Public Administration and the Impact Economy

* Article: Public Administration and the Impact Economy.

URL = http://www.publicadministration.net/

In the following article, we detail how public administrators from mayors, to venture philanthropists and policy makers could very well be the future of social innovation.

Excerpt

"As the impact economy takes shape, public policy will play a pivotal role in accelerating is evolution. Indeed, this infant institutionalized impact economy is a product of national legislation. Public policy makers will and must deepen the legal framework born from the Serve America Act to ensure the impact economy can realize its full potential. It is up to policy makers to pave the clearest path possible for the private sector to work as efficiently as possible. This will include writing clear, efficient policy that removes hampering barriers to the process of social innovation.

Policy makers will also have the opportunity to add programs into the mix. Since its birth in 2009, the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) has expanded yearly, tackling more and more problems. Through reliance on data and results driven approaches, policy makers can identify problems and their potential solutions made available by impact markets. In this way, policy makers can expand the umbrella of the SIF and create new social impact markets.

See: http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/nonprofit-philanthropy/Impact-Economy-Initiative/about-iei

Government on the local, state, and national scale is starved of innovation, especially when it comes to social endeavors. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the nation is straining beneath the weight of its social issues, from unemployment and poverty to environmental degradation. As the social innovation movement races forward, it is time that public officials became reinvigorated with the spirit of innovation and invention. This calls for a new class of public administrator who brings the private sector’s ‘how can I make it better’ motto to every problem faced. A pioneering member of this new class is Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City. He has leveraged the Mayors Fund to affect much celebrated change in obesity reduction in schools, betterment of the environment, and more. One recent study found that as a result of efforts executed by present and past mayors, New York City has one of the highest life expectancies in the country. Other mayors across the country have been working hard towards creative solutions, such as Mayor Annise Parker of Houston.

The results of their innovative approaches and pioneering attitudes is twofold. First: the spotlight of innovation in government has turned to city governments everywhere. Second: They show that local government innovation is amazingly powerful and possible. It takes but one innovator to make such change.

Public Administrators — whether non-profit executives, or policymakers — have the power to open the door, pave the way, and drive the car of social innovation in America. Social entrepreneurs will continue to be major contributors to social innovation. But the role philanthropies, nonprofits and government can play continues to unfold daily. If the estimates are correct, social innovation is the next frontier. Public administrators need only to punch the gas." (http://www.publicadministration.net/)