Random images Challenge 2008

Finalists 2008

Economic Development

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT EAST AFRICA AGROVET

  • Country
  • Kenya
  • Brief description
  • ADEA Agrovet is a social entreprise focusing on promotion of organic farming through provision of agricultural inputs products and services to farmers in Kenya. We ensure that everyone in our network gains economically from organic farming.

AKASHGANGA - Empowering rural milk producers with Simple ICTs.

  • Country
  • India
  • Brief description
  • Using simple but appropriate technology to facilitate timely collection of milk and thereby generating higher earnings for milk producers.

All Blind Orchestra - 'Heart 2 Heart' by the Visually Challenged

  • Country
  • India
  • Brief description
  • "HEART 2 HEART", the Orchestra by the Visually Challenged has been thus formed to enable the talented to use their ability, namely "Music".

Campaign Against Cyber Crime Project

  • Country
  • Nigeria
  • Brief description
  • Campaign Against Cybercrime (CAC) is a project that utilizes ICT as a tool for securing the fundamental rights of online business owners as well as the rights of consumers from internet criminals.

E-commerce for Farmers

  • Country
  • Philippines
  • Brief description
    • b2bpricenow.com is an integrated e-commerce m-commerce program  that has an agriculture e-marketplace that provides up to the minute price updates and other market information , as well as, money movements through the integrated solution.

E-Marketing for Women Entrpreneurs

  • Country
  • Egypt
  • Brief description
  • To help women entrepreneurs market and sell their products through the web

Electronics Technicians Association

  • Country
  • Uganda
  • Brief description
  • Competent electronics technicians plus Information and Communications Technology (ICT) human resources are crucial factors in sustaining and optimizing ICT4D if Uganda’s millennium development goals are to be met; the national association represents electronics technicians; it makes use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to empower electronics Technicians to be professionals and to be the best in their profession through training, accessibility and information, while at the same time protecting ICT consumers and consulting policy makers and ICT for development initiatives and firms in an effort to maximize the benefits of ICT and Electronics Technologies in all sectors of life.

Enabling financial inclusion and increasing efficiency of Self Help Groups Microcredit Federations

  • Country
  • India
  • Brief description
  • CAM is a three-tier document-based architecture for providing remote rural information services for SHGs in Microfinance. The user tier consists of a set of paper forms that people use to record information, perform queries and conduct secure transactions. The server is a standard web application server, which can reside locally, in a nearby town, or virtually in the Internet. The middleware resides on the mobile phone, which plays the role of scanner, user interface, network, cache & pre-processor in the system. The system creates a decentralized multi-level management information system, increases efficiency of finance management, increases security and reduces credit journey cycle.

eSagu: An IT-based personalized agro-advisory system

  • Country
  • India
  • Brief description

  • eSAGU (IT-based personalized Agro Advisory System) provides, pro-active, Continuous (Seed to Harvesting) and Personalized Agro Advisories, by a Group of Agri Experts to small and marginal farmers, at the farm gate, exploiting the latest ICT Technologies (based on crop situation data received in the form of Photographs and organized Text through Farmer Co-ordinators, with farmers’ feedback) which helps farmers to deploy scientific farming practices and achieve significant savings through input efficiency and higher outputs, without disturbing them from their regular farm activities.

Establishment of an ICT4D Research and Resource Centre for Rural Development in Toro Region, Westen Uganda

  • Country
  • Uganda
  • Brief description
  • The Establishment of an ICT4D Research and Resource Centre is a new and one of its kind project that was initiated in 2005 and implemented by Toro Development Network, a local community based NGO in Toro Region of Western Uganda and  started in phases; The Community Information Needs Assessment Survey (2005-2006) launched the project startup and provided guidelines for the rest of the project activities.

Etsha Weavers Group

  • Country
  • Botswana
  • Brief description
  • As experienced art class basket weavers we felt the prices we were getting for our work was not enough and did not justify the work we put into weaving. Weaving baskets is alot of hard work and it can take months or even a year to finish a large basket. We were tired and ready to stop weaving! Botswanacraft suggested we form a group and try to market our artworks directly on the internet. We now have 24 women in our group and we are able to sell most of our artworks to collectors from many different countries. We are keen to continue with our weaving skills and if we can find more customers we will allow more women from the community to join the group. Maybe one day we can have the world university of basket making here in Etsha!

EuroCv

  • Country
  • Italy
  • Brief description
  • EuroCV is a unique interactive online resource that empowers the job seeker to control the exposure of their professional profile in the European job market.

Fantsuam Foundations community Wireless internet network access project called ZittNet

  • Country
  • Nigeria
  • Brief description

  • "Nigeria’s rural communities comprise over 70% of the population of 140 Million, the country ranks 152 in the World Poverty index (Human Development Reports, 2003, UNDP. 2003), with rural poverty higher than urban poverty, and it is estimated that half of all rural women are living below the poverty line", Internet access is not available in rural Nigeria because it is expensive and there is high level of illiteracy therefore the target clients do not make for a viable market and its economic potentials for poverty reduction are neglected, Fantsuam Foundation is the 1st rural internet and telephony service provider in the country, with integrated programs in health, micro-finance, ICT and education to combat poverty and disadvantage, ZittNet is a wireless internet service provider serving clients in the Kafanchan area of northern Nigeria and is being specifically targeted towards other non-profit and community development related organizations, ZittNet is located in Bayan Loco, a peri-urban slum of Kafanchan, a major development challenge faced by its residents is the reduction of poverty but the

    Inadequacy of jobs, ICT and income infrastructure contributes to the poor health sector, the first rural wireless internet network service in Nigeria, it aims to provide affordable internet and rural telephony access to a rural population of 150,000 annually, this will enhance youth employability through ICT skills training, downstream self employment opportunities and make it possible for rural clinics to have access to Telemedicine facilities and e-learning opportunities and help in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, this service includes the installation and sale or rental of the necessary equipment as well as bandwidth vouchers enabling clients access to the internet, Web design, Hosting, Management and Training, Networking, Software Development, Hardware Maintenance, sales of Networking Devices and Wireless Training, the service is offered on a cost-recovery basis, not as a commercial as a commercial venture, ZittNet therefore provides a model of civil society’s active role in complementing the Nigerian Communications Commission and Federal Government’s efforts at providing internet access to remote and rural communities of Nigeria, We believe that where there is value arising from the community wireless service and that if our service is truly valuable to the community, they should reasonably pay for it, Thus ZittNet is based on a social Entrepreneurship model that uses microfinance to support our rural network service, we keep looking for innovative technical ways to get Internet access that is of reasonable quality and affordable, this has led us, because of inadequate power supply, to install a hybrid solar power backup system that makes the network run independently of national power supply for 24hours a day and 7days a week, the system can charge its battery bank from three different sources: from National Grid when electricity is Available and a diesel generator, but mainly from our Solar array, to power servers and workstations that will run the centres infrastructure and training classrooms, we have also a purpose built self cooling network operating centre (NOC) built with local materials in consideration of the climate which we operate. The NOC is designed with the roof slanting at a 20 degree angle to provide maximum exposure for the solar panels and the eastern part of the building is built with double compressed earth brick walls to keep the sun out with windows at the top and bottom of each wall to ensure that hot air escapes and cool air comes in keeping the room naturally cooled and saving power costs of air-conditioning, the question for us always is "What priority needs in our community can be most helped by our rural connectivity service".

ICT/High Tech Educational Consortium Design and Establishment

  • Country
  • Armenia
  • Brief description

  • ICT/High-Tech Educational Consortium will become the innovative form of the collaboration between educational institutions and ICT/High Tech companies in Armenia for the determination of qualifying requirements to the contemporary ICT specialists, for the consultations during the formulation of educational curricula, corresponding to the contemporary ICT/High Tech industry needs, for the organization of professional students’ practices etc. It will also become ICT/High Tech industry R&D center, where high quality professionals will be involved. The best students who will present prospective business plans will get financial support to start their own companies.

Info Timor

  • Country
  • East Timor
  • Brief description

  • To assist in the rebuilding of East Timor by using information communication technology to deliver skills development, education and employment through the creation of a sustainable not-for-profit social enterprise.

Learning Experience - an initiativ to change lives of underpriivilged society using ICT4D

  • Country
  • India
  • Brief description
  • a multi-purpose learning center aiming to provide underprivileged children access to information technology so that they are able to explore more and better options for their life

Linking Farmers to Markets through Modern Information and Communication Technologies in Kenya

  • Country
  • Kenya
  • Brief description
  • Since 1997, Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange has been developing and testing a market information and (market) linkage system (MILS) designed to make agricultural markets work better (more efficiently) for farmers, especially targeting smallholder farmers. MILS provides reliable and timely market information as well as links farmers to better markets through matching commodity offers and bids. The KACE MILS involves harnessing modern ICTs to empower farmers with low-cost reliable and timely market information to enhance the bargaining power of the farmer for a better price in the market place, and to link the farmer to markets more efficiently and profitably

M-PESA Money transfer service

  • Country
  • Kenya
  • Brief description
  • M-PESA is a new Safaricom service allowing customers to transfer money using their mobile phone. M-PESA provides a fast safe and affordable way to transfer money by SMS anywhere in Kenya. Registration for M-PESA is free and you do not need a bank account.  

MOBILE FOR GOOD

  • Country
  • Kenya
  • Brief description

  • Mobile4Good was established in 2003 and offers innovative, seamless and flawless solutions that generate high traffic and revenue from SMS, mobile gaming and business tools on the mobile platform. Our content platform distributes content relevant to individual customers based upon different parameters, such as handset, location, time and business profile. In addition we provide clients with trends and insights while identifying new opportunities through data analysis.

Nigerian Career Community

  • Country
  • Nigeria
  • Brief description

  • The project is an online career community that brings all the unemployed graduates in Nigeria together, to discuss issues ranging from small business startup, entrepreneurship, securing loans and capital for businesses,provide solutions to aptitude test samples, helping each other on assessment/interview, Notifying each other on new job openings, thereby reducing fraud & internet crime related cases among the unemployed.

OregonProspector.com Online Business Assistance and Analysis

  • Country
  • United States
  • Brief description
  • OregonProspector.com facilitates business and job growth into economically depressed areas with a focus on redevelopment, small and medium size enterprises and democratizing information by providing high-quality property, demographic and business information through the Internet.  

SDA Payment Gateway

  • Country
  • Egypt
  • Brief description

  • Flosflow* Gateway enables any individual or business with bank account, credit card or mobile subscriptions to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online

    * We refer to "flos" to the word "flous" which means money in Arabic Egyptian slang.

Social Actions: Aggregating and Inspiring Social Action

  • Country
  • Canada
  • Brief description

  • Social Actions helps individuals, nonprofits, and foundations make excellent use of social media so that peer-to-peer solutions to local and global problems can flourish.

Social inclusion through ICT in a former UK coal mining area via partnership working

  • Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Brief description

  • Innovative use of effective low cost ICT methods combined with cutting edge new technologies with the aim of improving social inclusion, education, employment and take up of local services in a former coal mining region of the City of Sunderland.

Social Security Pensions software - to ensure effective delivery of pensions to poor in Andhra Pradesh

  • Country
  • India
  • Brief description
  • Mahatma Gandhi said “Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of use to him” and the ICT solution for social security pension is designed with this thought in mind to optimize service delivery and governance for the benefit of the most vulnerable sections in society by ensuring that all the enabling processes for distribution of pensions are carried out in a transparent manner and that the 4.7 million beneficiaries get pensions on 1st of every month at a notified place in their village         

Strengthen Fair Trade within the sphere of Social Entrepreneurship

  • Country
  • Bangladesh
  • Brief description

  • The Project aims to scale up the fair trade practicing organizations through a systematic process of enhancing organizational capacities in using advanced information technologies, improving Enterprise management (planning & financing, human resource, technology and procurement) systems, and liking them with global fair trade periphery.  

     

    The Project is to provide a model of information management system, which includes Supply-chain management system, Inventory management system, prototyping and manufacturing programs, outsourcing opportunities, facilitating e-commerce, e-marketing and Customer relationship management system.

Strengthening education in local area(most marginalized community) through the ICT at the Nanasala E-community Centre

  • Country
  • Sri Lanka
  • Brief description
  • The growth of distance education is being fuelled by the urgent need to close the education gap between poor and rich nations and specialy most marginalized community development(strengthening education,building capacity and capability and promoting local entrepreneurship) through E-learning,allow them to access to the job market and other business,venture with much confidence and make their life better.

The Community Development Portals

  • Country
  • Egypt
  • Brief description
  • The project aims to build a rich network of Arabic virtual communities covering specialized fields in community development, including but not restricted to; agriculture, entrepreneurship, public health, capacity building, and career development. Or any field that could benefit from a specialized virtual community for providing it with the information, networking, and the support needed for its growth. It is a fact that building virtual communities involves more than merely providing latest technology tools to the community. And it is known that no kind of capital investment will be enough to sustain such endeavor. It was obvious from the start of the project that, a well designed, socially and economically sound model should be conceived to sustain and realize the vision. The challenge was to make a solid and working model of a successful cultural change that favors building the virtual communities and establishing the information society. It was not clear from the start but such model was in a perpetual enhancing and evolving process till it started to shape up and comes clear which parties will be involved and what roles will be played, and how all community sectors will help realize establishment of the information society for their own benefits. Aradina.net is the first fruit of such successful model of building a thriving and mature virtual community specialized in Agriculture, Fishing, and Farming. A virtual community in which all participants are involved building it and developing its content and guiding its provided services, and making many sort of benefits out of it.

TradeNet: Business Networking for Trade & Agriculture in Developing Countries

  • Country
  • Ghana
  • Brief description
  • Africa's first mobile2mobile trading platform, providing market information and SMS communication tools to producers and traders and their representative associations across the continent.

VAVAN ICT Agricultural Sustainable Project

  • Country
  • Cameroon
  • Brief description
  • We are using Mobile phones and other ICT equipments to foster agricultural development, by easing communication through SMS to farmers/community. With mobile phones, SMS is sent to farmers to supply their produce to consumers without bothering again to go to distant markets as farmers can supplies at homes. This has eased transportation, accidents and theft as farmers can text messages as he suspects a thief on site. Also we are creating a website that will be advertising all the products produced by our local farmers for it ranges from vegetables, cocoyam, yams, cassava, plantains, bananas and animals like chickens, pigs, goats and cows.

VOS (ORCO AND SOANA VALLIES) PROJECT: BROADBAND TO HIGH RISK DIGITAL DIVIDE (HDD) MOUNTAINOUS AREA

  • Country
  • Italy
  • Brief description
  • This public-driven project aims at transforming an isolated mountainous area into a “digital territory”, promoting sustainability and digital convergence and identifying a model to overcome hard digital divide.

    A trial area has been selected in order to maximize the model’s transferability into other regional areas, even if they are of different sizes. The project has launched an open-air lab and is part of the WI-PIE initiative (www.wi-pie.org) aiming at supplying Piemonte with a broadband network before 2008.

WIZZIT Mobile Banking

  • Country
  • South Africa
  • Brief description
  • WIZZIT utilises the technology of the cell phone to provide accessible and affordable transactional banking to the millions of financially excluded people.

Y Don't U

  • Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Brief description
  • Y Don't U is a project based on teaching new and broadcast media skills, aimed at Glasgow-based 16 – 17 year olds at key transitions in life, to prepare them for employment.

Zambia - COMESA SMEToolkit Project

  • Country
  • Zambia
  • Brief description
  • The Zambia - COMESA SMEToolkit is a computer web-based business / SMEs information portal with training resources, business forms and tools covering eight core business manageemnt areas: accounting & finance, HR, IT, International business, operations & management, legal & insurance, sales & marketing & business planning.