ICTlogy

Notes from the II Encuentro Internacional TIC para la Cooperación al Desarrollo (Development Cooperation 2.0: II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation) held in Gijón, Spain, on February 10-12th, 2009. More notes on this event: cooperacion2.0_2009. More notes on this series of events: cooperacion2.0.

Development Cooperation Agencies or Cooperation Networks?
Vikas Nath, Head of Media and Communications in South Centre Inter-Governmental Organization.

It’s important to be part of the solution, not part of the problem: institutions have to learn, and to innovate.

Different kinds of aid: ideological aid, commercial aid, environmental aid, solidarity aid, humanitarian aid, development projects… Thus, depending on your government’s priorities, you’re likely to find your national development cooperation agency to foster one or another kind of aid. And this shapes too the tools you’re to use to implant your aid programmes and projects.

But we’re at a critical juncture: food crisis, financial crisis, energy crisis, environmental crisis… Things have changed, the Old World Order is weakening… but a New World Order has not fully formed. What to do?

Solutions:

• Best-Shot Method: GPS, cure for AIDS
• Weakest Link: stopping being part of the problem and begin to be part of the solution: cure for Polio
• Aggregation Method: joint effort to find solutions

Networked cooperation is a must. Critical mass is required to find difficult solutions. And the cost of inaction is higher than the cost of networking, even if the cost of networking or consensus achievement might be seen as high.

But, besides Humanitarian Aid, which is quite coordinated, rest of kinds of aid are not networked, specially development projects.

We can find, nevertheless, some initiatives to bring people together around the Millennium Development Goals, Climate Change, Extreme Poverty Alleviation, the Digital Divide.

In the field of tools, the landscape is more optimistic. Initiatives like the Global Development Network, the Global Knowledge Partnership, Solution Exchange, or INSouth are good examples of networking strategies to share resources, efforts and so.

New Diplomacy or Diplomacy 2.0: shift from North-South networks towards South-South or North-South-South.

Julius Nyerere: If you cannot share your wealth, share your poverty. e.g. Venezuela gives oil to Cuba in exchange of physicists. You have to understand you’re part of the problem and try to be part of the solution by glimpsing alternative views.

We need, in development cooperation, a change of paradigm, the like of scientific revolutions that bring paradigm shifts.

Development Cooperation is no longer a foreign affair, but an inter-agency affair.

Q & A

Q: What’s the role of the Web 2.0? A: Important that more information circulates South-North, and not opposite. It’s about enabling participation of all parties.

Q: How is going to change international cooperation in the framework of a financial crisis? A: There is going to be a wash up of inefficient measures and cooperation channels and, on the other hand, we will be able to find solutions out of the usual lines of cooperation, with new models coming up (e.g. Venezuela’s or China’s). The chinese concept of crisis: crisis as a thread but also as a opportunity.

A: How can we force a shift of paradigm at the social (not at the scientific) level? Q: We have to find spaces in out networks to accomodate the different points of view.

Q: Networks are great… if you’re part of them. What happens if you’re out of the network? Can you afford being put outside of everything? A: Don’t think there’s a way too look at things in a separate way. They’re all interlinked, so the network is the only approach. Of course, network exclusion is a risk and we have to be aware of it.

Q: How the entrance of big foundations and philantropists (e.g. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) in the development cooperation landscape has changed the whole system? A: It’s a good step forward towards multi-stakeholder partnerships. Putting the private sector in the equation is one of the keys for sustainability.

Notes from the II Encuentro Internacional TIC para la Cooperación al Desarrollo (Development Cooperation 2.0: II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation) held in Gijón, Spain, on February 10-12th, 2009. More notes on this event: cooperacion2.0_2009. More notes on this series of events: cooperacion2.0.

GONG Project.
Jorge Martín. CENATIC

The CENATIC observatory monitors the development of the Information Society in Spain and makes proposals to foster it. One of its outputs is the GONG project, a software for NGO management.

It’s free software and, of course, relies heavily on existing software, but with a huge effort to integrate all previously existing solutions.

The project is not only software: a virtual community has been created to support and provide support about GONG. This community shares good practices, troubleshooting, etc.

The software is thought to be managed from wherever (runs on a web browser) and using hardware NGOs already have, both at headquarters or on the field. The great thing is that it is possible to work offline and then import all update data to the online platform.

• Demo site

It’s an impressive project and covers a historically demanded need.

Notes from the II Encuentro Internacional TIC para la Cooperación al Desarrollo (Development Cooperation 2.0: II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation) held in Gijón, Spain, on February 10-12th, 2009. More notes on this event: cooperacion2.0_2009. More notes on this series of events: cooperacion2.0.

Using web 2.0 in ICT4D organizations
Florian Sturm. ICT4D.at

ICT4D.at: raise awareness about ICT4D, inform about news, projects, run own projects…

Work only with web 2.0 tools in the cloud, coding anything at all. Mainly use of WordPress and Mediawiki. These are used for the institutional site.

Intensive use also of social networks like Facebook, XING, twitter, LinkedIn or Orkut. Through social networks you can directly address people anytime.

Content sharing platforms: Flickr, Youtube, Slideshare

Tools for analyzing: Feedburner, Google Analytics

Other: Delicious, Digg, Paypal

Not much effort to set up, enhanced reach of information, easy approach to a large user base, reused content (CC-licensed)… though not everythign works.

Q & A

Q: what are the criteria to choose one social networking site or another one? A: Already existing networks is a good place to start.

CEDUCAR network, a horizontal cooperation model through ICTs
Fernando Fajardo, AECID/CECC-SICA

To leverage the Central America education system.

By using Joomla, virtual communities have been built for educators to network and meet each other. A Moodle paltform has also been set up to train trainers/educators in ICTs for education.

Besides technology (FLOSS), all content is also licensed freely (CC). This way, there’s not only a platform but a course bank to be used in any educational initiative.

One of the strengths of this project is that is regional: there’s eight countries (+ Spain) in Central America and the Caribbean taking part in it. It’s also multi-stakeholder: NGOs, universities, enterprises, national agencies…

Digital Democratization in Guatemala
Ramon Bartomeus, Iwith.org

It’s a coordination project: each organization does their own projects, but in the same place (i.e. Guatemala) so it makes a lot of sense to coordinate some resources, findings, problems…

Learnings:

• Communities do not come after technology, but the opposite
• Find who the early adopters are and rely on them
• Begin with simple, successful things. Do not deploy the whole set of things

Viva, the voice of the people
Arturo Enzo, Viva

Public radio, set on telecenters, and used by citizens to ask their governments for several civic issues.

Telecenters are placed in several places, including jails, where they have weekly broadcasts.

But the problem of the digital divide remains. Why did not the project improved this issue? You don’t teach guitar without the instrument. If people just have computers an hour a day (or an hour a week), people are not empowered at all. So, the project succeeded in digital literacy, but not in bridging the digital divide.

But, notwithstanding, it is a seed for a change of reality.

Notes from the II Encuentro Internacional TIC para la Cooperación al Desarrollo (Development Cooperation 2.0: II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation) held in Gijón, Spain, on February 10-12th, 2009. More notes on this event: cooperacion2.0_2009. More notes on this series of events: cooperacion2.0.

Towards a World network for digital solidarity
Najet Teutit. Deputy Director of World Digital Solidarity Agency.

Digital solidarity is a grassroots initiative to bridge digital development.

The Digital Solidarity Agency provide expertise, monitoring and promote catalyst actions within the digital solidarity world.

The “1% digital solidarity” principle: a new tax on public ICT markets. Not widely implemented: european regulatory framework of ICTs difficult to change, recent initiative, etc.

Lyon Declaration for Digital Solidarity: call to federate joint action in the ICT sector, with two main outcomes:

• a world forum for digital solidarity, with a european digital solidarity key actors network (EDSKAN) and Web2solidarite
• build a virtual micro-finance platform to raise funds and loan money for digital solidarity projects

Notes from the the II Encuentro Internacional TIC para la Cooperación al Desarrollo (Development Cooperation 2.0: II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation) held in Gijón, Spain, on February 10-12th, 2009. More notes on this event: cooperacion2.0_2009. More notes on this series of events: cooperacion2.0.

Round Table
Alexander Widmer, Responsible for the support of Swiss Agency for Development Operational Divisions; Eduardo Sanchez, NGO for Development Association Secretary; Carmen Rodriguez Arteaga, Head of Planning Service. Ministry of Foreing Affairs and Cooperation; Anriette Esterhuysen. Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications

General issues that came up at the round table:

Knowledge management

• Coordination
• Building from existing experience
• Share best practices
• Share worst practices

Design of policies

• Capacity building before network building
• Human network building before technological network building
• Coherence of all policies
• Specialization, then coordination: we have to focus on our expertise

Community building

• Empowering people at the local level
• Coherence in ICT4D: government is a key issue, so ICT4D to improve government quality (transparency, accountability) should be added in our ICT4D plans

Notes from the the II Encuentro Internacional TIC para la Cooperación al Desarrollo (Development Cooperation 2.0: II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation) held in Gijón, Spain, on February 10-12th, 2009. More notes on this event: cooperacion2.0_2009. More notes on this series of events: cooperacion2.0.

Innovating in ICT for Human Development
John Dryden, Ex-Deputy Director Science, Technology and Industry. OECD

Main learnings from the OECD in the field of ICT4D:

OECD’s findings on the benefits of ICTs do not carry over easily to developiong countries.

• Global initiatives in “ICT4D” have been long on discussion and short on action
• ICT mainstreaming is indispensible to achieveing MDGs
• ICT mainstreaming is implicit rather than explicit in the push for “aid effectiveness”
• The conjuncture is very poor so current prospects do not appear good but there are a few developments that create opportunities both for development co-operation and for ICTs to enhance its quality and effectiveness

ICT in Development Cooperation institutions vs. ICT4D

ICTs in development cooperation

• ICT aids management and delivery of development assistance
• ICT “mainstreamed” as part of development assistance: ICTs integrated on what institutions “deliver”

ICT4D

• All of the above, plus ICT productgion and use to achieve economic growth, development and social welfare.

The Seoul Declaration, 2008

• Facilitate the convergence of digital networks, devices and services
• Foster creativity in development, use and application of the Internet
• Strengthen confidence and security
• Ensure the Internet Economy is truly global

For developing countries, this means

• more access to Internet and related ICTs
• competition
• use by all communities: local content and language, inclusion
• energy efficiency

Against the Solow Paradox: there is now evidence on the economic impacts of ICTs:

• macro-economic evidence on the role of ICT investment in capital deepening
• sectoral analysis showing the contribution of (a) ICT-producing sectors and (b) ICT-using sectors to productivity growth
• detailed firm-level analysis demonstrating the wide-ranging impacts of ICTs in productivity

Problems to implant ICTs in developing countries:

• Barriers of entry and different people needs
• The relationship between ICT investments and economic growth in OECD countries is complex and uncertain,highly dependent on complementary factors, many of which less apparent in developing countries: power supply, maintenance, skills and literacy, the degree to which society is networked, the extent to which its economy is reliant on services, etc.

The Genoa Plan of Action

• development of national e-strategies
• improve connectivity, increase access, lower costs
• enhance human capacity development, knowledge creation and sharing
• Foster enterprise, jobs and entrepreneurship

Mainstreaming ICTs

UN ICT Task Force Mainstreaming ICTs for the achievement of the MDGs: ICTs as an “enabler” of development, not a production sector

ICTs should be able to enable donnor coordination: need analysis, non-duplication of efforts and projects, etc.

Debate

Caroline Figueres: is effectiveness only top-down? aren’t we seeing bottom-up effectiveness? A: Yes, of course.