14 November 2007
Out of 119 entries in the award, nine finalists have been chosen by the jury. CRC-TOPIC is under the Education category, with its National Network of E-learning Centers in 64 provinces of Vietnam. The winners will be announced during the GK III conference in Kuala Lumpur, December 10-13.
TOPIC64 is developing a national system of sustainable and locally adaptable e-learning centers that targets 100,000 degree students and hundreds of thousands of other trainees in the next 5 years. During 2006-2007 to date, the project has trained 10,446 students in its 64 member centers, 40% of whom free of charge, 474 teachers, benefited 70,692 other students in 426 affiliate centers, and helped 15/64 members reach economic sustainability.
The project involves a 7-party public-private-partnership including Microsoft, USAID, Qualcomm, EVN Telecom, Hewlett-Packard, Vietnam government agencies, and is run by CRC-TOPIC Business Incubator of Hanoi University of Technology. In 2006, the project was selected by Development Gateway Award into the 7 finalists from 160 ICT project worldwide, and the organization recognized by World Bank InfoDev program among the 4 global best practices from 62 incubators worldwide.
ICT will contribute to the objectives through the advantages of e-learning: reduce the need for costly brick-and-mortar school infrastructure and travelling, reduce the need for personal delivery of repetitive lectures so teachers can be freed up to engage in more interaction with students, allow more timely and efficient updates of training content that are frequently needed in a fast-paced economy, address the needs of diverse student base by allowing flexible learning “anytime, anywhere”.
For more information about the CRC-TOPIC project in the Stockholm Challenge, please visit the detailed project description on the awards website.
Further information about CRC-TOPIC Business Incubator can be found in Global Network Directory profile.
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The finalists who will receive stipends from GKP to go to the conference in Kuala Lumpur are listed below. For more information about the finalists' projects, please visit the awards website.
Culture:
- Network of Public Libraries - Medellin Metropolitan Area
- Viva Favela
Economic Development:
- Enabling financial inclusion and increasing efficiency of Self Help Groups Microcredit Federations
- KhmerOS - Khmer Software Initiative
Education:
- Shilpa Satya Project - Digital Self Learning for remote, rural students lacking educational resources and teachers
- TOPIC64 - National network of E-learning centers in 64 provinces of Vietnam
- Information Dissemination and Equal Access (IDEA) Project
Public Administration:
- The etuktuk project
- Rashtra Grameena abhivruddi samacharam- an ICT tool for poor people
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The Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 is a new prize, launched by Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) www.globalknowledge.org, and the Stockholm Challenge. It is designed as an integral part of the Stockholm Challenge 2008 and will open in four of the ordinary six ICT4D categories: Culture, Economic Development, Education and Public Administration. The Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007 opens on January 1, 2007 and will be accessible both from the Stockholm Challenge web site and from the GKP site.
The new award will focus on the role of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships in ICT for development and all Stockholm Challenge 2008 applicants in the respective categories will be eligible for the Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards 2007.
Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and the Stockholm Challenge share the objectives of harnessing and promoting the potential of ICT to improve lives, reduce poverty and empower people. They are both – in their respective areas – recognised as important platforms for the global promotion of ICT and Knowledge for development. The joint Awards reflect the complementary interests and strengths of the two organisations and is posed to enhance the global impact of ICT4D and K4D.