Namibia and South Africa share many ecological, geographical, and historical characteristics, including the challenge of overfishing. While both countries embarked upon legal reform to address the problem, the authors of one study found that Namibia emerged as a “success case.”

In 2016, then-U.S. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in the city of Flint, Michigan. For years, city residents had been drinking water with dangerously elevated levels of lead, which is hazardous to all and can cause serious neurological damage to children. In order to save money, Flint switched its water source from the nearby city of Detroit to a local river. Agents of each responsible institution failed to investigate subsequent clear signals of trouble with local water quality.

Virachey National Park is one of Cambodia’s pristine conservation areas and one of only two Association of South East Asian Nations Heritage Parks in Cambodia. Despite being isolated and largely unexplored, it has also been plagued by illegal logging for decades. After significant damage from illegal logging was discovered by the World Bank and global non-governmental organizations in 2004, Cambodian agencies mounted a concerted effort to prosecute illegal loggers with international assistance.

In 2010, the United Kingdom created the Behavioural Insights Team, known as the Nudge Unit, within the Cabinet Office. Its purpose was to improve government policy and services in a cost-efficient manner by experimenting with behavioral economic techniques so that, according to the Team, people could “make better choices for themselves.” The Team experiments with psychological insights to try to change people’s and institutions’ behavior.