Impumelelo Innovations Award Trust has officially launched its 2007/ 2008 award cycle. More than 5000 application forms have being sent to local authorities including municipalities, provincial governments, national departments and NGO’s.

Measuring and identifying public sector innovation is no easy task even for an organisation that has been doing so since 1999. The task is massive; some would even say it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Impumelelo intends to identify, reward and promote good governance and exceptional service delivery projects that address challenges such as housing agriculture, education, health and HIV/ AIDS, the environment, water and sanitation, infrastructure and justice and security.

The organisation hopes that the deadlines looming for 2010 will focus the minds of public managers and that innovation will come to fore when delivering projects in time for the showpiece event barely three years away.

“There can be no more important task than preserving our democracy by showing an already cynical South African citizenry that even with all the bad news that we read daily, there are still government agencies, departments, municipalities and people that implement best practice and do well in delivering social services.”

In the 2005/2006 award cycle a total of 162 submissions were received and 132 were short listed for evaluations with 38 being acknowledged for their innovation.
Aside from the financial benefits of being an award winner, projects that win Impumelelo Innovation Awards are also frequently internationally recognised by global agencies like the UN, Habitat For Humanity and the Dubai Awards.

Kadalie is quick to point out that Impumelelo is no longer merely and awards programme, “it is the work that is done as a follow up to the awards, that really sets Impumelelo apart from any other award programmes in South Africa, its status as an NGO and its complete independence of government.
This is definitely not government rewarding government”. Kadalie describes the awards as a “fulcrum” for Impumelelo’s other initiatives. The Impumelelo Public Sector Best Practice Workshops are one such initiative. Previous Impumelelo award winners are invited to train other public managers tasked with similar duties.

For example if a particular Water and Sanitation project was rewarded then the project manager responsible for implementation would be invited to present their model to other water and sanitation practitioners from around the country.

“It is one way we fulfil our vision of building capacity for service delivery and contribute to the continued lack of capacity especially at local government level.

It is also in these sessions where one really gets the sense that we are reaching the right people and that we are fulfilling another of our most important aims, that of replication of best practice”, concludes Kadalie
Based on a model started some 20 years ago at Harvard University as a partnership between the Kennedy School of Government and the Ford Foundation, Impumelelo is one of ten award programmes around the world in countries amongst them being China,

The Philippines, Peru, Brazil and Kenya that search for public sector innovation with the aim of having these projects replicated. NGOs and civil society organisations are also encouraged to apply since they too have innovative projects, which if mainstreamed by government could provide creative solutions to some of South Africa’s challenges.

For application forms Impumelelo can be contacted on 021-461 3783 or on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The application form can also be electronically accessed on www.impumelelo.org.za For more information please contact