The final panel, titled “Harnessing Collective Intelligence and Civic Participation”, focused on how collective intelligence can be harnessed to improve civic participation in Singapore.
Ms Dawn Yip, Coordinating Director at the Singapore Government Partnerships Office (SGPO), Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), opened the session by highlighting the evolution of citizen participation in Singapore, noting key shifts from feedback to feedforward and paring co-creation paired with consultation. She discussed the diverse ways citizens can engage with their communities and the government, including SGPO.
Ms Li-San Tan, Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of Social Service (NCSS), discussed how the social service sector must evolve to meet the changing needs of Singapore’s population. She highlighted the growing complexity of social issues, such as mental health and ageing, and the limitations of manpower in the sector. She shared how NCSS will focus on building a dynamic and sustainable social service ecosystem through strengthening service delivery.
Professor Weiyu Zhang, from the Department of NUS Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore, founder and director of CivicTech Lab, explored the role of technology in civic participation. While she acknowledged technology’s potential to scale up civic engagement, she cautioned that it cannot replace the human relationships and trust that are central to meaningful civic life. Prof Zhang also discussed how digital tools can sometimes exclude less digitally literate populations, and suggested that Singapore focus on making technology more inclusive for broader citizen engagement.
Moderated by Dr Dilum Wewalaarachchi, Ph.D., Research Fellow at the IPS Policy Lab, the session concluded with a Q&A segment. Panellists discussed balancing top-down initiatives with ground-up citizen efforts, the importance of deliberate design in engagement strategies to maximise inclusivity, and the importance of building trust to foster sustainable civic participation.
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