Gender Based Violence Project from Cambodia receives nomination for UN-based Award in Sri Lanka

 
The Grand Jury of the World Summit Award examines almost 500 of the world’s best e-Content Websites and ICT projects from August 29 to 31. Gender Based Violence Project from Cambodia is one of them. Phnom Penh/Salzburg, August 06, 2013 Gender Based Violence project from Cambodia is nominated by an international jury of ICT experts to enter the next round of the 2013 World Summit Award (WSA) in e-Inclusion & Empowerment category. Gender Based Violence project will compete against almost 500 outstanding e-Content products and applications from 168 countries in front of the WSA’s Grand Jury from Aug. 29 to Aug. 31 in Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn. The Open Institute conducted a project geared toward eliminating GBV in Cambodia through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and the Ushahidi mapping tool. The project provided both councilors and key stakeholders the tools and knowledge they need in order to track incidences of GBV online in a way that can be viewed by the public in order to increase awareness and work toward immediate inter-vention. Throughout the project, important data regarding GBV in Cambodia was captured.  This project made it clear that while violence against women is a significant problem in Cam-bodia, it is a problem that can be solved.  The use of ICT will be critical to putting an end to GBV in Cambodia because it will facilitate an increased level of public awareness about issues related to violence against women and offer an opportunity to teach the public, through open and transparent communication methods, ways to combat this violence going forward.   This project is meaningful for mitigating GBV cases in Cambodia through the use of ICT (Ushahidi platform) for the reasons: Ushahidi has the potential to benefit tremendous users since it is produced in the simple way and in national (Khmer) language, thus no requirement of users to have any foreign language ability to view and use it. The website is self- explanations of terms and how to use it.  Ushahidi is the first database system allowing public not only to view but also to report GBV cases in Cambodia. The GBV mapping visualization allows users to see the whole picture of GBV incidence in Cambodia during particular period of time. The website provides GBV victims and people working on GBV prevention with volumes of laws, regulations and policies responded to GBV and services that available for them so that GBV victims can know where to get help. This is a groundbreaking e-content and a unique project that seems no other institution do the same thing in this country. It is expected to be one among other best e-content product winners of the WSA 2013. In the first round of the international competition, an online jury will now valuate the ventures, creating a shortlist of 15-20 projects in each of the eight categories. After this, in a three-day process in late August, the WSA Grand Jury, consisting of inter-national renowned ICT experts and industry leaders, will meet in Tallinn/Estonia to eval-uate the submissions from the remaining nominees and select the 40 best products. The jury members of the Grand Jury come from all continents and have backgrounds in the creative industries, telecommunication, advertising, journalism and research, as well as in teaching. The jury will be hosted by national partners such as the Estonian ICT Cluster. Finally, the 40 world's best e-Content applications (5 products in each of the WSA cate-gories) are selected to present their products in front of an international audience in Co-lombo/Sri Lanka from Oct. 23 to Oct. 25. The categories of the World Summit Award (WSA): e-Government & Open Date e-Health & Environment e-Learning & Science e-Entertainment & Games e-Culture & Tourism e-Media & Journalism e-Business & Commerce e-Inclusion & Empowerment Gender Based Violence project is nominated in e-Inclusion & Empowerment category. WSA World Congress 2013 in Sri Lanka After the selection in Estonia, the 40 WSA winners will get the chance to present their products at the WSA World Congress in Sri Lanka, Oct. 23 to Oct. 25. The event will offer a platform for high level experts, industry leaders and government representatives to discuss innovation in mobile content. At the event, an on sight jury will again evaluate the products to select eight overall winners: The WSA Global Champions 2013. “With the winners from World Summit Award in e-Content, Colombo will host the best digital producers, interaction designers and content developers from all around the world. They will demonstrate the richness and diversity of the content industries. With Estonia, a country where the access to free internet is a fundamental right of the people, we are glad to have found the perfect location for the Grand Jury.” (Peter A. Bruck, chairman of the World Summit Award)    About the World Summit Award The World Summit Award (WSA) is the global follow-up initiative of the United Nations World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) organised by the International Center for New Media (ICNM), Salzburg, Austria. It partners with the key UN organisations and agencies in the framework of the UN Geneva Agenda and the Tunis Action Plan and se-lects and promotes the world's best e-Content and innovative ICT applications; to date more than 160 countries are actively involved. Through national pre-selections and con-tests together with a global jury process, WSA demonstrates the local diversity and rich creativity of ICT use. WSA is a global hub for everyone who values the crucial importance of local content to make today’s information society more inclusive. Visit us on www.wsis-award.org, facebook.com/WorldSummitAward and twit-ter.com/WSAoffice Media Contact of Gender Based Violence project: Chim Manavy Executive Director Open Institute manavy.2011@gmail.com 00855 12 964 286 Media Contact World Summit Award: Christoph Seemann Press and Communications Manager World Summit Awards (WSA, WSA-mobile) seemann@icnm.net 0043-660-630408-4
 
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Source of information : World Summit Award Translated by Open Institute