The Astana Civil Service Hub is pleased to announce the results of the second round of the Innovative Solutions Scheme devoted to the digital government innovations, the purpose of which is to identify the most successful innovative solutions and disseminate them among the countries of the region.

The IMD World Competitiveness Center (Switzerland) with the project “Blockchain: an innovative solution for smart governments” and the Digital Solutions Ltd. (Kazakhstan) with the project “E-Practicum: online platform for practical knowledge” have been selected as the winners.

Proposals were received from 46 representatives of 17 countries: Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Montenegro, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Ukraine, UK, USA, and Zambia. 

The International Selection Panel comprising of representatives from Estonia, UNDP and JSC “National Information and Communication Holding “Zerde” identified the winners.

The Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Astana Civil Service Hub Alikhan Baimenov noted: “The modern information technologies create new opportunities and at the same time challenges for public sector. In our open information society, citizens are aware of the quality of public services in other countries, and this creates a quasi-competitive environment for government agencies. To meet the citizens’ growing expectations, government agencies should apply innovations. The Innovative Solutions Scheme is aimed at identifying such innovative approaches to disseminate them further among the Hub’s participating countries.”

The winners will be provided the opportunity to develop case studies and manuals for replication of the innovative solutions to be disseminated among the Hub’s participating countries.

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In 2015, the Astana Civil Service Hub launched the Innovative Solutions Scheme aimed at supporting initiatives to modernize the public administration, to improve public service delivery, and to encourage innovation and creativity in public institutions. The Scheme was elaborated as a tool to identify and assist in replicating the most successful innovative solutions in public administration and disseminate this knowledge among participating countries of the Hub.