Commonwealth Secretariat Can Play Catalytic Role in ICT Development
25 August 2005
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| "The Secretariat can serve as an agent for the dissemination of ICT know-how." |
Mr Alamango stated that the CAPDD Co-ordinating Committee's report to ICT ministers meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in September 2005 addresses the identification, securing and management of shareable Commonwealth ICT resources (both virtual and human), as well as mechanisms to facilitate and promote projects. He also acknowledged the critical role of a co-ordinating body.
"The Secretariat can serve as an agent for the dissemination of ICT know-how, and use its strong networking capabilities to bring together key organisations for collaboration," he told the Commonwealth News and Information Service in an interview in London, UK.
"The main step is to harness the resources that the Commonwealth already has. There is a lot of know-how, documentation and public domain software which can be shared. But it needs a lot of co-ordination, promotion, assembly and disseminating of this information. Central direction and resources are required for this core effort.
"Harnessing know-how is not money-intensive. Every developing country has intellectual assets that can be contributed, particularly nations like India and South Africa. We do not need to depend solely on traditional North-South flows."
Governments, he said, should play a major role in driving the process forward.
"We hope that governments will be willing to make available their own repositories of information, documentation, best practices, specifications, but also to contribute skills which might be free or on a cost-recovery basis, rather than on commercial rates. The Commonwealth can tap into these existing resources and transfer knowledge between agencies and governments. The facilitation of national and sectoral ICT strategies are also important to provide context and cohesion for all other related activities."
Mr Alamango stated that the Secretariat and its partners can be engaged in mobilising resources through other multilateral and development channels, as well as through private and public sector participation. Voluntary contributions can be financial and also in kind.
Professor Victor Ayeni, Director of the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Secretariat and chair of the CAPDD Co-ordinating Committee, agreed that the public and private sectors can have a valuable input in the success of the CAPDD. He said Commonwealth organisations can play contributory roles as well in regional and global networking to promote the developmental priorities of member states. He stated that the Secretariat, in partnership with COMNET-IT, the Commonwealth Business Council, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, Commonwealth of Learning, Commonwealth Partnership for Technology Management and international development agencies, can achieve greater impact in furthering ICT development and narrowing the digital divide.
"We need to continue devising strategies to accelerate progress on the CAPDD and to operationalise programmes in order to achieve the Commonwealth's vision of widespread accessibility of ICT, so that societies and economies can benefit from knowledge, technology, trade, communications and information. All these impact positively on the empowerment of women, improvement in education, poverty eradication and wealth creation," said Professor Ayeni.
CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 249, 24 August 2005
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