UNITED NATIONS SEARCH FOR INNOVATIONS IN GOVERNMENT; SUBMISSIONS

FOR 2008 PUBLIC SERVICE AWARDS INVITED BY END OF YEAR

 

The United Nations Public Service Awards has opened nominations for the annual Award launched to promote and support efforts of Member States to improve public sector performance.  This year’s Awards will be presented at United Nations Headquarters in New York during the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Programme on Public Administration and Finance, which will be celebrated with special events on United Nations Public Service Day, 23 June 2008.

An invitation has gone out to all Governments and civil society organizations, asking for nominations of public institutions that deserve an accolade for their contributions that enhance their role and professional conduct. Nominees have until end of the year to submit their nominations.

The Director of the Division for Public Administration and Development Management, Guido Bertucci, says this award has had tremendous impact around the world.  “Winners of this Award in the past years have made a difference in ordinary people's lives, providing better and faster public services,” he said.  “These institutions have made information on what government does more accessible and transparent and in the process allowing people's participation in public decisions that affect their well-being."

The United Nations Public Service Awards Programme was established by the Economic and Social Council in 2000 to promote better delivery of services by Governments.  The Award is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service.  It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions to a more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide.

Through an annual competition, the United Nations Public Service Awards promotes exemplary public service and recognizes that democracy and successful governance are built on a competent civil service.  Award recipients will be selected by the United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration.  The winners of the Public Service Awards for 2008 will receive certificates of recognition. 

The objectives of the Award are:

-- to reward service to citizens and motivate public servants worldwide to sustain the momentum of innovation and the improvement of the delivery of public services;

-- to collect and disseminate successful practices and experiences in public administration, in order to support efforts for improvements in a country’s level of public service delivery;

-- to counterbalance any negative image of public administration, raise the image and prestige of public servants and revitalize public administration as a noble discipline on which development greatly depends;

-- to enhance professionalism in the public service in rewarding the successful experiences in innovations and excellence in the public service.

For more information on the Awards, past winners and the means of submitting nominations:  http://www.unpan.org/dpepa_psaward.asp.

Contact Information:  John-Mary Kauzya, kauzya@un.org; Adriana Alberti, + 1 212 963 2299 and alberti@un.org; or Olivier Munyaneza, United Nations Public Service Awards Programme, munyaneza@un.org.

Media contact: Newton Kanhema, United Nations Department of Public Information, +1 212 963 5602, kanhema@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record