Development Gateway Newsletter - July / August 2004
August 11, 2004.
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-51 Country Gateways Meet and Exchange Experiences
-Status Report of Development Gateway Activities in the Last Year
-MDG Series on 'Youth Employment: Providing Opportunity, Reducing Poverty'
- New Tool Piloted to Help Coordinate Development in Five Countries...
-...As Faith-Based Organizations Also Collect Data
- ICT for Development: Interview with Prof. Yunus of Grameen Bank
- Country Gateway Briefs from Benin, Ecuador, and Uruguay
- New Partners: Young Americas Business Trust, UNDP, and more
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51 Country Gateways Meet and Exchange Experiences -
The Development Gateway Foundation and the Country Gateways it is helping to establish around the world have created a new Country Gateway Network. On the
network, Country Gateways can exchange their ideas and experiences as local development portals, as they also collaborate and share products and services.
The Country Gateway Network charter was signed at the first global meeting of the Country Gateways, held in Bonn, Germany in June. Teams from 51 countries
attended the meeting, exchanging information about country successes and challenges, and forming personal contacts as they build a strong and viable
community.
Visit the Country Gateway Network site: topics.developmentgateway.org/cgn/
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Status Report of Development Gateway Activities in the Last Year -
June marked the end of our fiscal year and a status report has been developed to highlight the achievements of the Development Gateway efforts to put
information systems in the service of development. Results of the last year include doubling the number of members of the global portal from 50,000 to
100,000 and increasing the number of dgMarket national tendering platforms from one to seven. We also improved knowledge sharing and collaboration among
the Country Gateways and developed new products and services to support national aid management, such as the Local Projects Database.
For more information, read the Development Gateway Status Report at: www.developmentgateway.org/download/249516/StatusReport.pdf
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MDG Series on 'Youth Employment: Providing Opportunity, Reducing Poverty' -
Eighty-five percent of the world's 88.2 million unemployed youth live in developing countries, according to the International Labor Organization. This high
youth unemployment rate not only undermines the potential of the next generation of people in these countries, but the near-term economic and social
security of the nations themselves. The Development Gateway's latest Cross-Topic Special addresses this issue as it focuses on Target 16 of Goal 8 of the
United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at developing a global partnership for creating economic opportunities for youth. It coincides
with UN International Youth Day on August 12.
Starting August 11, read "Youth Employment: A Path to Economic Opportunity and Poverty Reduction" at:
www.developmentgateway.org/topics/special/youthemployment
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New Tool Piloted to Help Coordinate Development in Five Countries... -
A Development Gateway tool for better coordination of development projects has been piloted by Country Gateways in Colombia, Mongolia, Morocco, Poland, and
Romania. The tool, with the working name of Local Projects Database (LPD), is being used by the Country Gateways in various ways; for instance, the Morocco
Development Gateway is using the LPD for their Development Cooperation Report, a U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) instrument for coordination and tracking
of international assistance. In Poland, the LPD is being used to collect information on projects implemented by Polish local administrations and the
European Union. The Colombia Development Gateway is gathering ICT data for development projects. The Mongolia Development Gateway is working with civil
society organizations to manage their project information and in Romania, the Open Society Institute is engaging non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to
use the LPD to share information about their activities. During the pilots, Country Gateways installed the LPD, translated its navigation into their local
languages, collected the first set of local data, and tested the sharing of this data between the LPD and AiDA (Accessible Information on Development
Activities), the global directory of development projects and activities hosted by the Development Gateway.
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...As Faith-Based Organizations Also Collect Data -
The Development Gateway has been supporting the World Faiths Development Dialogue, an initiative that facilitates the dialogue on poverty and development
among people from different religions, to collect and insert data for the LPD. Data was collected from the field in Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi.
Two fieldworkers visited faith-based communities, and information on 120 activities was gathered and put into the system. This pilot has provided an
excellent opportunity for the LPD team to learn better ways to serve the development community with this application.
For more information write to LPD@dgfoundation.org
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ICT for Development: Interview with Prof. Yunus of Grameen Bank -
We invite you to visit the ICT for Development topic page, which is featuring an interview with Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and winner of
the Development Gateway's first-ever Petersberg Prize for outstanding achievement in using information and communication technologies for development. In
this interview, he describes how Grameen Bank's Village Phone Program has created a class of women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh who, in turn, provide
essential communications in rural communities.
Read the interview at: topics.developmentgateway.org/ict
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Country Gateway Briefs from Benin, Ecuador, and Uruguay - PlanetFinance Benin has been conducting a complete E-Readiness Assessment with a focus on NGOs
and development. This study follows one that was performed in 2003 by the UNDP and will provide details on the use of ICT by NGOs who are the primary
beneficiaries of the Benin Country Gateway.
Visit the Benin Country Gateway at: www.developmentgateway.org/node/678903/interpage/index
The research team of the Ecuador Country Gateway is finishing the collection and analysis of information on state-of-the-art ICT in Ecuador, as part of an
E-Readiness Assessment, in the following four sectors: social, educational, entrepreneurial, and governmental. Several workshops will be organized in
cooperation with civil society, private enterprises, and government to present the collected data and validate it with the help of various stakeholders.
Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian Electronic Commerce Corporation (CORPECE), a member of the Ecuador Development Portal MAXIMIZAR (Ecuador Country Gateway),
conducted research to determine Ecuador's Connectivity Index. The new index will help define ICT policies for the country, providing data that reflect the
reality of Ecuador. Prior to this, only global indexes that did not reflect real local data were used. The index is expected to be an important tool for
ICT development in Ecuador.
Visit the Ecuador Country Gateway at: www.conectividad.gov.ec/paginas/coungatw.htm
The new, fully operational English version of the Uruguay Country Gateway portal is now available online at: www.portaluruguay.net/ingles/html/
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New Partners: Young Americas Business Trust, UNDP, and More -
As the Development Gateway portal continues to build online communities for information sharing on key development topics, it has partnered with the Young
Americas Business Trust, a non-profit organization promoting youth entrepreneurship and employment, affiliated with the Organization of American States
(OAS). The Trust has become a Cooperating Organization on the Youth for Development topic page. Boris Demidov, of the Legal Information Resource Center,
Moscow, is the new Co-Guide on the Governance topic page. The Democratic Governance Division of the UNDP Regional Center for Europe also became a new
Cooperating Organization on the Governance page. Guides, advisors, and cooperating organizations all play important roles in contributing and managing the
Development Gateway portal's content.
To learn more about becoming a partner, go to: www.developmentgateway.org/node/190911/gettinginvolved
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Development Gateway Forum Speakers Cite ICT's Role -
"The issue is not whether it is worthwhile for us to make use of information and communication technologies, but rather how best we can use it to meet the
needs of our people and to enable us to achieve our development objectives," Rwanda President Paul Kagame told attendees at the recent Development Gateway
Forum. Forum speakers, whose papers are available on the web, recounted their experiences in using ICT to improve people's lives in the developing world.
In Rwanda, which has launched a Rwanda Development Gateway and research and training centers, e-government is a major focus, President Kagame said, and
government officials are being equipped with skills and tools for more effective administration. Romain Murenzi, Rwanda's Minister of Education, Science,
Technology, and Scientific Research, also underscored his country's recently adopted plan aimed at transforming the country into an information- and
technology-based, middle-income economy by the year 2020. Bulgaria Deputy Prime Minister Lydia Shouleva described how her administration is using
information systems to take more ownership of the development agenda in her country, rather than playing the role of monitor to international aid agencies.
"Introducing such an information system increased the communication efficiency not only among donors, but also within the government itself," Shouleva
said. Lidia Brito, Mozambique's Minister for Higher Education, Science, and Technology, said that "ICT is placed high as a tool to improve service delivery
within government and to the public; however the change process requires transformation of the organizational culture."
Forum papers are available at: www.devforum.org
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What Others are Saying About the Development Gateway -
I found this to be an excellent website for exchange of ideas and interaction to improve professional domain knowledge. The opportunity for intellectual
input exchange is very good and exciting. Congratulations to the team for the excellent work done. I am sure content will further improve with continuous
effort. P. Subrahmanyam
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July and August Combined Newsletter -
Don't forget - We will be taking a break in the next month so there will be only one newsletter issued over July and August. In September, we will resume
monthly newsletters.
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The Development Gateway portal provides interactive content and resources on development, including more than 30 online communities on key development
topics, the AiDA directory of development projects, the dgMarket online public tendering service, and Country Gateways in more than 50 developing nations.
The portal is a service of the Development Gateway Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization. As an enabler of development, the Development Gateway
Foundation works to improve people's lives by building partnerships and information systems that provide access to knowledge for development.
For more information, visit www.developmentgateway.org or send an email to info@dgfoundation.org
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