GOBERNARTE 2015

The four winning initiatives (two in each category) will be recognized at a awards ceremony to be held in Washington, DC. The winners will be invited to the event.

The four winning initiatives will be widely disseminated through the media and social networks, and will receive trophies for their contribution to the use of big data to improve lives and reduce the identity gap in LAC cities.

About the Contest

The purpose of the Gobernarte contest is to identify, reward, document, and disseminate innovative public administration experiences of subnational governments such as states, provinces, departments, municipalities, or other equivalent denominations in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

In the third edition of the Gobernarte contest, the “Eduardo Campos Award” will be given to the two best initiatives of third administrative level governments (municipalities and other denominations) in each of the following categories: “Cities and Big Data” and “Cities and Registry of Persons.”

Main Goals 

1. To identify and reward innovative public administration experiences in order to promote creativity and initiatives seeking to improve services for citizens;
2. To document and disseminate these innovations to push forward the state modernization agenda in LAC, aiming at effective, efficient, and open governments; and
3. To facilitate cooperation between subnational governments by increasing awareness of innovative public administration practices and disseminating information to interested parties.

Who can Participate? 

Subnational governments of third administrative level (municipalities or other equivalent designations) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Initiatives implemented in partnership with other sub-national governments, national government, civil society, private sector or academia will be accepted.

Evaluation Process  

The contest’s management and supervision will be under the responsibility of a Technical Secretary of the Institutions for Development Sector, and will be supported by the IDB’s technical teams that will lead the evaluation in each of the two categories.

Technical evaluation of the proposals will be conducted by two external consultant panels, which will consist of internationally renowned experts in each of the categories. The experts will be independent professionals with experience in LAC countries.

The evaluation process will take place in November 2015. During this period, each panel will review and evaluate the proposals based on the criteria detailed in point 2.4 of the contest rules (see following section).

After the proposal evaluation by the external consultant panels, the contest’s Technical Secretary will rank the applications reviewed and select two winners for each category (four in total) based on the score assigned by panel members to each proposal; all winners can be from the same country. The content of the proposals will be disseminated through the contest webpage, social networks, and other platforms.

Evaluation Criteria  

The evaluation criteria for applications are different for each of the two categories.

Category 1. Cities and Big Data

1. Impact (30%): The initiative has contributed to: the creation, collection, analysis, and utilization of big data, in order to encourage greater transparency in local administration, promote citizen participation, and facilitate user evaluation of degree of satisfaction, among others. The indicators should demonstrate that citizens’ lives have been improved as a result of the use of big data, and impact should be supported by opinion surveys, follow-up, management reports, and economic studies, among others.
2. Sustainability (15%): The initiative is financially and institutionally sustainable over the long term. This is reflected in the capacity to continue to gather and store information as well as the analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of results for improved public governance. Additionally, initiatives aimed at contributing to social and environmental sustainability will be considered, such as efforts to promote gender and minority inclusion in credit or service systems or efforts to reduce environmental impact (better energy system performance, congestion, and vehicular emission reduction, etc.).
3. Design quality (10%): The initiative was carried out based on a strategic design and planning process, defining all occasions for producing, gathering, and/or processing big data as well as for data quality and analytic quality assurance, security, and privacy. Likewise, the initiative defined responsibilities, appropriate resource distribution, expected results, risks, milestones, and goals, among others.
4. Intersectoral and citizen participation (10%): The initiative was designed by and receives feedback from multiple actors, and is based on the uploading, sharing, and analysis of data by various actors, including citizens (citizen science), companies, research centers or universities, civil society organizations, and non-governmental organizations, among others.
5. Scale-up potential (5%): The initiative shows characteristics that enable its replication in other geographic spaces or sectors.
6. Innovation (30%): The initiative incorporates a new approach, new concepts, new practices or new technological tools applied to the gathering, processing, analysis, and interpretation or visualization of big data.

Category 2. Cities and Registry of Persons

1. Impact (30%): The initiative has increased: (i) civil registration service coverage; (ii) the number of people with identity documents; or (iii) the number of timely registered births. The impact must be supported by indicators on aspects such as scope, initiative cost, user satisfaction, scores and/or opinion surveys, follow-up, and management reports.
2. Sustainability (20%): The initiative is financially and institutionally sustainable with resources available over the medium term (special value will be given to initiatives being included in government budgets). Additionally, initiatives that include measures to promote social and environmental sustainability, such as support for gender and minority inclusion (number of people trained, percent of beneficiaries, etc.) or efficient natural resource management (production process efficiency indices, greenhouse gas emission reduction, etc.).
3. Service access (20%): People can obtain their identity documents or birth certificates easily and promptly thanks to clarity, speed, and efficiency in established processes that can be reflected in broader registration service coverage, shorter processing time, and fewer formal requirements, among others.
4. Innovation (20%): New management practices and/or technological tools have been incorporated to transform internal processes and facilitate initiative implementation. The initiative shows a high degree of originality in coming up with common practices to close the identity gap in the region.
5. Adaptability (10%): The initiative has characteristics that enable its replication in other municipalities of the region (special value will be given to initiatives having already been adapted by national or regional institutions).