Like six blind men trying to understand what an elephant is all about, comprehending the Global Alliance for ICT and Development is still a challenge for most. But is it impatience, or is the GAID slow in taking off?
ICT-for-development campaigners, ever in an understandable hurry to see the sometimes-overhyped magic of information technology at work effectively, are asking questions about what role the United Nation’s latest arm could actually play.
Said South Asian journalist and ICT campaigner Nalaka Gunawardene of TVE Asia Pacific: "It’s now more than 60 days since UN-GAID was launched in Kuala Lumpur – and we are one-third into the six months that I then [at its launch], suggested [1] should be allowed ‘to prove its worth’. In the rapidly changing ICT world, that’s a long time."
Gunawardene notes that the UN-GAID now has a functional website [2] but "even after browsing carefully through its few dozen pages, I am still not clear where it is headed, or what it has been doing since the KL launch."
Even as this discussion was underway in August, via its website, the GAID sought the views of the stakeholders on possible "communities of expertise" that it said could be established under its purview. September 1, 2006 was the last date for proposals.
The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is presently involved in three proposals to form communities of expertise (CoEs); two developed by the APC WNSP (women’s programme) and one by APC as a whole. These three proposals, to be detailed in the course of September 2006, are tackling issues of financing and infrastucture.
The GAID website says that the ‘Alliance’ a term its integrants use to describe GAID would form regional networks, which will have "a large degree of autonomy in organizing themselves and their work, with a view to ensuring open, inclusive, participatory and truly global character of the alliance."
“There are participatory alliances, where the allies agree to both the process of developing the alliance as well as the content of the activities,” explains Willie Currie, APC’s Communications and Information Policy programme manager, who’s been monitoring the formation of UN-GAID. “[Then, there are] dominant alliances where one or more parties dominate the alliance and participation has a more hierarchical shape in terms of the relations of power in the alliance,” he says. “The issue with GAID is a tension between whether it will be a participatory alliance or a dominant alliance,” he warns.
According to Wikipedia, an alliance is an agreement between two or
more parties, made in order to advance common goals and to secure common
interests. Currie advocates for transparency about this. "We are interested in how the process of
forging that agreement is to be carried out, what structure of
decision-making will govern the Alliance, how parties to the Alliance will
be represented within the structure of decision-making, what the role of
the UN will be and how the Global Alliance will relate to the CSTD, the
IGF and the WSIS action lines."
[3]
Some think the start could take time
"I think that UN-GAID is a newly establish organisation working rapidly in their primary stage. After their launch, they are working on some internal interventions at this time, such as making their ToR (terms-of-reference) for different levels, preparing their working methodology, etc. They (are trying to) ensure participation in this sector, [sic]" commented AHM Bazlur Rahman, of the Bangladesh NGOs’ Network for Radio and Communication.
The Terms-of-reference quoted here refer to the modalities put in place by organisers and the various committees to make the UN-GAID operative.
Rahman, a civil society member on the strategy council of the GAID, said: "Everybody knows and we acknowledge that a UN body maintain a degree of bureaucracy and GAID is no different. We, who are doing advocacy, must build up a strong lobby inside and outside of GAID."
"There’s still no GAID-related work started at the country level. I think that GAID work will be fully started when the ToR process is complete," he said.
The official statement
In a statement on the UN-GAID website, the co-organisers of the latest Kuala Lumpur event analysed the "outcome" of the organisation’s inaugural meet held in June in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. In particular, it spoke in very vague terms of plans for cyber development corps under the supervision of the UN to foster south-south collaborations, and resource centres “to build human capital […] and to facilitate sharing of best practice”. GAID said it "recognised" sixteen priorities that can all be viewed under http://www.un-gaid.org/kl06/kl_outcome.html
Calling the meeting "a rich two-day dialogue, debate and exchange of views on the mission, substantive focus and modalities of work of the Alliance" the note added that "all the participants agreed that the time has come to translate declarations and commitments made at the WSIS into action that would indeed make a tangible and sustained difference in the lives of billions of people who currently do not share in the benefits of the information revolution."
"In the area of ICT, the best minds of the world are busy solving the problems of the rich. The Alliance will help put the problems and needs of the majority of humanity onto the ‘radar screens’ of thinkers, business executives and government decision makers," it added.
It promised to "inspire and inform, advocate and catalyze, initiate and support ICT-for-Development activities" through cooperation involving governments, the private sector (large corporations and small entrepreneurs), development and financial institutions, and other stakeholders."
Credible ?
Critics like Gunawardene however didn’t get the questions to their answers in that meeting. "UN-GAID takes pains to explain what it is not (not implementer, or funder of ICT projects). But what is it then – an aggregator of others’ efforts; facilitator for action; authenticator of ICTD; or just another UN programme with a top-heavy bureaucracy?" he asked. He continued: What is the value added it can and does bring to post-WSIS discussions and progress towards clarity, sense of purpose and momentum in ICT/ICTD? Does it really have the structure, mandate and intellectual capabilities to function as a neutral platform acceptable to governments, civil society, industry and academia alike?
"The world is weary of endless UN hype and we can do without another self-important and expensive UN operation, no matter what caveats it comes with. KL was not an auspicious start, and post-KL performance is unimpressive. UN-GAID still has a chance to make it work, but time is running out," said Gunawardene.
Commented Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) executive director Rinalia Abdul Rahim: "I have no comments at the moment except that my offer of GKP’s Third Global Knowledge Conference on Emerging People, Emerging Markets and Emerging Technologies in December 2007 still stands as a platform for GAID to measure its progress. I am waiting for the outcomes from their Steering Committee to see which direction they would take," she told APCNews.
1 http://blog.apc.org/en/index.shtml?x=5038580
[2] http://www.un-gaid.org
3 CSTD: Commission on Science and Technology for Developement (UN agency)
IGF: Internet Gorvernance Forum
WSIS: World Summit on the Information Society
