The word ‘innovation’ is seemingly everywhere in governments. It is often seen as a way of addressing pressing public policy challenges, and governments are increasingly turning to new innovation policies and innovation ‘units’ or ‘labs’. Yet amidst all this enthusiasm for innovation, there is only limited understanding of what makes governments innovative. What factors support public sector innovation?

One way of thinking about what makes governments innovative is to focus on three different contributing factors; context, networking and leadership.