Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) Conference

March 27-28, 2012

Hôtel des Mille Collines – Kigali, Rwanda

“Creating Value through ICT4D Partnerships: NGOs, Government, and the Private Sector Innovating Together”

CRS is seeking applications from vendors, nongovernmental organizations and government agency teams to present at the 2012 ICT4D conference on the theme of partnerships. In order to be considered, projects should meet the following criteria:

1. Successful deployment/use in the field.
2. Relevant to major NGO service sectors, including health, agriculture, education, microfinance, distance learning, emergency response and monitoring and evaluation.
3. Demonstrated impact on the quality of relief and development programs.
4. Ongoing value to developing communities.

Please visit our website for more information about the conference and on the application process.

Registration will be open mid-January and you will receive another email about that soon!

If you have any questions, please email Toishia Powell at CRSICT4DConference@global.crs.org.

Toishia Powell

Are you working on innovative technologies for NGOs, schools, hospitals or local councils?

If yes, we invite you to join the new version of iConnect-Online.org, a social community platform devoted to connecting people around the globe who share the same passion for ICTs as a tool for development.

The platform features thematic groups - Education, Environment, Gender, Governance, Health, Innovation and Livelihoods. Read and write blog entries, share news, events, and other resources in five languages. ICT4D communities, local and global, want to learn from your experience!

For a first impression, have a look how iConnect Education has already brought members from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Uganda together to share good practices on using ICTs in secondary schools. Find out how iConnect Gender members from Zambia, Ghana and Burkina Faso engaged in a discussion on strategies for including women in ICT capacity building programmes.

Engage in cross-country knowledge sharing on ICT-for-Development - join iConnect-Online.org today!

Based in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), GAID reiterated its commitment to mainstream gender issues across all its activities in adopting the Action Plan. The Global Alliance underlined the importance in its mission for the forthcoming year of mainstreaming gender as a key global challenge in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The third MDG calls for promotion of “gender equality and empowerment of women” by elimination of gender disparity in all levels of education.

ITF Chair Dr. Gloria Bonder, a member of the GAID’s highest body ¾ the Steering Committee ¾ said “we are very pleased with the inclusive agenda UNDESA-GAID has adopted. This is a significant step forward for women. The International Taskforce for Women and ICT is proud to support UNDESA-GAID and looks forward to working across our global partnerships and regional nodes to advance, engage and mainstream girls and women in the knowledge society. When women are empowered and have the opportunity to develop to their full potential in the knowledge society, communities across the globe benefit”.

ITF is proud of its consultative role as a GAID Community of Expertise working closely with GAID to secure the inclusion of gender and ICT issues in the Action Plan. The Gender Community of Expertise, comprised of ITF and IT for Change, has been among the most active of the Communities collaborating with GAID on the development of the plan.

Among the specific gender-related activities in the plan is mainstreaming ICT into high-level United Nations policy debates on gender. This is particularly important in order to bring the ICT and the gender policy communities together since in the past both have suffered from lack of awareness of the other. In 2010 GAID, assisted by the Community of Expertise of Gender, will organize a panel on ICT and gender at the Economic and Social Council Annual Ministerial Review (AMR), which has chosen gender as its focus, to be held in Geneva in July 2010. ITF expects to work with GAID in the preparatory activities for the meeting and in the preparation of a paper on Gender and ICT for presentation to the AMR.

GAID has also outlined its support to the Communities of Expertise in the Action Plan, including involving the Communities as resources for the preparation of white papers on ICTs and the MDGs and helping the Communities to establish partnerships among each other. This is particularly relevant for the Gender Community, as gender cuts across the other communities.

ITF wishes to express its appreciation to UNDESA-GAID for ensuring the strong participation of the Community of Expertise on Gender in the Monterrey Forum and meeting of the Strategy Council where the Action Plan was adopted. ITF Steering Committee member Dorothy Gordon, a member of the GAID Champions Network and Director-General, of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT moderated the opening discussion at the Forum on 2 September on the *State of ICT Development – A Global Perspective./ /**Dr. Bonder*, Chair Holder of the Regional UNESCO Chair on Women, Science and Technology in Latin America, opened the plenary session on ICT and intercultural innovations in education. GAID also supported the participation of ITF and IT for Change members from developing countries to the meetings of the Steering Committee and Strategy Council and the Forum and awarded ITF a site in the iMarketPlace, one of the Forum’s parallel events.

The International Taskforce on Women and Information and Communication Technologies is a community of expertise of organizations, institutions, academia, businesses and individuals working to increase economic, social, and educational opportunities for women and girls in the knowledge society in a measurable way. Its vision is an information society for sustainable global development that fosters the potential for success of all its members. Its overarching goal is to ensure women’s full participation in an inclusive information and knowledge-based society as leaders and creators as well as users of ICT.

Development organizations and International Non-Governmental Organizations have been emphasizing the high potential of Free and Open Source Software for the Less Developed Countries. Cost reduction, less vendor dependency and increased potential for local capacity development have been their main arguments. In spite of its advantages, Free and Open Source Software is not widely adopted at the African continent. In this book the authors will explore the grounds on with these expectations are based. Where do they come from and is there evidence to support these expectations? Over the past years several projects have been initiated and some good results have been achieved, but at the same time many challenges were encountered. What lessons can be drawn from these experiences and do these experiences contain enough evidence to support the high expectations? Several projects and their achievements will be considered. In the final part of the book the future of Free and Open Source Software for Development will be explored. Special attention is given to the African continent since here challenges are highest. What is the role of Free and open Source Software for Development and how do we need to position and explore the potential? What are the threats? The book aims at professionals that are engaged in the design and implementation of ICT for Development (ICT4D) projects and want to improve their understanding of the role Free and Open Source Software can play.