[WSIS CS-Plenary] UN Alliance on Closing Digital Divide Meets Next Week

[Elizabeth Carll, PhD]

Dear All,

Francis posted the information re  "first-ever meeting at the
United Nations of the newly formed Global Alliance for Information and
Communication Technologies and Development <http://www.un-gaid.org>
(GAID) on September 27. "

Since Francis was kind enough to post the information and as I was at the UN
on Sept 27th,  I decided to stop in to see if I would be able to observe the
meeting.  Unfortunately, the meeting was closed and I was not permitted to
stay. I did have a chance to speak  briefly with Renate Bloem, who is a
member of the Alliance, who said she would post a summary of the meeting
very soon.  Hopefully, in the future, these types of meetings will be open
to observers.

Best regards,

Elizabeth

Dr. Elizabeth Carll
International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
Communications Coordination Committee for the UN
Tel: 631-754-2424
Fax: 631-754-5032
ecarll at optonline.net



-----Original Message-----
From: plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org [mailto:plenary-admin at wsis-cs.org]On
Behalf Of Dr. Francis MUGUET
Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:56 PM
To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] UN Alliance on Closing Digital Divide Meets
Next Week


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_______________________________________

Hi !

Sorry I have been busy  lately but
Why nobody has been talking about this ?

Best

Francis
--------------------------------

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/101111


  UN Alliance on Closing Digital Divide Meets Next Week

Sep 20, 2006 /News Release/
/"Countries concluded at the 2005 World Summit that the internationally
agreed development goals will not be achieved unless we do development
differently"/

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will open the first-ever meeting at the
United Nations of the newly formed Global Alliance for Information and
Communication Technologies and Development <http://www.un-gaid.org>
(GAID) on September 27. Chairing discussion of Alliance strategic goals
will be Intel board chairman Craig Barrett.

Launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 19 June, the Alliance promotes
action to utilize new information and communication technologies to
fight poverty and promote development.

In addition to Barrett, other Steering Committee members attending
include Jamaludin Jarjis, Malaysia's Minister of Science, Technology and
Innovations Minister; Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the
Inter-American Development Bank; Walter Fust, director-general, Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation; Titi Akinsanmi, program manager,
Global Teenager Project, South Africa; John Bernander,
secretary-general, Norwegian Broadcasting, European Broadcasting Union;
Renate Bloem, president, the Committee on NGOs, Switzerland; and Guy
Sebban, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce.

The Steering Committee, which provides the Alliance with executive
oversight and guidance, is composed of a chair, Barrett, and several
co-chairs representing governments, business, civil society, the media
and international organizations.

The meeting will open at 3 p.m. in Conference Room 8. Remarks by
Secretary-General Annan and welcoming remarks by Under-Secretary-General
José Antonio Ocampo will be followed by a statement from Mr. Barrett.

An interactive discussion will examine the strategic goals and business
plan of the Global Alliance, followed by a discussion on the Alliance's
funding.

"Countries concluded at the 2005 World Summit that the internationally
agreed development goals will not be achieved unless we do development
differently," said Alliance Executive Coordinator Sarbuland Khan. "One
of the ways to do that is connect the poor with the rest of the world,
with the formal economy, through information technologies."

ICTs can help in the areas of enterprise, education, health and
government, said Khan, allowing the poor to participate in the economy.
"Many developing countries have strong growth rates, but the poor are
not part of the growing economy."

GAID will seek to bring together the private sector and international
financial institutions, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, in
big partnership initiatives, such as bringing broadband to Africa, Khan
said.

In countries like Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique and Ghana, mobile telephony
is locally driven and demand driven, Khan said. The greatest growth of
mobile phones is taking place in Africa, and women are using mobile
phones to generate businesses and income. "The issue now is how to get
mobile telephony to be a conveyor of information and knowledge on health
and the economy. For this, you need the private sector."

The Alliance seeks to bring together key organizations involved in
ICT-for-development to enhance their effectiveness; introduce
ICT-for-development into the broader development agenda; create an
environment and business models for investment benefiting the poor; find
technological solutions for specific development goals; and foster
partnerships among all those involved. Partnerships and new initiatives
are expected to be announced at the closing of the 27 September meeting.


--

------------------------------------------------------
Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org
WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
------------------------------------------------------

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