Weekly briefing: Cool jobs, innovation school and the right to play

Top Stories

Looking for a new role? Here are the nine coolest government jobs open right now. From practicing medicine in rural New Zealand to getting paid to hack the UK’s digital services, applying for one of these unconventional — and meaningful — gigs could revitalise your career.
(Apolitical)

In Argentina, public servants get promoted for learning how to innovate. They earn points for taking classes at a government-run innovation school, which teaches skills like design, data literacy and evidence-based policymaking. The points are a prerequisite for raises and promotions.
(Apolitical)

Female genital mutilation is spreading in the global north — here are three ways to end it. Governments could support grassroots initiatives, outlaw cutting or take a systemic approach to finding and stopping FGM, which means linking police, social services, doctors and communities.
(Apolitical)

Wales is the only country in the world to guarantee playtime as a basic right. Local authorities must provide kids with opportunities for fun, which can mean anything from closing streets temporarily to buying better park equipment for the disabled. Municipalities must consult children about their plans.
(Apolitical)

Top Writing By Our Members

Most workplace equality policies don’t work — here are three that do. Over 75% of UK companies pay men more than women, recent figures show. To close the gap, they should ditch diversity training and adopt structured interviews, mentoring schemes and diversity task forces.
(Shoshana Davidson, Behavioural Insights Team)

Evolving Cities

Slovenia’s capital has been car-free for 10 years. Only pedestrians, bikes and buses are allowed in Ljubljana’s city centre — but exceptions are made for disabled people, the elderly and mothers with young children, who are all given free rides in electric taxis. The ban has boosted business and tourism.
(World Economic Forum)

Technology Frontiers

Kyrgyzstan is curbing corruption by copying Estonia’s digital services. It hopes that secure online platforms will reduce graft, which 95% of citizens say is a problem in the country. Estonia is helping it replicate a platform that allows different agencies to easily share data with each other.
(Govinsider)

A Chinese artificial intelligence system can predict which coma patients will wake up. It correctly forecast that several patients who were said to have no hope of recovery would wake up in a year. The AI charts brain activity by measuring tiny blood flow changes, which are invisible to the human eye.
(South China Morning Post)

In one Bangkok neighbourhood, residents use blockchain to trade energy. They can buy and sell electricity on a peer-to-peer platform, and sell their excess to neighbours to offset costs. The goal is to encourage more consumers to switch to clean energy by making it cost-effective and easy to use.
(Thomson Reuters)

Health and Ageing

South Korea banned coffee in all its schools. It follows reports of children experiencing dizziness, heart palpitations, insomnia and nervousness after consuming caffeine. Many drink coffee or energy drinks to contend with the country’s high-pressure education system.
(The Guardian)

California is prescribing food as medicine. It’s the first state in the US to test the hypothesis that if chronically ill people eat a nutritious diet, they’ll need fewer medications and hospital visits. A pilot project delivers medically tailored meals to patients with congestive heart failure everyday.
(Governing)

And finally

Florence banned al fresco dining to stop tourists from littering its streets. Anyone caught eating outdoors on four of city’s busiest streets will be fined up to $580. It’s a sign of mounting tourist pressure in the Tuscan capital: last summer, the mayor threatened to attack visitors eating on cathedral steps with a hose.
(Citylab)