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UCL IIPP and Barbados co-create programme to advance mission-driven government strategy

18 November 2024

IIPP collaborates with the Barbados government to build civil service capacity, advancing a mission-oriented strategy for inclusive and sustainable growth in the latest stage of their 2-year partnership.

(Prof. Mariana Mazzucato, Penelope Linton (Director General for HR), Mia Amor Mottley (Prime Minister of Barbados), and Donna Cadogan (Head of the Public Service)

The UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) delivered an Applied Learning programme aimed at enhancing the capacity of the Government of Barbados (GoB) and its civil service to effectively implement a mission-oriented strategy launched by the GoB in 2023. This is the latest stage in a 2-year partnership led by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and her team at IIPP, together with Prime Minister Mia Mottley and her Government, aimed at co-creating a new strategy for sustainable and inclusive growth in Barbados.

Over the last 18 months, Prof Mazzucato and her team at IIPP have worked with the government and the Social Partnership – a tripartite body comprised of government, industry and labour leaders – to identify challenges that could be turned into opportunities for investment and innovation. The resulting “missions” announced by the Social Partnership in May 2023 included:

  • By 2030, become a clean and beautiful large-ocean state, championing sustainable development locally and globally – with the goal of all domestic activities becoming 100% sustainable by 2035. 
  • By 2030, transform Barbados into a country of active, involved citizens. All Barbadians will feel empowered and engaged in the social, economic, and cultural development of the country as confident, creative, compassionate and entrepreneurial citizens.
  • By 2030, ensure that every Barbadian has equitable and reliable access to clean water and nutritious food that are affordable.
  • By 2030, create a society that prioritizes wellness and happiness. Improve public health and safety, leading to a 50% reduction in new cases of non-communicable diseases and a 50% reduction in crime.
  • By 2030, empower and enfranchise all Barbadian workers and families by creating opportunities for ownership and wealth creation that enable Barbadians to take better care of themselves and each other and reduce the rate of poverty by 50.
  • By 2030, transform Barbados to be a high-functioning, resilient society with seamless access to services and meaningful digital inclusion for all Barbadians.

To implement these missions, new ways of working are needed within and between government ministries and agencies, and between government, industry and labour actors. The applied learning programme, co-created and run with Barbados’ Ministry of Public Services and the Learning and Development Directorate, provided civil servants with skills and frameworks essential for advancing Barbados's transformative, mission-driven agenda. Through this initiative, IIPP and the GoB strengthened their collaborative efforts toward building a resilient and innovation-driven public sector capable of driving sustainable national progress.

This initiative, led by Prof. Mariana Mazzucato, with IIPP Faculty including Prof. Rainer Kattel, Prof. David Eaves, Prof Michael Bracken and Prof. Dan Hill, marked a pivotal milestone in the partnership between UCL IIPP and the Government of Barbados, extending IIPP’s mission-driven framework to develop expertise and foster a culture of innovation across the public sector.

The programme also included a deep dive into digital transformation, which the GoB sees as critical to ensure that its citizens experience seamless access to services and that policy decisions are informed by data. The GoB has made recent strides in shifting towards digital services, for example through the rollout of a new national identity card, but significant challenges remain. Prof Eaves and Prof Bracken led several sessions focused on digital capabilities and new ways of approaching citizen-centred design of digital services.

Overall, the hybrid applied learning course for 60 civil service leaders ran from June to November 2024, and provided a tailored, hands-on curriculum designed to equip Barbados’ senior officials with the skills essential for achieving the ambitious objectives outlined in the nation’s mission-oriented strategy. Central to its success was the co-creative approach taken under faculty leadership, with the Sarah Doyle and Luca Kuehn von Burgsdorff in the Director’s Office and Bridget Gildea and Simangaliso Mpofu in Applied Learning, working iteratively and in co-discovery, co-design and co-delivery ‘sprints’ with key collaborators in the GoB from the Ministry of Public Service, Donna Cadogan and Zimronn Andrews, and DG Penelope Linton, Fay-Marie Browne and Marie-Ann Wood in the Learning and Development Directorate.

At each stage of the programme’s inception, design and delivery, through both online phases and in the in-person capstone, multiple ways and means of sense checking and collaborative design were incorporated, to both ‘walk the talk’ on how to look at this kind of work in the 21st century and also to ensure that together, IIPP and the Government of Barbados were discovering the transformative potential of co-created learning programmes to empower state actors in delivering inclusive and sustainable development.

“The Government of Barbados is seeking to advance a transformative agenda that will diversify the Barbados economy and align its economic development with broader climate, health and inclusion goals. To ensure that its six missions are more than rhetorical devices, however, a parallel agenda of state transformation is needed. It is an honour to be working alongside Prime Minister Mottley and her government to explore the new ways of working and governing, new approaches to policy tools, public institutions, and partnerships, and dynamic capabilities that are needed to translate the government’s vision into reality.” -Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and Founding Director of UCL IIPP

Prof. Mike Bracken, Applied Learning Workshop.

The learning design approach encouraged participants to engage deeply with the material and apply innovative tools directly to real-world challenges within their governmental roles.

In addition to course sessions, targeted workshops including with practitioner collaborators from missions work undertaken with IIPP in Camden Council and Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services in Brazil, addressed specific challenges officials encountered in aligning their work with government priorities. Through interactive group work and problem-solving sessions, participants explored practical solutions and applied the lessons from the program to tackle pressing issues in policy and service delivery. This hands-on, collaborative structure not only facilitated skill-building but also fostered a cohesive approach to implementing systemic change within Barbados’ public sector.

A recurring topic throughout the sessions and workshops was Barbados’ water security challenges, including the increasing number and severity of droughts, slow groundwater recharge, and wasteful nonrevenue water (or leakages).

One of the government’s six missions aims to tackle the country’s food and water insecurity. The IIPP team used the trip to Barbados as an opportunity to meet with the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), which is responsible for water management on the island, to present the final report of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, which Prof Mazzucato co-chairs. One of the recommendations of the report is to adopt an all-of-government approach to develop and implement water missions. Water security challenges cannot be solved by the BWA alone, and require coordination with other ministries, including the Ministry of Transport, Works & Water Resources, Ministry of Tourism, and Ministry of Agriculture, to name a few.

Workshop exercise: Applied Learning Programme Barbados.

In addition to running the 3-day in-person applied learning programme, Prof Mazzucato addressed Barbados’ Social Partnership in a 2.5-hour session, speaking about the challenges and opportunities inherent in shifting to a more reciprocal, collaborative relationship between government, industry and labour. She emphasized the potential for the government to use the various tools at its disposal to turn its missions into mission-aligned market opportunities for businesses, and to design partnerships oriented around shared goals that produce shared value. Prof Mazzucato engaged Social Partnership members in a discussion about how to advance an industrial strategy that will catalyse investment and innovation oriented around Barbados’ missions.

Prof Mazzucato also met with Prime Minister Mottley to discuss next steps, including related to mission governance, and Prof Mazzucato and Prof Bracken addressed the Cabinet Ministers, sharing insights on mission implementation and digital transformation.

Prof. Mazzucato presents to the Social Partnership.

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