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| UNDP : UNDP & Markle Foundation Launch Global Digital Opportunity Initiative | ||||
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| Global | 11 February 2002 | |||
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| An ‘International Partners Group’ which will help drive forward e-strategies in developing countries has been established by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Markle Foundation, as they embark on the Global Digital Opportunity Initiative (GDOI). The initiative joins the UNDP and Markle Foundation together with private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in a commitment to assist developing nations to create e-strategies and solutions that advance development goals. Each of the group’s members has given a commitment to provide pro-bono expertise and resources over the next two years. ‘New technologies, deployed appropriately, offer an unprecedented opportunity to meet global development challenges,’ said Zoe Baird, president of the Markle Foundation in a press release. ‘This initiative is a powerful example of how public and private organizations can jointly mobilize technological resources and expertise in the service of improving lives around the world.’ ‘It is now undeniable that information and communications technologies (ICTs) play a critical role in helping developing nations achieve basic development goals. Now it is time to get the job done on the ground in response to the large number of requests we have received from developing countries,’ said Mark Malloch Brown, UNDP administrator in a press release. ‘This initiative is now poised to take action in concert with all key national stakeholders to create a dynamic policy framework for development’.
The GDOI engages both public and private sectors together collaboratively, and was generated by the global task forces commenced on the digital divide by the G8 governments (see Digital Opportunity Task Force) and United Nations (see UN ICT Task Force). A joint effort to develop technologies, policies and applications for the entrenched development problems of impoverished nations, the GDOI is premised upon recognition of the growing interdependence of nations, and of the critical need to include developing countries as full participants in the increasingly networked economy and society. The initiative represents a concrete realisation of Markle and UNDP's commitment to mobilising public and private sectors in the effort to create development dynamics in poor countries. How to creating this dynamic was the pivot of the Digital Opportunity Initiative report, published in July 2001 for submission to the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy (see UNDP: The Digital Opportunity Initiative Report). Specifically, the DGOI will work in approximately 12 developing nations over the next two years to assist them to use ICTs to improve healthcare and education, address social equity issue, reduce poverty and create enhanced economic opportunity. GDOI will focus on creating holistic plans and programmes covering policy, human capacity, enterprise, applications, content and infrastructure that can ignite a ‘development dynamic’ in countries that can most benefit. Each member of the International Partners Group is committed to providing resources and expertise on a pro-bono basis to at least three countries over the next two years. International Partners Group The International Partners Group is composed of the following companies, NGOs and international organisations (see below). In addition, the initiative is also being advised by a steering committee that includes Esther Dyson - Chairman of EDVenture Holdings, William Kennard - Managing Director of Carlyle Group, Jeffrey Sachs – Director of Harvard Centre for International Development, Nii Quaynor – Ghana Internet Corporation, and other experts in the technology and development communities. Private Sector
Non-profit
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