The report points to the importance to humanity of emerging capabilities in medicine, energy and information as the pace of technological development accelerates, with each bringing new costs and new expectations.

"However, the anticipation, planning and reaction times to harness technologies are decreasing. Citizens are becoming increasingly comfortable with technologies; therefore, governments have opportunities to use these to leap forward in improving services.

"Typically, the traditional mechanisms to regulate and tax activity are not adapting as quickly as new technology arrives, and intellectual property laws are more difficult to enforce in the global economy. While some technologies improve productivity (such as IT), others can increase costs (such as those related to healthcare). At the same time, governments will face the problem of protecting the security and privacy of information, while relying more on the use of such data to provide services, calling for a delicate balancing act," the report says.

Government 2020 and the Perpetual Collaboration Mandate also outlines case studies and details critical success factors likely to determine how well a government can innovate to meet the challenges ahead, including:

• Proactive and committed senior leadership
• Citizen-centric, outcome-based objectives
• Effective governance models, including intra-, inter-, and extra- organizational perspectives
• Focused, deliberate use of innovation, integration and collaboration
• A dynamic and integrated infrastructure
• Continuing assessment as an ongoing, high-priority role of government
• Governments leading by example

Instead, governments must first anticipate change by determining which drivers are most critical in light of their own unique set of circumstances.

Second, based on those priorities, nations must be proactive, designing and then implementing customized strategies and solutions.

Unquestionably, many types of challenges are under way and governments must respond in a more comprehensive manner than ever before.

In developing tailored responses, a new dimension of greatly enhanced collaboration is the ultimate capability governments need, as it will form the foundation of strategies necessary for coping with these drivers, the report says.

More connectedness and cooperation is needed than ever before: across agencies, across societies, across governments, and with more constituencies.