The United Nations Public Service Awards (UNPSA) programme was set up in 2003 by the former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, as a way of rewarding those who offer outstanding public service around the world. The intention is to enhance the role, professionalism, image and visibility of public service.Although there are several awards in place for innovation in the public sector at national and regional levels around the world, the lack of a global initiative has meant that best practice couldn’t be shared across continents.
The key aims of the awards are to:
> Discover innovations in governance
> Reward excellence in the public sector
> Motivate public servants to further promote innovation
> Enhance professionalism in the public service
> Raise the image of public service
> Enhance trust in government
> Collect and disseminate successful practices for possible replication.
Since their inception six years ago, there is little doubt that the awards have become the ‘Oscars’ of public service, according to Hayan Qian, Director of the Division for Public Administration and Development at the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “Respondents say that receiving this international recognition has energised and motivated them to promote either new innovative practices or upscale and/or transfer their winning initiatives to other countries and regions,” she notes. “Receiving an award translates into a greater propensity to continue on the path to innovation and further promote a culture of change in the public sector.” This year there were a total of 168 nominations from 41 countries. For more information on the awards and how to enter visit: www.unpan.org.
Improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public sector
Winner: South Korea
Service: On-and offline real-time water quality opening services, Office of Waterworks, Seoul Metropolitan Government
Seoul’s citizens were suspicious of the quality of tap water for no apparent reason and avoided drinking it, despite the fact that the water, called ‘Arisu’, met all 145 standards of water quality inspection recommended by the World Health Organisation. But the lack of a monitoring system to assess the quality of the water led to a low consumption rate, high volume of sales of bottled water and overuse of water purifiers. This was a threat to public health and tarnished the perception of all public services.
The development of the Arisu Quality Verification System, where people can check online and in real time the quality of the water supplied to their houses from water purification plants, changed this significantly. The new system has boosted people’s trust in the water supply system and increased consumption by 20%. It has also culminated in greater conservation of ground water.
Improving the delivery of services
Winner: Thailand
Service: Improving public medical service through collaborative networks, Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital
The Maharaj Nakorn Chiang Mai Hospital, part of the Faculty of Medicine at Chiang Mai University serves large segments of the population who live in remote areas in northern Thailand. About 30% of the patients are referred from hospitals in other northern provinces. But, without an efficient communication and referrals system, patients were wasting valuable time and money finding a hospital to admit them. Even when they eventually arrived at the hospital, it could take a long time to receive medical care because of shortage of medical personnel and the sheer amount of patients needing treatment.
This was solved by reducing the amount of paperwork and simplifying the patient referral process to improve hospital efficiency. The hospital has initiated training courses for community, district and provincial hospitals to assist them in improving their medical personnel skills and knowledge in managing complicated conditions by themselves before referring patients.
This has helped improve patients’ access to healthcare from their local hospitals. Waiting times in outpatients and emergency departments have decreased markedly – the latter to zero in 2008.
Improving transparency, accountability and responsiveness in the public sector
Finalist: Canada
Service: French-language services (FLEX), Ministry of Community and Social Services with responsibility for the Office of Francophone Affairs, Government of Ontario
There was low awareness of the needs of the French-speaking community in terms of access to public service delivery in Ontario. Yet, throughout nearly 400 years, Francophones have played a key role in Ontario’s development. Their contribution to the social, cultural, political and economic sectors of Ontario, the most populated province in Canada, has been recognised with the adoption of several acts, including the French-language Services Act of 1986.
Over time, however, progress in terms of encouraging French language use had stalled. So the 20th anniversary of the Act provided the opportunity to re-energise it. Over the past three years the Office of Francophone Affairs (OFA), the Ontario government’s main source of expertise on Francophone affairs and French-language services, has transformed the planning and delivery of quality French-language services. This includes an innovative leadership training programme called ‘FLEX’. FELX is unusual in that it not only focuses on bilingual staff and is offered in French (a first in Ontario) but it also combines traditional leadership training with more lateral subjects such as martial arts.
According to Éric Mézin, the OFA’s director of the Policy and Ministry Services branch, “ I believe we won this UN recognition because our approach provides an innovative and adaptable/transferable template for others in how to leverage limited public resources
