The project was initiated by Maximiliano Nogueira and Gabriela Belo, both ORT graduates, who implemented it within the Montevideo City Government as a tool to strengthen public administration and citizen participation at the neighborhood level.
During the open voting (or “Community Voting”), the international community selected NEXO as the best project, which earned its leaders the opportunity to travel to Berlin in June for the Creative Bureaucracy Festival. This competition brings together public innovation initiatives from around the world and recognizes initiatives with the potential to impact government management.
Academic training applied to public innovation
The project was developed by Maximiliano Nogueira—a graduate with a degree in Public Accounting and a master’s degree in Human Resources Management—and Gabriela Belo—who holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design.Both played an active role in the process of developing and formalizing the Management Commitments at the Municipality of Montevideo.
In his master's thesis, Nogueira analyzed the link between participatory planning and the setting of strategic goals within management commitments, demonstrating how participation influences organizational alignment within a results-based management framework.
I never thought that thesis would be so important to my professional development.
Nogueira added that NEXO is “the natural evolution of the Management Commitments toward a new phase,” linking organizational behavior with the environment and the public.
This case serves as an example of how leadership and human resource management tools can be applied to public innovation processes on an international scale.
- You can vote for NEXO on this website.
An evolution of the Management Commitments model
NEXO represents another step forward in the evolution of the Management Commitments implemented by the Municipality of Montevideo. While that model made it possible to align strategy with organizational behavior within the institution, NEXO extends that approach to the surrounding community and the city.
Specifically, the NEXO project:
- incorporates citizen participation into the formal goal-setting process;
- connects regional collective intelligence with measurable indicators;
- expands transparency and accountability within the neighborhood;
- transforms the organization into an open system that learns from the public.
In this way, it combines strategic planning tools , results-based management, and citizen participation to strengthen public innovation with a tangible impact on the local community.
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