Sheikh Mohammed honours winners of innovation awards
dubai — At the closing ceremony of the World Government Summit 2017, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, honoured 17 winners of different awards presented at the event.
Sheikh Mohammed honoured winners of the Best M Gov Service Award, Best Government Emerging Technologies Award and Blockchain Virutal Government Hackathon.
The first cycle of the Global Universities Challenge Award saw over 120 graduates from 13 top universities invited to formulate innovative visions of how future governments would look like. The winner of the Shaping Future Govern- ments University challenge were 10 participants from the John F. Kennedy School of Government from Harvard University, who pitched the idea of citizen participation in decision making and implementation of government initiatives. “Citizens have ideas and skills and time and networks and understand what’s happening at grassroots level,” said Belinda Chanda, a member of the group.
They were rewarded based on innovation, novelty, feasibility of their idea was selected over two other finalists: Stanford University and IESE Business School. Chanda said the group will work to present a more-detailed framework to the idea, before trying to sell it to a government to pilot.
Another special award generated in line with the Year of Giving was offered to Hypergive, a secure digital food wallets for homeless and hungry people. The system uses blockchain technology ensures to ensure donations are spent on food. Federal, local government bodies, university students, and Arab and international candidates were given the opportunity to submit nominations. The awards were meant to showcase governments’ most innovative technical solutions from around the world contributing to people’s quality of life.
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com