in Jakarta Post.)

In its flagship newsletter, POLITICO author John Johnston, spoke to Aleš Cap, who co-authored a white paper for TIAL around “Safeguarding Elections in the Age of AI” with Sir Geoff Mulgan. AI-generated disinformation is evolving fast, becoming cheaper, harder to detect, and more effective at manipulating public perception. The rise of AI influencers, like Germany’s Larissa Wagner, shows how fake yet human-like accounts can amplify misinformation effortlessly. The challenge isn’t just detecting falsehoods but establishing institutions capable of responding transparently and decisively. Without clear ownership and accountability, democracies risk paralysis—where everyone points fingers, but no one takes action.

Public procurement is failing to keep pace with AI and emerging technologies, risking institutional obsolescence. In this Civil Service World piece, Leonardo Quattrucci and Sir Geoff Mulgan argue that rigid, compliance-driven systems stifle innovation and favour incumbents over startups. Referencing insights from TIAL’s white paper on a Well-Architected Framework for Procurement , they call for procurement to become a strategic function—adaptive, dynamic, and capable of equipping governments with the tools they need to serve society effectively.

If you are interested in shaping the stories we tell ourselves about our institutions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.