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

Public Innovation Team of the Department of National Planification, Colombia Government

The EiP (Equipo de Innovación Pública in Spanish/Public Innovation Team) focuses on designing and implementing public innovation policies in Colombia. Their work covers a broad remit, from fulfilling the country’s development goals, to communicating best practices with the public innovation community, to creating and strengthening public officials’ innovation capabilities. This year, they co-created an initiative to help map problems and solutions, to promote more productive collaboration on innovative policies.

Runner-up

BUPi, Digital Cadaster and Registry Mission Unit, Portugal

BUPi is a platform created by the Digital Cadaster and Registry Mission Unit that lets owners identify the limits of their properties. In Portugal, the identity and location of rural land is largely unknown, which can hinder planning and management of land, as well as the implementation of policies like managing forest fires and landscape transformation programmes. This user-friendly platform uses public central and local databases,data from satellite imaging and machine learning to provide more complete information about the territory. The team has also developed a national certification and facilitated self-training of over 500 technicians. When the team began, only 5% of land was known; now, 43% of the land in the 117 municipalities reached by the project is known.

Finalists

The Instituto de Evaluación de Políticas Públicas del Estado de Durango (Inevap), Mexico

Inevap promotes the use of evidence-based policy design and implementation, so policies better serve citizens. They use evaluation processes to determine what policies are and are not working. They also publish Policy Briefs, so policymakers have the information they need to make informed policy decisions. This year, they have published Briefs on user-centred policy topics like accessibility to paved roads in Durango and the impact of Covid-19 on people’s mental health and wellbeing.

The Pharmacy Outreach Project Team, Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission

The Pharmacy Outreach Project team from the Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission recently ran a project aimed at reducing the inappropriate use of medication in residential aged care. The programme targeted residential services in ‘remote’ and ‘very remote’ areas. When the project was first initiated, it relied on in-person visits from pharmacists to train staff and sustain the programme; but when Covid-19 struck, the team had to rapidly pivot. The team trialled a pharmacy advice telephone line, in order to continue providing training, and has received highly positive feedback from those involved in the programme.

Estonian Public Sector inno-team

The Innovation team was created in order to make public services in Estonia more user-friendly and people-oriented, by continually experimenting and innovating. The team was founded in 2018 as an initiative between six ministries; since then, all eleven Estonian ministries have joined, and the team will continue into 2022. The team organises iKlub meetings that bring together the innovation network, and also offer training for public servants to learn about service design. In 2020, their team was recognised in the Estonian Design Awards competition for their design work. This year, they have worked on projects ranging from young people’s mental health, to business diplomacy, to reducing food waste.