The Future of Government Awards 2023 are open for nominations

Nominations are now open for the Future of Government Awards 2023 , a global awards program that celebrates practitioners, teams, and leaders who are transforming people’s lives by applying digital solutions and leveraging technology to reform the public sector for those it serves.

The awards are co-sponsored by the Amazon Web Services (Amazon Web Services) Institute , a thought leadership and executive education program to accelerate digital transformation in the public sector; the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change; and are being run by Public Digital , a specialist consultancy supporting digital teams to transform government through rapid improvement and delivery at scale.

Accelerate digital transformation by reusing what works

When a government organization develops a solution to meet a shared common need and publishes their solution as open source software , other governments can reuse their proven solution—saving agencies around the world time and resources along the way to modernization and innovation.

But many government organizations don’t yet have experience reusing open source solutions and do not know what is involved or how to get started. That is why stories and case studies from those who have successfully reused and adapted a solution are so important to share. They provide inspiration, step-by-step guidance, and can offer the confidence needed to start the transformation journey.

To this end, the Future of Government Awards will recognize, celebrate, and share a diverse set of proven practices and solutions that can be reused by governments around the world. The awards program intends to identify solutions that will become Digital Public Goods , and that can be shared with governments around the world by being featured in the Open Government Solutions library on Amazon Web Services.

In its inaugural year, the Future of Government Awards drew a diverse range of nominations from 52 countries. Mykhailo Fedorov (Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine and minister of digital transformation) took home the digital innovator of the year award, IO, the app for Italian public services won the open source creation award, and Cambodia data exchange (CamDX) claimed the open source adaptation award. Learn more about their achievements in our earlier blog post.

In 2023 we hope to attract many more nominations, from an even greater number of countries. There are so many impressive contributions worldwide that deserve recognition and increased exposure, and many other nations can benefit from their endeavours.

Future of Government Awards 2023 categories

There are five categories for this year’s awards. Each category will feature finalists and one overall winner:

• Digital advocates of the year – recognises a small team that has achieved the greatest impact by championing digital transformation.
• Open source creation – recognises an open source solution that has been created and has demonstrable potential for reuse by another government in another setting.
• Open source adaptation – recognises the organisation that has most effectively adapted an open source solution, by applying it in a different context or setting.
• Leadership award – recognises a leader who has enabled their team, or organisation, to make a real difference to people’s lives.
• Lifetime achievement award – honors someone with an enduring legacy of real and evidenced positive change through digital transformation.

A highly accomplished global selection committee will choose the finalists and winners for the awards from the nominations received, with the exception of the Lifetime achievement award which will be chosen directly by the selection committee. Each member of the selection committee brings deep expertise in digital innovation and transformation within government, from a wide set of diverse backgrounds.

How to nominate someone for the Future of Government Awards

If you, or someone you know, is part of an initiative to digitally transform government to improve citizen services, or are involved in the creation or reuse of highly innovative open source solutions for government, please submit a nomination for one of the award categories. Nominations will close on December 14, 2023.

Visit the Future of Government Awards website to learn more about the program and submit your nomination today.

Learn more about open source solutions for governments

Are you curious about how open source solutions can help governments save time and money while still providing innovative services for their constituents? Get started with open source today through the Open Government Solutions repository , a growing collection of no-cost open source solutions designed specifically for government services, curated by the Amazon Web Services Government Transformation team. Check out examples of the research and experience of other public sector organizations with open source code for digital services, standards, practices, and more, implemented by governments around the world.

Visit the Amazon Web Services Institute for more resources for public sector leaders.

More resources from the Amazon Web Services Institute for government innovation:

• How governments can benefit from open source solutions to solve common challenges
• Getting Started with Cloud: The Use What Works video series
• Video: Amazon Web Services Institute Transformation Inspiration for public service leaders – Buy Better
• Why moving to the cloud should be part of your sustainability strategy
• Governments look to digital ID to modernize services and boost growth