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DUBAI/ WAM
In the presence of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, H.H. Sheikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the International Humanitarian and Philanthropic Council, honoured the winners of the second edition of the Global Government Excellence Award on the last day of the World Governments Summit (WGS) 2024.
The awards ceremony was attended by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai; H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance; H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; and H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
H.H. Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Ports and Borders Security Council; H.H. Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority; and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, also attended the ceremony, besides a host of senior officials.
The Office of the Vice President of the Republic of Serbia took the ‘Technological Innovation for Social Inclusion’ award for its ‘SOS for Deaf People’ initiative. The initiative, which was launched in cooperation with the Serbian Office for IT and eGovernment, aims to enable the auditorily-impaired and hard of hearing with the ability to video call specialised interpreters affiliated with the National Center for Serbian Sign Language. Interpreters simultaneously interpret conversation between the deaf person requesting assistance and their contact of choice. Instant messaging during calls is also possible.
The Office of the Vice President of Rwanda won the award for ‘Government Innovation and Public Service Excellence’for its Imihigo Performance Contracts project. The initiative aims to enhance government accountability, transparency, efficiency and follow-through of government officials and agencies. It entails contracts between local leaders, including mayors and district officials, and the central government, to evaluate performance based on specific goals and indicators related to key development areas, including agriculture, health, education, infrastructure and governance.
The Republic of Costa Rica’s National Forestry Finance Fund (FONAFIFO) won the ‘Sustainability and Environmental Conservation’ award for its Payment for Environmental Services Program (PES). The programme is the first of its kind in Costa Rica and Central America, providing financial compensation to incentivise the protection of the forest ecosystem and combat land degradation. PES offers landowners direct payments for environmental services when they adopt technological solutions which manage forests sustainably, without harming the environment or compromising people’s quality of life.
The winner of the ‘Digital Government Transformation’ award was the Ministry of Digital Development and Communications of Mongolia for its e-Mongolia project. e-Mongolia has significantly facilitated citizens’ access to government services across the country. The integrated platform was developed in cooperation with engineers, relevant government agencies, and the private sector to streamline government service delivery, and has since become pivotal for digital transformation in the country. e-Mongolia offers more than 28 million services across 181 government institutions, reaching 2 million of the 3 million Mongolian citizens who use the platform. Such reliance on digital services has resulted in savings amounting to US$27 million in indirect costs.
The ‘Speaks Curitiba’ project of the Municipality of Curitiba in Brazil was recognised for the ‘Civic Engagement and Community Empowerment’ award. Speaks Curitiba innovatively introduces an efficient approach to include community members in decision-making processes. Speaks Curitiba brings together citizens and municipality officials to collaboratively design and prepare annual budgets and future plans.
The ‘Excellence in Cybersecurity and Technology Education’ award went to the High School of ICT, Postal Administration, and Finance in the Czech Republic’s city of Brno for the school’s Junior Centrum Excellence. The Junior Centre Excellence aims to offer an innovative and specialised technological hub for artificial intelligence, as well as information and communications technology. IT also aims to build students’ capacities by honing their skills and capacities in cybersecurity to prepare them for a future of digital transformation.
The Global Government Excellence Award recognises innovators who enhanced government services around the world. The initiative aims to improve the government services delivery, develop public service centres, and enhance employees’ efficiency to achieve the highest levels of customer satisfaction.
The award’s supervising committee selected distinguished experts from various countries to identify best practices across various areas of government work. Sixty-eight government agency innovations across 32 countries were nominated.
The nomination and selection process adopted criteria set in accordance with international scientific standards to identify the most distinguished projects, initiatives, and practices. The criteria dictated that initiatives selected must have the ability to positively enhance quality of life, achieve sustainable results, be innovatively unique to each government entity and country, present a good model to be followed, and have a positive social, economic, or governmental impact.