Tomorrow Together
A model that adopts a dynamic life-course perspective in policymaking.
Life experience shape how we experience retirement. Tomorrow Together is a framework that aims to influence retirement policy-making and plan for a retirement that aligns with citizens' visions. This is achieved through the implementation of multi-party collaboration, public trust, and predictive governance.
Team
Uyanga Baasankhuu, Camila Hergatacorzia, Regina Gensinger
Role
Research,
Framing Design Interventions,
Workshop facilitation, visualization
Time
Spring
2023
Duration
4 Months
Designing for a Dignified Old Age
This project was developed in the course Design for Government. It is a practice-based course from Aalto University under the Creative Sustainability Master program. Every year groups of students work together with a partner Finnish ministry on a brief the ministry assigns. This year, our group partnered with the Digital Population and Data Services (DVV) and Ministry of Finance (VM) to work on the brief “Life-events services for a Dignified Old Age” which is linked to DVV and VM ongoing project DigiCompas.
Main insights
Retirement will not be the same for everyone and is shaped by previous stages of ones life
Our research focused on understanding the future of retirement from a life-courses perspective, which lead us to two main findings. First, retirement will not be the same for everyone, what can be good for some, might be the opposite for others. Second, the way we experience retirement and old age is shaped by experiences in previous stages of our lives.
Individual's life course plays a detrimental role in perceiving retirement in one's life. Retirement event is quite a positive event for individuals (...) whereas it might be the opposite for others (...)They will have different types of trajectories. One size will not fit all.
Researcher at Aging Population,
Research Group - University of Helsinki
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Solution
Tackling delays by employing predictive governance
… through adopting dynamic life-course perspective into policy making
Our research focused on understanding the future of retirement from a life-courses perspective, which lead us to two main findings. First, retirement will not be the same for everyone, what can be good for some, might be the opposite for others. Second, the way we experience retirement and old age is shaped by experiences in previous stages of our lives.
& proposing the model “Tomorrow Together” for policy making
The model consists of four main stages that are Collaborating, Modelling, Partnering, and Agenda-setting for the policy of future retirement. While earlier stages put emphasis on generating research agenda with citizen, researcher, and civil servant participatory activities, later stages focus on taking actions with partner organisations and influencing policy-making directly or indirectly.
The four-step model
The model "Tomorrow Together" has three main goals. It aims to tackle delays by employing predictive governance and address diversity with multi-party collaboration. Additionally, it aims to positively influence the Finnish paradox, also known as citizens' trust in the government.
Phase 1: Collaborating
The collaboration stage consists of two participatory steps. The first one, a vision workshop, invites citizens to participate in workshops where they can co-create visions of retirement with the support of researchers, service designers and civil servants. To ensure a broad range of life experiences and diverse voices, the selection of citizens is based on participants’ heterogeneity with regard to their gender and age as well as other socio-demographic criteria. The output of the vision workshop is a pool of retirement visions that are published on the platform to initiate public discussions.
The following online commenting round enables a wider audience to raise their voices on the issue, which is hard to achieve with on site workshops. The comments are synthesised and integrated into the final visions for retirement, which are again uploaded to the platform.
As an example, we took the visions expressed by the questionnaire participants from our research and imagines that could be part of the vision workshop. Of all of those visions, Let's pick up one to explain each of the following stages further: “Maintain healthy lifestyle”.
Phase 2: Modelling
The Modelling stage includes one participation round and a matching exercise in charge of DVV. We call for a second round of participation in an ideation workshop with the purpose of facilitating the co-creation of concrete initiatives that answer "how" the visions could be achieved. After the workshop, DVV is in charge of matching these ideas with different life events.
Under the vision of “Maintaining healthy lifestyle” we imagined the following ideas could come up from the ideation workshop:
Phase 3: Partnering
Formal partnerships with relevant institutions are established based on the match between ideas and life events. The goal is to connect these ideas and events with stakeholders who can take action. In this stage, DVV’s role is to identify partners relevant to each life event, based on the results of their ongoing project Digital Compass. To explore and reach out to potential partners, the DVV team can also use their own automated tools such as Aurora AI.
To incorporate exercise into formal settings and align it with the life event of building a career, potential partners may include the Ministry of Labor, public and private organizations, and labor unions
Phase 4: Agenda-setting
The newly formed partners will determine the agenda for influencing policy-making that directly or indirectly affects retirement.The roles of the project organizers, such as the Ombudsman for Elderly People, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, and DVV, will become more passive. Partnering institutions are expected to study how their ongoing projects could be influenced by workshop ideas. The organizers will assist in this process by presenting opportunities and links to other benchmark examples. Lastly, they can follow up on the outcomes.
In the context of our example, this process could lead to the creation of a pilot program where employers offer paid exercise hours in the workplace.
Post-steps: Following up through constant feedback
The online platform continues to play an important role in the process. It serves as a means of communication and facilitates the visibility of actions taken. This keeps the participants informed, and at the same time, the project team is committed to carrying out the necessary actions.
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