The Stockholm Challenge - over a decade of success
The Stockholm Challenge is a pioneer among ICT awards and networking organisations, dating back to 1994 when the City of Stockholm launched the first competition to challenge the cities in Europe to show their best ICT applications for people and society. Since then there have been six prize ceremonies. So far the Stockholm Challenge has brought together over 5,000 ICT projects from all over the world, many of whom are active in lasting and growing networks.
The 2006 programme culminated on May 11 with workshops, a conference and a stunning awards ceremony in the Stockholm City Hall, in the presence of over 200 finalists and 200 prominent guests.
The over all goal of the Stockholm Challenge is to help counteract social and economic disadvantage, wherever it occurs, by promoting the use of ICT for development. It is mostly targeted towards developing regions and community or social sectors such as gender equality and minorities with the greatest needs. The award invites projects in six different categories:
- Public Administration
- Education
- Economic Development
- Culture
- Health
- Environment
The winners receive the Stockholm Challenge Trophy and a cash prize. In 2006 the awards were sponsored by Ericsson, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, SPIDER, KTH and Sida. The aim for 2008 is to give more supporters the opportunity to join the work that is done by the Stockholm Challenge, to find and expose best practices and to make fruitful matches between people and organisations – for social and human development.
The Stockholm Challenge is now owned by the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and is a biannual event. It is mainly sponsored by Sida, Ericsson and the City of Stockholm. It is lead by a Steering Group of representatives from both KTH and the main sponsors. All operational activities are carried out by the Secretariat, based at the KTH School of ICT in Kista north of Stockholm. The Advisory Board seats internationally renowned leaders in the area of ICT for development. They are:
- Esther Dyson, CNET Networks
- Muhammad Yunus, CEO of Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize
- Alexander Galitsky, CEO of Galitsky Holdings
- John Gage, Vice President of the Science Office, Sun Microsystems
- Anders Wijkman, Member of the European Parliament