Social Sector & CSOs

DEF believes in a multi-stakeholder approach because it realises that the task of bridging the digital divide and actualising its Mission and Vision statements requires not only cooperation with other stakeholders having a more or less similar agenda but also supporting and strengthening the efforts of these stakeholders in every possible way. All projects in this programmatic area are aimed at strengthening grassroots civil society organisations working for digital inclusion or contributing to overall social tasks such as preservation of culture and heritage, protection of the environment, optimal use of natural resources, specifically supporting hitherto neglected geographical areas such as the North East of India and so on.

Through two projects more than 5,000 NGOs have websites now, another 1,00,000 are being empowered via validation and websites with .ngo top level domain. Natural resources and heritage are being conserved using digital tools.

Projects

E-NGOIndia Development Alternative FoundationNorth East Development FoundationGreen PrakriyaNeerjaale-Heritage

Converting grassroots civil society organisations into validated entities with a global online presence, and sharing bottom-up content globally as well as boosting fund raising through digital means.

engo

eNGO programme aims to empower grassroots civil society organisations through ICT enablement and online presence. It was started in 2009 and since then, we have already enabled more than 5,000 NGOs to have their own websites and go online with .org top level domain. In 2015, Public Interest registry (PIR), which manages the .org domain has began to offer the .ngo and .ong top level domains to create globally validated digital identities. DEF is implementing this and aims to offer exclusive .ngo websites to all verified NGOs in India.

Objective
To establish validated digital identities of the grassroot organisation to help them generate support and funds for their missions.
Focus Area
Capacity building and ICT enablement of grassroot organisations
Outcome & Impact
ICT enablement of 5,500 organisations since inception across South Asia and Africa

  • India : 63 workshops
  • Pakistan : 2 workshops
  • Nepal : 3 workshops
  • Bangladesh : 2 workshops
  • Cambodia : 1 workshop
  • Bhutan : 1 workshop
  • Kenya: 2 workshops
  • South Africa : 1 workshop
  • Nigeria : 1 workshop

Website: pirengo.org

Recent Updates


6 weavers win Digikala Odisha Handloom Design Competition

Posted: February 3, 2016

Six weavers – three each from the Barpali and Nupatana handloom clusters in Odisha – have won the Digikala Handloom Design Competition. On January 12-13, DEF founder director Osama Manzar and Microsoft Lead (Community Affairs, CSR) Manju Dhasmana awarded certificates and cash prizes to the winners during a small ceremony in the area. More than…

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Video


Publication

www.engochallenge.org


Contact Details


Sachin Ralhan
sachin.ralhan@defindia.net
Contact#: +91-9999154793
E-Mail: engonetwork@defindia.net
Preserving and promoting culture and heritage using digital tools through the involvement of communities and helping living heritage become vibrant and integral.

Using Information & Communication Technology (ICT) for sustainable development since 2010
Supported by DEF, the IDAF is an independent not-for-profit organisation, which aims to bring about development and social change through participative involvement of development experts, policy makers, social scientists, political executives, technology drivers and the common people. This Kanpur-based organisation is at present focused on the development needs of Uttar Pradesh. Through various ICT for Development interventions, IDAF tries to promote sustainable socio-politico-economic development of marginalised communities through livelihood projects, democratic and transparent governance, capacity building and entrepreneurship.

Website: idaf.org

An initiative to empower women from marginalised communities to become digitally literate and able to access the Internet; 1,50,000 done and counting.

This is a Google initiative that DEF started in since August 2014 through its CIRCs (Community Information Resource Centres). The programme seeks to empower women by helping them through a step-by-step guide on how to use the Internet. The programme teaches basic computer skills, Internet skills, Internet on mobile, chat and e-mail among other things. So far, more than 1,50,000 women have been reached out and helped to understand digital inclusivity.

Working for sustainable and targeted development in North East India since 2006
Promoted and supported by DEF, the North East Development Foundation is an independent not-for-profit organisation that is working to create an enabling development and good governance environment in the North East region of India across diverse sectors by following a multi-stakeholder approach. It seeks to find sustainable solutions to bridge the development and digital divide in North East India. Started in 2006, the efforts have been towards developing capacities among youth and women to address immediate and long-term sustainable needs.

Helping communities to set up community radio stations and training them on how to make good use of digital technologies and digital media including Internet and mobile.

Since DEF works with thousands of NGOs, it has always been inspired to help many of them adopt community radio as an effective medium to bring about development and empowerment. For some select NGOs, DEF has also helped them in setting up community radio stations, along with a special focus on the possibility of digital integration, training, capacity building and programme structuring with the involvement of the entire community that such radio stations serve. With the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, DEF has also conducted special digital empowerment workshops for more than 40 operational community radio stations, and even helped set up their websites. Since 2011, DEF has trained 1,250 people from 50 community radio stations on how to use digital tools for content and outreach. It is also funding five community radio stations run by NGOs.

Empowering a sustainable habitat through ICTs since 2010

Green Prakriya is a functional and dynamic platform that aims to initiate a continuous process of learning, sharing and collaboration amongs all stakeholders towards empowering a sustainable habitat. The objective is to create a knowledge eco-web of how information and communication technologies can play an instrumental role in empowering a sustainable habitat. It is an integration of all efforts towards the attainment of the goal of Green India and practicing optimal utilisation of the given natural resources as envisaged under the Prime Minister’s National Action Plan for Climate Change.

Key Elements of Green Prakriya

  • Tracks and monitors the growth of technology waste in the society
  • Promotes multi-stakeholder collaboration for using ICTs to protect the environment
  • Creates a rich knowledge base of technology solutions for addressing environment issues
  • Conducts awareness and outreach programmes through seminars and workshops
  • Policy advocacy for use of ICTs to protect the environment

Recent Updates


w4cmailer

W4C and Open Spectrum Summit

Posted: November 29, 2014
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Seeks to advocate digital security and privacy needs and train people going online for the first time in the basics of using security tools and tips for safe browsing.

‘Digital Literacy, Safety and Security’ is an initiative of the Digital Empowerment Foundation and Google India. The project aims at imparting digital literacy to ensure user protection in India. It also promotes ways and means for users to stay safe online and advocates digital security and privacy needs through ‘Digital Literacy, Safety and Security’ workshops in different states of India.

Promoting better management of water resources through drinking water and sanitation Information system since 2009
Neerjaal is a water mapping website that is controlled and managed exclusively by rural communities. It is an ICT-enabled water resource management system for grassroots communities. It collates groundwater-related information and organises water resources with the available information. The Neerjaal software facilitates generating, storing and making public water-related information in a village. Above all, Neerjaal helps manage scarce water resources across communities in India. It is the first village-based interactive website that catalogues data and information on water tables and water sources in villages. It has been designed to map water sources, water bodies, consumption, usage, harvesting, shortages and needs at a national level.

Website: www.neerjaal.org

Recent Updates


green-prakriya

Green Prakriya

Posted: May 18, 2011

About Green Pakriya Green Prakriya is a functional and dynamic platform that aims to initiate a continuous process of learning, sharing and collaboration amongst all stake-holders towards empowering a sustainable habitat. The objective is to create a knowledge eco-web of how information and communication technologies can play an instrumental role in empowering a sustainable habitat.…

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Preserving and promoting culture and heritage using digital tools through the involvement of communities, and helping living heritage become vibrant and integral.

Digital Empowerment Foundation, along with UNESCO and IHCN initiated a project called eHeritage – Digitally Enhancing India’s Heritage. It is a capacity building programme, which empowers municipalities to create a digital presence of their heritage. At present four heritage entities are being worked upon-Shahjehanabad (Old Delhi), Chanderi, Shekhawati and jehanpana. DEF has created websites to showcase the heritage and culture, of these municipalities and has also been field testing a mobile app called m-Heritage – Shahjehanabad for enabling visitors and local communities to use the mobile app to not only access information through rich media content but also contribute their experience using dynamic built-in features the app.

Preservation of culture & heritage using digital media tools since 2014

Key Elements of e-Heritage

  • Over 400 monuments across three cities – Shekawati, Delhi and Chanderi – now have a digital presence
  • Interactive mobile app for accessing e-heritage information beta tested
  • Better outreach to municipalities and local communities
  • Users can upload their own content and comments
  • Promote better understanding of the need to digitise heritage in India and give it a strong digital presence

Website: /olddelhiheritage.in

Recent Updates


gyanpedia

GyanPedia

Posted: May 18, 2011

About GyanPedia: Gyanpedia is an online digital content repository truely generated by children and teachers of rural government schools across India.Gyanpedia is an initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation with whole hearted support from Media Lab Asia, to create a Comprehensive, multilingual, dynamic virtual platform for country wide content exchange program for the learning community –…

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