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‘If we’re not representative, why would people trust us?’: GGF’s latest Leading Questions podcast with Canada’s recently retired head of public service accessibility, Yazmine Laroche
Global Government Forum’s new podcast is out, featuring Yazmine Laroche who retired from the Canadian Public Service after three decades in a wide variety of roles – latterly as deputy minister of public service accessibility – in June this year. In this episode Yazmine speaks with compelling honestly about the three main challenges of her…
Always a fresh crisis: building a resilient civil service
Even in the depths of a major crisis, national governments must keep watching the horizon for the next looming threat. At the 2021 Global Government Summit, top officials from 13 countries debated how the world will change in the wake of the pandemic – and how civil services can stay one step ahead. Elaine Knutt…
Singapore chief on the biggest challenges facing civil servants: learning pace and earning faith
Many civil servants responded to the pandemic with enormous speed and innovation – and their populations noticed, said Singapore Civil Service Head Leo Yip at the opening session of the 2021 Global Government Summit. The challenge now is how to hang onto those gains. Elaine Knutt reports “We have been going through a test of…
Leading Questions podcast: civil service leaders share what they learned from their time at the top
From working with ministers to managing personal resilience, every episode a current or former senior civil servant reflects candidly on the challenges they have faced in their career and what they learned from them How to get the right skills mix for modern government Governments around the world are all faced with meeting skills gaps…
How to embed the agility and pace seen during the pandemic response in governments
At a recent webinar, senior civil servants from the UK, Canada and Finland discussed where operational cultures could change after the pandemic, and where there could be a reversion to old thinking Around the world, civil servants are sharing stories of against-the-clock IT development, unprecedented collaboration across departmental boundaries, and hastily assembled project teams launching…
Five big thoughts on 2020: the year’s best interviews
It’s been a hell of a year – and one presenting huge challenges for civil servants around the world. Our interviews explore how senior leaders have faced those challenges: in this selection of highlights, interviewees present five very different perspectives on governments’ responses to the pandemic Policymakers talk of ‘building back better’ from the COVID-19…
Public leaders share their top priorities for civil service reform
From training to remuneration and culture change, senior officials from across the world discuss what’s on their agenda for change over the coming year This year was no ordinary year, with the public health crisis and economic havoc wreaked by COVID-19. So we wanted to understand what reforms senior leaders from governments are focusing on…
Asking the right questions: an interview with Canada’s stats chief, Anil Arora
When the pandemic struck, Canada’s stats agency was barred from doing doorstep surveys – just as agencies from across government came knocking in search of information. Its chief Anil Arora tells Mia Hunt how StatCan tapped into new sources of data COVID-19 robbed Canada’s statistics agency StatCan of its usual data collection methods – just…
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Discover independent research reports, surveys and in-depth studies from Global Government Forum and knowledge partners, exploring the most important issues facing governments and the public sector. Our research provides practical insights and evidence-based recommendations for senior civil servants, policymakers and public sector leaders. Our reports combine exclusive survey data, expert analysis and interviews with government leaders from around the world to help public sector organisations improve performance, inform policy and deliver better outcomes for citizens.
Empowering Public Servants to Make Confident, Informed Decisions with Data and AI
Governments around the world are working hard to extract – and act upon – the insights held in their vast data stores, and to embrace AI and the promise it holds for innovation and transformation. At the same time, economic pressures and constrained budgets are compelling public servants to do more with fewer resources, while governments are called to respond quickly and effectively to complex challenges.
Against this backdrop, data and AI can help those working in government both to streamline their workflows and make fast, informed decisions. This in turn drives efficiency and can unlock productivity gains – and ultimately lead to improved performance and better services for citizens.
Global Government Forum surveyed over 600 civil servants worldwide to understand how data and AI are being used in government decision-making and where there are further challenges and opportunities.
Read this report for insight into how governments are using data and AI in decision-making today and the potential for the future; the major challenges to using data and AI in decision-making and how to overcome them; and how AI agents can be used in decision-making.
The report includes examples of data and AI in decision-making from countries including the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Singapore, the US, and more.
(Published September 2025)
Making Government Work: Five Pillars of a Modern, Effective Civil Service
Around the world, governments are dealing with substantial challenges – from economic stagnation to the transition to net zero, military conflicts and cyber threats. Governments are also grappling with shifting geopolitics and the rise of populism – and all of these factors are set against the emergence of new technologies, including generative AI, which have the potential to fundamentally transform every aspect of society, but which also pose huge ethical, security and regulatory questions for the public sector.
The Making Government Work: Five pillars of a modern, effective civil service report was undertaken to help identify the key characteristics needed in a modern public service, with priorities ranging across leadership, digital service delivery, workforce development, cross-departmental integration, and citizen trust.
This report has been covered by publications around the world including the Financial Times, BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, Ottawa Citizen, Fed Manager, the Mandarin and the i newspaper.
(Published August 2024)
The Future of the Finance Ministry
From setting tax rates and financial regulations that create the ground rules for national economies, to allocating – and tracking – spending for public services, finance ministries occupy an essential role at the centre of government. Geopolitical crises have reinforced the importance of finance ministries, as they tackle both immediate shocks and long-term trends such as ageing populations, the digital transition, and the impact of moves to net zero.
Against this backdrop, this global research explores what the future finance ministry looks like and how to prepare for it.
Based on interviews with 10 senior leaders from finance ministries – led by John McCarthy, chief economist in Ireland’s Department of Finance, working with Ian Hall, editor, Global Government Finance, and Richard Johnstone, executive editor, Global Government Forum – the study identifies four key themes: the evolving role of the finance ministry in response to uncertainty; the shift to more flexible finance systems that support outcomes; digital transformation and the growth of AI; and the battle for talent and trust.
(Published May 2026)
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