The Expert Judges of the Seoul Smart City Prize Assemble For the First Time
Seoul, July 18th – The Seoul Smart City Prize Organizing and Evaluation Committee virtual meeting commenced on June 30th, 2023. The high-level experts who are a part of the Seoul Smart City Prize evaluation rounds have assembled for formal introductions and to discuss the evaluation methodology and online scoring system preliminary to the upcoming evaluation period.
As the application period for the Seoul Smart City Prize ended on June 14th, the evaluation rounds have officially begun. The first round gets evaluated by the WeGO Secretariat and the second round is evaluated by the Evaluation Committee. The Evaluation Committee comprises experts in varied fields of the smart city sector. There are 13 experts specializing in energy, digital economy, disaster management, urban development, and more. The Evaluation Committee members will be responsible for reviewing the applications that have made it to the second round and selecting the semi-finalists in the two categories: Human-CentriCity and Tech-InnovaCity.
The Seoul Smart City Prize received over 200 applications from 47 countries and 93 cities from regions of Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and Oceania. Worldwide projects were conducted across cities, institutions, and corporations and also received several individual nominations.
For the evaluation, the Seoul Smart City Prize partnered with a renowned institution, the Center for International Development Evaluation (CIDE) at Seoul National University for its methodology. The research team committed to substantial research in developing the evaluation criteria and indicators for the prize. The research includes the theory of change for the assessment of policy design and implementation.
The evaluation methodology incorporates data collection and analysis processes to input the indicators or variables that measure each city’s circumstances or potential for development into a theory-based statistical formula. Within the methodology, the efforts put into building inclusive and citizen-centric smart cities were considered a fundamental factor.
The main body of operation for providing insight and direction of the Seoul Smart City Prize is the Organizing Committee. These representatives also pertain to the smart city sector giving professional consultation and recommending suitable candidates for the Evaluation Committee. The Organizing Committee also serves to encourage the promotion of the prize and its global visibility.
The two prize bodies and members got well-acquainted during the virtual meeting before the official evaluation round initiates this week. The application status was reported by WeGO Secretariat and moved onto the presentation on the evaluation process, methodology, and criteria by Seok Won Lee, Professor at the Graduate School of Public Administration and Executive Director of the Center for International Development Evaluation, Seoul National University.
The 1st Seoul Smart City Prize Ceremony will be held from September 24 to 26th, 2023 in Seoul. WeGO will be inviting the Organizing Committee and Evaluation Committee to attend the Ceremony to celebrate the winners together.
About WeGO
The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), is a membership-based international association of local governments, smart tech solution providers, and institutions committed to the transformation of cities into smart sustainable cities through facilitating public-private partnerships (PPP). WeGO was founded by 50 member cities in 2010 as the World e-Governments Organization, hence our acronym. In response to the evolving concept of smart cities, WeGO expanded its vision and mandate at the 7th General Assembly (2017) and its name to the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization. WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul, Korea, and has regional offices in East Asia (Chengdu, China), the Mediterranean (Beyoglu, Turkey), Africa (Abuja, Nigeria), Middle East & North Africa (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Latin America (Cuenca, Ecuador), and Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan). As the leading platform on smart city development, WeGO’s mission is to share knowledge and good practices in e-Governance; strengthen administrative efficiency and transparency; advance digital capacity; facilitate civic involvement; bridge the digital divide and inequality; and promote cooperation solidarity among cities and local governments around the world.
WeGO serves for its members as their international platform to improve the quality of life, innovate in the delivery of public services, and strengthen regional competitiveness.
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