Sheikh Mohammed honours winners of innovation awards

Sheikh Mohammed awards the winner of the Best M-Government Awards for Tourism to Visit Abu Dhabi at the closing ceremony.

 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 MGov 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 Governments 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.
LIST OF AWARDS PRESENTED IN DIFFERENT AWARD CATEGORIES
Best Mgov Service Award
> Education Category: Learning Potential by the Australian Government of Education & Training
> Health Category: Guardians of Health by the Ministry of Health in Brazil
> Social Affairs Category:
Arrival app by Germany that helped refugees integrate and adapt to Germany
> Tourism Category: Visit Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority
> Environment Category: Easti Energia, Estonian Energy Co
> Safety and Security Category: Dubai Police
> Trade and Economy Category: Vendors@Gov by Singapore Ministry of Finance
> Transport and Infrastructure Category: Road and Transport Authority, Dubai
> One-Stop App: Mobile Government of Kazakhstan
 Best Government Emerging Technologies Award 
> Estonia government E-health records
> Ministry of Transport Singapore Smart Transportation (for self driving cars)
> Netherlands Government smart city by Amsterdam
 Blockchain Virtual Govhack
> First place with reward of $100,000: Project Oaken
> Second place: Health Blocks
> Third place: Land Registry
 Year of Giving Award - Hypergive; Global Universities Challenge Award - The Kennedy School of Government
sherouk@khaleejtimes.com