Excellencies,Distinguished Delegates,Ladies and Gentlemen,
Happy UN Public Service Day!
I am delighted to welcome you to the 2017 United Nations Public Service Awards Ceremony in honour of this Day.
I thank the Government of the Netherlands, Ministers and other high-level representatives for joining us from all over the world.
I also wish to extend a special welcome to the winners and finalists.
Let me now say a few words about the UN Public Service Awards and today’s ceremony.
Since 2003, the Secretary-General has used the United Nations Public Service Awards programme to promote and support innovation in public service delivery.
Over the years, more than 200 government initiatives have been recognized for excellence in over a dozen categories. Countless children, youth, women, men and older persons have benefited from those initiatives and their dissemination.
In 2016, we reviewed the Public Service Awards and aligned it with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Awards now focus on innovation and excellence in public services for sustainable development, and for helping to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are three categories this year:
I extend my warmest congratulations to the 12 winners who will be recognized today.
They come from countries and institutions that, despite their differences, share a common drive to innovate and ensure the wellbeing of their communities.
Their initiatives are varied. They strive to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people by preventing child marriage through cash transfer (India), or to empower the poorest people to make a living by providing childcare (Argentina), or to protect older people against financial abuse (UK).
Others have enhanced accountability by promoting the use of pre-paid cards for cash transfer and one-stop public service delivery (Kenya), using students as auditors in schools (Colombia) or enabling digital participatory budgeting to support the poor (Australia).
Yet others have improved health care by using technology for distance support to provincial doctors (Mongolia), preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (Armenia), or adapting healthcare systems to reach the poorest (Ecuador).
All of these initiatives have strived to serve people and the public interest.
I wish to thank the men, women and youth who invented those approaches and persisted in implementing them. Today, we are gathered to celebrate their creativity, their concern for others, the boldness with which they challenged the status quo and their aspiration to transform the world.
Only a few have been able to join us today and I ask them to convey our great appreciation to their team members. I also acknowledge the many initiatives that were not selected, but that reflect an outstanding creativity and concern for others.
The initiatives of the winners, the finalists and many other successful initiatives we learned about through the process, truly inspires us. They outline the contour of the kind of social and economic model we should aim to fashion for the future. And they showed us some of the paths to get there.
Let us now give the Awards to our winners.
Happy UN Public Service Day!
I am delighted to welcome you to the 2017 United Nations Public Service Awards Ceremony in honour of this Day.
I thank the Government of the Netherlands, Ministers and other high-level representatives for joining us from all over the world.
I also wish to extend a special welcome to the winners and finalists.
Let me now say a few words about the UN Public Service Awards and today’s ceremony.
Since 2003, the Secretary-General has used the United Nations Public Service Awards programme to promote and support innovation in public service delivery.
Over the years, more than 200 government initiatives have been recognized for excellence in over a dozen categories. Countless children, youth, women, men and older persons have benefited from those initiatives and their dissemination.
In 2016, we reviewed the Public Service Awards and aligned it with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The Awards now focus on innovation and excellence in public services for sustainable development, and for helping to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There are three categories this year:
- First, reaching the poorest and most vulnerable through inclusive services and participation,
- Second, promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in public service, and.
- Third, innovation and Excellence in delivering health services.
I extend my warmest congratulations to the 12 winners who will be recognized today.
They come from countries and institutions that, despite their differences, share a common drive to innovate and ensure the wellbeing of their communities.
Their initiatives are varied. They strive to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people by preventing child marriage through cash transfer (India), or to empower the poorest people to make a living by providing childcare (Argentina), or to protect older people against financial abuse (UK).
Others have enhanced accountability by promoting the use of pre-paid cards for cash transfer and one-stop public service delivery (Kenya), using students as auditors in schools (Colombia) or enabling digital participatory budgeting to support the poor (Australia).
Yet others have improved health care by using technology for distance support to provincial doctors (Mongolia), preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (Armenia), or adapting healthcare systems to reach the poorest (Ecuador).
All of these initiatives have strived to serve people and the public interest.
I wish to thank the men, women and youth who invented those approaches and persisted in implementing them. Today, we are gathered to celebrate their creativity, their concern for others, the boldness with which they challenged the status quo and their aspiration to transform the world.
Only a few have been able to join us today and I ask them to convey our great appreciation to their team members. I also acknowledge the many initiatives that were not selected, but that reflect an outstanding creativity and concern for others.
The initiatives of the winners, the finalists and many other successful initiatives we learned about through the process, truly inspires us. They outline the contour of the kind of social and economic model we should aim to fashion for the future. And they showed us some of the paths to get there.
Let us now give the Awards to our winners.
File date:
Friday, 六月 23, 2017