The Environment Act 1986 established the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), which is the primary adviser of the New Zealand Government on environmental matters. The purpose statement for the MfE is “A flourishing environment for every generation – He taiao tōnui mō ngā reanga katoa [te reo version, the indigenous language of the Māori people].
MfE is actively engaged in reducing waste across the country, as illustrated by the recent Aotearoa New Zealand Waste Strategy. To lead by…
Country: New Zealand
In New Zealand, a new unit in the Ministry for the Environment / Manatū Mō Te Taiao was set up. This new unit was a deliberate decision to focus on behavioural science, systems thinking, design thinking and human system-dynamics to help the organisation, designing for the systems we focus on. It is innovative because it is bringing this type of thinking together in a single team, embedding this in a policy organisation, using the multidisciplinary skills.
BI Project
Whāriki Haumaru: Encouraging voluntary participation at court for people with outstanding Warrants…
We seek to increase voluntary appearances for people with outstanding Warrants to Arrest (WTA) through reminder phone calls from Māori Wardens and Police. This Auckland-based project follows a proof-of-concept trial in the Eastern District, in which Māori Wardens made phone calls to people with outstanding WTAs and we compared voluntary appearance rates for those who were reached via phone to those who were not.
While this trial in the Eastern District showed indicative evidence that phone…
We seek to increase voluntary appearances for people with outstanding Warrants to Arrest (WTA) through reminder phone calls from Māori Wardens and Police. This Auckland-based project follows a proof-of-concept trial in the Eastern District, in which Māori Wardens made phone calls to people with outstanding WTAs and we compared voluntary appearances for those who were reached via phone to those who were not.
While this first trial showed indicative evidence that phone calls may be effective,…
The Valenzuela City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) participated in the 13-week accelerator programme. The The accelerator is a 13-week innovation programme. The programme took the staff from CSWDO who needed to support individuals in crisis situations. They addressed the problems and applied innovation methodologies to create solutions that work. The programme targeted root-cause problems, facilitated collaboration, and upskilled participants – driving better outcomes.
New Zealand wants our small businesses to be the most digitally enabled in the world. Digital Boost helps owners and employees to build confidence and skills to digitally transform their businesses. Cynefin complexity theory, agile programme development, and public-private partnerships are used to deliver easily accessible learning and services. This includes bespoke playlists of video content, online diagnostic tools, peer-learning support and free or discounted digital equipment or services.…
Governments provide a variety of financial help to people in need, with the eligibility/entitlement rules largely defined in legislation. But understanding those rules is incredibly hard, especially when under duress. This project is a community and social sector collaboration on a public, anonymous and interactive service that helps people know their legal rights to services & to an explanation from government, built upon a world first community reference implementation of legislation as code.

