No other sector can function well unless government does. Government is the ‘platform’ for society, with outsized influence on the fairness and efficiency of any society. If government makes and implements better policy, everyone benefits. Apolitical works across all key global policy topics, with an enormous scope for impact. Already, after less than two years, issues we cover include: inclusive growth, data for impact, women’s empowerment, violence prevention, clean energy, safety and justice, health and ageing and technology frontiers. By showing the connections between policy issues we help public servants create more efficient policies. By connecting public servants to experts, we help them avoid failures and duplication. And by connecting them to innovative partners we help them find better, cheaper solutions. There is also an indirect benefit: by showcasing what’s working in government and the heroic people behind it, we help governments attract and retain talent.
By 2022 we want at least one million public servants around the world using Apolitical to get inspiration, better understand new challenges and due diligence policy decisions. In the average OECD country, government controls about 40% of GDP. That’s $16 trillion in the OECD and about $30 trillion extrapolated globally. To improve the efficiency of much of this spend requires institutional and structural reform. But not everything does. If just 1% of this spend could be spent 50% more effectively by doing more of what’s working, less of what isn’t work, and by avoiding duplication it would unlock $150 bn a year in cost saving or value creation. This is Apolitical’s aim: to unlock $150bn dollars a year of cost savings or value creation for countries around the world. To measure this we have built impact measurement into our reporting and designed systems to encourage the reporting of successes arising from using the platform.
