Developing City Capabilities to Deliver Public Value

Cities sit at the frontline of many of today’s most pressing challenges, from climate adaptation and housing to public health and social cohesion. Yet delivering meaningful change requires more than policy ambition: it depends on the capabilities of public institutions to coordinate, experiment, learn and adapt.

This session explores the Public Sector Capabilities Index, an initiative developed by IIPP to understand and strengthen the dynamic capabilities that enable governments to deliver public value over time. Moving beyond narrow efficiency metrics and technocratic scorecards, the Index examines how governments build the institutional capacity required to set direction, mobilise resources and work across sectors to address complex challenges.

The discussion will also explore the broader relationship between public sector capability and human flourishing. Drawing on perspectives from policy, philosophy and public service practice, the session will consider how capable institutions enable societies not only to manage crises but to actively shape more inclusive and sustainable futures.

Chaired by IIPP Co-Deputy Director Rainer Kattel, the panel brings together leading voices including social entrepreneur and author Hilary Cottam and Jonathan Wolff (Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford), alongside public thinkers and practitioners, for a cross-disciplinary conversation on capability, public value and human flourishing.

Key information

• When: Tuesday 16th June at 16:00 – 17:30 BST
• Where: Senate House, Beveridge Hall

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If you have any queries around access, please get in touch with a member of the team ([email protected]).