Development Marketplace
Syndicate content

Information and Communication Technologies

Deadline extended! The Tech Awards is now accepting applications for 2013.

Dougg Jimenez's picture

Please note that deadline to submit your applications for the Tech Awards has been extended to May 8th!
 


Know someone who is changing the world?
Encourage them to apply to the Tech Awards 2013!

Photo Credit: Charlotte Fiorito"There is not a group that you would rather
be stuck on an island with than The Tech Awards laureates." -Michael MacHarg, Simpa Networks,
laureate, The Tech Awards 2012

The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.

In 2013, The Tech Awards will honor 10 international innovators who are applying technology to confront humanity’s most urgent challenges. The Tech Awards honors individuals, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies who are using technology to significantly improve human conditions in 5 awards categories. The technology used can be either a new invention or an innovative use of an existing technology.

Egypt DM launch and roadshow!

Ehaab Abdou's picture

After several months of planning and consultations with our partners, which started in May 2011, the Egypt Development Marketplace (DM) was launched on November 8, 2012. As part of the outreach strategy, the Egypt DM team organized a series of information sessions in four of Upper Egypt’s major cities; Asyut, Qena, Aswan and Minya. The sessions were co-organized and co-hosted with Egypt DM partners International Labor Organization, Social Fund for Development, Sawiris Foundation, and others. The sessions were attended by approximately 400 leaders from agricultural cooperatives, NGOs and small companies. In addition to the usual warm welcome and generous hospitality, typical of Egyptians, here are some reflections based on what we heard from the participants:

Let's take a look back at last year's India DM!

Dougg Jimenez's picture

The India DM is focused on identifying Inclusive Business Models that can scale impact in the States of Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa. Inclusive business models are those offering goods/ services and contributing to income generation of the poor in financially sustainable and scalable ways. They productively integrate those living at the base of the economic pyramid into their value chains as consumers, producers and/or distributors.

Only the sky is the limit!

Beatriz Carranza's picture

Photo: Beatriz Quispe Carranza in IndiaHello everybody!

My name is Beatriz, I am a social change-maker from Peru. In 2003, thanks to the Development Marketplace, a group of enthusiastic, passionate young people in Lima received funds to start the first Cybercafé for the blind in Peru. During the first year, more than 250 visually impaired were trained in word processing and E-Mail.

 In 2004, the World Bank invited us to Washington, to exchange lessons and experiences among other Latin American projects. Certainly, this opportunity was extremely beneficial to our project. Now, thanks to private sponsorship, our Cybercafé has become ATECNODIS, an NGO that promotes access to information and technology for the visually impaired.

Development Marketplace in India supports the vision and ‘can-do’ spirit of social entrepreneurs

Kirsten Spainhower's picture

Satyan Mishra, founder of DrishteeDrishtee is a network of over 14,000 rural enterprises that provides villages in India with access to internet connections, consumer products and critical community services.

Brainchild of Indian national Satyan Mishra, the Drishtee model is perfecting a “last mile delivery system” to reach villages that governments are unable to.

Mishra’s success was due in part to the faith that Global Development Marketplace (DM) — a Bank sponsored partnership that provides grant funding to support testing and scaling up of innovative ideas — had in his idea. In 2003 he received a $68,100 from DM allowing him to transform a budding idea into reality and scale up into three states: Assam, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.

Apps for Development: Winners to be announced April 14, 1-3 pm at World Bank Headquarters

Dougg Jimenez's picture

Apps for Development
Awards Ceremony & Expo
April 14, 2011: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
(Live Webcast 2:00pm – 3:00pm)
MC Atrium, World Bank Headquarters

Please join World Bank President Robert Zoellick as he announces the winners of the Apps for Development Competition.

Put Food First: Call for promotion

Dougg Jimenez's picture

This blog was originally featured on the "Inside the Web" blog on 3/28/11 and was authored by Jim Rosenberg, Social Media Adviser to the World Bank

Rising and volatile food prices are causing pain and suffering for poor people around the world, driving 44 million people into extreme poverty in recent months. On April 14-15, 2011 we are hosting our second Open Forum, a global conversation to look at the problem and possible solutions to overcome the food crisis.

Techno-Possibilization!

Parvathi Menon's picture

Traveling with the India DM 2011 team, meeting social enterprises that were trying to breakthrough the traditional mould of development, I was struck by the way technology was being leveraged. It came through as such a critical tool – an enabler that could single handedly shift the equation and bring possibility to the remote rural parts of India – shifting the balance of development and growth. Bringing in possibilities , empowerment and real access. 

Here is an illustrative sample of ideas that highlight the kinds of technology applications that are evolving as a result of entrepreneurial activity powered with a social spirit.

 

The wisdom in African crowds

Aly-Khan Satchu's picture

"Erica Hagen in her piece in Development Outreach talks of the map Kibera effort being a ' first step toward local ownership and creation of shared information.' And in that comment I feel she has hit the nail on the head.'

As an investor, you throw in the previously quite entrenched Africa perception gap and you have a very interesting situation. I would describe the situation as a potential laboratory for innovation. An incredibly youthful skew to the population (60% of Kenyans are under the age of 24) surely is also an accelerator. And hence my desire and interest of late to get on the ground, pound the pavement and see if this has actually been a catalyst for innovation.

Can Everyone be a Think Tank?

Aleem Walji's picture
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

 

David Eaves, Open Data Blogger and Activist from Canada, boldly claimed that the World Bank's Open Data Policy allows many more people to use our data, rigorously study and analyze it, and draw their own conclusions about what it means. That was just not possible before now.  

It reminds me of what the laptop, digital camera, and mobile phone did for journalists and film makers. Technology fundamentally leveled the playing the field and democratized access to content. Suddenly, many more people could participate in journalism and create their own videos (24 hours of video is uploaded into YouTube every 60 seconds). Is that what the World Bank's Open Data policy can unleash? I love the possibility.

Pages