To Whom It May Concern:
We would like to comment and make suggestions concerning the Proposed Global Alliance for ICT and Development as outlined in the statement of 10 August, 2005 entitled “Principles and Elements of a Global Alliance for ICT and Development” from the website of the UN’s ICT Task Force.
This statement represents the viewpoint of the Steering Committee of the Telecentres of the Americas Partnership (TAP), an NGO which is a consortium of telecenter networks currently including Community Technology Centers’ Network (CTCNet) (the US), ASPIRA, Inc. (the US/Puerto Rico), Somos Telecentros (South and Central America and the Caribbean), the Pacific Community Networks Association (PCNA) (Canada) and the Chasquinet Foundation, a not-for-profit based in Ecuador which supports telecentres globally. TAP currently represents some 10,000 community telecentres, their staffs and community users throughout the Americas and beyond. We therefore have a very considerable interest in ICT and Development and the possible composition, priorities and activities of any “Global Alliance for ICT and Development” that is developed in this area.
While individuals active in TAP have had various types of involvements both with the DOT Force and the UN ICT Task Force, the overall opinion of TAP is that these organizations suffered significantly and negatively from an absence of inclusion, openness, transparency, and people-centredness. The inability to be broadly inclusive, particularly of those with direct experience implementing and using ICTs for development in communities, has limited the effectiveness of these bodies and their impact on how ICTs might realistically contribute to development. Further, the failure to conduct meaningful on-going open and community-focused participative assessment of the outcomes and impacts of investments and programs in ICT4D has meant that much of the opportunity for learning from past and current successes AND failures has been lost.
TAP partners therefore strongly recommend that:
1. Any follow-up mechanism to the World Summit on the Information Society (and the UN’s ICT Task Force), whether through the proposed Global Alliance or otherwise, be structured so as to provide the opportunity for effective participation by those most directly involved in the application of ICT for development particularly among the most needy segments of the population;
2. Appropriate funding be secured to support such participation in the recognition that grassroots organizations and those who represent them generally do not have access to resources for participation, travel and subsistence commensurate with other likely participants in such an alliance of the public and private sectors;
3. The provision of independent, qualified, timely and transparent assessments of current and future ICT4D implementations be systematically organized, especially through the development of community self-assessments and participative assessment strategies.
Yours sincerely
Telecenters of the Americas Partnership and others
Klaus Stoll, Executive Director, Chasquinet Foundation, Quito, Ecuador
Karin Delgadillo Poepsel, General Secretary, Somos@Telecentros, Quito, Ecuador
Michel Menou,, Somos@Telecentros, France
Michael Gurstein, Chair” Community Informatics Research Network, Canada/US
Wallace Taylor, Community Informatics Research Network, Australia/South Africa
Kavita Singh, Executive Director, CTCNet, Washington, DC
John Villamil, Executive Vice-President and CIO, The Aspira Association, Puerto Rico/US
Bev Collins, Executive Director, Pacific Community Networking Association, Canada
Gaspar Matyas, President, European Telecottages Association, Hungary
Gbenga Sesan, Program Manager, Lagos Digital Village, Nigeria
Gareth Shearman, Chair, Telecommunities Canada, Canada
