Digital Democracy Awards 2024
Mechanics and Application Guidelines
The Makati Business Club (MBC), in partnership with USAID Philippines, is now accepting nominations for its first ever Digital Democracy Awards.
Background and Objectives
In 2020, the Makati Business Club (MBC) launched the Digital Democracy project, drawing inspiration from Taiwan’s use of AI-driven platforms to navigate government policies on ride-sharing services like Uber and Grab. This project aims to help governments have better relationships with their constituents, support government decision-making with data, and strengthen citizens’ trust in their local governments. It uses digital tools to engage citizens directly in policymaking, allowing for efficient government-citizen interaction even under mobility constraints like those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially piloted in cities such as Pasig and Manila, this approach has helped governments gather and act on public insights effectively, enhancing decision-making processes.
Since its launch, the Digital Democracy project has helped six (6) cities consult their citizens using online tools. The cities include Pasig, Iligan, Intramuros, Legazpi, Victorias and Himamaylan. They have consulted their constituents on various topics including mobility, transportation, strengthening small businesses, improving mental health, and deciding which projects the Sangguniang Kabataan should prioritize.
In 2024, with the support of USAID Philippines, MBC is launching the Digital Democracy Awards 2024 to recognize local government units’ (LGUs) outstanding practices in strengthening citizen participation in government decision-making through the help of information and communication technology (ICT), among others.
The Awards aim to:
- Encourage local government units to shape their digital democracy initiatives in ways that foster citizen participation and inclusion, responsiveness of policies to community members’ perspectives, leadership of digital democracy pursuits, and stewardship of citizens’ data and inputs, among others;
- Recognize outstanding digital democracy initiatives and results; and
- Enable learning of good practices from the implementation of digital democracy initiatives by award applicants.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Who can apply?
All interested City LGUs who have implemented a digital democracy initiative from 2021-2024 may apply to be considered for the awards.
How to apply?
Fill out and submit the Application form through bit.ly/DigitalDemocracyAwardsForm.
When is the deadline for submission of applications?
October 21, 2024 (extended)
When and Where will the Awarding Ceremony be held?
November 15, 2024 in Metro Manila
Award Categories
The Digital Democracy Awards 2024 has the following award categories:
The People’s Participation Award recognizes the outstanding results of an LGU to bring about—among target stakeholders in the community—a high quality of participation in a digital democracy initiative. It focuses on how well an LGU informs and consults citizens about an issue.
The People’s Participation Award primarily focuses on the first two steps of the United Nations E-Participation Index: e-information and e-consultation. The success of these efforts, particularly in reaching and involving diverse groups within the community, is a key factor in determining the winner of this award.
The rubric for this award takes into consideration the following, among others:
- Varying ICT and internet infrastructure capacities among LGUs, affecting e-information and e-consultation efforts2.
- Consideration of both online-only and hybrid approaches (fully onsite approaches are not qualified)
- Identification of target stakeholders, such as youth or sector representatives, for each digital democracy initiative
- Merit given to participation results of community members, especially target stakeholders
The Citizen-Led Policy Award acknowledges the remarkable results of an LGU’s effort in effectively incorporating community feedback into their decision-making and policy making. This award focuses on the concrete changes in the form of policies—for example, ordinances, executive orders, Sangguniang Panlungsod resolutions, and budget allotments—that an LGU has made in response to the key concerns raised by community members in a digital democracy initiative.
This award recognizes policies issued as a result of a digital democracy initiative. It evaluates how well these policies address the key needs and concerns of citizens. Capturing and processing these needs and concerns accurately is essential.
The rubric for this award takes into consideration the following, among others:
- Ability to collect and analyze community feedback, especially from target stakeholders, to inform policy recommendations
- Priority given to policies addressing the main needs and concerns of stakeholders
- Consideration of the number of policies developed through the digital democracy initiative
The Leadership Award recognizes an LGU leader’s influencing and guiding of people toward the LGU’s ownership, co-development, and accomplishment of a digital democracy initiative. The leader anchors their actions upon the potential of the digital democracy initiative to enable community members’ participation in LGU decision and policy making.
The rubric for this award takes into consideration the following, among others:
- The Mayor’s leadership in the digital democracy initiative at the city level
- The Mayor’s involvement, ranging from hands-on to delegation, and engagement in planning and implementation
- Evidence of the Mayor’s engagement, including pronouncements, memoranda, and documented involvement
The Outstanding Public Communication Award recognizes the quality of an LGU’s public communication for a digital democracy initiative—from disseminating information to help stakeholders understand the issue, encouraging their participation in the initiative, collecting their feedback, and to communicating the results back to them.
This award highlights how effective communication can improve the relationship between the LGU and its community, breaking down barriers and fostering collaboration in decision and policy making.
The rubric for this award takes into consideration the following, among others:
- Clear communication objectives and effective use of communication channels and messages to engage target stakeholders
- Responsiveness to challenges in reaching and engaging target participants
- Consideration of tagging MBC’s page or using hashtags like #MBCDigitalDemocracy or #DigitalDemocracy[City Name]
The Data Stewardship Award recognizes an LGU’s remarkable efforts in properly handling and protecting the personal information and policy inputs collected from its community members during a digital democracy initiative. This includes the use, processing, and storage of data.
According to Republic Act 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, personal information is any data that can identify an individual, either directly or when combined with other information. The law requires that personal information be handled with transparency, legitimate purpose, and proportionality (i.e., the processing of information shall be adequate, relevant, suitable, necessary, and not excessive to a declared and specified purpose).
This award is guided by the principles of RA 10173 to evaluate how well an LGU handles data transparently, fairly, and adequately.
The rubric for this award takes into consideration the following, among others:
- Transparency in specifying the legitimate purpose for collecting personal information and policy inputs and the manner of using and storing information and inputs
- Adequate and non-excessive collection, processing, and storage of personal information relative to its purpose
- Diligence in processing data to inform policy making
- Efforts to safeguard personal information from participants in the digital democracy initiative
The Digital Trailblazer Award acknowledges an LGU’s outstanding work in using and innovating ICT including digital and internet solutions to overcome barriers in LGU and community members’ interaction for the digital democracy initiative. This includes efforts to use ICT to engage the community during the digital democracy initiative.
The rubric for this award takes into consideration the following, among others:
- Different levels of LGU digital capacity and infrastructure
- Ability to introduce and use innovative ICT solutions to enhance participation
- Efforts to eliminate barriers and create opportunities for participation through ICT
Guidelines and Mechanics
These guidelines and mechanics ensure a fair and efficient system for evaluating LGUs’ digital democracy initiatives, allowing each LGU to be considered for all awards.
- Application: Interested City LGUs must apply for the awards by submitting one complete application.
- Form: Complete the Award Application Form using this Google Form link: https://bit.ly/DigitalDemocracyAwardsForm.
- Supporting Evidence: Attach supporting documents such as reports, photos, and multimedia files to the Form.
- Five-minute Presentation: Submit a recorded five-minute presentation summarizing the digital democracy initiative’s objectives, experiences, and results in your LGU.
- Evaluation: Applications are rated based on the quality of participation, policy impact, leadership, communication, data stewardship, and ICT innovation.
- Awards: LGUs with the highest average score in each category receive the corresponding award. Ties are resolved by judges’ consensus.
- Deadline: Submissions will be accepted until October 21, 2024 (extended). MBC will be using the contact information provided in the Application Form to provide updates on the application.
- Agreement: Submission signifies consent for materials to be used in the awards and related reports. The materials may be shared by MBC in its publications and with stakeholders for whatever purpose MBC may deem useful.