Benin/National Award for Administrative Simplification: A Presidential Initiative to Modernize the Administration

The Minister Delegate for the Budget and the Civil Service, in collaboration with the Minister of Digital Transformation and Innovation, who is responsible for the national artificial intelligence strategy, is launching the presidential initiative “National Award for Administrative Simplification.”

The modernization of the public administration is gaining momentum. The government is now involving all citizens in identifying concrete solutions to simplify administrative, budgetary, and financial procedures through the establishment of the “National Award for Administrative Simplification.”

This initiative builds on the collaborative spirit of the National Action Plan for the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which was launched during the departmental tour of meetings with decision-makers, and supports the principle of “tell us once ” and the goal of having 100% of administrative procedures available online by 2030.

The “National Award for Administrative Simplification” is an incentive for administrative innovation. Its goal: to drive a wave of simplification or streamlining of procedures by soliciting, collecting, and rewarding proposals that make them simpler, faster, less costly, and more accessible. Every streamlined procedure means time saved for users, lower costs for businesses and households, and increased growth.

The Award is open to two categories of participants

• public administration officials working in ministries, institutions of the Republic, deconcentrated and decentralized services, and other public bodies, who have inside knowledge of procedures and can propose concrete solutions to speed up service delivery;
• citizens and socio-economic actors—namely workers, businesses, associations, civil society organizations, consulting and research firms, as well as other users of public services—who experience these bottlenecks on a daily basis.

Does a procedure seem too complex to you? Tell us how to simplify it. (Describe the current procedure and its bottlenecks/difficulties, followed by your proposed solution.) Proposals may address:

• reducing processing times and the time spent by users;
• reducing travel and costs incurred by users;
• digitizing, going paperless, or automating procedures;
• electronic archiving and information sharing between government agencies, so users are no longer asked to provide the same document twice;
• simplifying approval processes, forms, and procedures for accessing services;
• any other innovation that makes a public service simpler, faster, less expensive, and more accessible.

How to participate?

Proposals should be submitted via the dedicated platform https://prix-simplification.gouv.bj

The submission form will allow you to specify

• the participant’s category/status;
• the relevant procedure or service;
• the relevant agency or agencies;
• the current situation and the identified issue;
• the proposed simplification solution;
• the expected improvements for users and/or the government agency;
• the identified constraints and relevant supporting documents.

The platform will be available starting Thursday, October 15, 2026, to help you prepare your proposal. The submission period for proposals will run from Thursday, October 29, through Thursday, November 12, 2026. The complete rules for the Award ( terms of participation, eligibility and evaluation criteria, and selection stages) will be available on the platform.

Please note: Proposals must comply with current laws and regulations or, when they

involve regulatory changes, they must identify the provisions to be amended. How will the proposals be evaluated?

Eligible proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria

• the relevance of the identified problem;
• whether the solution genuinely simplifies the process;
• the expected impact on users and/or the administration;
• the legal, technical, organizational, and budgetary feasibility of the proposal;
• its innovative nature;
• its potential for broader application to other services or government agencies.

A jury will conduct the evaluation. Its composition will bring together the necessary expertise in public administration, law, economics and finance, digital transformation, organization, and user relations, in accordance with the terms set forth in the Award’s rules.

What awards are given to the best proposals?

Winners will receive an award: a trophy or official certificate, institutional recognition, and support for implementing their solution. The nature of the awards is specified in the Award’s rules.

Specific categories may be established: the Public Servant Award, the Citizen Award, the Business/Organization Award, the Digital Innovation Award, and the National Grand Prize for Administrative Simplification.

And after the Award?

The Award does not end with the recognition of the best proposals.

All eligible proposals, whether awarded or not, will contribute to a national pool of administrative simplification solutions.

The most relevant proposals will undergo a legal, organizational, technical, digital, and budgetary feasibility analysis, after which they may be piloted and implemented in collaboration with the relevant government agencies.

Even a good idea that doesn’t win a prize can transform a procedure.

Public officials, citizens, businesses, consulting and research firms, associations, and users—do you know of a procedure that could be simplified? Submit your solution.

Source: www.gouv.bj/

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