Background

Since 1967, the International Council for Information Technology in Government Administration (ICA) has successfully brought together Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) and e-government senior officials from around the world, to meet and share both the lessons they have learned and their ICT successes and developments within their nations.

Emerging Leaders Programme

Objective

The ICA awards programme honours personal leadership in the ICA as well as the design and implementation of ICT for citizen aimed services.

The ICA Honorary Life Member Award is the highest honour given to ICA members who have contributed significantly to the ICA and to the advancement of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) in government. Specifically, is granted by the ICA Council to recognise those who have:

• Achieved national recognition within their government.
• Established a reputation for sustained service within ICA.
• Uninterrupted member in good standing with ICA for at least 7 years.
• Maintained active service in ICA (led ICA study groups/working groups or has been active in conferences) and active IT/IM service within their country at an executive level.
• Adjudicated by ICA peers as a leader who is a significant contributor.

ICA Honorary Life Member Award recipients are below:

2019
	Mr. Shimon Broner Israel
2012
	Dr. Nachman Oron Israel
2009
	Larry Caffrey United Kingdom
2003
	Francis McDonough United States of America
2000
	Benny Raab Israel
1995
	Peter Hearson United Kingdom
1976
	Aaron Gertz Israel

Awards selection process:

• Nominations for ICA award are received from ICA National Representatives each year and the ICA Board selects award recipients who are invited to attend the annual ICA Council Meeting and Conference.
• The ICA Board & Programme Committees will determine on an annual basis if awards in all, or some, categories will be granted.
• An ICA Board Member will convene the Awards Committee (membership will be influenced by nominations received) preceding the annual conference.
• Nominations may come from a variety of sources; however, it must be co-sponsored by the ICA National Representative.
• In addition to the ICA Representative, three references are required for consideration by the Awards Committee. The references must have first-hand experience and knowledge of the work done by the nominee.

How to nominate?
Nominations normally include a written justification (300 words maximum) addressing why recognitions are merited in the category selected. Some personal interviews/reference checks may occur.

Who can be nominees?
All nominees must be government/public sector employees and from within ICA member countries.

When awards are presented?
All award winners will be kept confidential until the awards are presented during the annual ICA Conference’s Gala event.

Contact:
Please, send your nominations to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Deadline: TBD

The Distinguished Service Award is given in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the efficient and effective administration of ICA or delivery of services to citizens. Criteria for this award include:

• Member in good standing with ICA for at least five years.
• A person who has achieved national recognition within their government and who has an established reputation for sustained service within ICA.
• Active service in ICA (led ICA study groups/working groups or has been active in conferences) and active IT/IM service within their country.
• Leader in their field; exemplary work has brought recognition to ICA.
• Must have been a government employee for at least 7 years, from within ICA country membership.
• Provides an example for other ICA members through dedication to expanding knowledge, innovation, leading projects, quality of service, and personal practices in IT/IM policy development. Responsible for the promotion of IT at government and federal level.

The recipients of the award are below:

2016
	Peter Bruce Canada
	Shimon Broner Israel
2015
Award not granted
2014
	Mui Ken Chung Singapore
2013
	Helen Caffrey United Kingdom
2012
Award not granted
2011
	Frank Leyman Belgium
2010
	Marty Wagner United States of America
2009
	Hans Werner Ksica Austria
2008
Award not granted
2007
	Seamus Clince Ireland
	Harry Nally Ireland
2006
	Arvo Ott Estonia
	Nachman Oron Israel
2005
	Dr Ilmari Pietarinen Finland
	Martha Dorris United States of America
2004
	Ann Steward Australia
	Des Vincent United Kingdom
2003
	John Riddle Canada
2002
	Poul Bernt Jensen Denmark
	Andras Szigeti Hungary
	Larry Caffrey United Kingdom

The Emerging Leaders Programme (ELP) was first introduced in 2008 as the Future Leaders Programme (FLP). Today some of the participants to the programme hold key government positions and a number even lead an active role in the ICA community.

The aim of this programme is to introduce new “Thought Leaders”. By fostering innovation and disruptiveness the ELP will further expand the ICA exchange experience and networking but mainly support the responsiveness to new challenges by identifying key topics of interest to be addressed through collaboration and co-creation in ICA led common work/study groups.

The ELP objectives will:

• Allow emerging leaders of digital governments from all over the world to benefit from the ICA community experience & network, and vice versa.
• Bring together these emerging leaders onto the ICA common platform in order to allow opportunity to interact and collaborate towards delivering key outcomes on strategic topics which are of interest to both the emerging leaders and ICA.
• Develop a network pipeline of driven and engaged emerging leaders who will help to take ICA towards the future.

The ELP candidacy pre-requisites include:

• Candidates must be sponsored by at least one national representative or in the event of non-members, a government agency official, by way of an email letter sent to the ICA Secretariat. The proposal should present the potential candidate in sufficient detail and specify his/her support to this person.
• Candidates must hold an active position in an e-Government (related) environment, be it at local, regional or national level.
• Candidates must be fluent in English (speaking and writing).
• ICA members but also non-members are welcome to make a nomination.
• Member countries are also encouraged to nominate potential leaders from emerging countries, who are not ICA members, but would benefit from links to the ICA or from countries who are former ICA members.
• The ELP candidate must communicate in writing his/her motivation to take part in the Programme and support the candidacy to the study group for at least one of the key topics to be addressed. Candidates must submit his/her letter and CV to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
• The ICA Secretariat will present the candidates to the ICA Board at its spring meeting. After discussion and comparison with other candidates, the Board will decide on this year’s candidates by simple majority vote.

ELP study/work group key topics:

The Board and Programme Committee identifies, based on the ICA community interests, identify the key topics to be further collaborated upon and presented during the annual conference and/or periodic webinars and publications.

2023 key topic

RTE and Sustainable Technologies in Public Sector

Climate change forces not only citizens and enterprises to adapt, but also the public sector needs to take actions to lower its ecological footprint. The European Commission has launched its "Green Deal"; a major programme to make Europe more ecologically friendly. Therefore, countries are called to take action. Every year EU countries will have to report on their progress in this matter. During this session we discuss and exchange good practice in the public sector context on how to achieve ecologically friendly governments and tackle "green" in ICT strategies.

To provide comparable and measurable ecological footprint, we need quality data. It helps the public and private sector to make more data-driven decisions and measure more effectively the impact of our decisions.

In the second part of the session, we will focus on Real-Time Economy and business data standardisation. Our goal is to simplify life for businesses but also for citizens as well as the state, empowering them with more time to invest in their productive work through real-time exchange of high-quality data. Better and more data-driven business environment will increase overall economic growth and provide the public sector more data-driven decision making in the government. The purpose of this topic is to elaborate on how standardised data can enable new innovative and more personalised as well as responsive public services, including AI-based services through the best practice examples of our Member States.

Emerging Leaders 2023: RTE and Sustainable Technologies in Public Sector

Sustainable Technologies in Public Sector

Real-Time Economy

2022 key topics

Real-time Economy in Public sector

Real-time economy (RTE) is an environment where all the transactions between business entities are in digital format, increasingly automatically generated, and completed in real-time without store and forward processing, both from business and IT-processing perspectives. In Public Sector, the main benefit of RTE is associated with the elimination of "unproductive work" performed by businesses, citizens and the state, which can be done through real-time exchange of high-quality data. E.g.: imagine the full digital cycle from public consultation ➔ eProcurement ➔ eInvoicing ➔ accounting (also in a cross-border context). The purpose of this topic is to discuss the challenges, burdens and needs to implement a RTE status in public sector.

Sustainable technologies in public sector:

Climate change forces not only citizens and enterprises to adapt, but also compel the public sector to take actions in lowering its ecological footprint. As Government CIO’s we need to review the energy consumption of our data centers, chose other “greener” sources of energy, revisit the isolation of our computer rooms and buildings in general, maybe reduce our travels, etc.

The European Commission has launched its “Green Deal”; a major programme to make Europe more ecological friendly. Therefore, countries are invited to take action. Every year EU countries will have to report on their progress in this matter. The purpose of this topic is to discuss and exchange good practices in the public sector context.

Govtech in emerging countries:

GovTech is about applying emerging technologies (such as artificial intelligence, advanced sensing, blockchain, advanced data processing, etc.) in order to improve the delivery of public services through increasing efficiency and lowering costs. One may consider that this is easier to implement in advanced countries. But is this really so? Emerging countries could maybe leapfrog and be more efficient than the western world. So, who inspires whom in this matter? The purpose of this topic is to discuss and exchange good practice in public sector context.

For further information, please contact the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Emerging Leaders 2022: Real-time Economy in Public Sector

Past Programme Leaders

2015 awarded Future Leaders were Mr. Lourino Chemane from Mozambique and Ms. Daiva Chetcuti-Kirkilaitè from Lithuania.

ICA Future Leaders: