Country: SERBIA

Organisation: International Aid Network (IAN)

Years of the practice: 2013-2017

SUMMARY OF THE PRACTICE

Each year as a part of ALL DIGITAL Week in Serbia, IAN organizes a competition for all campaign partners (local organisations coducting activities) in several categories: BEST PHOTO, BEST VIDEO and the MOST ACTIVE PARTNER. In some years other categories were introduced as well, such as Best video game, Most creative use of ICT in teaching, etc.

The most active partners are selected based on the number and quality of activities they organized in their local communities, number of people they engaged or reached, promotion of the campaign through various tools, etc. Winners in this category can be either individuals, usually teachers who coordinate the campaign in their schools, or partners (schools, civil society organizations, institutions, etc.). Prize in the category of best photos and videos goes to the authors of the photo/video materials.

The winners get special certificates as well as a symbolic money award. In addition, the winners are promoted on the national campaign website, as well as through IAN communication channels.

Thanks to this practice, local organisations are motivated to be active, organise quality activities, and on the other hand we get material for promotion of the campaign and increased visibility of activities.

OBJECTIVES

1. To motivate local organisations in charge of conducting training/events to be active and organise quality activities
2. To attract new local partners and build relationships with existing ones
3. To ensure good material for promotion of the campaign and visibility of activities

The competition has two major effects:
1. First it serves as an excellent motivator for local organisations to give their best in organizing quality activities relevant for the campaign and engaging as many beneficiaries in them. Also, it provides them with an additional reason to carefully record their what they do during the campaign.
2. Secondly, it ensures good material for further promoting the campaign and increasing its visibility on the national as well as international level.

RESOURCES

1. Web site of the campaign (please see www.onlajnnedelja.telecentar.rs ) where the winners are presented and all the awarded materials posted.
2. Human resources: Jury (staff members or some external associates) to evaluate the materials and select winners
3. Financial resources for awards for winners.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRACTICE

Since 2013, along with inviting organisations from the country to join the ALL DIGITAL Week (formerly Get Online Week), IAN has also announced a competition for all participants in several categories.

There are three standard categories: Best photo, Best video and Most active partner. In some years we introduce other categories such as Best video game, Most creative use of ICT in teaching, etc.

Partners are asked to send up to 5 photos/videos illustrating their activities during the campaign Week upon the end of the campaign (7 days after the end) partners. Jury consisting of all IAN Telecentre staff who participate in conducting the campaign votes for their favorite photos and videos and in this way the winners are selected.

The most active partners are selected based on the number and quality of activities they organized in their local communities, number of people they engaged or reached, promotion of the campaign through various tools, etc. Winners in this category can be either individuals, usually teachers who coordinate the campaign in their schools, or local partners (schools, civil society organizations, institutions, etc.). Prize in the category of best photos and videos goes to the authors of the material.

The winners get special certificates stating the category in which they won the award as well as a symbolic money award.

In addition, the winners are promoted on the national campaign web site as well as through IAN communication channels. As a special award in 2015 when IAN organized Annual ALL DIGITAL summit – TEAC15 two most active teachers were invited as guests to participate in the conference.

Having an opportunity to see the awarded photos, videos and the work of the most active partners, other campaign participants can learn from their colleagues and be inspired to organise similar, more versatile campaign activities the following year.

CHALLENGES

Challenges encountered include:
1. Participants sending way more than five photos for the competition in spite of competition propositions. Having in mind a great number of competitors we have each year, this makes it extremely hard to evaluate the materials. Not respecting the propositions creates problems in terms of additional engagement of staff and prolongation of the selection process. So far we have not eliminated the competitors based on this, however this could be one of the efficient solutions for overcoming this challenge.
2. Quality of materials – the number of awards per category is not strictly limited. We can have from 1 up to 10 winners in some category. This allows us to give out more awards when the quality of material/activities is high or minimum number of awards when the quality is lower.

EVALUATION

The results and success of the competition are evaluated based on the number of contestants and quality of the materials received.
This Good Practice proved to be efficient as it undoubtedly contributed to the growing number of local organisations who get registered as local campaign partners. In addition, the activities implemented get more creative, versatile and consequently the quality of the materials submitted for competition is increasing.