The much-awaited 19th Public Sector Innovation Awards aimed at recognising innovators in all spheres of government and public entities will be held at Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg east of Johannesburg on Friday, February 25, 2022.
Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI), Acting Executive Director, Ms Lydia Sebokedi said the glittering annual awards are scheduled to start at 18:00.
According to Ms Sebokedi, the awards recognise successful and effective service delivery improvement projects and initiatives that have been achieved through the application of innovative approaches, methodologies and tools.
Innovation sought by CPSI involves the application of new ideas, which results in benefits through cost-savings, efficiency improvements and new products or services, using technology and other solutions, which may involve process adjustments, culture change, institutional change or management development.
However, the CPSI awards do not award projects that have been achieved through the application of standard procedures and approaches.
The newly reviewed awards categories are also aligned to the seven government priorities as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation Address (SoNA).
In July last year, the CPSI launched the official call for entries to all of the public sector, Non-Governmental Organisations, Non Profit Organisations and those in the private sector recently, with the deadline of Friday, September 17, 2021.
Entries were invited for the following categories:
Innovative Solutions Reducing the Cost of Delivering Services
- This category rewards those who are faced with the challenge of “doing more with less”, thus being able to demonstrate how innovation contributes to alleviation of budgetary constraints.
Call for Public Sector Innovation Ambassadors, Champions and Trailblazers
- The emphasis of this category is to identify innovation ambassadors who are actively entrenching the culture of innovation in the public sector.
- They do this by developing in-house capacity to solve problems or by empowering others to innovate.
Citizen-focused Innovations
- This category celebrates the innovative use of ICT and non-ICT solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery at the coalface.
- The emphasis is on the interface with citizens and what has been done to make their experience of government pleasant, hassle free, effective and efficient.
Innovations harnessing 4IR Solutions
- This category includes the use of frontier technologies such as Blockchain, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and new ways of leveraging big data that can significantly improve service delivery.
The CPSI is an institution within the Portfolio of the Minister for Public Service and Administration, tasked with the mandate of entrenching the culture and practice of innovation in the Public Sector.
This is done through various programmes that unearth, recognise and nurture the replication of innovative solutions for improved public service.
