Applications Invited for eNGO Challenge Award 2020

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About the Organization:

Digital Empowerment Foundation was founded by Osama Manzar and Shaifali Chikermane in 2002 out of the deep understanding that marginalised communities living in socio-economic backwardness and information poverty can be empowered to improve their lives on their own, simply by providing them access to information and knowledge on using digital tools. DEF aims to connect unreached and underserved communities of India in an effort to bring them out of digital darkness and equip them with access to information. With the belief ‘Inform, Communicate and Empower,’ DEF finds sustainable digital interventions to overcome information poverty in rural and remote locations of India, and empower communities with digital literacy, digital tools and last mile connectivity.

The eNGO Challenge Award 2020

There are millions of not-for-profit and civil society organizations in the world playing a vital role in the socio-economic development of diverse communities living in difficult conditions.

With the ongoing health crisis, local NGOs have played a huge role in helping the marginalized and the vulnerable communities cope with Covid-19. From raising awareness about the virus, providing aid and relief package to working relentlessly to connect, empower and enhance lives, NGOs have had to resort to use of digital tools amid the pandemic.

However, various studies and reports have time and again indicated that most of the grassroots organizations struggle due to lack of funds, human resources, and perseverance.

The eNGO Challenge under the umbrella of Digital Empowerment Foundation’s eNGO Programme was put into conception with an objective to recognize and facilitate the grassroots organizations doing exceptional work using Digital Tools. The eNGO Challenge is now seven years old and recognises best practices across South Asia.

Today, it strives to build and strengthen grassroots not-for-profit organizations and help them to become a mainstream sustainable entity with the help of new age tools like digital, good governance, transparent management and affective outreach.

This year, rising to the challenge of the Covid-19 healthcare crisis, the 7th edition of the eNGO Challenge will be held online.

It aims to recognize, facilitate and award organizations that have done some exceptional work with communities and subjects using any kind of new age tools.

Objectives:

• Recognize, Encourage & Promote grassroots organizations and initiatives working for the holistic development of the people and community at community levels;
• Create an ecosystem of stakeholders including government, industry, academia, civil society & others to create wider networking, engagement, partnership and collaboration opportunities;
• Promote and create bottom-up information and knowledge repository of best practices, case studies, and project replication, sustainability and advocacy studies.

Juror’s Evaluation Criteria

• Content & Services – Quantify the quality of content and services delivery, the relevance of content and its utility value
• Impact & Sustainability – The social impact & the commercial viability of the application/product.
• USP & Strategic Value – Uniqueness of the idea & the ease of strategy replication.
• Execution & Implementation – Procedures of carrying out & executing the innovation, idea according to the market demand.
• Accessibility – Cost-effectiveness matching social and economic capital of different user groups with diverse needs in different income brackets.
• Functionality/Navigation – User-friendliness & interactive nature of the application & its features.
• Interface & Visual Design – Usability as well as the design of applications and devices having larger user preference, aesthetic value with multimedia.
• Overall Experience – The user base & overall user experience regarding the application/content.

Categories:

The eNGO Challenge Award 2020 facilitates organizations for best use of new-age tools like ICT, Digital, Management, Governance, Outreach and Engagements under 8 categories.

• Innovation@Covid-19
• Governance & Livelihood
• Digital Empowerment & Tools
• Education & Learning
• Heritage & Culture
• Entrepreneurship & Outreach
• Healthcare & Wellness
• Enablement & Empowerment
• Environment & Sustainability

Eligibility

• The eNGO Challenge Award is open to any registered NGO from the SAARC countries namely India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
• NGO should fulfill the conditions of being active and working towards socio-economic development of the communities and societies.
• Award nominations should come only from South Asia. Nominations from other countries will not be considered.
• Award nominations from past years’ winners for the same project will not be considered.
• Award nominations must provide clear and concrete information about the initiative and the organisation.
• Any single project entry of nomination will not be considered under multiple categories.
• Irrespective of the project language, all producer and project information must be in English.

Benefits

• Networking opportunity: Interact with NGO representatives from across South Asia congregated under one roof.
• Position yourself as an expert: Speak with experts from various streams of the development sector, discussing various approaches to make an impact.
• Learning in a new space: Get a chance to witness best of innovative practices from grassroots organisations across eight South Asian countries namely; India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.
• Redesign your thinking of the impact enterprise.
• Be inspired by personal stories of change.
• Networking with peers: Harness the energy of like-minded people.
• Get involved with the leaders through some of the most exciting, brainstorming and entertaining online activities.

Deadline: October 10, 2020

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