Malaysia's 'eKASIH' Wins United Nations Public Service Award

KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 (Bernama) -- The eKasih project, an innovation of the government of Malaysia, has won the first prize of the United Nations (UN) Public Service Awards (UNPSA) 2012. According to a statement issued by the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the UN in New York, eKasih won in the category of Advancing Knowledge Management in Government for the Asia-Pacific region in a ceremony held at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday. The eKasih, is a centralised Malaysian National Poverty Data Bank which stores information related to poverty and it can be accessed and used by all government agencies and other related parties for purpose of planning, coordination and monitoring of poverty eradication programmes in Malaysia. Director of the National Databank and Innovation Centre (NADI) at the Implementation and Coordination Unit (ICU) of the Prime Minister's Department Rosni Abdul Malek, who was accompanied by Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the UN, Saiful Azam Martinus Abdullah, received the award on behalf of the Malaysian government. The ceremony was officiated by UN Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang. Forty-four public organisations from 29 countries received the UN recognition for excellence in various areas of public service this year. The UN Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service. It rewards the creative achievements and contributions of public service institutions that lead to more effective and responsive public administration in countries worldwide. -- BERNAMA