Public sector organizations have always sought new ways to fulfill their public mission. The New Deal in the United States, the rebuilding of Europe after the Second World War, the development of the welfare state, experiments in new public administration, the rise of egovernment were phases of major changes in public administrations, when governments experimented with new ideas, policies, processes, institutional arrangements, management tools and technologies, to create public value and affect positive change. Each of the above examples can be broken down to reveal a large number of innovations undertaken by public organizations that have inspired similar innovations in OECD countries. Today is no different. Recent studies show significantly high overall innovation rates in public sector organizations. The European Union (EU) Innobarometer 2010 revealed that in the EU27, an average of 66 percent of organizations state that they have implemented service innovation. Local authorities and the National Health Service in the UK surveyed for Nesta's 2011 pilot survey reported implementing very high levels of innovation, with more than 90 per cent of organizations reporting a service, process or management technique for innovation. The nature of public sector problems – complex, cross-border and intractable by traditional government tools and approaches – also reinforces the importance of building government capacity to innovate and find solutions to the complex and intractable problems facing society. The complexity of the problem is reflected in increasingly complex, pluralistic and interconnected communities and societies. Increasing migration and social inequalities create complex landscapes within which to navigate. Developing a better understanding of how innovation happens in governments seems to be gaining popularity among policy makers and researchers alike. This trend reflects the realization that some of the traditional approaches to addressing public policy challenges may not offer solutions to the complex challenges facing governments today. "Wicked" problems, such as climate change, poverty, HIV and population aging require new and different perspectives that often work together. The development of new sets of organizational forms, governance structures, funding mechanisms, policy approaches, partnerships and accountability structures blurs traditional distinctions between public and private to seek new solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems. At the same time, technological advances are advancing at an unprecedented rate, opening up great opportunities for governments to incorporate new tools and approaches, while putting great pressure on governments to keep up.