Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (known widely as NREGA) is the rural employment guarantee scheme implemented by the Indian government in August 2005. The law guarantees 100 days of work for a pay of Rs 120 a day (see MGNREGA on Wikipedia). With its Rs 40,000 crore budget, it is no surprise that the project is bedeviled by charges of corruption and …
Blog Archives
Small Revolutions Expand Epic Innovations
Gutenberg’s printing press is widely (and rightfully!) celebrated as an innovation of epic scale. It fundamentally changed society as it existed up until that point. Printed materials became easy to produce, heralding a new age of information and idea dissemination.
Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations has a related invention that is not as commonly known:
In 1501 Aldus …
Understanding the Wants and Needs of Customers
In their chapter titled “Innovation for the BoP: The Patient-Capital Perspective,” Robert Kennedy (University of Michigan and WDI) and Jacqueline Novogratz (Acumen Fund) give a real-world example of why a social (or any) enterprise should be willing to learn from their customers on what their wants and needs are and be ready to tailor their services appropriately.
Human-centric design begins with attempt to understand the …
ICT for Banking & Micro Finance
ICT for Development Case Studies Series
IV. Banking & Micro Finance
Lessons from the Field – ICTs in Microfinance
PRODEM, for example, is using ICTs to verify the identity of its customers. It utilizes a combination of smart card technology combined with biometrics to allow fingerprint ID verification at all of its branches and ATMs. The use of fingerprint verification ensures that only the account …
ICT for Livelihood & Skills Training
ICT for Development Case Studies Series
III. Livelihood & Skills Training
Egypt: Youth Clubs for Tomorrow’s Leaders
Since 2001, the Egyptian government has undertaken a campaign to bring technology skills to the country’s youth. It has established more than 1,000 IT clubs offering a range of training opportunities for students. For isolated communities, the government has launched mobile IT clubs. Two container trucks with satellite …
Tags: appropriate tech
Categories: africa, asia, latin america, middle east, regions, research, resources
Categories: africa, asia, latin america, middle east, regions, research, resources
GIS & Mapping Resources
Resource list from ICT for Development Learning Network’s August event on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Development: Experiences from the Field. The event was co-hosted by AED and Appropriate IT. Carmen Tedesco, Program Officer and Geospatial Coordinator at AED, moderated the panel discussion and also contributed to the resource list below.
Presentations:
Silvia Petrova, Winrock International: GIS for International Development
Andrew Ross, …
ICT for Agriculture Extension Services
ICT for Development Case Studies Series
II. Agriculture Extension Services
Sustaining Women Farmers with the Help of ICTs in Ukraine
Given the critical importance of legal, market, and technical information to women farmers, a telecentre project titled ‘Sustaining Women Farmers in Ukraine’ has been started Information Service Centres are set up at various oblasts (regions) that cover the entire country. The Regional Council of Female …
ICT for Market Access and Pricing
ICT for Development Case Studies Series
I. Market Access and Pricing
From conception to replication
Today, using FrontlineSMS, their pilot project is distributing prices from five large buyers to about 150 farmers, village leaders and farmers groups by SMS in a classic “market transparency” intervention. And it’s working. Prices are going up for farmers, and the buyers are getting access to more quantity and better …
Mobile Applications of the Future
A while ago Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge announced the first round of winners for creating cool mobile applications. The competition elicited 1,788 submissions, of which a panel of judges picked 50 winners who each won a $25,000 award.
Reviewing the Top 50 mobile applications slideshow (pdf) gives us a good sense of the reach of mobile applications in the future and how the NGO …
SproutBuilder Test Drive
What: Flash application builder that provides a quick way to create a dynamic widget. We used it to create a partnership badge for Women’s Learning Partnership.
What to like: Starter templates, mashup external applications, embed in other web pages and sites. Most importantly, the reports.
What to wish for: Way to control transitions so they are smoother. Links on images. Alignment values built into …
Krishi Janani: Stepping Out Into the Great Unknown
So…Appropriate IT is working on a new sustainable agriculture technology platform – Krishi Janani. We have been at it for a while now, launching a partially working prototype earlier this year. Before I go into the ‘Great Unknown’ parts of the story, a quick summary:
Krishi Janani is an ag tech network (online platform + young women-led rural ag tech centers) enabling organic and sustainable …
Pay It Forward: A Training in Namakkal
A three day technology training in building websites with WordPress at PGP college in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu
By Alexandra de Vogel, Assistant Trainer
With a background in Industrial design and innovation management, being part of this training was a first experience for me. But now I know that it will definitely not be my last experience in this field. These three days in Namakkal …
Learning is a Mindset
(Guest blog by Heather A. Moore)
Usha recently invited me to share some words of advice with the inspiring young women that had recently graduated from the pilot program of AIDA, Appropriate IT’s Development Academy, and with those from the community. Having gathered some sage advice from a few wise and generous mentors throughout my career, as well as the hard earned wisdom that comes …