The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic happened suddenly and governments, with few exceptions, had no previous benchmark or experience to rely on. They had to introduce measures to contain the spread of the virus, flatten the curve of those infected and make sure that healthcare facilities would not be overwhelmed. Apart from these measures, countries also needed to adjust the functioning of their public governance systems. We discussed this issue with several experts from the public administration sector. Check out their responses below.
What exactly have been the impacts of COVID-19 on public administration?
“The regional and local impact of the COVID-19 crisis is highly heterogeneous, with significant implications for crisis management and public policy responses. However, we could identify two main trends. On the health front, many countries are adopting differentiated territorial or local approaches. On the socio-economic front, governments are providing massive fiscal support to protect firms, households, and vulnerable populations. Many governments announced large investment recovery packages – already much larger than those adopted in 2008 – focusing on public investment and the digitalization of public administration. Such digital solutions encompass, among others, mobile applications, online portals, online platforms, informative chatbots, and repositories. Met with great user demand, the implementation and maintenance of these digital solutions highlighted the crucial role of agile and secure IT infrastructures. Furthermore, it emphasized the need for interoperability among systems and administrations. These changes will have a positive impact on the digital transformation of the public sector for job creation and indirectly to economic growth.”
“The coronavirus pandemic has changed life to what we now call the “new normal” so public administration has had to design policies and regulations to combat COVID-19 and implement strategies for the service of citizens and in many countries, they have responded to learning from trial and error. The health emergency generated new and unthinkable challenges to which public administration has had to adapt since the State must mitigate not only the health crisis, but also the economic one, so there is enormous pressure on local and national governments to respond to the needs and demands of citizens, and for them it is necessary to evaluate the institutional capacity and efficient management of resources. From this perspective, there are some relevant aspects for the State and public administration: a) The State-citizenship relationship, b) Telework (work at home) and the provision of quality and timely public services, c) development of information technologies and open government and public innovation, generation of learning, good practices, knowledge and the reform of the State.”
“The COVID-19 crisis has forced governments and firms to act quickly and decisively to find new ways of working and mitigate the risks to lives and livelihoods. This shift has prompted greater collaboration with established partners and the forging of new partnerships, especially between governments and the private sector. Public services and agencies are mobilizing and collaborating across agency mandates to contain the spread of the virus and save lives. Core public services are rapidly accelerating digitization. Governments are distributing record sums of money to households and businesses to safeguard livelihoods and significantly increasing deficits to fund relief and stimulus efforts. Within these responses to the crisis, we have seen best practices—along with the signs and seeds of the next delivery of practices and operations—on display across various sectors and geographies. Governments have proved to themselves and others how to adapt and innovate to address a major crisis. Now is the time to shape more resilient societies and build more resilient governments, supported by the revitalization of the core capabilities of the public sector. Seizing this opportunity requires a fundamental rethink of how governments work. There is a historic opportunity to build on the progress made in the short period of dealing with the pandemic and deepen the convergence of corporate purpose and the public sector’s focus on broader societal well-being.”
“In relation to public administrations, “a new era” in telecommunicating with the public has emerged. The public has been served through phone calls and inter-connectivity, access via online tools, platforms, emails, secure mobile apps, and chat boxes. Communication has gradually become paperless and at many instances, the public has been better served as the “bureaucracy and administrative burdens” have either been reduced or disappeared. The paperless and flexible format combined with a human-centric approach has contributed to not only serving the public better but also faster and targeted to its needs. Towards, this end, COVID-19 transformed “unconsciously” the life of both public administrators and citizens from old-fashioned and traditional administrative societies to revitalized, modern ones. Employees working within national and European public administrations started to collaborate, coordinate and exchange ideas with each other via diverse available video and web conferencing tools (e.g. Skype, Skype for business, WebEx, Zoom, Click, Eventbrite, Teams, etc.) that nobody would have ever imagined their value so great as today. At the same time, the pandemic gave challenges that national governments are nowadays required to better address such as lengthy working hours and overtime as well as the conciliation of professional, family, and private life. COVID-19 has definitely accelerated improvements in the public administration, which would have taken for some administrations long periods to become implemented under normal circumstances. Let us hope that public administrations will build upon their lessons learnt from this health crisis and will uptake and maintain what would be important and relevant for their citizens.”
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