While celebrating International Mountain Day on 11 December 2017, ICIMOD announced the four winners of this year’s ICT for Mountain Development Award. This is the fourth consecutive year of ICIMOD initiating the award. The winners are from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. (See table below). Saroj Dhoj Joshi, from Real Time Solutions (RTS), who was one of the winners present to receive the award reacted saying, “The award means a lot to RTS. It has been a decade since we have been working on new technologies to mitigate the risk of floods and this is the first time someone has formally appreciated our efforts. There is news in the media about early warning systems saving lives, but we never get mentioned anywhere. A pat on the back keeps us motivated. Thank you, ICIMOD!”

On the occasion of World Environment Day, June 5, 2017, ICIMOD had called for submissions for the annual ‘ICT for Mountain Development Award.’ The award recognizes information and communication technology (ICT) enabled innovations, good practices, and applications that help promote mountain development, and environmental conservation in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH).

A total of 43 submissions were received, mainly from countries in the HKH region, under five categories: ecosystem services, livelihood, water, geospatial solutions, and ‘others’. Four winners were selected based on the criteria outlined during the call—the quality of content and creativity, innovative use of ICT, clear focus on use in the HKH region, potential to drive change. The winners each receive a certificate of recognition.

Details of the Winners of ‘ICT for Mountain Development Award 2017’

Facilitating ICT enabled services through e-farming  in Khagrachori

The Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) provides an agricultural service branded as e-Krishok, an initiative which is aimed at farmers with the desired goal of providing services from which farmers will benefit both in terms of their farming activities and opening up opportunities in new avenues. Farmers with any problem or query or issue which is related to agriculture can go to nearby ICT-enabled Information Centre/Telecentres and receive the information they are seeking. The service is also coupled with health care that use video consultations and other ICT based tools to offer basic primary health care services in rural settings.

Organization: Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID), Dhaka, Bangladesh
Contact: Shahid Uddin Akbar
Theme: Livelihood
Country: Bangladesh
Url: http://www.biid.org.bd/#projects

E-toolkit for community radios in Himalayan region on climate change communication

Communities need to adapt to the changing climate scenario to reduce risks posed by these changes.

This work was aimed towards bridging the gap of information flow from scientific group to local communities by enhancing the capacity of community radios located in the Himalayan region on climate change issues. For addressing this issue, Development Alternatives with support from UNESCO developed an E-toolkit for community radios called Jalvayu Pitara an e-toolkit on climate change communication. The E-toolkit is designed for community radios to learn about the simple science of climate change with respect to their regional context.

Organization: Development Initiatives, New Delhi
Contact: Anujaa Shukla
Theme: Ecosystem
Country: India
URL: http://dainet.org/etoolkit/

Climate change and environmental protection

Evergreen Karakorum – Think Green Pakistan (EGKP) works with community members to bridge the gap among the community and to initiate for any development work in the area to fight against global warming and climate change resilience in Hunza’s Gilgit-Baltistan region. They use social media to network and raise awareness in this subject area.

Organization: Evergreen Karakorum – Think Green Pakistan
Contact: Rehmat Sherazi
Theme: Ecosystem/Livelihoods
Country: Pakistan

Development of Flood Early Warning System

Real Time Solutions (RTS) has been actively involved in developing Early Warning Systems for past 10 years and one of the sectors that it is involved in is flood risk minimization.

RTS has developed systems that could monitor the river levels at upstream, send that information to a central server at real-time or near real time using communication technologies and then subsequently provide warnings to downstream riparian communities. RTS has innovated solutions that would work more effectively in the region.

Organization: Real Time Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Contact: Saroj Dhoj Joshi
Theme: Water
Country: Nepal
URL: http://www.wscada.com/solutions/72