WSIS Digital Service Design Special Prize 2024
Celebrating Excellence in Digital Government Services
The World Summit for Information Society (WSIS), in collaboration with GovStack, is excited to announce the WSIS Digital Service Design Special Prize 2024. This prestigious award recognizes the most innovative and impactful government services that excel in digital service design. The prize focuses on services that demonstrate a scalable, interoperable, and adaptable approach, addressing citizen or resident needs through the enhancement, innovation, or development of government processes.
Why this prize matters
- Recognition of Excellence: Honoring outstanding contributions in the realm of digital government services.
- Best Practices Sharing: A platform to showcase innovative solutions, setting a standard for others in the field.
- Advancing Sustainable Development: Promoting efficient and effective digital services in line with global sustainable development goals.
WSIS Digital Service Design Special Prize 2024: Application Guide
Timeline
- Application Deadline: April 20th
- Finalists Announcement: April 29th
- Pitch Presentation: May 5th
- WSIS+20 Forum Presentation: May 27th – 31st
Submission criteria
- Submissions should reflect an up-and-running Digital Service
- The submission is not limited based on software language, interface UI/UX language, operating system
- The submission should address a citizen/resident need(s) through improving, innovating, or developing government processes
- The submission should be designed for scalability, extensibility, and adaptability to a variety of generic workflows
- All projects submitted to this competition should cover work that is completed or at the end of a major phase to provide evidence of results and its social, economic, and environmental impact
- Submissions to the WSIS Prizes does not exclude participation in the Digital Service Design Special Prize
- Submitters may choose to have their submissions considered for any applicable WSIS Prize lines during future years
- Submissions should include
- A Short Description of the service and execution, with a minimum 150 words and maximum 200 words. Be advised to structure the Short Description of the project to reflect relevant, clear, highlighting ICT component and impact
- Must provide an overview of the service, such a link to a video demonstrating the service, access to a testing environment
- Must provide examples of specific linkages with any of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it helps advance
- Must provide design principles were a focus in the design process
- Must provide description of what ICT building blocks (BB) the service uses and the architecture diagram(s) showing how BB were integrated
- Must describe how open source solutions were used and integrated to enable the service
- Must provide the digital service design approach used to design and improve the service, and what stakeholders were involved, and any challenges, and planned future evolutions
- Must provide examples of the impact on citizens/users, and relevant measures of user satisfaction with service
- Must provide examples of how citizens’s needs were assessed and how citizens participated in the service design process
- Must provide description of how the service is promoting diversity and or gender responsiveness, ie. in service design process, use case relevance for marginalized groups or other.
- Must provide information about design team (including but not limited to roles and responsibilities, gender composition)
- May (optional) include a link to any publicly accessible multimedia
- The contest is open to all levels of governments – Federal, State and Local Government
- All WSIS Stakeholders are encouraged to submit digital government services for which they believe should be recognized and promoted, and even if they do not necessarily hold ownership of. If they do not have ownership of the service, they should provide best available contact details to the service owner
- No more than one submission from the same entity is allowe
- All submissions must be submitted through the online questionnaire, and the same service may not be submitted twic
- The submission deadline should be strictly respected. Late submissions will not be accepted
Nomination criteria
- The submissions will be reviewed based on the rules for submission and nomination criteria
- The submission should be complied with rules for submission. The requested information in the template should respond to all questions and provide detailed information on the goals, time-frame, project’s added value and importance, impact, and challenges. Minimum number of words requested should be respected as requested in the questionnaire.
- Should a submission be made by a Stakeholder who does not have ownership over the service, the service owners will be contacted to confirm their interest in being considered
- Nomination selection will be done by an Expert Group appointed by GovStack. The decisions of the Expert Group are final and without appeal
Shortlisting criteria
- The Expert Group will make in-depth analyses of the Submissions and will make a shortlist of up to ten (10) submissions, including:
- the winning submission
- runners-up for Special Recognition – Winner to the WSIS Forum
- All short-listed submissions will be invited to present in person during a session of the WSIS Forum 2024. Virtual presentations are also possible in case the person cannot be at WSIS Forum.
- Decisions of the Expert Group are final and without appeal.
Announcement of winners
- The winning submission will be announced officially during the CIO Digital Leaders Forum WSIS Edition, which will be held at the WSIS Forum 2024.
- Winning submission and all runners-up will be published on our website, govstack.global
Applications open now!
We invite teams and organizations from around the world, dedicated to transforming government services through digital innovation to apply for the prize by clicking on the button below:
2023 winner: The e-Governance Agency of Moldova
The e-Governance Agency of Moldova was the proud recipient of the prize in 2023. Their groundbreaking framework includes a suite of visual components and integration libraries, enabling the swift design and development of digital government service front-offices. Discover the story behind their success, the impact of the prize, and valuable insights for future innovators shared by Ms. Olga Tumruc, the Head of e-Governance Agency Moldova, 2023.
