The 2022-2023 cycle of ESCWA Digital Arabic Content (DAC) Award resulted with eight winner projects in two categories - Institutions and Young Entrepreneurs; and the winners were announcement during the Arab Forum for Sustainable Development (AFSD) 2023. In the announcement session, interventions were made by the Award partners - ESCWA and the World Summit Awards, as well as by experts from the Award's Steering and Jury committees, followed by the official announcement of winners 2023.
The Award winner projects were selected following the evaluation of 215 submissions received from 19 Arab countries. The evaluation process was conducted by a Jury committee composed of 32 regional experts, in two phases, and through the World Summit Awards platform. The Jurors evaluated projects in one of the Award's two categories, and their evaluation was based on several evaluation criteria, covering content and innovation, technical aspects and strategic values and developmental impact.
The Award's eight winner projects include five in the Institutions category and three in the Young Entrepreneurs category, and they are listed below:
Institutions category (in alphabetical order)
Agrogatemasr, Egypt: The platform serves local farmers and investors in agriculture, provides diverse content on agriculture extension, and enables the provision of specialized agricultural advisory services. An interview on the platform is available through the link.
IoT Kids Platform, Iraq: Offers training in programming, robotics, electronics and artificial intelligence for children 7 and 15 years old. It enables children to learn techniques in a fun and easy way, which helps them develop their skills. An interview on the platform is available through the link.
Learn Arabic Alphabet, App on Google store & Apple store, Algeria: A comprehensive and entertaining educational application that enables users to learn the Arabic alphabet in a modern, simple and smart way, through lessons, exercises and games that target enhancing pronunciation, writing and knowledge. An interview on the application is available through the link.
Syrian Researchers, Syrian Arab Republic: A scientific network that targets Arab societies and includes scientific material in Arabic that apply scientific quality standards. It provides content in various interactive forms, written, audio and visual. An interview on the project is available through the link.
Unified Arabic Braille Portal, Qatar: The project from Mada Center aims to develop the Arabic Braille table for math and science symbols and the first computerized Arabic Braille table with eight dots. The Braille method enables people who are visually impaired or deafblind to read and write using assistive technology. An interview on the project is available through the link.
Young Entrepreneurs category (in alphabetical order)
Alqalam, Egypt: A comprehensive online platform for Arabic calligraphy, arts and decoration. It provides several options for distance learning, purchasing art products, and requesting customized designs and products. It also includes a digital library of visual explanations, educational material, and documentaries on Islamic art. An interview on the platform is available through the link.
Martha EDU, Jordan: Project for developing educational tools for persons with hearing disabilities, and it results with various learning packages that use sign language in Arabic, in addition to augmented reality and mobile phone technologies; and this would help hearing impaired children and their families and community to remove barriers to literacy through the applications used. An interview on the project is available through the link.
Therappy, App on Google store, Qatar: The project enables users to receive psychological counselling and to connect with qualified psychotherapists worldwide; and the application allows booking online sessions for conversations by text, voice or video.
More information on the Award and Winners is available in the booklet Winners 2023.
League of Arab States, Cairo, Egypt
