The Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) National Household Targeting Office (NHTO) finishes as finalist in three categories in the sixth annual FutureGov Awards ceremony held on October 19, 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

“The DSWD is honored for the recognition given by the FutureGov Awards. It is very rewarding for us to know that our efforts are recognized by an international award giving body. Our NHTO is on the right track,” DSWD Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman said.

The FutureGov Awards serves as an international benchmark by which public sector innovation is judged. It uniquely celebrates agency and project success including the most successful city modernisation programmes in the region (www.futuregov.asia).

The FutureGov is open for nominations from government, education and healthcare organizations, and city administrations in the Asia Pacific from which they will select finalists for the 19 categories.  Yearly, they receive hundreds of nominations all over Asia.

The categories include Government Organization of the Year, Education Organization of the Year, Connected Government, Data Centers, Information Management, and Green Government among others. For this year’s awards, the NHTO competed with 92 finalists.

The NHTO landed finalist slots in three categories. It  was the only finalist from the Philippines. The first category is under the Connected Government which recognizes the office’s excellence in intra-agency and inter-agency workflows. Second is in the Information Management category which recognizes the NHTO’s excellence in the secure capture, storage and distribution of citizen information. Last is the Government Organisation of the year which recognizes excellence in public administration at the central, state or local government level. Under this category, the NHTO competed with Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and Hong Kong.

Secretary Soliman added that this only goes to show that our efforts towards focused targeting is at par with that of the other countries’ programs and projects. “Recognitions like these serve as inspiration to us to even work harder and improve our systems.  We are hoping to be able to join next year and win an award,” said Secretary Soliman.

For the complete list of winners and finalists per category of the FutureGov Awards you may visit http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2012/oct/22/FutureGov-Awards-Celebrate-Government-ICT-Achievem/. #