Public Service Team of the Year 2021: Community Innovators

Why this matters

For the fourth year in a row, Apolitical is celebrating innovative, groundbreaking teams that are changing the game through our Public Service Team of the Year Awards. This has been a challenging year, and public servants have been pushed to be more creative, innovative, and thoughtful than ever before — and we want to celebrate their work.

How the finalists were selected

We received nominations from teams all over the world. We then reviewed each nomination individually, and a panel of judges at Apolitical decided on a shortlist of teams for each category. Winners and runners-up were then selected based on votes from public servants around the world. You can see all categories of nominated teams here.

Winner

The Brazilian National School of Public Administration’s ‘Leading for Development’ programme, Brazil

The Brazilian National School of Public Administration’s ‘Leading for Development’ programme trains senior leaders from 27 Brazilian states and 5570 municipalities. Mayors, state secretaries and municipal secretaries undergo unique tailored training including comprehensive courses, case study analyses and training modules delivered by international experts. ENAP’S ‘Leading for Development’ initiative seeks to train leaders at various levels to promote local sustainable development in areas such as health, education, planning and administration, and improve the delivery of services to the public. Particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders have been trained in crisis management and leadership during emergencies. Over the course of 18 months, 900 leaders, including 208 mayors and deputy mayors, have been trained from more than 300 municipalities across all Brazilian states.

Runner-up

The Institute of Dominicans Abroad (INDEX), the Vice Ministry for Dominican Communities Abroad and the Ministry of Women's assistance programme, Dominican Republic

The Institute of Dominicans Abroad (INDEX), the Vice Ministry for Dominican Communities Abroad and the Ministry of Women have collaborated to create an assistance programme for legal aid, psychosocial support and therapy for Dominican women who have left the country and are suffering some sort of violence and abuse. This service, which can be accessed by Dominican women abroad through an online portal or a Whatsapp service, is completely free and confidential. It is the first remote assistance pilot of its kind in the Dominican Republic, and forms part of the Dominican Republic's ‘Work Plan for the Attention and Development of Dominican Women in the Diaspora’.

Finalists

The SparkBlue and Communities of Practice team, UNDP

The SparkBlue and Communities of Practice team, part of the SDG Integration team at the UNDP, launched SparkBlue, the learning and community engagement platform of the UNDP. The cross-sector learning and collaboration necessitated by Covid-19 pandemic led to the creation of SparkBlue, a platform which was able to connect thousands of UNDP members, as well as non-members, from over 135 countries to share experiences, promote best practices and co-create initiatives. Since its launch in June 2020, SparkBlue has had over 1.3 million visits and has over 14,000 users to date. In 2021, SparkBlue’s top three consultations that it hosted on the platform were Youth 4 Climate Action, High-Level Dialogue on Energy and Gender Equality Strategy, each with over 350 members involved.

The New York City Junior Ambassadors Program, USA

The City of New York has developed and launched its ‘New York City Junior Ambassadors program’ (NYCJA) which enables youth to better understand their role as global citizens and be ambassadors of the Sustainable Development Goals in their local communities. A cohort of 12-13 year olds, along with their educators, are selected annually to participate in the programme. The programme for the youth includes guided tours of the UN Headquarters in New York, interaction with SDG experts, talks by senior diplomats and city leaders and opportunities to partake in UN events. Through immersive experiences helping young people better understand global diplomacy and sustainability, individuals from the cohort raise awareness on various issues and act as SDG advocates in their own communities.

The City of Malmö, Malmö Model, Sweden

Sweden’s City of Malmö identified that rhetoric about implementing the Sustainable Development Goals is not enough and drives little concrete action towards achieving the goals. As a result, it has pioneered the ‘Malmö model’ whereby the city’s central budget document is the primary action plan for implementing SDGs and transforming rhetoric into action. The city established the ‘Malmö 2030-lab’ with representatives from each city department, and together a long-term implementation plan of the SDGs was created taking into account various departments’ constraints and processes. In particular, SDG considerations were integrated into the budgetary process and management systems, meaning that SDG pledges were institutionalized across the city government’s various departments and municipal companies.