UNDP’s Future of Government Awards to laud digital advocates, open-source creators and adaptors

The Future of Government Awards champion government practitioners, teams and leaders who are applying digital solutions and leveraging technology to reform the public sector.

UNDP has partnered with digital transformation consultancy Public Digital and the Amazon Web Services Institute to launch the second edition of the awards, which is currently accepting nominations.

The four awards are the Digital Advocate of the Year Award, the Open Source Creation of the Year Award, the Open Source Adaptation of the Year Award, and the Leadership Award.

Open source in the spotlight

UNDP's particular interest in open source is evident with it being the focus of half of the award categories. 

Open source provides the necessary impetus to accelerate one's digital development journey, as all countries and cities ultimately still need to build similar digital components to kickstart the journey.

UNDP’s involvement in open source is demonstrated in its Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multistakeholder initiative to facilitate the discovery and deployment of open-source technologies.

DPGA provides open-source solutions for governments and other organisations to use and adapt. 

In May this year, as part of a global campaign to identify promising open-source solutions to the global information crisis, UNDP and DPGA recognised nine initiatives from around the world, based on adaptability, scalability, and potential impact, out of a total of 99 submissions.

Award categories and eligibility

The awards are open to individuals, teams, and departments within government agencies.

The Digital Advocates of the Year award celebrates a small team that has successfully championed digital transformation.

The Open Source Creation of the Year award recognises an organisation that created an open-source solution with potential for reuse by another government, while the Open Source Adaptation of the Year award recognises an organisation that has effectively adopted an open-source solution by applying in a different context of setting.

The Leadership Award is a new addition this year, to recognise a leader who has enabled their team or an organisation that has made a real difference to people’s lives.  

Last year’s winners were Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation; IO, the app for Italian public services; and Cambodia Data Exchange (CamDX), the data exchange platform of Cambodia.

The selection committee members for the awards span multilateral agencies, government agencies, private sector, and non-profit organisations.

Nominations will close on 14 December 2023, and the winners will be announced on 15 February 2024.

<Nominate a government leader or organisation before 14 December 2023>