MANIFESTO

A business-as-usual approach can never be the answer to a period of dramatic transformation. Our societies need support. To this end: Good government matters! Bureaucracy is not everything, yet little can be achieved without it. Public administration promotes and protects public welfare and the common good – and deserves greater appreciation for it.

We are committed to a strong public sector and want to unleash the hidden and untapped potential within public administrations. We offer a platform to the multitude of unsung heroes across the globe, and put new ideas in the spotlight.

Bureaucracies that feel more competent and confident to tackle the big social, economic and political challenges of our time – that is what we want to support. To do so we ask ourselves the following questions:

• What incentives and regulations are needed?
• How can we enrich bureaucracies and empower the people working within them?
• How can the relationship to civil society and businesses be rethought?

An imaginative, adaptive, agile, accountable and trustworthy public administration becomes the backbone of a future-oriented society that is capable of tackling the impact of a global pandemic, climate change and the digitising world head on. This requires organisational structures and cultures that are open-minded and solution-oriented – moving from ‘no, because’ to ‘yes, if’!

The Creative Bureaucracy Festival brings together creative bureaucrats and their allies at all levels, aiming to build a movement with international partners who support the idea of positively transforming our public institutions – and help to make it happen.