Can design principles influence global policy? Join me and let’s find out.

For the G20 meeting in Rome, I have been asked to contribute a chapter to the communiqué for the engagement group V20 (Values20). The purpose of V20 is to elevate the role of human values in multi-lateral discussions.

“Our vision is to add depth to the understanding of values in public policy with the goal of providing the G20 with evidence-based, human-centered policy solutions that contribute to overcoming global challenges.” -

It is a volunteer initiative where I’m providing guidance on principles of solidarity for digitization-related multi-lateral policy discussions.

I’m not a policy person but do know how human-centric design principles influence large-scale, complex and distributed digital platforms, services and products.

We have seen the tremendous value of design principles at a national level with GDS (UK), USDS (USA) and CDS (Canada) amongst others. Let’s see if the concept of Solidarity Principles can contribute to the G20 just as design principles have at a national level.

This month I’m working to:

1. Define what are solidarity principles and how might nations use them to express preferred human-centric outcomes aligned with their national values in a way that still contributes to collective human values.

2. Draft the first set of solidarity principles for consideration of adoption in multi-lateral digitization discussions.

I am using a co-development process and am looking for folks who would be interested in participating. It’s low key and I’m simply looking for folks with experience in digitization, principles-led organisations and policy. This will be one or two workshops of ~90 mins. With a chance to review the draft communiqué.

I am also keen to find evidence in research or case study formats about the value and role of design principles in practice.

If interested please contact me here by mail or on LinkedIn. Let me know why you’re interested and what you’d like to contribute. Just a couple of sentences, please.

I hope you’ll join the experiment.