Strengthening Public Sector Capacity: ProInnovate and IIPP launch new Applied Learning Programme

IIPP and ProInnovate have launched an applied learning programme aimed at empowering 13 Peruvian public organisations to drive innovation in the public sector by building capacity among public sector professionals.

By fostering partnerships with tech companies and other actors in the innovation ecosystem, the programme launched by IIPP and ProInnovate addresses critical societal challenges. It focuses on building public sector capabilities, drawing on IIPP’s extensive expertise in sustainable and systemic change to enable impactful and transformative solutions. 

This initiative is part of the Public Innovation Challenges Competition, a groundbreaking challenge-driven innovation grant programme, co-designed with IIPP in a previous applied learning programme last year, to tackle critical societal issues with Peru’s innovation ecosystem.  
Challenge-driven approaches, like this programme, represent a shift in public policy design. Unlike traditional horizontal or vertical approaches, these instruments tackle systemic societal issues while driving economic directionality. Lessons from similar initiatives in the LAC region—such as ANII’s rural education solutions in Uruguay and CORFO’s precision irrigation technologies in Chile—highlight the transformative potential of targeted funding and collaboration.  
 

Led by Prof. Rainer Kattel and Senior Policy Designer Manuel Maldonado, with contributions from IIPP Faculty—including Prof. Mariana Mazzucato, Prof. Carlota Perez, Prof. Gabriella Gomez-Mont, and Prof. Kate Roll—and co-designed and supported by IIPP Applied Learning team Bridget Gildea and Simangaliso Mpofu, the programme aims to equip civil servants from 13 public organisations with the tools to develop robust theories of change and translate these into actionable projects. The challenges tackled span diverse areas, such as integrating local communities into the tourism value chain, recovering barren land for productive use, ensuring access to justice for indigenous communities, reducing toxic contamination in drinking water, detecting counterfeit medicine, and improving sustainable fisheries in the Amazon. 
This initiative builds on the groundwork laid during IIPP’s collaboration with ProInnovate in 2023, where Peru’s first challenge-driven innovation grant programme was designed. Now in its operational phase, the programme invites public organisations to submit challenges to be tackled with the innovation ecosystem. Out of the thirteen organisations participants, four will be selected to each receive approximately $230,000 to collaborate with innovators over a year, turning challenges into impactful solutions. 
 

A two-day workshop in Lima, held on December 2–3, brought together representatives from national, regional, and local government entities to tackle complex societal challenges. The workshop guided participants in understanding their problems, mapping the systems they operate within, identifying key actors, defining their challenges, pinpointing leverage points, and translating these insights into actionable projects. 
Participants engaged in co-creating their challenges, leveraging key components while fostering peer-to-peer feedback and learning. This collaborative approach emphasizes that no single blueprint can address systemic issues effectively. Instead, solutions must be co-designed, iteratively developed, and adapted to evolving contexts. 

The workshop underscored the importance of experimentation, learning, and iteration in challenge-driven innovation. This approach promotes a flexible roadmap—rather than a rigid plan—to guide actions toward impactful, sustainable solutions. By rethinking both the goals and the means of system transformation, participants were equipped to drive meaningful change through innovation and collaboration. 
This applied learning programme demonstrates IIPP’s commitment to bridging the gap between theory and practice through Practice-Based Theorising. By leveraging IIPP’s research on public value, grand challenges, systems change, and creative bureaucracies, the initiative fosters collaboration between academics and policymakers. These tailored programmes aim to accelerate real-world transformation, empowering public sector leaders to address complex challenges sustainably. 
As the programme continues, it represents not only a step forward for Peru’s innovation ecosystem but also a model for how public sector-led innovation can address critical societal issues globally. 


IIPP Deputy Director, Prof. Rainer Kattel said: 

It has been a great pleasure to collaborate with Proinnovate over the past year, and this particular programme on public challenges shows how important it is that innovation agencies engage with a wide range of societal challenges. Innovation agencies can be at the heart of cross-sectoral efforts to tackle climate change and social justice, and it has been brilliant to see how invested the teams from Peru have been

Executive Director of ProInnóvate, Alejandro Afuso said: 

We congratulate the participating public entities for their commitment to innovation in improving government services. Through the Public Innovation Challenges contest by ProInnóvate, we promote innovative solutions in collaboration with international experts like Professor Rainer Kattel from UCL. This bootcamp is a crucial step in identifying and formulating public challenges, strengthening the technical and operational capacities of public servants. PRODUCE is allocating over S/ 3.5 million to co-finance innovative solutions, fostering collaboration between public institutions and SMEs. Together, we are working to deliver high-quality public services that benefit all Peruvians.

---