Mountain Forum Annual Report 2006

As 2006 was Mountain Forumís 10th year anniversary, a number of events were carried out to
celebrate the occasion. A global e-conference, Mountain Forum: The Next 10 years, was held in Spanish and English between March and April in which Mountain Forum members reflected on the organizationals past and present and contributed ideas for our future.

Mountain Forum's visibility has significantly increased over the last year, thanks to improved services -the Bulletin, the restructured website and membership system, and most recently a revamped Mountain Calendar. Moreover, the efforts we continue to make in reaching out to the grassroots, as with 2004-2005 pilot radio project Dialogue with the Grassroots (by MFS, APMN, and Radio Sagarmatha) are underscored by international recognition from eminent international agencies and institutions such as One World, Panos Institute, and the Development Gateway. In particular, the project was shortlisted as a finalist at the Stockholm Challenge Awards, and received an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica in the Digital Communities category for the year 2006. Such global attention and appreciation is all the more invigorating considering the small scale of the pilot exercise and the fact that it was entirely and solely supported by the staff's extra time and dedication. The process to upscale this pilot project is now underway and we hope to develop and integrate the use of radio in our work in the near future to the benefit t of remote mountain communities in Asia and around the world.