The Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), through its Productivity and Development Center, conducted the first run of the Masterclass on Public Sector Productivity (PSP) Innovation Laboratory last April 11 with 40 participants from 18 government agencies.

The masterclass is a halfday session that aims to generate awareness and appreciation of improving ease of doing business and delivery of government services among the management, key officers and staff of government agencies.

The session included discussions on the basic concepts, principles and tools in the Co-Creation Innovation Process, the crucial role of the innovation teams in promoting innovation and in implementing of innovative solutions in the agency, and sharing of experiences, best practices as well as results of innovation projects among previous program beneficiary agencies.

DAP Project Officer Racquel Barbecho, the resource person of the masterclass, highlighted the need for innovation in the government to improve the delivery of public services in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Jose Reynaldo Lunas of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) shared their experience as a partner agency of the PSP Innovation Laboratory. He said that the MMDA developed an innovation project, MMDA Lab Hub, that aimed to strengthen its information drive on traffic related projects, programs and policies, to establish proactive monitoring of stakeholders’ feedback and to improve stakeholders’ involvement in traffic policies development through the PSP Innovation Laboratory.

Lunas further shared that the MMDA Lab Hub sought to ensure the support of the concerned stakeholders’ in traffic policy formulation, education, and enforcement which shall result in an improved traffic condition in Metro Manila. Its key features include audio-visual presentations (AVP), Alam Nyo Ba – Traffic Trivia, traffic solution contest, polls/survey on traffic policies, and traffic information campaign.

One of the participants, Director Mary Grace Cruz-Yap of the Intellectual Property Office said that the masterclass enabled the attendees to realize that people who work for the government should not be limited by their job titles and designations in exploring innovation.  Thus, they should get out of their comfort zones and ignore self-imposed restrictions to unleash the potential and ignite the drive in each person to be innovative.

The attendees came from various government agencies including the Bureau of Plant Industry, City Government of Makati, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Education, Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Department of Foreign Affairs, Development Bank of the Philippines, House of Representatives, Intellectual Property Office, Mango System, National Parks Development Committee, Home Development Mutual Fund, Philippine Science High School, Privatization and Management Office, National Bureau of Investigation, MMDA,, and the Department of Science and Technology.

The PSP Innovation Laboratory is a program designed and implemented by the DAP since 2016 which aims to contribute to enhancing citizen satisfaction, improving government efficiency, and strengthening public sector innovation. It has five program components: the masterclass, boot camp, incubation, acceleration, and advocacy. To date, there are about 16 agencies that were assisted by the DAP in developing innovation projects for their respective agencies.