‘Gwangju-Daum Integrated Care’ Government Innovation Grand Championship Presidential Award

Effectiveness of Policies Solving Livelihood Issues and Eliminating Blind Spots Rated 'Excellent'

On the 14th, at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center in Gwangju, Gwangju City's "Gwangju-style Integrated Care" received the Presidential Award at the "2024 Government Innovation Championship" hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. Photo by Gwangju City

Gwangju’s representative policy, ‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care,’ won the prestigious Presidential Award at the ‘2024 Government Innovation Championship.’

Following last year’s International Urban Innovation Award hosted by the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Gwangju-daum Integrated Care has once again been recognized for its creativity and potential for expansion by sweeping the government innovation awards.

On the 18th, Gwangju City announced that on the 14th, at the ‘2024 Government Innovation Championship’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center, ‘Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’ was the only excellent case selected among metropolitan local governments and received the Presidential Award.

As the nation’s first ‘Care System for Everyone,’ Gwangju-daum Integrated Care, launched in April last year, allows any citizen to apply for care services with just a phone call without submitting separate supporting documents. By innovating the operating system and introducing 26 new services to fill gaps in national care, the project achieved the discovery and support of over 16,000 care recipients within just one year of implementation.

Gwangju-daum Integrated Care was highly evaluated for overcoming the selectivity and application-based limitations of existing welfare systems and for innovating the delivery system itself, where public officials at local administrative welfare centers act as one-on-one managers. This contributed to solving livelihood issues and eliminating administrative blind spots, highlighting the policy’s effectiveness.

In particular, while most award-winning projects this year were related to technological innovation in line with the trend emphasizing digitalization, Gwangju stood out as the only care policy to receive the Presidential Award.

Gwangju-daum Integrated Care’s innovation has already been recognized, attracting visits from 23 institutions and organizations, including metropolitan and basic local governments, presidential advisory bodies, and members of the National Assembly, to observe the site. Researchers from major academic societies in related fields such as the Korean Social Welfare Association and various areas including volunteer work have also focused on the Gwangju-daum Integrated Care policy as an alternative for the care era through 21 forums and discussions.

Mayor Kang Gi-jung emphasized, “Gwangju-daum Integrated Care has already established itself as South Korea’s standard care policy. It is not a small welfare policy filling gaps but a major policy that protects the dignity and rights of citizens and realizes a more just and democratic care democracy.”

Meanwhile, the ‘Government Innovation Championship’ is the largest innovation competition in the field, hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to discover and spread excellent government innovation cases across the entire government. This year, 647 innovative policies from central ministries, local governments, and public institutions competed in the championship. Among them, six projects were selected as the best government innovation policies of 2024 through expert evaluation, online public voting, and national presentations, receiving the Presidential Award.