NEWS

December 2012: Climate Himalaya, an initiative of Prakriti group wins prestigious Manthan eNGO Challenge Award for its outreach knowledge networking work on climate adaptation and mountain development issues in Himalayan region. Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid was also present during the award ceremony at New Delhi, India.

The eNGO Challenge aspires to create an ecosystem of NGOs who are using Information Communication Technology (ICT) and digital media for good governance practices benefiting societies and communities at large. The Challenge seeks to recognize, salute and honour best NGO practices using ICT in any parts of the world.

The Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) has organized this eNGo Challenge for the first time in India to recognize the work of non-profit organizations, using ICT for social development in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal spreading recently to Kenya and other African countries too. There are more than 2000 NGOs registered under the eNGO network. The eNGO Challenge Award 2012 grand jury was held in New Delhi in which out of 163 nominations in 5 different categories 42 were selected as finalist.

The publication of Manthan eNGO challenge 2012 reads; ‘To deal with the climatic changes and their impacts in Himalayan mountains, Prakriti a mountain environment group based in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand, India founded a Pan-Himalayan initiative called ‘Climate Himalaya’ to focus on climate adaptation and sustainable mountain development. The Climate Himalaya initiative works towards the need of closing the knowledge gap in the Himalayan region by developing a knowledge sharing platform, strengthening the capacities of people and organizations, generating awareness and developing leadership.’

‘The knowledge portal www.chimalaya.org contains 4800 articles, research and publications in 80 different categories of climate and mountain linked issues. Daily and weekly newsletters are sent to over 700 members.

The Mountain 2020 (M-20) campaign of Climate Himalaya works on strengthening knowledge networking efforts at multi-stakeholders level, working with prospective leaders and youth groups, generate larger awareness, policy advocacy on climate adaptation, capacity building efforts, community outreach actions, develop and showcase a compendium of available best adaptation knowledge and network. The opinion column contains over 80 blogs written by experts, youth and guest practitioners and scientist from India, Nepal and Pakistan. The climate Himalaya is a network of over 1200 individuals and institutions.’