The “Agile Journey” at the World Bank

Background.  The case study summarized below is the latest in a series of cases available at the NAPA Agile Government Center.  The mission of the Agile Government Center is three-fold:

Agile Government and Agile Governance: We Need both

The new Agile Government Center (AGC) at the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) is off and running -- building a network of interested stakeholders in government, academia and industry; refining principles for how governments can apply agility in their daily activities; and developing case examples of government programs that demonstrate agile in action.  As we expand this work, a key question has arisen around clarifying the distinction between agil

Defining Agile Government

Others have developed guides for agile organizational transformation and are assisting in its implementation.  Governments around the world have begun to leverage this progress, similarly adopting agile principles to transform their organizations. 

Recently, a colleague asked me, “What is Agile Government?”  I didn’t have a concise answer ready.  The quote below contains the National Academy of Public Administration’s current definition of Agile Government.  In fact, the precise definition of what constitutes Agile Government is currently evolving in many venues around the globe. 

Mobilizing Capital Investment to Modernize Government

Many governments around the world seek ways to serve their constituents and carry out their missions more effectively and with greater efficiency. This imperative takes on even greater import as emerging technology and business paradigms raise expectations from the public and enable new channels of collaboration between government and industry.

An Agile “Tipping Point” for Governments?

In the United States, trust in government at all levels and in all branches is at extremely low levels.  Almost two-thirds of those polled by Gallup in January 2019 indicated that they had little or no trust in the federal government’s ability to handle domestic problems.  In similar domestic Gallup surveys, state and local governments fared little better, and global Gallup results show that declining trust in government is an international phenomenon.

G. Edward DeSeve

G. Edward DeSeve is the Coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration and an Executive Visiting Fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government.

Enhancing the Government’s Decision-Making

Incoming leaders in the White House and across federal agencies will be flooded with information, advice and suggestions for new programs and priorities. They will face an urgency to act, especially on presidential priorities and budget choices. Unrelenting demands will arise around important day-to-day decisions on personnel actions, contracting, grants and regulatory issues.

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Coordinator of the Agile Government Center
National Academy of Public Administration
United States
(215) 692-7357

G. Edward DeSeve is the Coordinator of the Agile Government Center at the National Academy of Public Administration and an Executive Visiting Fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government.

DeSeve has served at all three levels of government and in the private sector. At the federal level, he was a Special Advisor to President Barack Obama charged with implementing the $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He was also Deputy Director for Management and Controller at the Offce of Management and Budget and Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

At the state and local levels he was a Special Assistant to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Director of Finance for the City of Philadelphia. In the private sector, he was a managing director at Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and the founder and president of Public Financial Management—the nation’s largest independent financial advisor to government.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University a Master of Public Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.