UN-GAID: Information and Communication Technologies and MDGs

Media
Report
Presentation

Team
Doriana Molla
Andrea Borde
Charles Fromm
Farzad Kapadia
Eleece Sherwood
Jane Brandt Sørensen

Organization
UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

About
The United Nations Secretary-General, since he took office, has repeatedly warned that the world was not on track to meet the goals by 2015. Recent crisis have seriously set back progress in achieving the MDGs. The current financial crisis is compounding the effects of climate change, environmental disasters and the food and energy crisis. These challenges have pushed people below the poverty line, even in areas that previously seemed to be making good progress towards the MDGs. More and more people seem at risk every day. Against this bleak outlook, it is a pressing concern to step up efforts in the development community, to address the shortcomings of current development policies and practices, mitigate the negative effects of economic globalization and environmental changes, and put developing countries on a solid footing on the path to progress. While it is widely acknowledged that ICT can potentially accelerate the pace of progress, no concerted effort has been made within the UN system to date, to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the role of ICT in the achievement of the MDGs. A lack of systematic analysis of this issue can lead to two types of risk: (i) ignoring a potentially advantageous tool that could provide the necessary impetus to development; and (ii) under utilizing or misusing ICT because of lack of sufficient data and information about its potential benefit.

Furthermore, ICT exhibit a dynamic dimension fueled by the frenetic rate of innovation that has taken place in recent years and continues unabated, despite worsened economic conditions. A study of how innovation in ICT can be put to use in the fight against poverty would be of high value to decision-makers in developing countries. This is particularly opportune for research in the fields of education and health, given the high priority that the incoming US administration is expected to give to reform in these sectors, undoubtedly with a strong emphasis on ICT. Developing countries, which still face enormous challenges in these two sectors, will be watching the new developments in the US closely, for lessons to learn and best practices to replicate.

Since the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society, the ICTD community has lacked a universal platform for all stakeholders and decision-makers, at all levels from grassroots to the highest levels of governments, to get together and advance policy discussions on ICT for Development, leading to much fragmentation and soul-searching in the field. GAID is poised to fill the void left by the WSIS as it is a unique multi-stakeholder platform devoted to ICTD and innovation issues. This proposal would enhance GAID’s capacity to act as a think-tank for ICTD and set an innovative ICTD agenda, with the ultimate goal, in the eyes of the stakeholders, of putting the “D” back in ICTD. If successful, this proposal would help provide a platform towards which ICTD issues, and practitioners, would naturally gravitate. Such an outcome would reinvigorate ICT policy discussions in a post-WSIS world and help improve coordination of ICT activities and of WSIS follow-up processes.

Proposal

The proposal is to make the case for ICTs as a crucial instrument of economic and social development, based on sound analysis and research, in a series of papers that can serve as a guide to policy-makers and ICTD practitioners, to be used as reference in designing and implementing policies to achieve the MDGs.

The team at The New School were assigned to develop a series of white papers, one for each MDGs cluster, to explore how specifically ICTs can contribute to the MDGs and make recommendation for policy-makers, governments, donors and international development agencies.

Project Description: Each white paper will be produced over a period of three months, according to the calendar below, culminating in the 2010 UN Summit on the MDGs, where the final paper on Global Partnerships will be released, and the entire series presented as a contribution to the policy debates. The first MDG Cluster on Education was due in May 2009, while the second on Health (Child and Maternal Health, HIV/AIDS) by end of 2009. The next set on Poverty and Hunger and Environmental Sustainability would be due by early 2010 followed by the final cluster on Gender Equality and Global Partnerships by May 2010. Additional white papers may be produced to address pressing current and emerging issues such as the food crisis, the energy crisis, the final crisis or climate change.

Methodology

–  2 or 3 students will be assigned for each paper. They will work under the supervision of a faculty member and a GAID Secretariat staff. The students team will be responsible for the analytical research and drafting of the paper, following the overall structure and detailed outline approved by the faculty member in consultation with the GAID Secretariat.
–  The GAID Secretariat will assist the students in gathering input from the ICTD stakeholder community and soliciting comments from the members of the Global Alliance community and its networks.
–  The GAID Secretariat will organize online consultations (discussion forums and online seminars), lead/moderated by the faculty member, to further collect input from the community on the topic of the paper.
–  For each paper, the GAID Secretariat, in consultation with the faculty member, will convene a select group of ICTD experts and practitioners, well-known in their respective fields, to peer-review the paper. The peer-reviewers will each provide a written assessment of the paper. The students, through the faculty members, are expected to engage in consultations with the peer-review group and take their views into account in the final draft of the paper.
–  Each paper may also be presented to relevant meetings/conferences of UNDESA-GAID for further inputs and refinements.
–  The GAID Secretariat will be responsible for producing the publication (design and printing) and related marketing material.
–  The lead editor is expected to attend at least one GAID event for the formal launch of the paper and animate/moderate relevant sessions.
–  The GAID Secretariat, in consultation with the New School, donors and partners, will develop and implement a distribution and marketing strategy for each paper, which may include press releases, articles/interviews in select newspapers, brochures, targeted distribution, multiple media (paper, ebook, CD,USB key).
–  Donors’ and partners’ contributions will be prominently acknowledged on all materials.

 

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