Govts Urged to Prioritise Innovation in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

Olawale Ajimotokan

The Vice-Chair, Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, Mrs. Ofovwe Aig-Imoukhuede, has highlighted the need for the public sector to embrace digital innovation in the wake of changes the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the way organisations are run.

She made the appeal when she delivered the keynote address at the 2021 ASCON Online Conference with the theme: “Repositioning organisations for effective performance in the ‘new normal.’”
She explained the role the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation has been playing to support the public sector in their digitalisation and capacity-building efforts.

Aig-Imoukhuede stated that for organisations to successfully navigate the changing environment, they need to be resilient by exhibiting the ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond, and adapt to implemental change and sudden disruption to survive and prosper.

According to her, a pandemic has three main phases, stressing the need for organisations to adopt different behaviours in each phase which she listed to include: the response phase, the recovery phase, and thrive phase.

While outlining key projects that the Aig-Imoukhuede Institute had embarked on with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) to create organisational resilience and empower civil servants, she noted that public sector organisations seeking to thrive in the new normal must prioritise agility, digitalisation and partnerships.

Some of the projects include: contributing private sector expertise to the development of policies for virtual meetings at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the work of the OHCSF in order to increase efficiency and productivity, supporting ISO certification for Servicom staff members to improve service delivery and capacity building for public servants through the AIG Public Leaders Programme, run in partnership with the University of Oxford, with scholarships worth £11,500 offered to 50 high-potential public servants.