The core of the Inform and Empower initiative lies in the access to timely, relevant information that can empower government leaders and citizens to improve the delivery of vital public services. So I was delighted to hear that yesterday one of our grantees, Pratham-ASER, was a gold winner of the 2008 Excellence in Information Integrity award in the non-profit category.
The EII Awards Program recognizes organizations that have made significant progress - through a single project or an enterprise-wide effort - towards achieving Information Integrity - the accuracy, consistency and reliability of the information content, process and system. Given that ASER is one of the few organizations collecting data on basic literacy and numeracy across rural India, it is extremely important that their data is accurate. How exciting to see our grantee get international recognition for their efforts!