Cities often look to one another for solutions to challenges ranging from housing shortages and climate risks to infrastructure pressures and social inequalities. Learning from ideas that have already been tested elsewhere can help reduce uncertainty, avoid costly trial and error, and accelerate action.
OECD research shows that benefiting from knowledge already developed elsewhere (75%) and improving economic efficiency are the two most frequently cited reasons for adopting ideas from elsewhere.
Finding promising ideas is often easier than making them work at home. 79% of surveyed cities had adopted or attempted to adopt at least one idea from another city, yet only 42% reported full implementation. The problem is therefore not a lack of city-to-city learning, but the gap between inspiration and implementation.
Indeed, an approach that succeeds in one place may rely on funding, governance systems, political support or community needs that look very different elsewhere.
Cities need to understand not only what worked, but why it worked, whether the same conditions exist locally, and what needs to change before implementation.
Successful idea adoption is therefore about adapting examples strategically, rather than simply copying. A recent OECD report identifies three key stages: setting the conditions for idea adoption; assessing whether an idea fits the local context; and adapting it to local realities.
Be selective about which ideas to pursue
The challenge is rarely a lack of inspiration. Cities are exposed to a constant flow of ideas through city networks, research, professional exchanges, conferences and social media.
A first step is to be systematic about finding and screening ideas before investing significant time or resources in them. This includes investing in mechanisms such as peer-learning networks, innovation teams and structured reviews of external practices.
To move beyond highly visible or internationally celebrated ideas, cities can use local priorities as a filter, as was done in Melbourne, Australia. Seeking to promote healthier urban environments, the city explored examples of restrictions on junk-food advertising from Greater Manchester and London. Rather than developing a new policy from scratch, Melbourne drew on the experience of cities that had already pioneered similar measures.
Engaging with these two cities allowed the city to build on existing knowledge and implementation experience, helping it advance a public-health objective that might otherwise have been difficult to pursue with its available time and resources.
Assess fit, not just appeal
Once an idea appears promising, cities need to look beyond the headline success story. A policy that worked elsewhere may depend on specific governance arrangements, funding models, legal frameworks or community conditions that are not immediately visible.
Assessing fit therefore means understanding not only what worked, but why it worked, what resources were required, and whether similar conditions exist locally. Direct engagement with cities that have already implemented an idea can be particularly valuable in uncovering these less visible factors. Tools such as checklists or self-assessment frameworks can help cities make these judgements before committing significant resources.
To create Greece’s first social housing agency, the city of Thessaloniki worked closely with Housing Europe and the social housing agency of Ghent, Belgium, to understand how different social housing models operated and identify legal and institutional barriers to overcome in Greece, including the absence of a dedicated framework for social housing. This led the city to engage the national government to encourage the adoption of a Greece-wide legal framework, with success.
Make idea adoption stick
Selecting a promising idea and assessing its feasibility are only the beginning. A third step is ensuring that ideas are adapted to local conditions and implemented in a way that enables them to endure over time.
Over nine out of ten cities surveyed said they adapt ideas to their local context. This can involve changing the scale or design of a programme, keeping some features while changing others, or blending a borrowed idea with existing local initiatives. Co-design with communities and broad engagement are central to improving fit and legitimacy.
Seeking to improve waste collection in informal settlements, the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, drew inspiration from a programme developed in Accra, Ghana. Rather than replicating the model as it was, Dar es Salaam consulted more than 100 stakeholders through interviews, workshops and participatory processes.
These discussions highlighted practical constraints that had not emerged in the original context, particularly around accessibility in informal settlements. As a result, the city replaced the motorised tricycles used in Accra with pushcarts better suited to local conditions. The lesson is that successful idea adoption rarely involves transferring a solution unchanged. Cities often need to adjust design and delivery mechanisms to reflect local realities.
Beyond adaptation, making idea adoption stick requires political and administrative support over time. Some ideas are championed by political leaders from the outset, while others build momentum gradually through evidence-gathering, piloting and stakeholder engagement.
In either case, maintaining support as the initiative evolves is often critical to moving from experimentation to long-term impacts. Implementation does not always unfold exactly as planned, and cities that succeed are often those that continue to refine their approach thanks to sustained institutional commitment.
Towards strategic idea adoption
Ideas do not travel intact. They are interpreted, adapted and reshaped to fit different political, institutional and community contexts. The cities that benefit most from learning from others are those that are most deliberate in how they identify, assess and adapt external ideas. As cities confront increasingly complex challenges under constrained budgets and capacity, protecting and strengthening this capability is vital.
The future of urban innovation may depend less on inventing entirely new solutions and more on helping good ideas deliver results in a new home.
To read more, see the full report here.
Marion Lagadic is an Economist / Policy Analyst at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regionsand Cities (CFE) in theCITY Division where she focuses on Inclusive Growth in Cities. She is completing her PhD at the University of Oxford and is a lecturer at Science Po in Paris, France.