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ICT4D

ICT for Development

Entries Tagged as 'ict4d'

08 Dec 2011

Special Session of the 32nd International Geographical Congress IGC2012: Information and communication technologies for development and human well-being: perspectives from six continents.

The IGC is the global conference for geographers worldwide, and Germany is host country in 2012. We, the UNESCO Chair/Centre in ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London and Mark Wilson from Michigan State University are organising an ICT4D session and would welcome abstracts/papers from colleagues (academics and practitioners from all different disciplines) working on ICTs, development and well-being, in the global South and/or the global North. The deadline for abstracts is Jan 8, so please send them in soon.    

The full Call for Papers has been posted here:

http://www.e-agriculture.org/events/32nd-international-geographical-congress-igc2012

If you want to submit a paper please submit an abstract of up to 250 words to Dorothea Kleine (dorothea.kleine@rhul.ac.uk) and Mark Wilson (wilsonmm@msu.edu) and/or the online registration form at www.igc2012.org by 8th January 2012.

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Posted by Dorothea Kleine

21 Sep 2011

From 25 September to 6 October 2011 Katalyst and e-Agriculture will organize a new online forum to discuss the challenges of linking impact with the use of ICTs in agriculture. This forum will discuss the present practices and critical issues (regarding both implementation and monitoring) of ICT initiatives in agriculture.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an emerging area focusing on the enhancement of the agricultural and rural development. Many farmers and rural entrepreneurs generally lack access to accurate and timely information on markets, production processes, crops and livestock disease; as well as access to services such as land registrations, permits, government regulation forms, and internet.

In the past few years, ICT initiatives in agriculture have proliferated and the resources devoted to ICT in development portfolios have expanded in the hope that ICT can help developing countries reach the Millennium Development Goals. Yet, rigorous field-tested knowledge about “what works and why” have been relatively scarce, as well as a deeper understanding of the enabling conditions and success factors in ICT for development initiatives.

[Read more →]

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Posted by Anja Kiefer

28 Jul 2011

Today, we have published this summer issue of the ict4d Newsletter, including:

Take a look!

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Posted by Benjamin Barutzki

12 Jul 2011

In Turin there were be invited by GIZ and ITC/ILO 17 people coming from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. They came together to learn more about Open ECBCheck certification procedure which includes the self assessment and later the peer reviewing. At the end of the year they want to review at least 5 courses or programmes.

Open ECBCheck is a global initiative consisting of UN agencies (e.g. FAO, UNITAR, ITC/ILO) and other international capacity building initiatives (e.g. IICD, EFQUEL) and has been started 3 years ago by GIZ and EFQUEL. An international community has been created during that time, which agrees nowadays on a quality standard and criteria. The common interest is to “harmonize efforts of standards” and to “be divers” as well to be “inclusive” through a shared framework. For more and more leaders in educational organizations, professionals and developers of learning materials, authors or curriculum designers quality of ICT enhanced learning is an issue. Open ECBCheck is providing a toolset for developing and checking quality of programs and courses.

For further Information download the PDF version or contact Monika Soddemann (GIZ Senior Project Manager at the E-Learning Center).

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Posted by Benjamin Barutzki

31 May 2011

GIZ’s Volker Lichtenthäler in discussion with Dr Robert Kisusu of "The Local Government Training Institute of Tanzania" and another visitor of the GIZ stand.“Quality, open innovation and the GC21 E-Academy” – these themes have been at the core of GIZ’s engagement at eLearning Africa, the continents largest conference on ICT for development, education and training. The ‘Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)’ reached out to the more than 1700 participants from all over the world gathering in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from May 25 to 27.

[Read more →]

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Posted by Balthas Seibold

29 Apr 2011

We have recently published the new issue of the ict4d-Newsletter, including:

Enjoy!

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Posted by Benjamin Barutzki

26 Jan 2011

More networking of African IT specialists with Europe and joint building of advanced training materials – this is what a new partnership of GIZ’s ict@innovation programme with the Europe-wide ‘Free Technology Academy’ (FTA) is all about. ict@innovation is an African capacity building programme which supports small and medium ICT enterprises (IT-SME) to create a business model with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and aims to encourage the growth of African ICT industries.

[Read more →]

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Posted by Balthas Seibold

07 Jan 2011

This personal learning reflection is based on over 7 years of engagement within the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Development sphere notably with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It aims to spark a critical reflection on initial lessons to be learned exploring (a) why the strategic integration of ICTs is simply not easy while (b) formulating 3 lessons learned for future application. Lessons to spark the discussion include (1) Applying the 7 C’s Approach beyond Infrastructure and Hardware only (2) Overcoming the Mainstreaming Dilemma to Focus on bottom-up strategic integration and (3) Streamlining strategic ICT-Integration approaches with General and Theme-Specific Standard Operating Procedures / Instruments. Many thanks to the GTZ ICT-Team for offering this space!

Join the reflection process at  http://www.sdc-learningandnetworking-blog.admin.ch/2010/12/08/simple-but-not-easy-why-strategic-integration-of-icts-into-development-programmes-is-simply-not-easy/

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Posted by Patrick Kalas

04 Jan 2011

I just found this new publication by Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is giving a good overview of Finland’s current ICT4D strategy and running programmes. Its interesting to see that there is a strong focus on building local innovation capacities, business incubation and linking entrepreneurship to  technologies for the poor (and of course mobile solutions – its Finland after all…). Cheers and happy new year. And here’s the link: http://www.formin.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=208262&nodeid=34605&contentlan=2&culture=en-US

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Posted by Balthas Seibold

22 Nov 2010

Two days filled with discussions, presentations, and thoughts on the role of ICT for the economic development of rural areas have come to an end.
Thank you all for participating and for contributing so actively! For all those of you who followed us online thanks for your interest – and hopefully you could take away some of the points of interest that were discussed in Berlin.
As Maren Kneller of BMZ has stated in her welcome address, “the role of ICT cannot be overestimated.” Examples from different projects have shown us ways in which the potential of ICT for rural economic development can be put into practice. However, ICT will always remain a tool, not the objective of such projects. Therefore, it is highly relevant to measure and monitor the impact of ICT4D interventions and to keep in mind that although the technology matters, its implementation must always follow a needs-based approach. [Read more →]

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Posted by Anja Kiefer

22 Nov 2010

I had the good fortune to participate in three fascinating events this month, all with overlapping themes that matter to Kabissa but taking different approaches and targeting different communities. If you were at one of these events, I’d like to invite you to check out the other ones and look for collaboration opportunities. Please also join Kabissa, add your organizations working in Africa to the Kabissa directory and introduce yourself in the groups. (crossposted from Kabissa ICT Peer Learning group) [Read more →]

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Posted by Tobias Eigen

21 Nov 2010

The ICT for Rural Economic Development conference jointly organized by GTZ and BMZ from 18-19 November 2010 in Berlin, concluded on Friday 19 November with an engaging panel discussion on “What role can development cooperation play in ICT for rural economic development?”

The two day event brought together numerous practitioners, policy makers, donor organizations and private sector players. The event allowed colleagues to interact, network and share their rich experience and at the same time put on the table a number of challenges. [Read more →]

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Posted by Roxanna Samii