Categories

The Inter-American Award on Innovation for Effective Public Management (PIGEP) has 6 categories, related to different areas of public management:

1. Innovation in Human Talent Management

This is the set of initiatives and strategies of public institutions, the purpose of which is to ensure proper management of human resource capacity and skills profiles within the framework of a professionalized public institution, according to its various phases (e.g.: recruitment, selection, access, incorporation, training, development, promotion, remuneration, and separation). These initiatives and strategies should focus on training for the public service to fully discharge its functions and responsibilities; attracting new cadres and public leadership training; encouraging the adoption of innovative practices; recognizing merit and outstanding performance; managing and resolving gaps in technical skills, management skills, and technological literacy, among other issues.

2. Innovation in Open Government

This relates to the set of public institution initiatives and strategies whose aim is to ensure citizens have access to and impact on public data, decisions, and services as part of an open public institution. These initiatives and strategies may include (the specific approach must be made explicit on the application).

• Transparency: This refers to a set of open data-related initiatives and strategies, whose objective is to make available to citizens relevant information on responsibilities, acts, decisions, data, plans, sources, etc., with respect to public institutions and who their members are. Examples: accountability reports, citizen reports, laws on access to information, transparency portals, traffic lights for tracking goals, etc.

•Participation: It refers to the set of strategies and mechanisms relating to "open decisions" made by public institutions in order to promote the right of citizens to actively engage in political decision-making; to promote interaction between the state and citizens and feedback from the latter to government, for both sides to be able to benefit from knowledge, ideas, and experiences in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of government. Examples: public hearings, participatory budgeting, co-design sessions, agility methods, and innovation labs.

• Collaboration: This refers to the set of initiatives and strategies related to "open services" provided by public institutions for the purposes of involving citizens, civil society organizations, and companies in the coordinated and joint delivery of public programs and services. Examples: public-private partnerships and consortiums, permits, and adhesion contracts, public service concessions, inter-municipal consortiums, service cooperatives, public services informed by multiculturalism.

3. Innovation in the Use of Evidence from the Behavioral Sciences

(In collaboration with the BIT – Behavioral Insights Team )

This refers to the set of initiatives and/or strategies using empirical evidence (insights) from the behavioral sciences to design and to implement public policies, programs and actions reflecting a more realistic model of human behavior. In order to produce a positive social impact, these initiatives and/or strategies are designed to mitigate cognitive biases, to improve decision-making and individual behavior without compromising individual autonomy in terms of will and freedom. The strategies contemplated include: (a) tools such as nudging, framing, choice architecture, defaults options, salience, social standards and gamification, among others; and (b) empirical research methods, such us natural experiments, field experiments, randomized controlled trials, among others.

4. Innovation in Social Inclusion

This relates to the set of public service initiatives and/or strategies that promote holistic wellbeing for those who are vulnerable, doing so in an inclusive and equitable manner so as to positively transform their living conditions. This category calls for a crosscutting approach to be taken, that is, including vulnerable populations – such as people with disabilities, at-risk young people, people of African descent, indigenous people, migrants, LGTBI communities, and older persons – in activities or processes.

In that regard, innovations in social inclusion may include (the specific focus has to be explicitly stated on the application:

• Promotion and Social Protection:refers to original strategies and initiatives aimed at providing people with support to deal with the various risks they face over the course of their lifetime, guaranteeing everyone income security and access to essential social services.

• Financial Inclusion: refers to original strategies and initiatives that promote inclusion of population segments traditionally excluded from the financial system.

• Digital Inclusion: refers to original strategies and initiatives that seek to democratize access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) so that all segments of the population – especially the most vulnerable – can be included in the information society.

• Inclusion in the Workforce: refers to original strategies or initiatives related to working conditions, productive employment, and decent work, and equal opportunity for vulnerable people.

• Inclusion in Production: refers to original strategies or initiatives related to the conditions and equal opportunity for vulnerable people with respect to opening up/developing businesses and productive enterprises.

5. Innovation in Promoting a Gender Equality, Diversity, and Human Rights Approach

This refers to the set of public service initiatives and strategies to help advance gender equality and women's rights from a diversity perspective, in different areas, inside or outside an institution. Innovations in this area could include the following elements:

• Encouraging women and other under-represented group's participation in policy design: Initiatives and strategies that provide or facilitate a new approach to participation of citizens, especially poor women and other vulnerable groups, in the design of policies, through a variety of consultation and knowledge management mechanisms or techniques, among other things.

• High-quality service delivery to women and other under-represented groups: Initiatives and strategies that provide greater access to high-quality and affordable services for women. It includes innovations in service delivery mechanisms that are tailored to the specific needs of women in all their diversity, taking into account aspects associated with their human rights, including their health, safety, participation in the labor market on an equal footing and free from violence, limitations they may face in terms of access and mobility, and shared responsibility for family caregiving, among other issues.

• Theory of change in social roles and power relations between women and men: Initiatives and strategies that, beyond meeting the basic needs of women/families, seek to promote or deepen a change in the social roles of women and men and the power relations that continue to perpetuate inequalities, through awareness raising, education, training and/or communication.

6. Innovation in Smart Government

This refers to a set of initiatives and strategies that facilitate understanding and implementation of emerging technologies so that public institutions can positively transform the citizen experience in the relationship with the public. These initiatives and strategies specifically include the application of technologies such as: remote sensing and georeferencing systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, and digital identification, traceability, data protection, and privacy, among others. The application should focus on these technologies and their concrete effects on the benefit of citizens being applied in practice.