Manthan Award is a first of its kind initiative to discover, recognise and honour the BEST use of ICT and digital tools for developmental purposes. The Award is less about technology and digital media but more about the right use of digital and technological tools to empower people.
The Award (http://www.manthanaward.org) was launched on 10th October 2004, by Digital Empowerment Foundation in partnership with World Summit Award, Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India, and various other stakeholders engaged in promoting digital inclusiveness for development in the whole of South Asia & the Asia Pacific region.
Since then it has come to define the very best in e-Content and digital practices for development in all of Asia. After four immensely successful years of holding it within India, the scope of the Award was expanded to cover all the South Asia countries and several countries from the Asia Pacific region.
The 12th Manthan Award 2015 now invites nominations from the following countries:
Afghanistan | Australia | Bangladesh | Bhutan | Brunei | China | Cambodia | Fiji | Hong kong | India | Indonesia | Iran | Japan | Kiribati | Laos | Macau | Malaysia | Maldives | Mongolia | Myanmar | Nepal | New Zealand | North Korea | Pakistan | Papua new guinea | Philippines | Samoa | Singapore | Solomon Island | South Korea | Sri Lanka | Taiwan | Thailand | Timor | Tonga | Vietnam
We are excited to announce the CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 2015 and welcome participants from all of the above countries to send us their entries across the following 13 categories:
- e-Business & Financial Inclusion
- Community Broadcasting
- e-Culture and Tourism
- e-Agriculture and Ecology
- e-Governance& Institutions
- e-Health
- e-Inclusion & Accessibility
- e-Inclusion & Localisation
- e-News & Journalism
- e-Entertainment & Games
- e-Science & Technology
- e-Women & Empowerment
- e-Education Learning & Employment
The specific objective of the Award is to bring to the attention of all stakeholders such as governments, business and industry and civil society organisations engaged in the development sector significant ICTD initiatives and valuable digital content that are successfully serving underserved communities especially in rural areas and urban slums. Most of these success stories go unheralded in the mainstream media as these ICT interventions often operate in media-blind areas and sectors.
Consequently, there is little knowledge-sharing among the progenitors of these initiatives which in turn hinders the emergence of an eco-system that feeds on this knowledge and enables scaling up of these initiatives and coordination among them for much larger impact. The Manthan Award seeks to bridge this gap and create a platform that will not only highlight such ICTD initiatives but also help to create a network and database of such players that will enable all stakeholders to contribute in a way that will enhance the overall impact of such ICT interventions.
So far, the Award has helped to create a knowledge database of more than 3500 different and unique digital interventions that serve the developmental needs of underserved and marginalised communities.
Today, the Manthan Award has become a platform for all innovators and practitioners of ICTD to network, forge partnerships and get mentoring and funding to scale up for greater impact.
If you are an ICTD innovator and practitioner and want to be a part of this network, please send us your nomination for this unique Award.