The main objective of the Inter-American Award on Innovation for Effective Public Management – PIGEP (for its acronyms in Spanish) is to strengthen democratic governance in the region through the improvement of public administrations of the OAS Member States, through the dissemination and exchange of innovative experiences in effective public management.

Its specific objectives are:

1. To recognize, identify, collect and disseminate innovative practices in public management of the countries of the Inter-American System;

2. To draw attention to innovation as a cross-cutting element of public management that goes beyond the use of technology;

3. To keep an Observatory of innovative experiences on public management that can be consulted by public officials, experts and citizens in general;

4. To generate among the public a growing demand for the improvement of public management in their public administrations; and

5.To foster innovation in public management among the countries of the Americas.

The PIGEP includes 5 categories linked to public Management areas, such as:  

a. Innovation in Human Resources Management

• It comprises initiatives and strategies carried out by public administrations intended to ensure a proper management of human talent, intended as the promotion and professional development of the public servant, in the context of a professionalized civil service. The innovative experience should focus on the training and capacity-building of public servants for the effective exercise of their responsibilities and duties in order to strengthen transparent institutional practices, the search for consensus to undertake institutional reforms and the accountability to citizens. 

b. Innovation in Open Government

Elements to be considered are:

• Participation: It refers to those initiatives and strategies with the aim to foster and promote the citizens’ right to be actively involved in the decision-making process; to promote the interaction between the Government and Civil Society so that they both can mutually benefit from their knowledge, ideas, and experiences in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of the public action. The flow of information - from the Government towards the citizens, civil society organizations and private sector; and the feedback from them to the Government – is key for the good functioning of an Open Government.

• Transparency: Defined as those initiatives and strategies, which aim to put at the disposal of citizens useful information about the responsibilities, actions, decisions, data, plans, sources, amongst other, on public administrations and their members.

• Collaboration: It refers to those initiatives and strategies, which are intended to engage, involve and convene all the citizens and social agents for the co-creation of a legitimate public value and the contribution to resolving problems of general interest, collective problems, taking advantage of the society’s different sectors and actors.

c. Innovation in Institutional Coordination 

It comprises initiatives and strategies carried out by the public administrations, which are intended to ensure the coherence and coordination between internal and external actors involved for the achievement of common objectives and/or policies. In that regard, the coordination could imply:

• Inter-institutional Coordination: It seeks effective coordination between the different institutions and dependencies of the Public Administration.

• Intra-institutional Coordination: It seeks effective coordination within the public sector institutions and dependencies, as well as specialized and autonomous national agencies (High Administration, Management, Technical levels)

• Trans-Institutional Coordination: It seeks effective coordination for the implementation of a national public policy that involves different actors.

d. Innovation in Social Inclusion

It refers to the initiatives and/or government strategies that promote the well-being of people in vulnerable situations, in an inclusive and equitable manner in order to positively transform their living conditions. For this category, a cross-cutting and differentiated approach should be assessed, such as the inclusion in the government activities and processes of vulnerable populations such as people with disabilities, youth at risk, Afro-descendants, indigenous people, migrants, LGTBI communities and elderly people.

That being said, innovations may include the following aspects:

• Social Protection: it refers to original strategies and initiatives that - focusing on issued such as poverty, vulnerability and exclusion - aim to create opportunities and improve the quality of life; to guarantee everyone’s income security and access to essential social services; with the final objective to consolidate integral systems based on respect of human rights and principles of universality, sustainability, equality, inclusion, co-responsibility, solidarity and equity.

• Labor Inclusion: it refers to original strategies or initiatives related to working conditions, productive employment, decent work and equal opportunities for people in vulnerable situations.

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

• Digital Inclusion: It refers to strategies and initiatives seeking to democratize access to information and communications technology in order to enable the inclusion of all segments of the population in the information society. 

   Note: The aspect must be specified in the application form of the innovative experience.

e. Innovation in the Promotion of Rights and Gender Equity approach

It refers to those initiatives and government strategies that contribute to the advance of gender equality and women's rights and their empowerment in different areas, whether within or outside the institution. That being said, innovations may include the following aspects:

• Encouraging participation of women in policy design: it includes initiatives and strategies that provide or facilitate a new approach to citizen participation, especially for women with no financial resources, in designing policies, through various mechanisms or techniques of knowledge management, among others.

• High-quality standards in the provision of public services to women: it includes initiatives and strategies that provide greater access to high quality and affordable service delivery for women. It includes innovations in delivery mechanisms for services that are tailored to the specific needs of women, taking into account aspects related to safety, family care, limitations on access and mobility, among others.

• Prevention, eradication and treatment of violence against women: it includes initiatives to prevent, treat and eradicate violence against women in all its manifestations.

   Note: The aspect must be specified in the application form of the innovative experience.

The criteria to be considered by the External Jury are:

The award-winners experiences will receive the following:

• The holding of an Award Ceremony of the PIGEP, according to each category;
• The invitation to participate at the Award Ceremony of the 2018 PIGEP
• The publication of the award-winners experiences in the OAS media.

The OAS reserves the right to publish the results of the selection process. Likewise, applicant must give - in the application form, his/her authorization for the publication and use - total or partial - of the content of the application.

*The calendar may be subject to change due to reasons of force majeure.

What is an Innovative Experience?

Who can apply?

How is the assessment realized?

Who are the members of the Special Jury?

Technical Support / Assistance

How to apply

To apply to the PIGEP, please follow the following steps: