Agile Governance: Reimagining Policy-making in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is characterized by the unprecedented advances in technology transforming the way individuals and groups across society live, work and interact. New principles, protocols, rules and policies are needed to accelerate the positive and inclusive impacts of these technologies, while minimizing or eliminating their negative consequences.

The institutions that have traditionally had the responsibility of shaping the societal impacts of these technologies – including governments, companies and civil society organizations – are struggling to keep up with the rapid change and exponential impact.

There is an urgent need for a more agile approach to governing emerging technologies and the business models and social interaction structures they enable.

In this paper, we define agile governance as adaptive, human-centred, inclusive and sustainable policymaking, which acknowledges that policy development is no longer limited to governments but rather is an increasingly multistakeholder effort.