Public innovation for good governance: an interview with Sergio Fajardo.

AuthorCalderon, Ania
PositionInterview

The vision of an academic-turned-politician has brought a stream of creativity to local public administration in Colombia. It is said that disruptive innovation occurs at the edge of disciplines. (1) And Sergio Fajardo, mathematician and former journalist, has managed to leverage such cross-discipline dialogues and energize communities to engage with public planning objectives. As mayor of Medellin in Colombia from 2004 to 2007, he "introduced transparency fairs, broke clientelistic political networks, raised tax receipts, improved public services, established civic pacts and restored citizens' sense of hope," and the Inter-American Development Bank recognized the city as an exemplary case of good public administration in Latin America. (2) Furthermore, Medellin was recently named the world's most innovative city in a competition organized by the non-profit Urban Land Institute. (3) In the following interview with Ania Calderon of the Journal, Dr. Fajardo highlights the importance of building trust in society to face the public management challenges of developing countries in Latin America and explains how, as governor of the state of Antioquia, the scale of impact he now faces at a regional versus local level can be tackled with the same mission, but carried under a different leadership role.

Journal of International Affairs: You have talked about the importance of sequential planning to deliver goals set in the public agenda. For developing regions in Latin America struggling to "catch-up," do you see a general lack of planning as a common characteristic? If so, what are the obstacles that prevent improvisation, and how were you able to sustain strategic planning as a base for city politics?

Sergio Fajardo: Politicians make the most important decisions in a society. In particular, planning is a natural result that is based on political decisions. In the political movement under my administration, we plan our work following a "simple" path that respects some mandatory steps. The first one is to clearly state our dreams, ideals, and vision of how society should work. This then settles and shows the direction where we want to commit all our efforts. Then we make the principles that support our approach explicit to society. Afterwards, we identify precisely the problems we want to solve. This implies having a very good under standing and analysis of these problems and how they should be solved. It also requires tracing a strategy with a very...

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