Excellent ICT for Development Project
Bonn (GER)/Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), January 2008 - KhmerOS, a partner of InWEnt -Capacity Building International, Germany, has won the second prize in the prestigious international Stockholm Challenge GKP Award in the category "economic development". The award is given for excellent examples of implementations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that show clear benefits to people and their communities, wide impact, and sustainable business models. The award was established to stimulate innovation within multi-stakeholder partnerships in Knowledge for Development.
InWEnt-partner KhmerOS focuses on providing training in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in Cambodia with the goal of adapting crucial software to local needs. KhmerOS achieves this goal inter alia by encouraging the translation of software and manuals into the local language, Khmer, a precondition for over 95 percent of Cambodia's population in order for them to use ICTs such as computers and the Internet because they do not possess adequate mastery of a foreign language. Training material and handbooks in Khmer have also been developed. According to the jury, KhmerOS is a typical best-practice example of what the effective use of FOSS can accomplish for developmental needs.
InWEnt has been working with KhmerOS and the National Information Communications Technology Development Authority (NiDA) of Cambodia since 2004 in the area of capacity building and training. As a result, more than 4,000 people have been trained in areas such as office applications based on Free and Open Source Software.
These partners are also collaborating in training and networking FOSS multipliers in the area of IT administration through the operating system Linux. InWEnt congratulates KhmerOS for winning the prestigious prize and looks forward to expanding the successful collaboration in the future.
The partnership is part of InWEnt's regional programme "it@foss - Promoting Free and Open Source Software in Southeast Asia", financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). it@foss aims at fostering a Free and Open Source Software community for economic development within South East Asia.
