OREANDA-NEWS. December 21, 2015. Five initiatives from municipal governments of Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala and Venezuela were selected as the winners of the Inter-American Development Bank’s, Gobernarte 2015 contest: Eduardo Campos Award.

The third annual contest, which celebrates the best and most innovative practices in public administration at the subnational level, had two categories this year: “Cities and big data” and “Cities and registry of persons”. Gobernarte received 95 submissions from Latin America and the Caribbean cities.

Two panels of internationally renowned experts evaluated and selected winning submissions in each category, based on criteria that included impact, sustainability, innovation, and replicability.

These are the 2015 winners:

Category 1: Cities and big data

Voce SBC - Participatory Urban Maintenance, Municipality of Sao Bernardo do Campo (Sao Paulo, Brazil): a system that enables participatory management of 114 public services and receives data from multiple sources of information provided by citizens, technicians, prosecutors and companies as well as data drawn from mobile mapping. 

Smart Fortaleza and Urban Mobility, Municipality of Fortaleza (Cear, Brazil): an initiative to reduce commuting time and make public transportation more user-friendly by using big data to analyze the mobility of pedestrians and vehicles. 

Category 2: Cities and registry of people

On-line Civil Registry, Municipality of Baruta (Miranda, Venezuela): the system enables citizens to manage different administrative processes from anywhere and in a time effective way. 

National Plan to register populations, Municipality of Antigua Guatemala, (Sacatep?quez, Guatemala): this initiative aimed at using technology to reduce the number of unregistered individuals, specifically with an application used by midwives that gives an early warning of births. 

Mobile Brigades, Municipio de Guayaquil (Guayas, Ecuador): the project helped ensure access to registration services in remote regions thanks to a well-equipped vehicle that issues identity documents. 

The category “Cities and registry of people” selected three winning municipalities. 

“I would like to congratulate the winners and express my gratitude to all the municipalities for participating so enthusiastically in the Gobernarte contest – Eduardo Campos Award, and also congratulate the winners. This contest is proof of the Latin American and Caribbean cities’ innovative public management practices to improve people’s lives” said Inter-American Development Bank President Luis Alberto Moreno. “In this third annual contest, the IDB and the region recognize efforts related to use of big data to improve the quality of public services as well as those innovations that seek to close the identity gap and combat the under-registration,” Moreno added.

The Gobernarte Award, with the support of the Institutional Capacity Strengthening Fund (ICSF) and the Canadian Fund for Universal Legal Identity in Latin America and the Caribbean (CCR), is aimed at identifying and awarding the most innovative practices in public administration at the subnational level, across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Further information on the awardees will be availabe on the website: www.iadb.org/gobernarte and the awards' ceremony will be held during the first quarter of 2016.

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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.