Public Service Innovation
PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATION
AATEA uses their expertise in te ao Māori, combined with their skills in research, evaluation, facilitation, policy, Māori-Crown relations, and strategy to support their public sector clients to achieve their goals.
We provide thought leadership and strategy to help government agencies navigate Māori-Crown relations as they design and execute new projects. This involves analysing power-sharing, helping nurture and build relationships, building capability, designing the process, facilitating and implementing projects. Our previous work in this space has involved developing curricula, implementing policy, designing governance models and research and evaluating current programmes of work.
We have observed that historically and currently some government processes are designed to meet the needs of most users, i.e. those who fall in the middle of the bell curve. Often Māori realities sit outside the middle of the bell curve. This, combined with Māori being perceived as ‘hard to reach’, results in services and policies within government that don’t meet the needs of Māori, which leads to poor outcomes and disengagement. In our experience, this is why it is critical to design for Māori at the centre.
A body of research is building to show that what works for Māori works for all, so if we design with this in mind we will create greater engagement across the board, de-risk government programmes and start the journey to fulfil basic Treaty obligations. Māori-centred design considers all – so there is no Bell curve where people miss out. It is iterative and steeped in cultural integrity and innovation for the future.
CASE STUDIES
Co-designing the Māori Data Governance Model
- Client: Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust
- Mission: Design and facilitate a co-design process for Māori data leaders and experts with 16 Crown agencies to develop a Māori Data Governance Model.
- Outcome: The outcome of this work has been creating future pathways for Māori Data Governance for Te Kāhui Raraunga and strengthening in the Māori-Crown relationship.
AATEA, in partnership with Creative HQ, were engaged by Te Kāhui Raraunga Charitable Trust to design and facilitate a co-design process for Māori data leaders and experts with 16 Crown agencies to develop a Māori Data Governance Model.
The co-design process embedded tikanga Māori and centred on Māori voice whilst creating space for Kāwanatanga participants to share their perspective. A Waka Hourua model for Māori data governance resulted with an Ohu (working party) established to develop its work plan and secure funding from government resources.
Our internal evaluation team reviewed the co-design process, providing recommendations on how to iterate the process to meet the changing needs of participants. In addition to this, their role was to capture the key insights from each engagement and develop a report for Te Kāhui Raraunga to map out the insights and the next steps for the models.
The outcome of this work has been creating future pathways for Māori Data Governance for Te Kāhui Raraunga and a strengthening in the Māori-Crown relationship.