Case and Materials

“You Have One Hundred Days”: Accelerating Government Performance in the UAE

Authors Fernando Fernandez-Monge, Jorrit de Jong, Warren Dent

Last Updated
May 19, 2020
Topic
Innovation
Location
Asia

Overview

Facing slow progress on critical public health and traffic safety issues, the United Arab Emirates introduced Government Accelerators, a bold initiative that convened government, private sector, and academic experts to address some of the country’s biggest challenges.

The catch? They only had 100 days to deliver results.

Read this case study to learn more about the initiative, including streamlining the process of obtaining legal documents for newborns and reducing traffic accidents by 60% within two years.

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Introduction

In the fall of 2016, the state government of the United Arab Emirates decided to take a new approach to spur floundering projects toward faster results.

Frustrated with slow progress on key issues like public health and traffic safety, the state launched a new program to accelerate change and enhance performance across government agencies. The innovative program, called Government Accelerators, ran 100-day challenges—intense periods of action where “acceleration” teams of frontline staff worked across agency boundaries to tackle pressing problems. This case illustrates how three teams were chosen to participate in the program, and how, in the 100-day timeframe, they worked toward clear and ambitious goals that would impact citizens’ lives.

The case aims to raise discussion about different types of public sector innovation, to explain the approach and methodology of the Government Accelerators, and to analyze the conditions under which a similar tool might work in other cities.

Thanks to a gift from Bloomberg Philanthropies, no permission is required to teach with, download, or make copies of this case.

Learning Objectives

Examine, compare, and contrast methods to promote and sustain innovation and continuous improvement in government.

Identify the conditions required to launch and make Government Accelerators thrive.

Discuss the pros and cons of using 100-day challenges for public sector innovation.

Identify the drivers of success for teams participating in 100-day challenges and the lessons learned by the Government Accelerators team from these experiences.