Met with the head of UNMC who has been asked by BDP management to work on the campaign/mobilization side of the psot-2105 process. She expressed some concern about our capacity to deliver on the project output related to the web platform and demanded to know if we have any resources allocated to it. I was a bit surprised by this line in inquire as was the DGG director who joined the meeting for the first 30 minutes. The meeting ended almost 90 minutes later with the agreement to work on the governance mechanisms for both the platform and the overall process.
While UNMC has good contacts with some global civil society organizations (GCAP, http://www.whiteband.org/, Beyond 2012, http://www.beyond2015.org/, Civicus, https://www.civicus.org/, etc.) it is not aware of networks such as APC (Association for Progressive Communications, http://www.apc.org/), an old partner of UNDP that supported SDNP in the 1990s, and multi-stakeholder mechanisms supported by the UN, such as the Internet Governance Forum (IFG, http://www.intgovforum.org). I have started contact with the latter two to explore ways to bring them into the table. Their advantage is that they also are knowledgeable about ICTs and and ICT for Development.
The senior consultant we recruited to help us deliver the SDNP (and beyond) report for Rio+20 was in New York for most of the week. We managed to get him to interview quite a few people who have been involved in the Rio+2o process this time around. Not surprisingly, most were not aware of our previous support to Rio+2o and all the ICTD work we did back then. The consultant is now expected to prepare a draft outline by the end of next week.
The RR/RC from Costa Rica dropped by to discuss the FOSS project we are supporting in the country. The proposed diagnostic report on the status of FOSS is being undertaken by a national consultant who used to be a staff member at the General Comptrollers Office. The report is intended to raise some policy issues at the highest levels and will focus on issues related to fiscal austerity, developing national capacitities and fostering basic technological independence for the country -let is not forget that Intel still has a microchip factory in the country which has had some multiplier effects and help create a small to medium tech sector already.
Cheers, Raúl
