Communities of Expertise
Communities of Expertise (CoEs) are networks convened by GAID to bring together motivated and capable actors to address specific, well-defined ICTD problems in a results-oriented manner and to identify and disseminate good practices. These CoEs include:
Education, Entrepreneurship, Governance, Health
Cross cutting themes include gender, rural development and connectivity.
In October 2006, under the CoE of Governance, the ICT4Peace Foundation was invited to a partnership with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and GAID as the focal point for overseeing and promoting the spirit of Paragraph 36 of the WSIS Tunis Declaration. Paragraph 36 flags the potential for the use of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict which, inter alia, negatively affects achieving development goals. On 13 January 2010 the ICT4Peace Foundation created the ICT4Peace Foundation wiki on Haiti Earthquake.
ICT4peace is a policy and capacity-building oriented international foundation. The purpose is to save lives and protect human dignity through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The Foundation promotes cybersecurity and a peaceful cyberspace through international negotiations with governments, companies and non-state actors. It also explores and champions the use ICTs to facilitate communication between peoples, communities and stakeholders involved in humanitarian or conflict-related crisis management and crisis mapping, humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding. It is registered as ICT for Peace in the Geneva business directory.
The International Telecommunication Union, originally the International Telegraph Union, is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies. It is the oldest among all the 15 specialised agencies of UN.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. One of its chief aims was to bridge the global digital divide separating rich countries from poor countries by spreading access to the Internet in the developing world. The conferences established 17 May as World Information Society Day.
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of organizations that was founded in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. Pioneering the use of ICTs for civil society, especially in developing countries, APC were often the first providers of Internet in their member countries.
Information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) refers to the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) toward social, economic, and political development, with a particular emphasis on helping poor and marginalized people and communities. It aims to help in international development by bridging the digital divide and providing equitable access to technologies. ICT4D is grounded in the notions of "development", "growth", "progress" and "globalization" and is often interpreted as the use of technology to deliver a greater good. Another similar term used in the literature is "digital development". ICT4D draws on theories and frameworks from many disciplines, including sociology, economics, development studies, library, information science, and communication studies.
Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications and computers, as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audiovisual systems, that enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
'Gbenga Sesan is a social entrepreneur who delivers Information and communications technology to the under served. He has had a career in the application of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) – for individuals, institutions, nation-states, regional entities and the international community.
The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) was an institution of the Commonwealth Family that aimed to use the global network of the Commonwealth of Nations more effectively for the promotion of global trade and investment for shared prosperity. It was formed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 1997 (CHOGM) in Edinburgh, United Kingdom, and replaced in July 2014 by the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC).
The Global Development Alliance (GDA) is a program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It was created in May 2001 as a new way to effectively provide aid to developing countries through public-private partnerships. The GDA model combines the resources of corporations, foundations, the faith-based community, indigenous organizations, and other nontraditional partners, with the technical expertise and experience of the U.S. Government. It aligns public resources with private capital, expertise and networks to deepen development impact. These public-private alliances are a response to an ever-growing private sector that has the potential to have a large impact in the developing world. GDAs mobilize the combined resources of participating partners to stimulate economic growth, develop businesses and workforces, address health and environmental issues, and expand access to education and technology. Alliances are co-designed, co-managed and co-funded so that the risks, responsibilities, and rewards are equally shared amongst the partners.
The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance. It brings together all stakeholders in the Internet governance debate, whether they represent governments, the private sector or civil society, including the technical and academic community, on an equal basis and through an open and inclusive process. The establishment of the IGF was formally announced by the United Nations Secretary-General in July 2006. It was first convened in October–November 2006 and has held an annual meeting since then.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh is the chairman and founder of the international Jordan-based organisation, the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org). Dubbed as the godfather of Arab accounting, Abu-Ghazaleh has also been credited for promoting the significance of Intellectual Property in the Arab region.
Information and communication technology in agriculture, also known as e-agriculture, focuses on the enhancement of agricultural and rural development through improved information and communication processes. More specifically, e-agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. ICT includes devices, networks, mobiles, services and applications; these range from innovative Internet-era technologies and sensors to other pre-existing aids such as fixed telephones, televisions, radios and satellites. Provisions of standards, norms, methodologies, and tools as well as development of individual and institutional capacities, and policy support are all key components of e-agriculture.
Athgo International is an apolitical, not-for-profit organization that seeks to bring together people from ages 18 to 32 in a setting where they can receive orientation and be motivated to take action in one of three focus areas: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and High Tech; Environment and Energy; and Governance. Athgo was established in 1999 as an acronym for "Alliance Toward Harnessing Global Opportunities." Since April 2008, the organization decided to drop the acronym, and be known simply as Athgo.
Professor Dr K M Baharul Islam is presently the Dean of Indian Institute of Management Kashipur. He is also the Chairperson of the Center of Excellence in Public Policy and Government at the same institute. During 2016-2018 he was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, India where he worked on Translingualism and Migration. He specializes in the areas of Development Program Evaluations, Policy Analysis, Educational Institutional Development, teaching & Research, ICT Policies and e-Government in Asia and Africa. Dr Islam holds the position of Professor of Communications at Indian Institute of Management Kashipur. He is a Fellow at the US India Policy Institute in Washington DC. He has been awarded Shastri Institutional Collaborative Research Grant (2018–20) by Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute for the project on “Gender Diversity in Boardrooms and Business Schools” in collaboration with Dr Rupa Banerjee of Ryerson University, Canada. He has also been sanctioned an action research scheme project on Continuing Legal Education by the Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India (2018-2019). His conducted a Bangladesh-India study on "Co-deployment of Optical Fiber Cables along the Asian Highways and Trans-Asian Railways for E-resilience" under the Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway initiative of the United Nation's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), Bangkok.
Dr. Dhrupad Mathur works as Associate Professor in IT Management Area with S P Jain School of Global Management, Dubai UAE since 2008. Within this tenure he has served in various administrative positions including the Director of Industry Projects(Dubai) from year 2008 to 2016, then as Assistant Dean of the Executive MBA program during 2016-2017 and thereafter as Deputy Director-Faculty Management(Global) till date. S P Jain Global has been ranked among the world's top B-schools in various global rankings.. Most recently, ranked #4 for the 1-year MBA program by The Wall Street Journal Ranking 2018.
Quinn Sutton is an American business professional. He is the Executive Director of the Digital Alliance Foundation and is known for his work in the private technology education sector and his work on a variety of UN-related and humanitarian projects. In 2007, he co-founded the Digital Alliance Foundation which provides capacity-building Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) skills to marginalized populations and serves as a High-Level Advisor for the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (UNGAID).
Anriette Esterhuysen is a human rights defender and computer networking pioneer from South Africa. She has pioneered the use of Internet and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to promote social justice in South Africa and throughout the world, focusing on affordable internet access. She has been the Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications since 2000 until April 2017, when she became APC's Director of Policy and Strategy.
The Observatory on Digital Communication (OCCAM) was established in 1996 by UNESCO in Milan, with the Agreements signed by the Director General, Federico Mayor and Mayor Marco Formentini in June 1996. The acronym stands for Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual Communication in the Mediterranean.
