Winners of GovTech Innovation Challenge
In the lead up to GovTech Hackathon (presented by KPITB in collaboration with Code for Pakistan and World Bank), we asked for problem statements on the themes of Health, Education, Mobility, Environment, and Travel/Tourism. The purpose of this online competition was to get a pool of problem statements for the GovTech Hackathon and to get more citizens thinking about the problems that affects us.
In just two weeks, we received over 1000 entries from all over Pakistan. The experts marked the entries on value proposition, potential impact and relevance to the themes.
Here are the best five most well-composed and though-out problem statements:
Ayesha Hassan Afridi
One liner: There is an increase in global warming, animal habitat destruction, and the mental and physical health of our people is worsening.
Description:
The state of our world is dire. Global warming is causing the glaciers to melt drastically and will result in flooding. Because of deforestation, animal habitats are getting destroyed, leading to extinction and worsening air quality. The poor environmental conditions have affected both the mental and physical health of our people.
To overcome the above-mentioned problems, I suggest creating a mobile application (I propose for it to be called KP Floristic) where the public will be connected to different nurseries, online sellers and government departments such as PDA, horticulture department etc. where citizens will have access to floral, trees and plants. Through the app, citizens can also exchange their plants with others, creating community and encouraging Pakistanis to plant more flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables. This would bring a change in the climate; atmospheric oxygen levels would increase, air would be purified, habitats will be preserved, and it would improve health overall. Can you imagine what it would be like to be surrounded by a peaceful green areas, full of vibrant flowers? It would bring so much positivity into one’s life.
Story behind the problem statement:
I am from Tirah, a small rural area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and my family lives in Shaakas, Jamrud, where I wish there was more green development. I wanted to plant some seasonal flowers and unique trees, but it was not possible for me to get them — no one was willing to deliver there and there are no nurseries in the surrounding areas. My desire to “go green” sparked the idea to create a platform where gardeners meet suppliers, that also supported a system of delivery for more remote regions, first for KPK, and then for the rest of Pakistan.
Muhammad Hassan Shafiq
One liner: Healthcare systems are struggling with the problem of data silos (a collection of data held by one group that is not easily or fully accessible by other groups in the same organization), disparity of health-care related information, authenticity and lack of inter-operability.
Description:
In Pakistan, healthcare records are all paper-based. Also, due to the centralization of information, the data sharing is limited. As a result, it is very difficult to maintain records and they can easily be lost. This is a huge drawback! Patients and their healthcare providers have an incomplete view of medical histories and both groups of citizens are affected. The current situation poses difficulties for sharing and accessing health data timely.
The major areas when it comes to interoperability are:
• The trouble of identifying patients.
• Information blocking.
• Centralization of Information.
• Paper Based Storage of Records.
The organizations that are using an electronic system are completely centralized and there is no mechanism of information sharing and accessibility outside of that centralized system. The centralized systems are limited to the hospital, and there is no chain of hospitals so that the patient’s information is only accessible within that hospital.
Story behind problem statement:
Almost all the patients visiting hospitals are affected with this problem. As the system is paper based so they have to maintain a large file every time they visit a hospital. These records can easily be lost and have authenticity issues.
Imran Khan
One liner: Attestation and verification process for documents in Pakistan is tiresome and should be digitized.
Description:
Applying for college, university, or a job, requires attestation and verification of personal and educational documents. This tiresome process can be solved through creation of a digital portal, where a unique ID should be generated against one’s attested and verified documents. After that, the candidate can use this unique ID for the rest of his life against those documents.
The application will increase opportunity cost in terms of verification which needs to be integrated not only in education but also in other government department i.e. NADRA, courts.
Story behind the problem statement:
I was sitting with my family in 2020, when I received a call from my one of my friends who was applying for FPSC jobs. He was asking how to attest his documents, and if I knew any government servant who could attest his documents, and so I connected him with a friend. Just a year later, in 2021, another friend called me to ask for help with attesting his documents. I thought about this and wondered why this process has to be some tiresome — surely, there must be a way to make the attestation process much simpler.
Muhammad Adnan
One liner:
In a step towards paperless governance, our country needs a platform that can issue original documents /certificates from a government database.
Description:
Need a platform that can issue original documents/certificates from the database of government institutions/departments or agencies. The proposed application will provide an account in the cloud to every citizen to access authentic documents/certificates such as covid vaccine certificate, driving license, vehicle registration, various school boards, birth certificate, voter id, academic mark sheet in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates.
What will be the benefits of this proposed application?
• You can access documents anytime, anywhere
• Real-Time verification: provides a verification module enabling government agencies to verify data directly from issuers after obtaining user consent
• Reduced Administrative Overhead by minimizing the use of paper and curtailing the verification process
• Documents are issued directly by the registered issuers such as Registrar Office, Income Tax department, university, etc.
• A range of official certificates and documents is accessible
• You can share documents online
• It will be simple and convenient
• A great step toward paperless governance
Story behind the problem statement:
I am a student and we always need documents in different areas. Sometimes we forget important documents which causes delay in processes, which is why we need a platform that provides docs in real time from original issuer.
Muhammad Aqib Mazhar
One liner: Problem of submitting attested documents.
Description:
The thing is that in Pakistan students of school, colleges, universities and job applicants have to submit all their educational documents whenever they apply. If there is an online electronic portfolio, then we don’t need to submit all documents repeatedly for different things, like jobs, admissions, NADRA, passport, etc.
Story behind the problem statement:
For every major milestone — whether that was clearing my Matric, FSC, Bachelors, and then when I got married or got my government job — I had to submit bundles of photocopies to every institution. Our government should develop online portfolios that hosts verified documents. We should not need to submit bundles of attested copies for our work, but rather, a unique portfolio ID number so that institution can see all our documents and confirm that they are all verified. This will save time & money, and is a great step toward reducing paper
Congratulation to the winners and a big thank you to everyone who participated in GovTech Innovation Challenge and Hackathon.
Winners will receive the prize money at Digital Youth Summit 2021 in mid-November. Stay tuned for updates!
