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• Wireless Ghana

  Boateng Ebenezer (http://www.wirelessghana.com)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     The initiative is called Wireless Ghana. It is a project under Rural Communities Empowerment Center (RCEC), a non-government organization based in Ghana. The Wireless Ghana project is a rural project. It was initiated at the Apirede Community Resource Center (ACRC) in 2005 in response to the local communities request for connectivity to help them break their isolation, move their children and community closer to the 21st century, and be competitive with their urban counterparts. Apirede is in the Akwapim North district in the Eastern Region of Ghana. This district has seventeen towns and several villages with a total population of about 750 thousand people.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Low cost –the initiative is an open-architecture mesh network – wireless--that uses low cost-priced WiFi technology and open-source software to share affordable Internet access offering connectivity to schools, public health services, educators, citizens and civic associations and small businesses. Access is providing the youth with jobs and reducing the incidence of the rural-urban drift

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The success, the efficient and professional way of running the wireless project attracted the attention of UNDP Country office in Ghana who in collaboration with Ghana Investment for Telecommunications (GIFTEL) recognized our NGO Rural Communities Empowerment Center as a partner in their effort towards developing ICT infrastructure and building ICT capacity in rural areas. Recently the wireless team was asked by UNDP and National Disaster Management Organization (NDMO) to implement the project in the northern region of Ghana. This will help with the training of Municipal and District Assembly Officers and position the communities to participate in the e-governance process. The innovativeness and success of the wireless project also attracted the attention of InfoDev of the World Bank who contracted the Apirede CRC to do a case study of Open Access using the wireless project. The project was part of a major study on Open Access from many developing countries by InfoDev in 2006-2007.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     Data-driven culture: Trying to instill data driven culture and encouraged Community to be made aware of the importance of the use of data for their projects. Overcome through clear communication. This means constant visiting with chiefs, scheduling meetings with district councilman, and, quite importantly, maintaining open communication with the local people who you are working side-by-side with. This adds to the sense of ownership and “can do” attitude not only by the elders but the whole community thus, avoiding top-down approach to managing the project. Management: Central government has been kept out to avoid politicizing the projects by making communities take the lead. Partnership: Forming partnerships with schools, churches, and community businesses. Sustainability: The projects cannot depend on external resources indefinitely but communities have to be given enough time to find ways of generating funds because of limited resources. Partners have to pay for some of the service fees. Quality Control: NGO’s and partners should not focus too much on quality of management and systems until the management and people assisting with the projects have been trained and done the job for a while.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Funds from the NGO –Rural Communities Empowerment center (RCEC) Partnership with communities. Volunteer from the Peace Corp to provide some technical advice for eighteen months

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     Recycling CPUs and computer hardware, and ensuring the low-cost of WiFi made it accessible to clients.

   

• Forgotten Diaries

  Selene Biffi (http://www.forgottendiaries.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     There are now over 100 ongoing conflicts and crisis in world, and despite the fact that some of these have been going on for over ten years and have claimed several thousands lives, they have received very little coverage by mainstream media (over 25 years in Sri Lanka & 40 in Colombia, for example). Thus has made them, de facto, shunned by the international community at large and are referred to as 'forgotten conflicts'. Several millions children and young people are confronted daily with war, and have no chance to tell the outer world about their lives, hopes and expectations, nor the way they perceive conflicts and their struggle to survive. To continue the long-standing tradition of young people keeping a diary of their lives and their struggles in conflicts (as much as those of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic), the internationally acclaimed organisation, Youth Action for Change (YAC) will offer them a platform though this project to voice their thoughts, feelings and hopes and promote ongoing dialogues between young people from all sides of the identified conflicts as well as the global audience. Aim: Providing young people living in areas affected by neglected conflicts with the possibility to make their voice heard in the media and through the media, by reporting on their daily life via an especially dedicated platform for the exchange of information and analysis of critical situations, expressing their right to peace while engaging their peers and the global audience into concrete actions Mission: • Giving children and young people the opportunity and the tools to report on their daily lives and the conflict they live in • Educate the global audience about unreported and underreported conflicts, crisis and issues while giving them a chance to get involved through a host of activities (campaigns, advocacy efforts and fundraising) • Encourage the implementation of youth-led, on-the-ground activities in the countries and communities targeted by ‘Forgotten Diaries’ Target Audience: Our main target is with children and young people living in conflict and post conflict areas, aged 15-29. We have identified then ten most neglected conflicts and crisis worldwide (including Kosovo, Chechnya, Kurdistan, Timor Leste and others). Other than young people and youth-led organisations coming from neglected conflict and post-conflict areas, we also aim to inspire and involve the global audience, both young and adult alike.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Impact (as of June 2008): Forgotten Diaries is the first initiative ever of this kind • Over 82.000 hits • Media Coverage: International - SBS Australia, Oxfam newsletter, IYF newsletter, UN Youth Unit newsletter, the Communication Initiative, SKY TV National - TG5, Sole24Ore, Rai International, Il Giorno, Corriere della Sera, Psychologies, Top Girl • Partnership with Oxfam OIYP and activities in cooperation with the Pulitzer centre for Crisis Reporting • The FD participants are implementing small, youth-led projects in all of the ten areas involved with our project, after following our online training initiatives and thanks to our support • Awards: 'Econtent Award 2008', in the cathegory 'Young Talent - Freedom of Expression' of Politecnico di Milano. The prize allows Forgotten Diaries to run for the WYSA Award, representing Italy. 'Premio Takunda 2009' as the best Humanitarian Project • Official Endorsement of the Italian Ministry of Youth

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     ‘Forgotten Diaries’ is a long-term initiative with a one-year pilot project, and its objectives are as follow: • Select five young people aged 15-29 from each of ten of the most pressing conflict zones, making sure to represent a variety of points of view, backgrounds, ethnicities and gender balance, and offer them a one-month online training course on basic reporting techniques and on the ICTs and tools to be used throughout the project (blogs, podcasts, videos and other), releasing a certificate at the end of it. The project will be extended to cover more countries after the pilot phase. • Develop a website which will be used as a unique tool through which the neglected voices of youth in conflict zones will be heard by the global audiences and interested parties in the media and online. Focused campaigns and advocacy efforts will then contribute to make these intercultural exchanges and youth-led program known through the media, with preference to the online community. • Promote the exchange of perspectives among participants (from within the same country and among all the countries involved) through their weekly blogs, posts, videos, interviews and photos, with a view to foster long-term intercultural dialogue and an enhanced understanding of different backgrounds and experiences of conflicts • Engage the global audience – young people and adult alike - in an ongoing dialogue with participants about their perspectives and the conflicts they live in through blogs and forums, encouraging them to contribute to the project by also taking part in campaigns, advocacy efforts and contributing their time and skills in different fields. The global audience will also have the opportunity to volunteer in assisting youth projects in conflict zones and in advocacy efforts. • Raise funds online to help participants and local organisations in the selected conflicts plan and implement local activities in different countries in order to reach out to and empower several hundreds more young people and their communities

   

• Adobe Youth Voices

  TakingITGlobal (http://www.tigweb.org/express/magazine/index.html?method=issue3)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     In  the  fall  of  2007  TakingITGlobal,  with  the  support  of  Adobe  Youth  Voices,  offered  capacity-building workshops to underserved youth in 10 different countries: Argentina, Brazil, China, Canada, Kenya, Mali,  Russia,  Sweden,  Egypt,and  South  Africa.  These  workshops  aimed  to familiarize  the  youth  participants  with  digital  image  editing  using  Adobe  Elements  6.0  software,  as  they  created  images  to communicate their perspective on two key issues: Climate Change and Culture & Identity.  Project Goals: Goal  1:  To  empower  youth  in  underserved  communities  to  create  with  purpose,  through  artistic  creations  including  digital  art,  photo  journalism,  animations,  and  multimedia projects. Goal 2: Provide youth with the technology tools to make a positive impact in their  communities and around the world. Goal  3:  To  leverage  these  breakthrough  learning  experiences  to  foster  cross‐ cultural  dialogue  and  understanding,  with  a  special  emphasis  on  outreach  to  marginalized and underserved youth.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     The  themes  of  Climate  Change  and  Culture  &  Identity  were  chosen  because  they  are  both  global  issues,  relevant  to  youth  everywhere,  and  also  because  youth  involvement  in  the  dialogue  and  solutions  related  to  them  is  prominent.  All  over  the  world  youth  have  adopted  Climate  Change  as  their  issue  to  champion,  as  it  will  be  younger  generations  most  affected  by  the  consequences.  Youth  are  taking  part  in  forming  solutions  to  this  problem  in  their  local  communities  and  they  are  also  calling  on  global  leaders  to  take  action.  Similarly,  youth  play  a  major  role  in  influencing  and  reinforcing  Culture  &  Identity,  but  also,  as  a  generation  more  exposed  to  cultural  diversity,  youth  today  are  more  open,  accepting  and  embracing  of  cultural  differences.  he TIG Magazine ‘Culture, Identity & Climate Change’ was distributed to all Country Coordinators, to be  shared  with  organizations  that  hosted  the  workshops,  as  well  as  participants  in  the  workshops  themselves.  Distribution  at  the  WYC  ensures  that  these  examples  of  creative  youth  expression  on  Climate  Change  and  Culture  &  Identity  will  also  be  shared  with  youth  leaders  and  activists  worldwide.  The  availability  of  the  magazine  as  a  free  download  on  the  TakingITGlobal  online  community  means  it  is  available  to  an  even  wider  audience  of  youth,  organizations  and  educators  who  frequent  the  TakingITGlobal Online Community.  Quantitative:   • 107 youth participants in workshops  • 7 partnerships formed with local organizations for the project   • 145 submissions were made to the online Youth Voices Contest  • 7,112 approximate number of youth directly reached [Including youth who submitted to the  contest, participated in the workshops, received a copy of the magazine, or clicked to learn  more about the project]   • 4,729 approximate number of individual visitors to Youth Voices online project and collection  pages    Qualitative:   • Youth participants were eager to learn new skills and contribute to the Youth Voices Project ‐  Approximately 90% of respondents ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that the workshops were a  positive experience  • Youth participants in 7 different countries were able to discuss and recognize the importance of  Climate  Change  and  Culture  &  Identity  in  their  local  communities  –  90%  of  respondents  ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly’ agreed that they had learned something new about one of the themes by  participating in the workshops.  • New submissions to the Global Gallery on relevant global issues were generated through the  workshops and contest  • The final products, including the Contest Collections and TIG Magazine, illustrate the similarities  and differences in youth perspectives on the topics of Climate Change and Culture & Identity  

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     TakingIGlobal's collaboration with Adobe helped promote the idea of global outreach in an innovative and fun manner. Because the project was conducted in ten seperate countries, the potential to gain members from these was vast, as was the recognition TakingITGlobal received.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     The major challenges faced were: •Locating host organizations with the necessary  computer/internet facilities and availability was difficult in certain communities.  •Not all the Country Coordinators had previous experience with  Adobe software making it more challenging for them to guide  workshop participants.   •Recruiting participants with the basic computer literacy required  was sometimes difficult in certain communities. Running workshops in ten different countries presented a whole host of logistical problems,  ranging from language barriers to lack of infrastructure necessary to run the workshops, as well  as unforeseen problems like the post‐election violence in Kenya and an internet outage in Egypt.   For future projects, it would be beneficial to have a series of workshops within the same  country in order to provide a more in‐depth experience and greater outreach within  identified communities, leveraging the up‐front investment of the software donation  and coordinator preparation.  This would also allow coordination efforts to focus more  on the workshops themselves and less time sorting out logistical hurdles.  While the project was meant to focus primarily on underserved youth, in order to participate  youth needed to have a basic understanding of computers and familiarity with the internet, and  many truly underserved youth would not have even this most fundamental experience.   The project did reach youth in what can be referred to as underserved communities, but  working with digital image manipulation is a fairly complex project for truly marginalized  youth.     

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     This project helped to catalyze reflection and expression on critical issues affecting youth and the  culmination of images reflected in the Global Gallery provides an incredible glimpse into the hopes  and concerns of youth from around the world.   Having an opportunity to produce and distribute a  printed TIG Magazine publication at the 4th World Youth Congress was a highlight of the project as it  extended the audience and interest in both the process along with sparking further interest in the  issues and the program.  Moving into 2009, we are very interested in the possibility of implementing  an adapted version of the program based on lessons learned.    One of the unexpected outcomes from the project was the range of new insights generated that  have influenced the developed of a redesigned and upgraded version of TakingITGlobal’s online  Global Gallery, which is scheduled to launch in early 2009!  Moving forward, TakingITGlobal hopes to  continue to collaborate with Adobe Youth Voices on future programs and initiatives, and possibly as  a partner in the new Global Gallery, an online exhibition space with over 17,000 creative  expressions!  Internally, the Adobe Youth Voices Project was in keeping with promoting TakingITLGlobal's mandate of promoting awareness among youth, and giving them a platform to be heard.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The following are the major steps taken in the project that involved technology. Also, given that TakingITGlobal is a web-based organization, and Adobe is a software, internet technology was a major factor in the project. Activity #1: Produce and Distribute Workshop  materials Development and distribution of the materials  took place from September 2007 – November 2007.    1.Adobe Youth Voices Power Point Presentation: The PowerPoint Presentation introduced participants to the Adobe Youth Voices initiative,  TakingITGlobal, the Global Gallery, and the purpose of the workshop, as well as a discussion  on the power of art and why it is a useful way to communicate with others.  2.Adobe Youth Voices Feedback Form:   The feedback forms were voluntarily completed by workshop participants at the end of each  workshop. It included questions regarding the workshop experience as a whole, as well as  focusing on specific project goals, such as whether the workshops were an opportunity to  improve on computer skills and participate in cross‐cultural exchange with other youth.  3. Adobe Elements 6.0 Guide:   A basic overview of the software was created for Facilitators to guide participants through  the functionality and specific tools which would be most useful to them during the creation  of their digital image.   Activity #2: Workshops on Climate Change and Culture & Identity  November 2007 – June 2008.  In each workshop participants:  1.Learned about the Adobe Youth Voices initiative, TakingITGlobal and the Global Gallery, and  were given an overview of what the Youth Voices Project aimed to achieve.  2.Discussed the two themes of Climate Change and Culture & Identity – both in a local and  global context.  3.Were given a basic training on Adobe Elements 6.0 software   4.Created digital images that communicated their perspective on the two workshop themes.  5.Created a TakingITGlobal profile and submitted their finished image to the online Youth Voices Contest.  Activity #3: Youth Voices Contest in the Global Gallery  January 30 2008 – May 28 2008    Two separate contest collections were created  within  TakingITGlobal’s  online  Global  Gallery,  one for the theme of Climate Change and one  for the theme of Culture & Identity. The contest  was  promoted  through  a  Spotlight  on  TakingITGlobal’s homepage that received 1,989  hits, the TakingITGlobal monthly Dispatch which  is  sent  to  approximately  200,000  youth  worldwide in 7 different languages, and in an e‐ mail to TakingITGlobal’s ‘Inspire Group’, a group  of  TIG  members  interested  in  creative  opportunities which has 1,592 members.   A Youth Voices project page was specially designed and built by TakingITGlobal’s in‐house tech team:  http://takingitglobal.org/contest/youthvoices/  Traffic from the Spotlight on TakingITGlobal’s main page  was directed to this special project page.  145 accepted submissions were received for the contest in  total.   

   

• The Youth Media Exchange Report

  TakingITGlobal; YMEX (http://www.ymex.org/)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     The ymex.org pilot focused on the creation, organization, and dissemination of youth produced digital media addressing a wide range of global and social issues in innovative ways. By building on the TakingITGlobal community platform and existing media uploading sites such as Flickr and YouTube, ymex.org allows users to share both first and third party digital media. The site incorporates a youth development approach to learning through “Quests”, guided steps to engage in a global issue while learning to use digital media to effectively explore the issue; “Resources”, member submissions of online tools and free open source software to find, create and upload media on the Internet, as well as online resources on global issues; and “Youth Guides” 1 , a mentorship system for members age 13 to 17 to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and engagement. The learning activities on ymex.org focused on the global issues most important to the community identified through a pre-registration survey and site activity. These issues included global health, migration, access to education, environment, and poverty. The website attracted young people who were likely to be media literate. According to the compiled digital media literacy survey results, 86.9% of the participants were confident of teaching themselves new skills on the computer. 75.4% agreed they could affectively determine the accuracy of information found online, and 73.8% agreed that they were able to effectively identify bias or prejudice within a form of digital media. In order to attract youth members to take part in these learning activities, we proposed them as discovery-based experiences, referring to them as “quests”6 rather than “learning activities” to take the “school” feeling out of the formula. We assumed that by taking on a quest and making the completion of a step a discovery into the next step members would be intrigued to complete an entire quest in order to uncover an ending.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     The YMEX Project specifically served to use social networking like TIG and YMEX for the purpose of youth education. Not only was this initiative novel, it also ensured that it targeted education and awareness and made it appealing to youth, at the same time giving them the tools needed to help express their own understanding and awareness of issues. Qualitative: 1.Creating opportunities for broader global reach: We did focus but did not restrict outreach to the three Asian countries because we believed it was valuable to leverage the diversity of the TakingITGlobal network and the likelihood that a number of members would be interested in the more niche-based ymex.org. And indeed, the most active members were not from the target countries. Included in the Evaluation Report is a profile of the five most active members as of August – four of whom were TakingITGlobal members prior to joining ymex.org. 2. The factors that determine the level of engagement in a global context and the potential for cross-cultural collaboration: We envisioned and designed quests in order to enable cross-cultural collaboration by way of members making contacts with youth in other countries and then working with them on a particular media creation. This did not occur in the pilot phase time frame but other forms of collaboration did occur, mostly in the exchanging of media and comments that gave us insight into the potential for future. 3. Inherent value of international dialogue and cross-cultural interaction: Our intent in designing and building a website with an international focus and appeal was to take the process of learning about global issues out of the abstract and make it more tangible to the youth members. For example, a young person who wants to learn more about water issues in the developing world will undoubtedly be engaged in doing so on a social network where she can submit a video or blog on the issue and continue the process of learning about this issue in a dialogue with a member from China or India. This type of learning most likely has more of a genuine, authentic impression on both members. 4.Determining learning objectives and assessing learning outcomes for an informal digital environment: As practitioners in the field of media and education, we tend to focus on goals for learning that are based on concrete outcomes and deliverables such as new media creations, comments and dialogue around the digital media that is shared and learning activities that are completed. But we also realized that experiential learning and the creation process is as valuable as the end product itself. 5.Content necessary to "seed" the site and "expert" content needed to ground learning: While the entirety of the site was intended to be driven by the community’s submissions, including the educational content, there must be exemplar material as well as enough “expert” material to guide new members and set the standard for future content. The dilemma that persists is how to seed the site with this content while maintaining the authenticity of a member-driven community. We approached this by asking members for specific contributions such as telling us directly what issues mattered to them as well as sending us images, short blurbs, and the beginning thread of a discussion board topic that matched this issue. For the two youth that did submit the content needed for a new Issue page, their learning and contribution to other member’s learning was tangible, as well as the sense that they played a leadership role in the process of peer-to-peer learning.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The TakingITGlobal and YMEX Initiative was a success, with there being media mentions such as LIVE IT's article on youth networking sites, at: http://www.tigweb.org/about/media/mentions.html?ItemId=461 By hosting entries for popular contests, as well as actually helping raise awareness on the issues being featured, the YMEX site gained recognition as a tool for becoming acquainted with issues of importance.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     Because a majority of the efforts were collaborative, there were challenges involved with the coordinating needs and approaches of three different organizations. Also, TakingITGlobal was blocked in China, making it necessary to place YMEX on a different server to enable access from China. Although interest in ymex.org from educators, educational organizations, and youth in Asia was high, efforts at outreach in Asia were complicated by a number of factors. Due to unforeseen delays in site development, the launch coincided directly with school vacations and holidays in all of the target countries. Many educational organizations in Asia expressed interest in participating in partnerships and project activities on ymex.org, however the timing made it impossible for them to do so before the evaluation period. As the site was constantly in development during the launch and the membership was growing, technical bugs and lower levels of user activity may have made it seem intimidating and less user-friendly to an audience who uses English as a second language.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Factors mentioned above in phase 2 were instrumental in building momentum. Also important were other factors such as the broad global reach of YMEX, the focus on visual awareness that appealed to youth also contributed to building momentum with the project. Creating opportunities for a global reach, as well as promoting cross-culturalism also helped the project succeed.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The project consisted of promoting two web-based social networking sites, and also using web-technology to make an impact on youth. Launching an initiative using technology for youth, promoting the use of Web 2.0 tools for information, and spreading knowledge of the power of technology make this project a major user of technology.

   

• ICT for Development Disabilities

  Nabil Eid (http://www.caihand.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     New hopes are emerging with the advent of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for persons with disabilities, more governments, organizations, NGO's has been involved in enabling the disabled to get integrated in the main stream of life. We believe in the concept, The persons with disabilities " disabled but not disqualified". And we believe also, the core of ICTs in offer individuals the ability to compensate for disabled people to access knowledge by adapting digital revolution to the nature of their disabilities, and to enhance their social and economic integration in community.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     "ICT can open new vistas for disabled people and making a world of difference". The use (ICT) in the field of disabled is very high on the political agendas of countries and we are required a lot of efforts at national, regional and global level to address the special requirements of persons with disabilities, using appropriate educational, administrative and legislative measures to ensure their full inclusion. We need to be taken to move into the information society and the central role played by education in making the information society a reality is clearly highlighted. As we all know the potential role of ICT in development, empowering educational sectors, rehabilitation and capacity building. ICT opens up great opportunities to improve the quality of life of persons with disabilities and promote to enhance teaching ,skills, learning in special needs education and explore the following issues relating and It will also explore how ICTs enriches the learning opportunities and potential of people who have disabilities, especially in the following areas (Physical, Blind and Visual Impairments, Hearing Impairments, Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Down syndrome and Learning disabilities).

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     There are different types of support structures available within countries but, must be focused upon combinations of one or more of the following to success the role of ICTs in development disabilities through attitude barriers in relation to understanding the benefits and possibilities of ICTs at policy and Diffused responsibility for policy implementation. Specialist national, regional, and global working groups to support networks and on – line networks. The development of theory for using ICTs in disability field is seen as being potentially enhanced if there are opportunities for co –operations between different groups of actors ( disabled people and their families, teachers, support professionals and researcher ) at national and international levels. Furthermore, the possibility to enhance virtual co –operation with face –to –face meetings and exchanges was raised. The power of ICTs as a tool for communication as well as a tool for learning is reinforced by the personal contact and exchange of persons with disability and ICTs specialists. Lack of information on needs and requirements of schools and pupils upon which to base policy initiatives. Limited finances supporting different aspects of provision or funding that is not needs

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     " Let's plant the seeds of hope in their souls " Use technology for people with disabilities and education has signaled a confidence in its potential to alleviate a particular problem or to make a job easier or more efficient especially for physically, blind and hearing disability the use technology has been adopted and integrated into the curriculum and state education. The following suggestions were highlighted with respect to widening access to internet through internet explorer and email with speech recognition. now these equipments are available to facility access for blind and programmed special browsers for disabled people with services learning disabilities and flexible control mechanisms for example controlled using only a few icons, special mouse, keyboard,…). Also, improvement of networking facilities to allow more efficient co – operation between institutions and building a Telecentres for all type disabilities people on –line network (discussion groups ,mailing list, chat ). Adaptation of standard software to the needs of the children with mental retardation . compatibility / application Co – operation in order to get a standardized storage format for text, pictures and sounds in different teaching materials and software according to the different needs of children with ( Autism ,CP, DS). We assure, improve better learning environment on computer systems and spend a good deal of time and effort in order to break the barriers within the society. Improved disability prevention will require a change in organizational priorities, restructuring of the symptom-driven health care system, and training for providers and clients to cooperate in collaborative care. concert with community resources and policies.

   

• Multilingual Platform for TakingITGlobal (TIG) Users

  TakingITGlobal (http://multilingual.tigweb.org/)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     When TIG was formed about ten years ago, the main idea was to provide a global platform for participants around the world to focus on issues that affect us all.However, these issues could only be relevant if they were put in the right cultural context. TIG's mission and vision was to be able to provide a platform that was inclusive, and which provided a space for members to create issues that were relevant to their own culture. Launching TIG in a number of languages was the perfect step to realise this mission, and resonated well with potential sponsors. The whole idea was the perfect way to give back to TIG's members and online community, which made it's global reach so unique. Fostering intercultural dialogue, and doing so in multiple languages was the first step towards promoting effective global citizenship.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Most websites, and especially social networking ones, are in English, making it difficult for the advantages of such websites to reach people speaking other languages. TIG's proposed multilingual platform aimed to rectify this situation. TIG's website was designed to reflect the various cultural heritages of its users. Because of this, the languages that TIG was launched in were those that TIG members spoke extensively, and not necessarily the world's most popular languages. The idea was to direct information towards the existing membership in a manner that would be beneficial for them, and would initiate changes in local communities, made by members using TIG as a resource for information, planning and management. Quantatively, TIG has now been launched in 12 languages (with two more on the way), which is a testimony to the popularity of the multilingual platform among its members. However, with there being 249 languages in the world, there is much room for improvement, and TIG is conducting research into, and working on the next possible language platforms to launch. Qualitatively, the Translate Tool developed combines the efficiency of a computer, but also provides the human element, as all translations are done by people themselves. This makes the translations quick, as well as genuine, reflecting the culture they are trying to reach.The translations also involved users from the beginning, encouraging users to create original content, giving each language platform the uniqueness of issues, and highlights of its own.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The fact that TIG's website is now available from 1 to 12 languages within the space of a decade is testimony to the fact that the Multilingual Platform has done exceedingly well. Also to be accounted for is TIG's membership, which is now over 200,000 members worldwide, the majority of who do not consider English as their first language. With the ever-increasing needs of TIG's membership being reached in multiple languages, the testimonies of TIG members as seen on the soon-to-be-launched Multilingual Pages also bring great recognition to TIG. Among others, the awards TIG, as an organization, has won the Mark Drake Award for Excellence in Communicating the Private Sector's Contribution to International Cooperation Issues (2005), and the 2002 Awards for Innovative Learning Environments among others. Awards such as these are a definite testimony to the effectiveness of TIG, and therefore, it Multilingual Platform, which has been crucial in expanding TIG to its current potential.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     As with the development of any new project, the Multilingual Platform faced many challenges. Among these, picking only a few languages from among the many spoken around the world, and also by TIG members, was a major challenge. Also, since the virtual team of translators could not meet in person, managing deadlines and working together on projects proved to be difficult at times. The spotty internet access and the lack of dependable technology in many parts of the world did not make things easier at times. Finally, understanding and working with different cultural values and backgrounds involved designing mechanisms that would ensure the most efficient work being done by all members of the Virtual Translator's Team. Once the best mechanisms and procedures to overcome these issues had been established, the work was done much faster, and with efficiency.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     TIG's inherent mission that people responded well to, as we expanded and grew, was that TIG was a catalyst and was passionate about meeting young people, to encourage them to learn and be more aware of issues affecting them, by using the resources provided to them. Because of their help we could launch multiple languages, and reach out to many more people than was possible with just one language. TIG also wanted to stress the importance of cross cultural dialogue and provide lots of recognition to this topic. TIG still focuses to celebrating culture, and promoting networking and collaboration among different cultures through multilingualism.TIG's internal enthusiasm led to its external motivations, and therefore provided members with the opportunity to use turn their own interests into valuable community-building resources.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The Multilingual Platform, and TIG too, utilize web 2.0 and interactive technologies to provide the best possible virtual experiences to members.The Translate Tool, created by TIG co-founder Michael Furdyk, is a tool that combines the best of technology and human interaction to provide the best possible translations for TIG members. Other features such as livechats conducted by TIG staff to provide information on issues and events, Project and Group Pages designed to showcase individual or group projects around the world, and provide networking space. Also, the Country Pages that showcased a specific country and culture every week, were especially important in providing awareness among members.

   

• The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC)

  (http://www.businessdayonline.com/Work-and-Learning/11806.html)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     The Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre, W.TEC, is a Nigerian non-governmental organization working to encourage Nigerian girls and women to learn how to use technology as a means of empowering themselves socially and economically. Our mission is “to educate, connect and empower Nigerian women through active engagement with information and communication technology.” Our aim is to introduce women to information and communication technologies and to understand its relevance to their professional and personal lives. We look to equip them with skills that can enhance their efficiency in the workplace and in their personal lives. We do this through: a) Technology Literacy Classes – Aimed at helping to develop a variety of technology skills b) Technology-Based Projects – Where participants work and learn together c) Work-placement / Internships – With innovative technology firms d) Mentoring Opportunities – With experienced technology professionals e) Research - W.TEC will conduct research into how women are using technology with an eye on how they could better utilise technology for social and economic empowerment. W.TEC’s partners include Fahamu (www.fahamu.org) and Laureates College, Lagos. W.TEC has received funding from IDRC and the Anita Borg Institute of Women and Tehnology.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     We consider our initiative to be a best practice, because our strategy is based on research and designed to suit Nigeria’s culture and socio-economic realities. For instance, research shows that part of the reasons that women are dissuaded from pursuing technology-related education, careers and training is due to stereotypes that technology is a male preserve. W.TEC addresses this providing ICT-related career information and technology training to girls at a younger age, so that they are less likely to be socialised into this way of thinking. Findings from other projects have shown that women feel more comfortable learning how to use the computer and receiving other ICT-related training within women-only groups. Some cultures (e.g. in Islamic communities) limit or discourage interaction between members of the opposite sex who aren’t related. Hence, W.TEC offers trainings to girls and women only. Since Nigerian cultures are very family-oriented, W.TEC works to include the other family members in parts of our activities. For example, family members of trainees will be invited to the closing ceremony of our Networking for Success, where the women will have the opportunity to showcase their newly-acquired skills. It will also provide a chance to raise awareness of the importance of developing ICT skills among the women’s families. W.TEC has trained 27 women on social media (web 2.0) tools in its Networking for Success project (www.w-teconline.org/nfsblog/). The training has comprised of women working in non-governmental organisations, recent university graduates and stay-at-home mothers. Through the project, participants have: 1. Developed skills in the use and management of Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, podcasts) and other technologies in order to build capacity and efficiency into their organisation’s work 2. Learnt how to work collaboratively with colleagues within and outside of their organisations using ICTs 3. Learnt how to identify and assess the appropriateness of various ICTs to different tasks At the end of each workshop within the project, women are asked to complete evaluation forms, indicating their level of satisfaction with the training. At the end of the project, participants also complete an evaluation of the project. W.TEC tracks past participants to see how they are using the skills learnt on the training. So far, participants have been utilising their training to share information within their organisations (e.g. blog set-up for Nigerian NGO, LEAP Africa) and for personal network-building.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The Nigerian media has recognised the importance of the work being done by W.TEC and highlighted this in several newspaper articles (available on request). W.TEC has also received letters of appreciation from employers of some of our past trainees. W.TEC received a grant from the Anita Borg Institute of women and Technology towards its annual Technology Camp in recognition of the importance of its work mentoring and teaching girls.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     For most NGOs, funding is a key issue and it has been no different for W.TEC. We received funding from IDRC, through the Harambee initiative (http://www.harambeeafrica.net/?q=node/38), to implement the Networking for Success project. However, it has been a challenge getting adequate funding to cover administrative expenses. W.TEC’s strategy aside from grant-writing, is to run training programs for certain organisations and professional associations and charge to run these. The profit from these trainings is used to help sustain the organisation.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     • Clear Mission: Defining the mission and vision very clearly was fundamental, as this served as a blueprint for all our work, and has helped guide us in the right direction. • Competent Staff: Having the right staff is also key. W.TEC is blessed to have staff and a team of volunteers and interns that are passionate about educating women and equipping them with ICT skills. • Involved Board: Having an active and motivated board is also crucial. W.TEC has a board of trustees, as well as an advisory board. The trustees form the executive management of the organisation, while the advisory board are a slightly less formal group of professionals who advise the organisation id a variety of areas, e.g. management, research, ICT4D, media, etc. Both boards have been involved in W.TEC’s operations from the inception and are regularly consulted on the organisation’s programs and activities.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     W.TEC’s mission centers around empowering Nigerian women using ICTs and so these tools feature heavily in our programmes and operations. For example: • W.TEC offers ICT-related trainings, e.g. the Networking for Success programme. In August 2008, we will launch our yearly W.TEC Girls’ Technology Camp. • W.TEC has a regularly-updated website (www.w-teconline.org), which is used to promote our work and share information with the public • W.TEC runs a blog (www.w-teconline.org/blog/), which is used to build deeper connections between us and our various stakeholders and target communities. The blog is also used as an avenue to quickly share information that might be useful to them. Through the blog, we highlight issues related to women’s ICT use in Africa and Nigeria. • W.TEC manages a group on the social networking site, Facebook called “Women and Technology in Africa” (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16896405765), which is used to build greater awareness of the organisation’s work and notify people of upcoming W.TEC events. • W.TEC regularly uses the SMS facility of mobile phones to disseminate time-sensitive information, particularly among our project participants

   

• New Technologies for Virtual Heritage: New Museums for the World

  Rodica Silvia POP (http://)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     The initiative is inherently multi-disciplinary, as it covers the humanities (History, Philosophy, Communication), the sciences (Physics, Medicine, Astronomy) and technology. In its effort to develop new ICT technologies, the project has a focused objective, namely the creation of the “Museum of the scientific tradition of modern Europe”, at the same time, it has a strong ideal significance, since cultural heritage is a fundamental basis for the world society and an area of leadership that must be preserved and strengthened. It also has longer term objectives, namely, the development of new educational curricula and new professional profiles, as well as the creation of innovative commercial products and new enterprises focusing on advanced IT techologies for the enhanced fruition of cultural heritage (for education, tourism). The cultural heritage is arguably the richest treasure in the world. The exploitation of world cultural heritage is one of the most significant sources of wealth for institutions, economic organizations and citizens. Therefore the preservation and strengthening of the leadership in this area is a strategic objective from an economic as well as a cultural and ideal point of view.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     With the development of the information society, the field of Cultural Content Creation and Delivery (CCCD) is undergoing a profound revolution. Almost every traditional paradigm in CCCD is being revisited in the light of new and rapidly developing Information and Communication Technology (ICT). A successful integration of Information and Communication Technologies and CCCD will widen the access to cultural heritage, create new paradigms for education and learning, facilitate the harmonization of different cultures, provide a sustained flow of wealth toward the countries in the EU. Finally, it will also give rise to new type of services and businesses, which can significantly contribute to the knowledge-based economic foundation of the world welfare.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The main challenge in achieving this vision lies in the complex and multi-disciplinary nature of the work to be done. Many partially successful research and development efforts have tried to exploit ICTs in CCCD. However, producing a significant momentum and a sustained effort is extremely hard, mainly because the main cultural content providers (educational institutions, museums) tend to exploit readily available information technologies, without fully leveraging the newest and most advanced tools which are under development. On the other hand, the conception and evolution of ICTs is only indirectly driven by CCCD, often seen as a niche market. Furthermore, the integration of information technologies and cultural content is often carried out by small, specialized companies which do not have the economic strength to support long-term research and/or influence the much larger information technology (IT) companies in their development efforts. The result is that so far not enough has been made beyond the narrow limits of web sites allowing to visit museums and monuments at a distance. And at the light of the present state of ICT, this is obviously not sufficient and, on the contrary, might turn out to be a serious weakness of our society.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     This Proposal for an Integrated Project aims at developing new and advanced applications of ICT specifically dedicated to fruition, preservation and expansion of cultural heritage, with the key objective of creating the Museum of the scientific tradition of modern Europe. The unique strength of the Proposal is that it integrates in a single, large R&D and exploitation initiative all major players necessarily involved in the synergic co-development of ICT and CCCD, namely: (i) a Network of world-class museums and collections, as well as strong research programs in both humanities and information engineering; (ii) large IT companies (among the world leaders in the software and hardware markets); (iii) large telecommunication infrastructure firms; (iv) digital content editors and developers; (v) small and medium-size companies willing to dynamically exploit the results of the research.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     The Integrated Project is inherently multi-disciplinary, in that it brings together disciplines in the area of humanities (history, philosophy, communication,...), science (physics, medicine, astronomy,...) and technology (computer science, electronics, telecommunications).

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The Integrated Project is inherently multi-disciplinary, in that it brings together disciplines in the area of humanities (history, philosophy, communication,...), science (physics, medicine, astronomy,...) and technology (computer science, electronics, telecommunications). The Integrated Project has strong value and significance as far as scientific vision and contents are concerned (development of cultural heritage as a fundamental basis for the European society). However, it has also great economic potential, because: (i) fruition of cultural heritage represents in itself a large market, with strong influence on such rich field of activity as tourism, particularly in Europe; (ii) technologies (hardware and software) and methodologies developed within the Project will be applicable to cultural heritage all over the world (a significant market) and in many cases also to related fields, such as e-learning and education

   

• Expanding K-12 public school teachers’ ICT competency and use

  Justin Pickel (http://www.dotrust.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     DOT USA’s Teachup! Program empowers teachers to infuse ICT into their lessons in pedagogically-sound ways so that students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully compete in the 21st century global economy. Through this innovative program – the first of its kind in the United States - DOT USA places tech savvy college students or recent graduates – the DOT Interns - in participating schools for the entire school year to support and train teachers in the use of available educational technologies. Throughout the year the interns are engaged in a continuous discourse with teachers about the importance and applicability of ICT in the classroom. In New Orleans, where DOT USA now has a significant presence, the public school system received a flood of new hardware after Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, the teachers did not receive adequate support and training so these technical resources were largely underutilized. The significance of this shortfall is magnified when one considers the general lack of exposure to ICT that New Orleans’ public school children receive at home. The TeachUp! program fills this crucial gap by providing dedicated on-going support and training to teachers in integrating technology into the classroom. The program also helps emerging professionals – the DOT Interns – to transition into the workforce once they have completed their internship. In addition to the technical training that they receive in cutting-edge technologies, the interns develop the leadership and project management skills that are essential for success in the professional arena. Since the progam was launched in 2006, 85 % of all intern alumni have secured gainful employment with local government agencies and private companies in finance, IT, education, manufacturing and telecommunications, among other sectors.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Teachers are central to the effective integration of ICT in teaching and learning, but to assume their role in this process they must be knowledgeable about the full potential of ICT and skilled at harnessing ICT to meet the goals of the curriculum. At the heart of the program and its best practice are the DOT interns who serve as catalysts for change, providing teachers with hands-on coaching as they develop their confidence, knowledge of and proficiency with ICT. It is a testament to the skill of the program and the Interns that experienced teachers, many with years in the system using traditional methods, now embrace the new technologies. Some teachers, in fact, have postponed retirement and/or returned to the classroom from retirement, so excited are they by the possibilities that ICT offers for both teaching and learning. The digital natives – the students – too benefit from early exposure to ICT and they thrive on the chance to incorporate ICTs into their schoolwork. DOT works to promote the incorporation of ICT into existing educational institutions with the goal of developing a new teaching model that equips students with the full range of skills that today’s world requires. From using on-line literacy programs to participating in collaborative technology-infused projects, such as podcasts, multimedia presentations, and GPS learning quests, students are more motivated and increase academic achievement. I work daily to help teachers make this transformation possible. In addition, the majority of the students in my school come from impoverished backgrounds, where educational opportunities and positive role models are often lacking. As a DOT Intern, I serve as a role model for young boys and girls about the personal and professional opportunities that higher education, ICT and service offer. TeachUp! was created and launched in 37 schools in 2006. Today, DOT USA has 103 TeachUp! Interns serving 1,500 teachers and 30,000 students in Mississippi and Louisiana. In 2009, at the invitation of the Cisco Systems Foundation, the program was expanded to earthquake-affected areas of China. In the initial three years of operations, TeachUp! has made significant impact on education in the United States in the following ways: • 5,000 teachers trained for 1 to 3 years • 500 school leaders trained • 50,000 students served with more exciting technology • 1,250 teachers registered in the Innovative Teacher Collaboration Networks. • 250 TeachUp! Interns completed comprehensive year-long training • 85% of TeachUp! Interns secured gainful employment after completing their internship, many with high tech companies, local industries and public schools • 88% of principals and mentor teachers report being satisfied with the results of the TeachUp! Program • 93% of principals and teachers indicate that interns were “effective to highly effective” in helping teachers meet their technology needs and goals

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     At the start of the school year, there was a general lack of prior knowledge about ICT and a lack of awareness of the power of technology to engage students. Fortunately, the excitement of students when a new technology is introduced into their lessons provides more than enough motivation for teachers to seek out other ways to utilize technology.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Schools are like small towns or villages -- there are no secrets. So when a teaching technique or educational technology proves to be successful, word spreads quickly. It is the responsibility of the intern to capitalize on the excitement that is created by the successful use of a new technology. In any school there will be teachers that are more receptive to change than others and it is crucial for an intern to identify the more open minded or technologically savvy teachers, so that he may utilize these early adopters as the springboard for introducing new ICT to the entire school.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The TeachUp! model is predicated on the idea that incremental, community-driven change has the best potential for sustainability. As a DOT Intern I worked to introduce the “right” technology and the “right” time. At the beginning of the year, the focus was on training teachers in basic computer skills (i.e. email, web searches). As the teachers gained proficiency, I transitioned to more advanced tools and software, as described below: -Teachers received extensive training on the use of digital whiteboards in conjunction with information about internet resources that provide lesson plan ideas and activities developed by other teachers. -Discovery Streaming has also proved extremely useful for teachers and students. This website provides a wide range of educational media covering many topics, which teachers use to reinforce their lessons. Students are also able to access the content on the sites independently for research projects. -School websites and wikis provide a forum for teachers and administrators to contact the community, to collaborate on projects and to share educational resources.

   

• Vubon.com

  Khan Md. Anwarus Salam (http://www.vubon.com/education)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Vubon.com aims to create the best free online course management service for everyone who wants to do e-learning activities. If you want to create a course, login or create a new account and fill a course request, you'll have the full power in your hands, without restrictions of any kind! You'll also be able track your students subscriptions setting a password for the course enrolment. Vubon.com is a unique online platform for Bangladeshi Students, Serious Book readers, writers and publishers. Boi Vubon provide printed copies of books as well as electronic versions. It regularly updates the books information which creates a great opportunity for all parties. The initiative is concerned about the following issues •Provide free Online education system to used by any educational institute for free of cost •Capacity Building •Provide Educational Books Information •Volunteerism & Career Counseling •Youth Development with ICT education The International Exposure regarding youth development and MDG's inspire me alot to work out my intiative. I am involve with diferent national and International organisation at the national and international level respectively in this sphere which motivates me to develop this team. I felt a need of such an organization where young people can get the highest help they want. My organization also works with need basis. Being a person always wish to face challenges and the odds as well as the enthusiasm to explore the environment to create and face the challenges I started social activities since my school days. Leadership training and experience enjoyed as a prefect of the school given me the confidence of my leadership abilities. Since then my involvement in the village youth forum in getting involved with social activities helped me to strengthened my leadership and organizing capabilities. I was involved with social performance development centre as a volunteer to work at grass root level initiating and implementing participatory sustainable development activities to empower the village communities who are deprived of social and economic benefits enjoyed by other communities [urban/suburban] that have been offered by the public/private sector service providers. Realizing the computer skill I posses as an undergraduate in computer science which inspired me to carry out a need assessment at grass root level regard the potential of usage of ICT to improve and enhance the village producers bargain power to get a justifiable price for their product and services .

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     The approach developed by the team is innovative as we are the first in Bangladesh working for the Youth Development by providing them open space/source to develop thier palns and utilise thier potentials to the optimum level. We are using Technologies and we are reaching to people unable to use technoly through other media (Printed Magazine) Book Readers can easily find, purchase, and discuss regarding any books. Readers forum will be the perfect place for serious book readers to share there comments about any books. Boi Vubon will create a special portion in there web portal for Book writers to archive their writings, life history, latest books review etc. In developing countries all educational institution can not afford to buy online course management system. Our system offer them a wonderful opportunity to use an online course management system for free of cost.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     I am young, energetic and experienced youth and a social entrepreneur. I received following award for my works for the society.; 1. Young Social Enterpreneurs Forum @ GK Dec-11-13. 2007 Project – www.vubon.com : Online Information Provider Web Portal, Kualalampur, Malaysia (Selected as a Winner, as a young social enreprenure, www.ysei.org) 2. IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineering)) 61, 2007 : Awarded - 10 , Oct -2007 USA. Project – Webpage designing. 3. Interactive Bangla Learning : Designed for foreigner and Children to teach bengali. Awarded from BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services) – 2004 as young IT Enterpreneur. 4. Akkhor : a. First Prize winner of BCS Software Competition arrange by BCS (Bangladesh Computer Samity) among all IT Company of Bangladesh. b. Awarded in CSE (Computer Science & Engineering) Day Software Competition -2004 arranged by BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and TEchnology). c. Many newspaper, magazine and TV Program highlighted by Mr. Anwar’s innovative Projects many times. I am also affiliated with many organization like IEEE, ACM, GKP, BASIS, BCS, MICROSOFT etc.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     The most difficult challenge I had to face was the formation of the partnerships and selecting the group of young people for the project implementation. As we were to choose potentials partners who can boost our work. The Resource Management Team was very concerned about the the partnership selection and it was put on Board of Directors Agenda not to form any partnership with local or govt. institutions . I prepared and presented a concept paper to the board of directors regarding partnership development which i have made by surveying for nearly two month in th field. The decision was approved in my favor with reservations but with the help of my dedicated team i achieve the goal in most comprehesive way. At the same time I had to select and propose 10 young person to nominate for my project which was held in Dhaka and the most difficult decision for me is to nominate those person out of very enthusiastic and capable group of young people. How I made it Arranged a half a day participatory workshop with all the persons in the group as facilitators to carry out a brain storm session on how each person is going to serve their villages through the proposed ICT base business development and information centre. Later 10 names were short listed as the best 10 and again all the participants were asked to vote for preference to prioritize the projected activities, taking into consideration the infrastructure/population/poverty level/resources available in respective villages and finally the participant themselves selected the first 10 centers that to be initiated. As everybody accepted the selection criteria was fair and most appropriate methodology applied in selection that made me more confidence of myself as a leader, recognition among the group and increased confidence to handle competitive situations.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     •Build an platform as an enabling mechanism for Young People to take positive action on global issues •Provide opportunities for Young People that support personal development and the generation of ideas for creating a better world •Support Young People to implement their world-changing ideas •To promote and encourage the work done by young People in effecting positive community change towards the organizational goals and objectives. •To facilitate the implementation of events developed and organized by members to address the issues of concern in the local community, which are consistent with the objects of the organization, including the raising of funds where necessary. •To further the networks formed by the “Hunt for Excellence Project” and provide an ongoing platform for organization and convening of future events and Summits and projects. •To promote recognition of, mobilize and enhance the capacity of Young People nationally to provide leadership and take action on issues related to the young professional community. •To undertake research and advocacy in regards to issues identified by members as vital to the creation of a preferred national future. To achieve its vision, the HFE mission has it working with existing young professional social entrepreneurs and change agents, as well as reaching out to educate, inform and inspire others to use their power, privilege, skills and abilities to create a better tomorrow for current and future generations. The Project implementation team used the “Community Participatory Approach” to carry out the project plan by indulging all the stakeholders with focus on Teachers, student societies, Education Department, Book and Information Publisher and other agencies (Government and Non-Government) working in the area youth development.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     Our online course management system is developed using open source technology moodle. Our online CMS system allows users to get new Bangla Books information. We also provide information through SMS push - pull service.

   

• Org RESH

  Saint Eloi Alker (http://www.reshaiti.page.tl)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Haiti, the country qualifies as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere and the most disadvantaged of all the developing countries where its location at 153rd among 177 countries on the human development index and PNUD/2004 cope with problems that are specific (political, social, economic, etc.).. But it is nonetheless true that the countries of the Caribbean as a whole, are largely dependent on the most advanced countries for their technological development. They have not sufficiently grasped the tremendous opportunity for wealth creation of these technologies by encouraging innovation in technology as a basis for development of society. Chronic malnutrition is endemic among the most vulnerable, 42% of children under five (5) years are stunted modulated serious. Camp-Perrin is no exception as a joint department of the country of these harmful and intolerable. The issue of development and integration of technological culture and the new information technology and communication (NTIC) in Camp-perrin returns to the fundamental question of infrastructure and resources that is now at its peak in the common cause of lack of access to computer equipment, poor management of the activities of traders, the lack of technological culture for rapid use of information to emergency disasters and natural disasters and the environment, climate change, the expansion of the global economy, rising oil prices that bind to the economy, access to the Internet means for most of people to respond adequately to the requirements such as floods of the gullies in the south, the drought that burns agricultural products planted by farmers, lack of crop yields following the archaic structure of farming, deforestation in the hills which contributes to soil degradation, lack of logistics and infrastructure to facilitate the delivery of goods, lack of financial resources and training for farmers to work the land. Objectives general objectives 1 - To implement a program of integration of the technological culture as a basic tool for community development (PRICULTE) to 100 poor people in the town of Camp-Perrin for one (1) year. 2 - Encourage the integration of technology culture in the community to improve the living standards of the beneficiaries of the program. Specific objectives 1 - To train 100 young people between fifteen (15) and twenty five (25) years on the ICT 2-Integrer technological culture in the community and create a livelihood for the encouragement of youth to globalization. 3 - Helping young people to information management (Word, Windows, Excel and Power Point). 4 - Increase the capacity of young people on the Internet. 5-Encourage learning by ideas of economic and productive 6 - Encourage young people to be more loan information to help them release.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Result of action 1st result The program trains 50 young people aged between 15 and 24 years in the town of Camp-perrin every 6 months and 100 over a period of one (1) year technology on the basis of information management (Word, Excel, Windows and Power Point), on the culture of ICT and the introduction of the Internet technical craft and its beneficiaries will be able to ensure their employment in this field and to satisfy their social needs, economic and food base. 2nd result Setting up a research center in the commune to youth who have attended this training to facilitate information and communication distance in order to assert their knowledge and competence on the need of the labor market. 3rd result 100 young people during a year will have the ability to develop technological culture as a basic tool for the development of their community, to create a productive own computer with the ability to market their products both on the local, national as one international.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     Sustainability a) Financial and economic - The program helps the integration of technological culture Youth Camp-perrin and their social welfare, their training on ICT skills to produce the management information (Word, Excel, Power Point and Windows , the facilitation of information and global communication, increases in income, consumption wider brief, to local economic growth. - The program is provided by a series of activities organized by the organization and its partners on the principles of effective and efficient functioning. - The program has a plan for disbursement to finance equipment and operations of the program for six (6) months. - The program will have the ability to acquire a large share of the population to economic growth in order to help protect the environment by: a) Leveraging a technology culture in the Youth Camp-perrinoise b) Creating new jobs c) Forming technically and professionally youth on ICT d) Enhancing the socio-economic security and food e) integrating social cohesion f) promoting environmental protection g) Drawing Social Development h) with better means of communication for facilitating global information The program covers the activities avers, specific, measurable, appropriate, achievable and time according to the needs of the population Camp-perrinoise with some innovation in the integration of technological culture as a basic tool for community development by combating crime youth, increasing the income of beneficiaries and ensuring socio-economic security and nutrition. The "RESH" establishes procedures for operating the program for its image and that of the donor and the achievement of the objectives of the contracting authority by selecting qualified and competent to pass peacefully in training perennial. The "RESH" will link with the beneficiaries during and even after the grant by a quality service that takes into account the difficulties that will draw young people to meet by helping to maintain strong face to environmental problems. B-Policy level where The program will integrate the technology culture and technical training for young people aged between 15 to 24 years with all circuits legal structures operating within the predetermined principles. In the case, municipalities, state, local associations will have more opportunities to facilitate the development of artistic activities and preserve the environment for abuse. Thus, the control community particularly the strengthening of educational associations, the reduction of poverty, the inclusion of a policy of development cooperation. Hence the possibility of a rational development. D-considered risks and threats, and measures taken to mitigate them. The program (PRICULTE) reserves the right by the organization RESH "to mount a quota when the natural effects occur in the normal course like: Rain, sickness, death, fire and flooding. The attention of the Directorate will focus on the severity of the effects of carry-over if necessary. The theft of the materials available to the program will be strictly advised by the police and an investigation is recommended for persistent penalize the suspect. The death of a trainer or a beneficiary in the institution will affect our family operation, management will call on the bereaved family to outline policy and this occurrence may in no way block the process operation of the program.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     Specific strategies for intervention The program for the integration of culture technology as a basic tool for community development will be managed by the organization "RESH 'under the supervision of the Administrative Council and the participation of beneficiaries. The training will be given individually and processional. After the selection of beneficiaries, each hold a card. In any case, the management committee will be able to organize, plan, coordinate and collect the proper monitoring of distribution of food to meet the beneficiaries. The criteria for selecting recipients based on the level of life, its economic weaknesses have to access hardware and cafe. In a word, the most vulnerable will benefit from the program. The core program is six months, so that every six (6), there will be 50 new beneficiaries. System-Program Management Next financial assistance received by the department in question and according to its terms, the quantity supplied, we will monitor the program ensuring the maintenance of the beneficiaries by a semi-annual renewal of the beneficiaries. This reflects a cycle of the program for two semesters with 50 clients per semester. The Organization "RESH is responsible for implementing the program of integration of the technological culture as a basic tool for community development in the field. It will: - Find funding - Develop standards, procedures and tools for management of funds. - Purchase of equipment - Select recipients. - Study the applications of the beneficiaries. - Make animation sessions and training. - Give training. - Ensure the monitoring and control program. Note: A complaint will be weekly from each job to allow full performance.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Implementing Agency Program The funding will be granted once implemented by the organization that will lead RESH two members chaired by a committee that will monitor and control while submitting reports on the state of need and progress to the Board of Directors An administrator of long experience on the direction of Project Manager in the field above, a secretary and competent trainers. The kernel "RESH" will be responsible for supervision, the perception on the overall technical supervision and control. This platform financeur / RESH contribute to the reduction of unemployment, the youth ICT training, integration of technological culture, to master the technology for the development of the town of Camp-Perrin.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The integration of technological culture as a basic tool for community development based on the principles of information and communication through training of information management, ICT and introduction to the Internet can help to some extent the security of the ambition of trains technologies of the future education of young people by the technological revolution to bring the dedication and encouragement for the continuation of the work environment. The Organization "RESH" will assist in the supervision of these groups and overseeing the training of young people in selecting the beneficiaries and activities according to predetermined criteria. The Organization "RESH" intends to promote "the integration of a technology culture in the community" or a donnante training on ICT, Word, Excel. Windows, Power point and introduction to the Internet, solidarity, the "Tet Ansanm" seminars, participation, research and training will be the main lines of action of the innovation of the technological culture as a basis for community development. However, it is time to focus on children, the poor and most vulnerable and to provide technological training necessary for their survival.

   

• Sprout e-course

  TakingITGlobal (http://)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     The true essence of a society is the vitality of its communities. Communities are dynamic, textured and alive; a patchwork of ethnographic fabrics, each one a part of greater humanity. Vibrant communities incite a sense of belonging and extend a call to collective responsibility and active participation to their members in shaping a common future for generations to come. Yet, as many local communities across the world struggle to meet their most basic needs, engagement is losing ground to apathy, involvement to ambivalence. Increasingly, global challenges such as the HIV/AIDS crisis, climate change, resource shortages, social and economic disparity and the changing specter of human conflict have demanded cooperative solutions, developed and implemented locally. In response, the growing youth movement has proven to be an essential demographic force, energized by some of the worlds most solution-oriented and innovative minds dedicated to positive social and environmental change at the grassroots level. Young people everywhere are uniting together, interested and engaged in finding new ways to make their communities a more vital place to live, work and play. In recent years, the rise in youth-led community development has intersected with the ubiquitous growth and influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICTs). More than ever, digital media and networks have become embedded in our everyday lives, and are part of broad-based changes to how we engage with issues, in knowledge production, and in civic expression (Bennett, 2008). As a result, young people have been provided with new and diverse forms of learning, reflected in how they express their independence, creativity and leadership as well as in their ability to exercise judgment and think systemically about solving community issues (Bennett, 2008). For example, open classroom environments that permit freer flows of experience-based learning and knowledge sharing are generally favored by youth. This is a due to the fact that young people typically favour loose network affiliations over individual information reception, embrace active production rather than passive consumption, and collective problem-solving rather than individual techniques (Jenkins, 2006). The program team sought to design an e-course program that synthesized these trends and new approaches, and embodied a socio-technical environment to instill invaluable knowledge, learning and leadership tools to our global youth.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Overall, the pilot research demonstrated the programs greatest assets lay in its four-pronged methodology: an e-mentoring program, online tools and platform, project portfolio and peer-to-peer learning and collaboration. Together, these aspects form the heart of the program and were recognized by the participants and e-mentors alike as unique elements adding value to the e-course experience, with the e-course overall achieving satisfaction rates of over 80 per cent. The e- mentors reported expanding their knowledge sets and gaining broader perspectives as the most valuable outcomes of their experience. Moreover, the participants reported that the e-course resources (content, instructional methods, online platform and digital tools) provided an interactive and open environment for them to hone their leadership skills. Participants also indicated high levels of satisfaction with the e-course and the majority stated that they felt it was an enriching experience and would consequently participate and promote similar programs given the opportunity. The pilot executed a full cycle of the e-course program in order to isolate each aspect of the e-course and understand its core strengths and weaknesses. After several months of curriculum development, the pilot was divided into four modules, each consisting of four weeks of coursework. And after having procured a team of evaluation specialists from Boston and New York, Make It Happen was born. MODULE 1: DESIGN IT The first module sought to explore the fundamental steps necessary to setting up a project or an organization. The module examines the processes of identifying problems, brainstorming ideas, conducting community needs assessments, performing a stakeholder analysis and developing a comprehensive project proposal plan. MODULE 2: GROW IT The second module emphasized the key elements of effective project development and management. The module provides an in-depth look at essentials such as human resource management, project finance, and strategic leadership. The module also equips participants with frameworks for organizing and monitoring resources, as well as tools for facilitating various project management processes. MODULE 3: CONNECT IT The third module focuses on communications strategies and the process of project implementation. The module explores both internal (communication within the team or organization) and external communications (public relations) most commonly used in project management. The implementation process explores how to effectively integrate and execute a project plan. MODULE 4: ASSESS IT The fourth module explorea the role of critical evaluative frameworks to monitor a project’s progress. The module surveys methods for tracking a project’s progress, analyzing outcomes, collecting and synthesizing data and measuring impact. The module also explores ways to ensure project sustainability.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The pilot phase in the process of accepting applications right now, and the fact that he number of applications has been sizeable shows the potential of the course. Also, media response will only be initiated once the course finishes its first round, and as such, the full recognition given to this course remains to be seen.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     Throughout the pilot, we identified challenges with the Make It Happen brand and tagline. Not having an emphasis on ‘e- course’ in the logo led to confusion for some about how the program was empowering youth leaders. The colour scheme was also noted to be somewhat bland and not very youthful or dynamic. Having MIH be used consistently as the acronym for the e- course was also problematic. Given the transition between the pilot phase and launching the e-course more formally created an opportunity for developing a new name for the e-course that would be fun, simple and a single word with ‘e-course’ as the tagline. Our aim was to have a brand that would support clear communications and lend itself to a concept that would help us package the e-course into a comprehensive brand, but not at the expense of clarity. This process forced us to strip away the layers of familiarity we had with the program and ask ourselves: “at its most basic, what does the e-course do?” Our answer: the e- course guides young people through the process of growing an idea into a project. We chose to superimpose a parallel concept, that of a seed growing into a plant, and created the Sprout brand. The Sprout brand allows us to leverage the concept of growth. We use the image of a sprouting plant surrounded by a light bulb. Technology Platform Customization It was suggested by most of the pilot participants that the e-course had a positive influence on their use of online tools for collaboration and information sharing. Two participants said that the course had been their first introduction to Web 2.0, and a third credited the course with giving him the ability to use online tools to promote his project. However, it was noted that a few of the participants felt confused about how to use the platform and others would have liked the platform to be more democratic and transparent. In order to address this, we plan to create a comprehensive training program which will allow us to provide direct live support with incoming participants and e-mentors. We aCourse Timeline The e-course pilot ran for a total of sixteen weeks, not including an orientation period or the time between the end of the instruction and the submission date for their final e-portfolios. This resulted in a very long e-course experience comparable to any other program in its class. In order to address this, we decided to crop the e-course length to include two weeks for orientation, two months of instruction and a final month to submit an e-portfolio. This timeline will still allows us enough time to create a rapport with students, a task which tends to take more time in an online setting, while making sure it is concise and poignant. plan to customize the TIGed classroom platform to realize the goals of our instructional design.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Sprout's pilot testing phases, which allowed us to make the necessary changes in it, as well as to spread the word, using TakingITGlobal's website to let the TIG community about the actual course all helped to build momentum. Also, once applications were being accepted, the project design and curriculum, along with aspects such as the portfolio and different steps all helped to build momentum on the project.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The e-course uses a web-based platform, including online classrooms, and is entirely online. So is the TIG website, that will promote and be a sister website to Sprout.

   

• Free online counseling on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and reproductive health for Youth

  Dang Huyen Trang (http://tamsubantre.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Adolescents and young adults are always considered as target groups of socio-economic educational and health care programs of Vietnam. These groups occupy around 30% of the population. However, main concern of policy makers is the social issues that young adults face in their lives. Besides socio-economic development due to the “Reformation” (Doi moi) since 1986, the young population of Vietnam faces with the pressure of pragmatic living style, premarital sex, and unwanted pregnancy, having sex with sex workers, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS. One of the main causes of these problems is the explosion of information especially the one related to sexuality. Access to pornography is considered one important affect to behavior of adolescents and young adults in Vietnam.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     The Internet is more and more common in Vietnam and most of users are youth, so the project “Free online counseling on HIV/AIDS, sexuality and reproductive health for Teens” is an initiative for Vietnamese youth. The project aims to promote healthy sexuality as an essential point to improve adolescent and young adult sexual reproductive health included HIV/AIDS with youth-friendly, rights-based, capacity building and sustainable approaches through the website www.tamsubantre.org. The main services of this project is providing information, email counselling and online counseling on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, sexuality, life skills and their rights. www.tamsubantre.org has been one of the top websites on education and counseling on those fields, designed and built up by youth and for youth and the target group are youth at the age of 14 – 25. All the counselors who provide counselling are also youth. Launched in 2003, untill now there are more than 100,000 members of the website with all of 64 provinces/cities in Vietnam and other Vietnamese who are living, working and studying abroad. The project has provided nearly 20,000 online counseling cases and 51,000 counseling emails to clients. www.tamsubantre.org was popular in Vietnamese youth and when we do the assessment, most of them agreed that it is a useful website as well as admited that using technology such as Internet was indeed an effective way for them to increase their awareness about HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, sexuality, life skills and their rights about these fields.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The project has received about 70% of positive feedback. More over, it also was introduced in some national and international conferences as an initiative and effective ways to provide knowledge and life skills for youth and got a lot encourages of everyone.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

   

• Youth engagement on Use of ICT for community development and Livelihood support.

  (http://www.cadifkenya.interconnection.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Being part of the young people living within the slum areas of Kisumu who need mentorship and motivational to move out of poverty cycle, I have been touched to mobilize and lead the movement of young people both professional and match them with unprofessional to fill the above gap. I have been part of the wide concern of over 60 per cent of the country total unemployed youths. It is against this background that I started Peri-urban/ Rural Youth Livelihood Support Programme under my organization cadifkenya to create employment and livelihood access for peri-urban and rural youth and women along the Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Value Chain by venturing into both on-farm and off-farm enterprises/income generating activities and Information Communication immediately after YES 2006 in Kenya. My main interest has been to work with young professionals in building the capacity of the youth group, youth leadership structure ,focus them as equal partners in regional reconstruction process, and establish network (alliance) that will foster the promotion of entrepreneurial development and provide relevant, effective, accessible, affordable and sustainable package of capacity building services Empowering the disadvantaged youths to get better access economic opportunities, better health, education and learn best practice for coexistence , has been my core program activities

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     This initiative started in late 2006 after Global YES Summit is seen as the best practice because is self sustainable. The project has been started and is expanding with out any donor funding. Our strength has been community contribution and professional volunteers that provide time and expertise and motivational leadership to enroll more youth and youth groups towards such movement. Currently we have youth group membership of 80 youth group. We started by mobilizing young professional volunteers from colleges and Universities to offer their expertise at no cost, this has provide entrepreneurship education for over 10,000 youths since our inception, The programe also has been a hand on practical source of innovation for we have developed software for community orphan welfare management and benefited over 5 institution using the innovation at no cost. The project has been technology transfer place for the community since over 5,000 youth and women have been trained on Mushroom cultivation which is a rare farming in the lake region, We have also train over 6,000 youth and women on Use of ICT for Entrepreneurship development with case on study of our Technology transfer Garden providing knowledge on Mushroom, Bio-intensive Garden and Poultry. The Goal of the program has been to, “improved the peri-urban/ rural livelihoods, To develop sustainable and replicable model livelihoods program that majority of vulnerable groups (the majority of which live in rural areas and peri-urban set up) and create employment and income-earning opportunities as an integral part of sustainable economic development. It has addressed major cross cutting policy issues affecting young poor people e.g. ICT accessibility, rights, gender and HIV/AIDS. Our uniqueness is that the project target Household Livelihood improvement using young people as an urgent of change and it not based on any donor funding but on Youth motivation and commitment. Started from scratch with no external financial support , entirely depending on young people participatory approach, personal motivation and shared vision, it has had tremendous growth in recruiting more young people to improve their livelihood status and its replicable in any part of Kenya.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     we have been recognized by the Ministry of youth affairs, Kisumu District office as the best innovative youth led sustainable project. We have also been Recognized by YES Kenya Country network as the best ICT and Entpernourship project We have been identified as best partners by OSIENALA- friend of Lake Victoria as the best innovative project for partnership and we are to start jointly scaling it up major part of the lake region -We are working to make the project the Most Globaly innovative and promising youth project that will jointly use ICT and other livelihood support program to enhance household livehihood for food security,revert rural -urban migration,reduce household poverty and conserve enviroment

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     The challenges we have and we are facing is lack of political goodwill in bringing more player to board Most of our program takes longer time to have desired impact due to financial capability of the target group whom we entirely depend on their contribution and decreasing motivational momentum of young people to participate fully due to their busy schedule. All our professional skill are matched from young professional volunteers and we have been having inconsistency in skill deployment term of volunteerism due to their mobility of their work place and serch for greener pasture. Most of the above challenges we have been tackling them by requesting for partnership with local institution of higher learning to consistently post volunteers of diverse profession to our program. We are also working on partnership approach to other Civil society organization and private sector to support some of our program and offer little motivational token for our volunteers. We also approaching potential partners for funding support to strengthen our approach and benefit more people.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Our momentum has been based on untapped economical opputunity available for young people.The market force has been been charactrised by energetic worfoce aggresive and innovative product. Need to have international recognition as the best promising practice for young people

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     All our program has been intergrated with use of Technology We have used ICT for number of approaches our community ICT resource center that have 15 computers and libriary -to provide a wide range of services including ICT litracy training,ICT for education,couseling services on Youth Reproductive Health and Training on Use of ICT for Enteprenourship and Enteprenourship develpment . We have also been having technology transfer on innovative practice and online discussion forum

   

• Cultural Classics

  Jamil Anwar (http://www.culturalclassics.com)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Cultural Classics is a tribute to the hidden prodigies of Pakistan, who were explored during the visits to different ‘hard to reach regions’ of Pakistan. Ranging from the rural areas of Punjab, to the places in the desert of Thar, from the mountains of Himalayas and Karakoram and the valleys of Swat, to the culture of Sind and the home industry of Balochistan, there is a wide variety of art and craft in Pakistan. Cultural Classics was founded in 2006 with a belief that “without possibilities there is no creativity”. After visiting some of the most remote and poor areas in Pakistan, we discovered one great talent existing among the people; handicrafts. These hidden prodigies live in poor and hard to survive conditions however they possess impressive artistic skills and create most beautiful hand made crafts through precision, creativity and hard work. Transferred over generations and practiced over years, these skills create the state of the art artifacts with an amazing blend of geometry and colors. While, the amazing creations were found to be unique, the creators were found to be unknown, unheard and living in adverse circumstances. Their dependency on local traders, lack of information and reach to the bigger markets and lack of basic amenities was enough to ignite the sense of social responsibility. Cultural Classics, sensing the problem and identifying the gap, started with an urge to introduce these products globally along with the knowledge of product manufacturing, culture and traditions of the artisan communities while contributing to their economic empowerment. Artisan communities constitute roughly 4.84 million out of 170 million plus population in Pakistan according to figures quoted by Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority, Pakistan. Out of 4.84 million, roughly 28% of the artisans are females. Lifestyle of these artisans is below poverty line with earnings even less than a minimum wage of USD 80/- per month. Average wage is roughly less than 10% of the cost of the handicraft. The artisans are very skilful and talented people with the ability to turn a piece of raw material into a beautiful handmade craft. This takes a lot of patience, precision and time, which has been passed on from generation to generation. However, many of these artisans live in remote areas and usually under very poor conditions. These artisans depend on local traders and middle men, who underpay these artisans do not brand their products and exploit them by purchasing them on credit. Despite their unique creations, they are left unexplored, unacknowledged, unrewarded and underprivileged. They lack basic amenities in life such as education, medication and food. Unfortunately poverty leaves their young generations unskilled while the art becomes extinct. These communities face lack of resources in the form of information, financial assistance and market access thus leaving them helpless living without their basic daily needs. The severity of the issue can be recognized from the fact that many arts perish from not being passed down through generations. Cultural Classics analyses show that they are still not better off and the youth is often lost in the middle of nowhere creating a social emergency situation. This secluded and underprivileged segment eventually turns out to be a threat to the society. Poverty, injustice, and harsh living conditions give birth to the criminal and illegal behavior that ends up in a social loss and national brand dilution. Unfortunately Pakistan is moving through difficult circumstances fighting the war on terror. This has displaced several artisans from the ‘North West Frontier Province’ and ‘Balochistan Province’ while the remaining are caught in the terror / counter terror activities. Cultural Classics is trying to contribute towards the economic empowerment of the skillful artisans, leverage their lifestyles and create opportunities for them in this economically disadvantaged area of the world. In addition to the economic empowerment, this platform serves as a bridge between these secluded populations and the global community. Bidirectional information flow will be created to develop harmonious understanding of different cultures and bring forward the soft image of Pakistan. Different initiatives under CC are pushing towards achieving the goals already set by the team.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     Cultural Classics aims at growing informed consumers and creating a demand for artisan products resulting in financial and lifestyle growth of artisans and their clusters. The idea is innovative in a sense that it is linking both sides of the chain i.e. artisan and consumer through a web platform. Artisans are empowered by revenues and consumers by knowledge as well as unique artifacts that they can shop from anywhere in the world. In any typical craft business or non-profit initiatives one will seldom find end to end supply chains being addressed. Either craft manufacturer capacity building programs are developed under one umbrella, or selling of crafts is addressed primarily. This independent focus seldom allows fairness and equal value sharing throughout the chain. This best practice is created to strengthen the entire handicraft supply chain to pass on maximum value to the artisan. In Pakistan, while there are businesses selling and exporting handicrafts they do not promote artisans, creating a rift between consumers and artisans. Sales and exports are traditional while the strength of Internet is still unknown. Cultural Classics aims to create awareness, branding, marketing and selling will make these products globally available hence creating an impact within the entire chain. This effort intends to bring a socio-economic change by stopping century’s old art and cultural heritage going extinct. Building the capacity of the artisans is another important aspect. Sharing information about the market demand and working on improved quality are the areas Cultural Classics has focused. Artisans can operate from low finances, ranging from USD 100/- to USD 500/-, that they often lack. Cultural Classics has linked these communities with Microfinance organizations in Pakistan like Youth Engagement Services Pakistan and Akhuwat to avail small loans and start operating, while Cultural Classics assures that the handicrafts are properly routed to the markets to complete the monetary cycle of these artisans. 1. Lacquer Artisans are from a village of Sillanwali from the Slums of District Sargodha in Province Punjab. Artisans are mostly males from 18-70 years old who have skilled art on crafting over the wood. Salt handicraft manufacturers are also males from a remote area called Quiadabad and Khewara in northern Punjab Province. Males work from 18 years to 35 years of age. Embroidery is mostly done by females from the suburbs of the Multan district. These females develop beautiful patterns through needle and colored threads. Aged between 15 - 45, they are helping their male counterparts to make their daily ends meet. Optimal outcomes of Cultural Classics include the promotion of handicrafts under a focused brand. Meeting bulk demands with required quality and on-time delivery will also be an important outcome of Cultural Classics' involvement. With these outcomes, Cultural Classics is expecting to improve the lifestyles of these artisan communities. Fair traded process will yield better returns, access to resources, education and medicine; reduction in poverty and preserving perishing skills by transferring it to younger generations. During the next two years, Cultural Classics expects to serve roughly 5000 artisans, in 50 communities and 10 different supply chains in total. Information sharing will help bridge the gap between these excluded communities, making them more value able and participative in national economic growth. Handicraft industry, can significantly contributes towards these remote communities and will bring better attention towards their needs and problems. Basic indicators for measuring impact includes number of artisans, number of buyers, traffic on web portal, number of importers, number of products sold, number of new handicrafts developed and the number of successful orders. We are under process of developing case studies of selected clusters to show the impact of the initiative on the lives of artisans and their families. A hybrid of ‘Best Available Charitable Option’ (BACO) model and ‘World of Good Social Impact Assessment Model’ are under consideration to be used for detailed impact analysis.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     Cultural Classics has been recognized as an innovative and powerful platform contributing towards the empowerment of artisans. We have received following recognition – Dec 2007- Cultural Classics was recognized by Global Knowledge Partnership in their flagship event GK3, held in Kuala Lumpur. I was selected amongst the 100 Young Social Entrepreneurs who presented their ideas at GK3; – May 2008- I was selected by Young Social Enterprise Initiative, amongst 20 other participants from Asia who attended a workshop on social entrepreneurship and build a business plan of Cultural Classics under guidance of seasoned social entrepreneurs in Kuala Lumpur; – Nov 2008- Finalist at MIT Business Acceleration Plan competition held by MIT Enterprise Forum of Pakistan, approved chapter of MIT Enterprise Center; – Mar 2009- Invited as a panelist by the MIT Global Startup Workshop held in Cape Town, South Africa; – Apr 2009- I was selected by Foundation for Development Cooperation, Australia to develop a framework (to replicate Cultural Classics initiative with a broader reach and impact in other developing countries) based upon experience of Cultural Classics.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     Cultural Classics is a social enterprise sustainable through earned income and grants. Establishing such a patform was both challenging and demanding . Since the enterprise has a business model, earned revenues through product sales is to be the primary sustainability factor. When CC started as an information sharing portal the effort of creating an information website and collecting desired information about the artisan was the only effort. Once we were in interaction with the artisnas, we were we were pushed by them to help in selling their products in global markets. The biggest challenge was to find out investment for marketing and sales activity. We initiated the social venture through an initial combined bootstrap of USD 6000/-, saved from the previous jobs, by the 2 co-founders. This helped the team to explore and identify the communities and handicrafts for the pilot phase. Pilot helped generate USD 11000/- of revenues out of which USD 4000/- of profits helped manage the operations of CC. Collecting and gathering information from multiple locations was costly and effort intensive. CC was able to recruit volunteers who helped in data collection, identifying new product chains and collecting stories about their craft manufacturing process, history and culture. Building the capacity of the artisnas to produce in bulk and adhere to the quality and standards desired was another challenge. CC partnered with a project by Government of Pakistan called AHAN, and brought capacity building programs to these artisans. AHAN conducts training workshops for buidling the capacity and bringing innovation in the product designs. Artisans have the skill in their hands. What they lack is the investments to procure the raw material. Small amount of money can often fulfill their needs. Sensing the need for small loans, microfinance opportunities were linked with artisans through microfinance organizations. CC now plans to develop a consortium of microfinance organizations willing to support in the handicraft sectors. Cultural Classics was short of resources to take their static website into ecommerce enabled web portal. After some internal struggle and effort, CC was able to get a 50% matching grant of USD 5000/- from Asian Development Bank’s Business Support Fund and were successfully able to launch the beta portal in April 2009. Currently, Cultural Classics is continuously struggling to connect to the International buyers and penetrate in the international markets.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Cultural Classics started as an information sharing portal initially. After the frequent interactions with these artisans and their communities we realized a significant need for the following, - Provide a platform for the artisans, where they can market their products worldwide - Create a low cost distribution network to penetrate within the global markets; - Introducing a fair traded business process in the handicraft industry of Pakistan - Conserve culture and traditions and provide continuous product innovation - Provide identity to the artisans through branding and publicity especially over the Internet - Strengthen supply chains for bulk craft production and produce globally demanded designs - Share a piece of Pakistan culture to the rest of the world and create harmonious feelings Our struggle to utilize the power of Internet to connect these communities worldwide built the momentum to achieve the above said goals.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     Cultural Classics has established a handicraft portal supported by a fully enabled ecommerce application for online shopping. This ecommerce platform creates a direct access of consumers to the fair-traded products. The portal contains a special section for whole sale buyers / importers to make a customized order with their choice of quantity, shapes, colors, materials etc along with the history of order and order tracking. The portal also contains a consumer awareness and knowledge dissemination platform for viewers to explore the content about products, product manufacturing, cultures and lifestyles and the artisans. Documentaries will soon be uploaded with the craft manufacturing videos. The Cultural Classics portal also engages visitors to discuss and share their knowledge and experiences for social improvement in this sector. This will also involve international community to share suggestions for improvement in the handicrafts. Cultural Classics plans to utilize the standard search engine optimization techniques for spreading the word and generating traffic over the Internet. This Internet portal will help in improving designs, creating markets, improving processes, customer servicing, sales and awareness creation. Cultural Classics Internet application is a low cost connection building between the artisans producing handicrafts and buyers who could be wholesale or retail shoppers. As per our plans, Cultural Classics will empower the artisan clusters to operate independently and Cultural Classics will act as a buying house coordinating between the clusters and buyers. We further plan to automate the entire supplychain as well.

   

• Linking Smallholder Farmers to Profitable Markets, Through Participatory Market Research by Use of Mobile Phones

  Arise and Shine International (http://)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     The aim behind this intiative is to successfully link smallholder farmers in Kasungu District to profible market outlets of their soya beans.The problem these farmers have been facing is that due to lack of information they have been exploited by traders who go to their communities and buy farmers produce at very low prices and also with use of uncertified weighing scales. And farmers have been making alot of loses and have not been realising increased incomes from their agroenterprises.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     This initiative is being considered as a best practice because, in the first place, farmers were equiped with knowledge and skills in Participatory Agroenterprise Development. Participatory approaches were used through out the training session. The first session was on Participatory Diagnosis(PD), where farmers were assisted to identify their strengths and opportunities and they finally selected their potential enterprises. The second session was to carry out a Participatory Market Research(PMR) where farmers went out to the town and visited different potential buyers of their produce. Having collected the market information which included the contact details of the buyers, farmers were taken through another session where they analysed the market information and selected the most profitable and feasible enterprise. The enterprises which farmers selected were Soya Beans, Ground Nuts and Sugar Beans production. \\r\\n\\r\\nThe last session which farmers were also taken through was development of a business plan for the most profitable and feasible enterprise, Soya Beans. Last year they did not produce alot of Soya Beans due to lack of enough capital. With the support of an NGO which purchased 17 tonnes of seed and gave it to the farmers\\\' association as a grant and the association distributed the seed to members on loan. Right now farmers have harvested over 200 metric tonnes of soya Beans. And because they were trained on how to conduct market reaserch and they had some contacts of buyers they are right now busy calling different buyers in the towns and cities finding out the prices of soya beans this year. They have also been calling me because I stay in the City of Lilongwe so that I help them with contacts for different buyers where traders sell the produce which they buy from farmers at the farm gate. Thrugh use of a mobile phone we have been successfully communicating and the Marketing committee have been able to come to the city and have discussins with different buyers of Soya Beans negotiating for better prices. Right now farmers have not yet started selling. Because the prices are still low and they call the buyers almost every week just to find up if there is any improvement on the prices. Just this last Sunday the Chairperson of the Marketing Committee called me saying that they have heard through a radio that Agricultural Development and Marketing Cooperation(ADMARC)a government parastatal has anounced a higher price for Soya Beans at which ADMARC will be buying from farmers. Farmers are waiting patiently and they say they will keep on calling the Private companies to find out on the new prices they are going to offer just to compete with ADMARC. \\r\\n\\r\\nAt the begining of this Month traders started buying Soybeans at MK20/Kg at the farm gate, and Buyers in towns told farmers that they can start buying at MK30Kg. When they called last week a certain Buyer in Lilongwe told them that the price has gone up to MK40/Kg, and farmers said they will still wait until prices are much better then this week when they heard from the radio that ADMARC is offering MK85/Kg. Farmers are eagerly expecting that Private Buyers will offer higher prices just to compete with ADMARC.\\r\\n\\r\\nIf farmers were not informed by use of a mobile phone or by use of a Radio then they would sold their produce at a very low price may be MK20/Kg or MK40/Kg but ICT has helped them to wait and they are expecting that they will sell their Soybeans at a higher price of greater than MK85/Kg.\\r\\n\\r\\nICT is very important support service to the smallholder farmers agroenterprises.\\r\\nThis is the best practice because farmers use appropriate ICT, mobile phone and radio and since they are also being empowered through participatory trainning sessions their agroenterprses will be sustainable and the future looks so bright for these farmers.\\r\\nNOTE: The exchage rate against the US dollar being used is US1$:MK140

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     The challenge, is that some farmers are not patient. Because they want money soon after harvest they dont want to wait and sell when the prices are much better. But we have come up with a good plan, that WVI is guarantee the Farmres\\\' Association to get a loan from the Bank, and the farmers association will use the money to buy soybeans from her members at the prevaling farm gate prices and keep the soybeans in a ware house and sell it when the prices are high and give back the money to members ofcourse subtracting the cost of purchasing from members and the overhead costs.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     The ICT enabling environment. In Malawi, two mobile phones Network companies have now joined the mobile phones Network companies now making a total number of five companies. This will ensure competition and lowere tarrifs for users. Network coverage is also almost everywhere in Malawi including in the rural areas hence making communication easy.\\r\\nTalking about the centerprise itself, with rising up of food prices in the world market this gives me momentum that the soybeans prices will also be very good this year just as they were last year and the farmers I am assisting are expected to make alot of money from over 200MT of soybeans bthey have just harvested.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The most used technology is a mobile phone. This has been and is being used in communicating with farmers and buyers and farmers are using it in communicating with buyers of their produce just to follow up on soybean prices.

   

• Rural ICT Training and Business Solutions

  Ezel Enterprises Limited (http://)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Our mission is to facilitate rural communites to integrate the internet and other ICT tools in their daily buiness operations by improving the availability of internet solutions specially designed and adpted to their needs, in order to promote ICT use, increase local content on the internet and enhance rural use of ICT for increased returns to rural areas. We therefore seek to provide ICT access at affordable prices and make ICT access available to rural communities. Our initiative provides cheap, relaible and affordable ICT services that were hitherto unavailable in the communites in which we operate. We are a rural community based business information centre responding to the observed and expressed rural development needs of the community and thereby helping to fill the wide gap that exists in many rural communites like Pallisa. The motivation behind our initiative is to facilitate rural communities to integrate ICT tools in their daily business operations by improving the availability of ICT solutions specifically adapted to their needs, in order to promote e-business among them, increase local content on the internet and improve the competitiveness of rural enterprises. We take cognizance of the fact that whereas the world has greatly benefited from the opportunities offered by ICT through improved email and internet access, these opportunites have largely eluded rural people due to scarcity of ICT infrastrcuture. Our enterpirse is therefore spearheading a revolution that is bridging the gap in internet access by making ICT not only available to the rural communities but also empowering them with appropriate technology, skills and competencies to integrate ICT use in their daily business activities. The context of the problems being solved are rural communities like Pallisa district in Eastern Uganda where basic infrastructure like electricity and roads are scarce. This leads to low level of economic activity and thus low ICT infrastrcuture because these rural areas do not attract the private sector to invest in them. Hence as a result of this, there is limited ICT access due to the unviability of any commercial investment in ICT services. Further more, because of the rural nature of the community, there is scarcity of technical personnel due to widespread computer illiteracy, lack of afffordable ICT resources as well as questionable local relevance of the internet content. For example, information which would be relevant to rural communities is scattered accross the internet leaving them unable to access it in usable formats. Hence in this context we operate as a business centre with a rural framework to harness ICT as a source of information and resources ranging from agriculture, health, education, human rights to entertainment. Hence rural people can also access ICT services and opportunites to help them in their s opportunities relating to their lives or business. We promote the diffusion of information about small enterprise development, business planning, agricultural production, marketing and financial literacy as well as serve as a provider of useful information and internet services at affordable prices. It should also be noted that many people in rural areas canot use the internet due to high levels of illiteracy. We are therefore creating and promoting literacy through training people in computer use and other forms of literacy thereby fostering their understanding and appreciation of ICT tools and information. Through the initiative we are developing multi-institutional alliances to foster the needs of rural entreprenuers and empower them to have a bigger contribution to community development by enhancing their knowledge gathering and innovativeness.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     We consider our intitative a best practice because it has improved access to economic, educative and commercial information to rural people especially young dynamic rural entreprenuers. Hence it has improved their capacity to exploit ICT-based opportunities and techniques. It has also helped integrate ICT into the lives of rural entreprenuers and communities thereby leading to improved and increased domestic and international flow of information which facilitates the availability of e-business solutions specifically adapted to their needs. This hass in turn led to growth, improved competitveness and increased business opportunites in these rural areas. Rural communities including women, youth and children have been able to afford internet access and use it on a regular basis. This facilitates the exchange of information ranging from agricultural production, health, human rights to education and economic development. There has been increased computer literacy and ICT use in these rural communities. By providing computer training as well as accessible and relaible internet services, we are bringing ICT closer to the rural people. Through our activities, we are slowly making the internet relevant to the rural people by enabling them access opportunites and information that they need, in a much faster way. Our computer training intitiatives are creating awareness among rural communites about ICT and thereby facilitating their understanding and appreciation of ICT. The intiative is creating and developing affordable and relaible ICT services that support these rural people to play a more active role as market players in the economy as well as exploit other ICT opportunites such as holding the government accountable by sharing information about abuse of authority and other deprivations of human rights. These communities and enterprises will become more competitive in the market place because the use of ICT will enable them to establish new business ventures, improve planning, managment and production as well as increase their income levels. Through ICT rural communites are able to access timely market data thereby enahncing their ability to seek out and evaluate timely market information. Computer training is helping to bridge the gap between these rural communites and the urban communites. It further enables rural communcites be able to share knowledge with the rest of the world through the application of relevant ICT tools. One of our primary beneficiaries are computer illiterate people who beenfit from our computer training services. These Ttraining services are designed to help them become grounded in computer use. Our intiative is a best practice in as far as we are applying known technologies, ideas and approaches innovatvely. We have designed our initiative as a one-stop business and communications centre to provide affordable ICT servcies and computer training to rural communites in a way that meets their development, economic and social needs. Hitherto, rural communites have been ignored in terms of ICT development. Thus, our initiative is using existing and known technologies and strategies to reach out to the specific needs of the rural communites. The initiative provides accessible, affordable and sustainable ICT services and resources to the underserved and low income rural populations.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     We received a Young Social Entreprenuers Award from the Global Knowledge Partnership in December 2007. We have also received an award for distinguished community service from the Pallisa District Local Government Community Development office in June 2008.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     The major challenges that we faced was the unreliable electricity supply in Pallisa. The persistent power cuts last for as long as two weeks without power. We have overcome this problem by using fuel generator sets as alternative sources of power to minimise service interruptions. We also face the challenge of high incidents of internet related fraud. Since most of our users are new to the internet, some of them have been victims of internet fraud, hence discouraging potential customers from venturing into our services. We have overcome this challenge by training users about the need to be cautious in their communications with strangers and to avoid easily trusting other people with their confidential infomation and details.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     The key factor that enabled our initiative build momentum is that we are pioneers in our area of operation, this has given us a lot of goodwill in the market. Further more, we have a good relationship with the local government and other local organizations, and because of this good working relationship, we have benefitted from the networking benefits where these organizations have recommended our services to their customers and members and referred them to us. This has given us a good and big platform to sell and promote our services. We also have a solid, dedicated, competent, dynamic, creative and experienced team of people managing the initiative. The team has a variety of skills, ranging from Information and Communication Technology skills, to busines palnning, leadership etc which have added value to the initiative.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     Our initiative thrives on internet access, computer use and phone connections. Hence to a great extent we make use of technology to do our work. We have an ICT service centre with eight computers connected to the Internet. People who wish to use our servcies pay a small user fee per minute of use. We also provide training using computers and other computer tools like relevant computer software. The internet services that we offer are ICT-enabled. We access our internet using a phone and modem. In addition, our computer training uses both computers and internet to deliver our computer training packages. Hence to a large extent, technology forms part of our business model.

   

• Community Centre for Information and Communication Technologies (C2ICOT)

  mphtgt (http://www.elenango.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

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  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

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  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

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  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

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  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

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  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

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• WebRecherche

  BIAOU S. Ramanou (http://www.leclubntic.africa-web.org)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     Le Club des Nouvelles Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (Club NTIC) est une association de jeunes qui a été créée le 06 octobre 2004. Le but visé par cette association est de faire la promotion des technologies de l’information et de la communication auprès des jeunes (des milieux scolaire, universitaire et autres). C’est dans l’optique d’atteindre ses objectifs et vue le manque de méthodologie dont fait preuve les jeunes en matière de recherche sur Internet que le Club NTIC initie le projet « WebRecherche ». En effet, après une enquête réalisée au mois de Juillet 2008, il s’est révélé que les jeunes internautes pour la plupart manque d’outils techniques efficaces appropriés pour faire des recherches sur Internet en général et sur le moteur de recherche Google en particulier. Ainsi ce projet « WebRecherche » vient à point nommé pour combler le vide qui existe en matière de recherche sur le Net auprès des jeunes. Le projet «WebRecherche » consistera en effet à organiser dans les milieux scolaires, universitaires et autres, une série séminaire formation sur le thème « Faire sans peine des recherches sur le Net ». L’objectif visé par le Club NTIC en initiant un tel projet est de permettre à mille(1000)jeunes participants au séminaire de pouvoir faire de recherches de manière technique sur internet, et de connaître les caractéristiques et outils d’une recherche documentaire, d’une recherche d’images et vidéo. Aussi d’être outillé pour des recherches approfondies avec des moteurs de recherche à travers le monde ceci dans la préparation de leurs rapports et mémoires de fin de formation.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     La valeur de bonne pratique que nous accordons à cette initiative est due à son caractère spécifique qui est d’une très grande utilité pour la jeunesse. Ainsi donc le séminaire de formation sera présenté en grandeur nature sur écran géant suivi des pratiques automatiques à l’aide d’une connexion Internet de toutes les techniques de recherches apprises. Précisons aussi que La fin du séminaire sera sanctionnée par une attestation de participation et une fiche du séminaire comportant un résumer de toutes les explications et techniques de recherches.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     Le Club NTIC à travers le dynamisme de ses activités et projets à été promu Association vedette du mois de Juillet 2008 par l’Unité Jeunesse de la Francophonie.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     « Création gratuite de boîtes électroniques aux futurs internautes » C’est à travers cette activité qui consiste à créer des boites électroniques ou courriels (e-mail) aux futurs internautes afin de les incités à une bonne et meilleur exploitation de l’outil Internet que nous avions relevé notre plus grand défi. Le club NTIC est passé à la 2008ème boîtes électroniques en 2008! Depuis sa création le 06 octobre 2003, le Club NTIC s'est donné pour activité principale la création de boîte électronique aux internautes qui n'en disposent pas. Cette action du Club en faveur de ceux là qui sont sans courriel a permis d'inciter et de mettre en place un suivi pour des centaines de jeunes à l'utilisation de l'outil Internet. Il faut dire que l'accompagnement d'une brochure après la création de e-mail a facilité et motivé plus d'un à devenir des Cyber citoyens. Le Club NTIC se félicite des résultats de cette activité car le 30 avril 2008, le Club a créé la 2008ème boîte électronique. Et des milliers de jeunes reconnaissent au club NTIC leurs premiers pas sur Internet.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     Le principal facteur qui a permis à notre initiative de prendre un élan est le faite que nous membres du Club NTIC initiateurs de ce projet sommes des jeunes scolarisé dans les lycées, collèges et université. Ainsi ils nous aient plus facile de discuter avec nos paires (jeunes élèves ou étudiants), de leur parler de l’outil Internet : de ces avantages et inconvénients (Prudence). D’autres facteurs qui nous ont permis de réussir sont : - Le faite que nous avions un conseillé pour notre association qui est un Consultant en TIC. - - De plus il faut noter que les propriétaires des centres de navigations sur Internet ne tardent pas à nous soutenir dans notre action car il voyait désormais de potentiels clients pour leurs centres.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     A travers notre projet « WebRecherche » nous avions a utilisé la technologies. - Ordinateurs portatifs - Vidéos projecteurs - Ecrans géants - Connexion Internet haut débit - Multimédia - Communication

   

• World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) Youth Campaigns

  TakingITGlobal (http://)

  1. Describe the aims and motivation behind your initiative, the context of the problems being solved.

     1. Realize the potential of young people. Young people are some of the most active creators and consumers of information and communications technologies. Those under 25 make up more than 50% of the global population. Tapping into young people’s expertise and enthusiasm should be considered an essential component of any national ICT strategy. 2. Create access to technology. While new technologies have the potential to create new opportunities, the reality is that the vast majority of the world’s populations have limited access to radio and print media, let alone computers and the Internet. Different stakeholders in local communities, especially youth, need to work with governments to promote access through tele-centers, community media programs, and educational institutions. 3. Integrate technology into education in a meaningful way. Technology must be mainstreamed, and not merely incorporated, into school curricula. IT must become an integral part of all disciplines, from the humanities to the sciences, and not be confined to computer science classes, as is too often the case. Students and not only teachers can be a gateway to the information society. In school youth are often overlooked as a source of technological expertise. Youth should be encouraged to share their ICT knowledge through peer-to-peer learning, and contribute to the creation of meaningful curricula. 4. Promote youth employment and entrepreneurship. Unemployment rates amongst young people are consistently higher than that of the general population. ICTs provide new opportunities for job creation – youth themselves are providing entrepreneurial leadership in ICT industries, creating jobs for themselves, and for others. Youth need support for their enterprise – a ‘level playing field’ and access to financing and infrastructure. Further, government regulations must be created that ensure safety, equity, and job security in the workplace. 5. Support rich, locally relevant content. Promoting the development of expression online, and ensuring it remains free and accessible must be one of our key goals. Encouraging creation of local content in local languages on the Internet, helping citizens interact with government services, access local news, and experience their own culture is vital to ensure the information society is relevant to young people’s day-to-day lives. 6. Engage youth in follow-up. National campaigns have successfully engaged thousands of youth. Now, governments should actively involve young people in their WSIS activities – taking on board their inputs, including youth in their delegations, supporting youth during the Action Plan’s implementation, and consulting youth on follow-up and evaluation. Young people hope each campaign has planted a seed for ongoing youth engagement in national ICT policy-making and activities.

  2. Why do you consider this initiative to be a best practice? Describe your impact (qualitative and quantitative).

     The initiative was a mix of providing support and how-to-knowledge of mobilization for youth. From the activities and workshops carried out, to the 'How-To' Section explaining the planning and purposes of a youth campaign, and how to start one, the WSIS campaign took a comprehensive approach towards promoting ICTs and mobilization of youth.

  3. What recognition did you receive (internal and/or external)?

     The success of the actual project, as well as the increased interest in ICTs and youth activism, especially with respect to country-wide successes, as indicated in the WSIS report, show that the actual work done through the project was very successful, and ultimately accomplished what it had set out to do.

  4. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

     Not all areas where the project was carried out were equipped to deal with ICTs and the impact they would have on youth, in terms of infrastructure like internet and communication technologies.However, the project itself highlighted some important concerns such as greater government involvement, and the need for increased funding and internet education technologies.

  5. What key factors enabled your initiative to build momentum (internal and/or external)?

     The focus areas of the project, the issues and topics covered, the information offered, the knowledge and enthusiasm of the organizers, mentors and participants, as well as the opportunities created for youth were all very big initiatives to building momentum.

  6. How did your initiative utilize technology to enable efforts (if at all)? Please provide examples.

     The focus of the project was to show participants the importance of ICTs, as well as to encourage them to form and promote their own ICTs. As such, the entire project focused on, and used ICTs, and showed participants a sustainable way to use ICTs for their country's development.