United Nations Knowledge Management Initiative, SOLUTION EXCHANGE receives eWorld Public Choice Award

New Delhi, 16 June 2012: The United Nations flagship knowledge management initiative ‘Solution Exchange’ was conferred the eWorld Public Choice Award under the category ‘Best Initiative for Localized Application/Content' at the Second eWorld Forum awards ceremony at Le Meridien, New Delhi on 15 June.

The award was presented by Mr. S. Regunathan, formerly Advisor, National Knowledge Commission, and Mr. Anil Srivastava, Joint Director-General, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) & Chief Managing Director (CMD), Pawan Hans Helicopter Limited.

Receiving the award Ms. Frederika Meijer, UN Resident Coordinator a.i. said, “I am delighted to receive this award on behalf of the UN in India. Solution Exchange reaches out to thousands of development professionals who connect to apply their knowledge, experience, energy, and enthusiasm towards the common objective of problem solving and finding lasting solutions to development issues.”

The award citation states: “Developed and managed by the UN in India since 2005 the Solution Exchange (SE) is an ICT enabled knowledge platform. Solution Exchange occupies a unique niche in India’s development scene as it brings together large numbers of development practitioners, researchers, policy makers and private sector organizations”

Announcing the awards, Mr. Ravi Gupta, Convener, eWorld Forum 2012 & Editor-in-Chief, eGov Magazine, remarked that the response to this year’s eWorld awards has been overwhelming with over 70,000 persons voting for 82 projects in 13 categories.

The eWorld 2012 Awards are aimed at encouraging continued use of technology for solving the problems of governance and for making government more responsive, effective and citizen oriented. Other projects nominated in the various categories were recognized for excellence in addressing issues related to implementation of Right to Information Act; enhancing transparency and accountability in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) programme, Public Distribution System; focusing on inclusion of marginalized communities; accelerating delivery of public goods and services etc.

The two-day Forum is being organized by eGov magazine supported by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, National eGovernance Plan (NeGP), Department of Telecommunications, National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment and Department of Science & Technology, Government of Kerala.  

UN Resident Coordinator a.i., Frederika Meijer (extreme left) receives the award from S. Regunathan, formerly Advisor, National Knowledge Commission (centre) and Anil Srivastava, Joint Director General, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) & Chief Managing Director (CMD), Pawan Hans Helicopter Limited (right).

About UN Solution Exchange

Solution Exchange is an award-winning ICT-enabled knowledge management initiative of the United Nations in India. Through Solution Exchange, development practitioners can turn to their peers across India for solutions and evidence-based knowledge to help them solve the day to day challenges they face. Ten 10 Communities of Practice (CoPs) organized around the national development priorities and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are hosted and facilitated by six UN agencies, each building on the comparative advantage of its host UN agency, and driven by the collective wisdom of its 33,000- strong member community of academics, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grassroots practitioners, government representatives and subject experts. These are: Decentralization Community (UNDP), Water Community (UNICEF), Microfinance Community (UNDP), Work and Employment Community (ILO), Education Community (UNESCO), Food & Nutrition Security Community (FAO), Maternal & Child Health Community (UNICEF), Gender Community (UNICEF), Climate Change Community (UNDP) and Disaster Management Community (UNDP).

Solution Exchange has been replicated as a best practice and expanded to five countries in the Asia-Pacific region.