Future of Government Awards 2023
The Future of Government Awards champions practitioners, teams and leaders who are transforming people’s lives by applying digital solutions and leveraging technology to reform the public sector for those it serves.
Categories
Digital advocates of the year
Public sector entrepreneurs work tirelessly to improve the lives of people. These changemakers work behind-the-scenes, in challenging environments and are not recognised often enough. Lifting these public servants up and highlighting their important work inspires others with an entrepreneurial spirit to join their own governments to make people’s lives better.
Who can enter
This award recognises a small team that has achieved the greatest impact by championing digital transformation.
Open source creation
Sourcing off-the-shelf is a valid and important part of digital transformation. But this award celebrates the path less-travelled: the innovators, developers, and leaders that are building their own solutions in government – and making them available for others to re-use. Showcasing these contributions from governments and their partners will give them the recognition they deserve for working in the open and sharing their efforts, while raising the profile of their solutions and encouraging reuse.
Who can enter
This award recognises an open source solution that has been created and has demonstrable potential for reuse by another government in another setting.
Open source adaptation
Many governments are on a digital journey, but not all are looking to - or learning from - others in the global public sector community. Instead, some may be duplicating successes, or failures, from elsewhere. This award recognises the significant range of proven open-source solutions available to governments, and will highlight the leadership - and success - of a government that is building on best-practice. It will demonstrate the importance of re-use, adaptation, and learning from others.
Who can enter
This award recognises the organisation that has most effectively adapted an open source solution, by applying it in a different context or setting.
Leadership award
Digital transformation is a journey, and not a sprint. It needs leaders who are brave enough to see the longer-term, and empower their teams and organisations to create significant positive change. Teams can only achieve success and make a meaningful difference for people if they have the space to explore and learn; fail then iterate, and focus on what matters most. The most capable leaders are those that unblock challenges and remove distraction so that their teams can focus on delivering real and important value to people.
Who can enter
This award recognises a leader who has enabled their team, or organisation, to make a real difference to people’s lives.
Lifetime achievement award
There are many digital heroes in the public sector but this award recognises the sustained and impactful contribution from a particularly outstanding individual. The winner will be someone who has improved the lives of many people, likely over a number of years – someone with a legacy of real and evidenced positive change through digital transformation.
The winner of this category will be chosen by the Selection Committee. The lifetime achievement award is not open for nominations.
Key dates
Nominations open
Nominations close
Shortlists announced
Awards ceremony
Selection Committee
Tamara Srzentic
Former Minister of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media, Government of Montenegro
Anir Chowdhury
Policy Advisor, Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme, ICT Division/Cabinet Division/UNDP Bangladesh
Denyse White
Deputy National Chief Digital Officer, Ministry of Digital Transformation, Trinidad and Tobago
Dr Carlos Santiso
Head of Division, Public Governance Directorate, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
Past winners
Digital innovatorof the year
Mykhailo Fedorov
In Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation was established in 2019 and Mykhailo Fedorov was appointed minister to lead the digital transformation of the country. He is also the youngest minister in the political history of Ukraine. His immediate priority was to create the "State in the smartphone" - so people could communicate directly with the state via their smartphones.
Open source creationof the year
IO, the app for Italian public services
Italy's bureaucracy often requires people to navigate through dozens of platforms in order to access public services or manage their obligations to the State. The app IO was launched in early 2020 by PagoPA to overturn this paradigm by putting simple and user-centred public services into the citizens' pockets.
Open source adaptationof the year
Cambodia Data Exchange (CamDX)
CamDX stands for Cambodia Data Exchange, which adopts the model of X-Road of Estonia. CamDX is a unified yet decentralised data exchange layer between information systems that offers a standardised and secure way to provide and consume services. CamDX ensures confidentiality, integrity, and interoperability between a multitude of different data exchange parties. The main goal of CamDX is to build an infrastructure that allows for establishing effortless access to data in government databases (public services) without compromising the security and ownership of the data and with minimal technical changes in the existing information systems.
Sponsors
UNDP is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change. Working with our broad network of experts and partners in 170 countries, we want to create a world in which digital is an empowering force for people and planet - and ensure that digital leaves no one behind. The Future of Government Awards are an important platform to showcase and celebrate digital excellence. They can provide countries around the world with the inspiration, knowledge, and tools to accelerate their digital development - and to reimagine development in a digital age.
Public Digital is a digital transformation consultancy which was founded by the leaders who created the UK’s Government Digital Service – the organisation that transformed how public services were delivered to citizens. Now, we help large organisations doing meaningful work transform how they operate in the internet era so their services are more responsive to user needs, easier to use and more equitable to access. So far, we’ve worked with governments from 35 countries across 5 continents.
The Future of Government Awards is an opportunity to look sideways to celebrate peers and to build and strengthen public sector communities that can lean on – and learn from – each other.The AWS Institute helps digital transformation leaders in governments and other public organizations around the world reshape and modernize public services through the cloud. The AWS Institute produces thought leadership content, offers a global executive education program, and maintains a global, invitational network of public sector leaders. With the Future of Government Awards, we hope to help highlight the extraordinary efforts of those who are shaping and accelerating government modernisation around the world.
