The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency developed smarter policy instruments with positive effects

Sebastian Dahlgren Axelsson, innovation strategist at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, is very satisfied with the agency's first test of the tools and methods they worked with in Vinnova's effort Policylab.

How did you come into contact with Vinnova's effort at policy lab?

- I was at a seminar at Vinnova where they talked about their effort at the policy lab and I thought it was interesting.

In what way did you see that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency could benefit from working with the policy lab?

- When we develop new policy proposals and policy proposals, there is a great deal of theoretical analysis. When we collect views, it is often at the level of trade associations, and although they often have good general views, we rarely reach those who are really directly affected by the proposal. And that's a weakness that I saw we could avoid by working with the policy lab's methods. A central point of departure in that work set is to develop new ideas and solutions based on the needs of the users.

How have you worked with policy lab so far?

- We talked at our workplace about Vinnova's effort at the policy lab. A colleague who is responsible for a government assignment with the aim of proposing measures to reduce plastic litter, saw the value of working in this way. We decided to test the concept within that assignment and received help from Vinnova to come up with a plan. They also helped us procure a service design agency that helped us with the actual implementation.

How did the first project go?

- Really good. We started in May and finished in September. In total, we had ten work meetings of a couple of hours each, and in between tests, observations, in-depth interviews and experiments were done to constantly test our hypotheses and move forward.

What was the result?

- We have a number of ideas that we haven't had time to delve into, and we'll see how we take them forward. But we also have two policy instrument proposals that have been developed and tested through in-depth interviews. We will take them further, refine them and include them in the final report of the assignment, and I am quite sure that they would not have come to light if we had worked in the same way as usual, because then we would not have gone so deep or had time to talk to so many people concerned.

How will you continue to work with what you learned from the work with the policy lab?

- This way of working has given us a lot, but it takes quite a lot of time and there is no financial possibility to take the help of a service design agency every time we want to work like this. Now we will therefore present our experiences internally and at the same time try to find new ways of working that give us the opportunity to do this ourselves. We need to get better at getting out and talking to the actors who are affected by our proposals even before it is time for the entire proposal to go to consultation. If we work iteratively even before the consultation stage, we can produce smarter policy instruments that have positive effects for more people and which it is therefore easier for politicians to make decisions about.