Solution eXchange connecting people in India

A development practitioner was looking for solutions to the issue of devaluation of the girl child, expressed through female infanticide and patriarchal behaviour.

Since it was an issue close to her heart, she wanted to avoid the mistakes that the early-starters would have made. Also, since more heads would mean more ideas, she wanted to share the query with the right set of people.

But is there such a platform for focused knowledge-sharing in India? Can she reach out to more people with similar interests without worrying about geographical barriers? Can she get solutions for her queries within a stipulated time? Thanks to Solution eXchange, the answer to all of the above is in the positive.

The United Nations (UN) country team in India has enabled a technological platform, aptly titled, Solution eXchange, connecting people in India sharing similar concerns and interests.

It has built eight Communities of Practice (CoPs) namely maternal and child health, water and environmental sanitation, gender, food and nutrition security, AIDS, education, work and employment and decentralisation.

Each person in a CoP is a member of a moderated e-mail group. Once a query is posted, members send their responses and the consolidated reply including advice, experience, references and contacts are then sent to the e-mail group in less than two weeks.

Through this platform, the development practitioner therefore learnt that in Bihar and Jharkhand gender cells have been formed through which knowledge is being transferred by adolescents to adults on girl child issues; that the Koya community in Orissa cherishes the birth of a girl child and its societal values therefore can be an eye-opener for other communities; that in Haryana, because of the 'Apni beti, Apna dhan' programme, rural folks have now started to name their daughters after inspirational women and goddesses as compared to 'Bateri' (enough), 'Mooli' (radish) or 'Kaani' (one-eyed) earlier.

According to Monica Raina, national coordinator, Solution eXchange, the first CoP was set up in April 2005. Membership has now grown to over 4,000 and new CoPs on ICT for development, disaster management and micro finance are also on the cards.

Critics have termed this initiative as ineffective because of the language barrier and inaccessibility of technology in rural areas. But Raina says, "We started with English and are working towards extending this programme to regional languages. In fact, to take advantage of this platform, some NGOs have begun to translate the replies into their regional language for circulation among their workers and local communities. Now, countries like China, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine among others are keen on replicating this model and their country teams will be coming to India to see how it works."

The Swedish International Development Cooporation Agency and the Department for International Development of UK provided funding of $3.5 million for a period of three years for this initiative.

The team spearheading this initiative is yet to ascertain the actual impact of this programme since the project has been operational for just about a year now. Raina, nonetheless, avers, "It's the use of technology with a social purpose. It's an attempt towards the right direction."