Speech by SMS Janil Puthucheary at Build for Good Accelerator Finale

Closing Remarks by Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information & Health and Minister-in-Charge of GovTech at Build for Good Accelerator Finale, 30 November 2024

Scaling Impact with Build for Good Accelerator

Good afternoon.

1. I’m honoured to join you today for the Build for Good accelerator finale, and to witness the five teams from the Build for Good hackathon moving on to the 8-week accelerator programme. You have the $20,000 seed funding to develop, pilot and launch your tech solutions for public good. This has been organised by Open Government Products, in collaboration with the Singapore Government Partnerships Office.

2. We also have the 10 teams who were awarded the Build for Good Fund, with $5,000 seed funding to develop and pilot their solutions.

3. As I was listening to the presentations, I was quite struck about the emphasis on care for the elderly, which was a key concern identified among our citizens and also across Government.

4. The key thing I took away is the solutions built by citizen teams that close that last gap into the very specific problem. What is it that caregivers or those with mental health challenges need? How do we deal with other larger issues like the environment, sustainability, information accessibility, and scams, in a way that closes that last mile into that personal, lived experience?

5. This is possible because we have members of the public like you who volunteered your time over the last few months to work on problems that you are passionate about, using both your technical skills and relational skills to build solutions that will impact the local community and environment.

6. We have been able to bring together members of the public, public officers, people who are on a journey to upskill your tech knowledge, counsellors, occupational therapists, and people learning UI / UX design. These are the many different skills that we need to bring together to solve problems.

7. We have seen some examples:

a. GymLah – encouraging seniors to visit gyms

b. Let’s Kaypoh – a platform for volunteers to visit and look out for isolated seniors

c. EBI – a journaling app for those facing mental health challenges

d. OhmSweetOhm – an app recommending ways to reduce household electricity consumption

8. The CareCompass team focuses on supporting caregivers. You are the primary and secondary caregivers. These are issues you are passionate about because you have the experience that informs the effectiveness of the product.

9. The team is made up of working professionals from public and private sector, and also a student developer, all coming together under the ambit of Build for Good for a common cause to make caregiving easier for first-time caregivers.

10. There are many more of such inspiring stories, and it is incredible to see how all of you can push your ideas to reality, from the month-long Build for Good hackathon, to launching to actual users at today’s accelerator finale.

An Ecosystem of Good

11. There is also an entire ecosystem of government and non-government partners and mentors who have been supporting the teams, in partnering for pilots, guiding all of us to further refine our solutions and products.

12. This is the kind of effort we want to see when we talk about Smart Nation 2.0. When we talk about building communities, developing trust, growing our Singapore – this is what we want to see, that ability to come together, bring together different skillsets, people with different experiences, and make available solutions across a wide space that solves our problems.

13. The idea of “Community” as part of Smart Nation 2.0 is about strengthening partnerships with citizens. We want the citizen experience to inform us as we think about the solutions and design them. All of us can play a very meaningful part in creating that vision for Singapore, a whole-of-nation effort where our technology and our Smart Nation efforts build a better community.

14. Build for Good is an example of how tech brings people together, improving care within the community, (and) helping us to remain more connected with one another.

15. These types of platforms like hackathons and accelerator programmes are traditionally seen as very competitive platforms. At the end of the day, it needs to be a friendly competition so that we also build this community. We stay in touch with each other, understand the work that is being done, and the opportunities that are present, or the next set of ideas that may come out.

16. Beyond the accelerator teams who have been given $20,000 seed funding to develop their solutions further, the starter fund teams too, with $5,000 seed funding, have also been making progress to pilot their solutions in the CCs and within the community.

17. One such example is Heartbeat, a daily check-in system for isolated seniors to report their wellbeing to their loved ones. They are pursuing their solution with at least 30 seniors and caregivers at Braddell Heights CC, who have expressed interest to continue using their solutions. They have also learned to develop the relational skills, the empathy and understanding of what happens within that space. This is the approach that we want to see, that we have this community of people solving these problems.

Everyone Has a Part to Play to Make Singapore Better

18. We, as the Government, do not have a monopoly on good ideas, and we want to see a nation of individuals and communities who are empowered to make a difference for us and for the environment.

19. For all of you here today, you are part of a variety of organisations that may find the solutions presented today to be useful for the communities that you are taking care of. Give these solutions a chance to try and make a difference in the various communities that you serve, in the various challenges you are addressing, and the problems that you are trying to solve. Tap on the energy and skills of the Build for Good teams to tackle these key problems.

20. The efforts are worthwhile even if the products are subsequently taken over by something else. The process is just as important as the product, building the communities, developing the skills, and strengthening the relationships.

Conclusion

21. Thank you everyone for being here, and for being part of Build for Good. May all of you continue to use tech to build public good in your own capacity. I hope that your projects continue to benefit many users in the days to come. Thank you very much.