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Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina win the Gobernarte 2018 Award with innovative ideas

The fifth edition of the "Gobernarte - Premio Eduardo Campos" contest of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), identified innovative ideas in the area of citizen participation and digital citizenship from the subnational governments of Bogotá, Colombia; Puebla, Mexico; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Cordoba, Argentina.

The Municipal Government of Bogotá and the Municipal Government of Sao Paulo were selected as the winners of the category "Citizen Participation and Trust Generation". The Municipal of Puebla and the Government of the Province of Córdoba were awarded in the category "Democracy and digital citizenship".

In this edition, the contest received a total of 94 applications from subnational governments of 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Two panels of independent external consultants, with international recognition, evaluated and selected the initiatives based on criteria such as impact, sustainability, innovation and replicability.

The Gobernarte contest seeks to identify, reward and document the most innovative practices implemented in different areas of public management at the subnational level, with the aim of disseminating them and promoting cooperation between the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The four winning initiatives were:

Category citizen participation and trust generation

1. Laboratory of Innovation for Social Organizations / Municipal Government of Bogotá, Colombia

This laboratory is a space for communities to participate in the identification of problems in the city and in the collective construction of different alternatives to solve their demands effectively and sustainably. The objective of the laboratory is to innovate its participation process to include initiatives created by the most vulnerable communities, which will be accompanied by experts throughout the life cycle of the project, including implementation and sustainability, to ensure complete monitoring to support real citizen empowerment.

2. Open Book: an impulse of transparency and collaboration in public education in São Paulo / Municipal Government of São Paulo, Brazil

Open Book seeks to implement a package of actions to increase transparency and access to information related to the educational policies of the city of São Paulo. One set of actions is to generate a citizen budget and facilitate open contracting, making information available to the public and easy to understand. The other set of actions is to foster collaboration and interaction with the school community through "Edu", a chat robot created by the Municipal Secretariat of Education in partnership with UNESCO. The Secretary of Education of the City of São Paulo plans to improve Edu so that it can promote surveys and public consultations, expanding the participation of the public in the topics of municipal education.

Category democracy and digital citizenship

1. Design and Innovation of local production / Municipal Government of Puebla, Mexico

The initiative seeks to implement 10 manufacturing laboratories (Fab Labs) in the most vulnerable areas of the city of Puebla. The Fab Labs help society to learn about and use state-of-the-art technology, promoting local entrepreneurship and boosting talent, through training in the use of such technology. The future of the global industry will be based on the intensive use of technology and digitalization, using materials and renewable energies to increase the efficiency of products and services.

2. Platform " Digital Citizen" (CiDi) / Government of the Province of Córdoba, Argentina

CiDi is a technological platform implemented by the Government of the Province of Córdoba that allows citizens to access and manage all procedures and digital services provided by the government, in a simple way, in a single place, and with the same user account. The proposal seeks to add four tools to the platform to strengthen citizen participation: (i)  mobile app; (ii) digital audiences; (iii) online collaborative consultations; (iv) online publication of transparent investments.

The award ceremony for the fifth edition of Gobernarte will be held at Smart City Expo LATAM from September 11 to 13, 2018 in Puebla, Mexico.

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The Inter-American Development Bank is devoted to improving lives. Established in 1959, the IDB is a leading source of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts cutting-edge research and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private sector clients throughout the region. 

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