TechPlus+

Category: e-governance

  • Weekly Update: 28 January

    Although I missed two additional phone call with the ITU et.al., I was able to join one on Wednesday which essentially dealt with the logistics of the upcoming WSIS meetings that will take place in Geneva in mid-May. The call was rather long and not very interesting as discussions centered on logistics. There seems to…

  • Weekly Update: 21 January

    Lengthy conference call with Brazilian counterparts on the Public Software regional programme. We have agreed to focus 2011 efforts in producing a report on the project that can be shared with and used by other developing countries that are looking to implement similar initiatives. The report will be published in 3 languages and distributed across…

  • Migration of BDP Networks to Teamworks

    This is a message a sent to the KM team on the above subject. Although I have not seen any official communication from the KM team, I have heard from my DGG KM colleagues that all BDP networks are supposed to be fully migrated into the new TW platform by 1 March. I also have…

  • Weekly Update: 14 January

    Back to the office after one month away. Probably the longest time I have been away on leave since I joined UNDP. Lots of email to reply but luckily I was checking my mail box on a regular basis. Demand from the field is increasing. This week alone I interacted with: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, Iraq,…

  • José Saramago

    I first heard about Saramago in the early 1990s but only managed to read him a few years later, before the end of the Millennium. I went for O Evangelho segundo Jesus Cristo which was originally published in 1991 and had created quite a stir, particularly with the Catholic Church. This in itself increased my…

  • Used Computers in Developing Countries

    I. Background UNDP has been supporting the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for Development since the early 1990s. As a direct follow-up to the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, UNDP was requested to implement key areas of Agenda 21 which included a critical information sharing component. UNDP decided to implement…

  • In Baghdad, finally…

    The sealed envelope I received from UNIMA’s reception had my name on it as well as room number: 2b. That did not tell me anything. As we left the reception area, a woman greeted one of the UNDP colleagues and said that the Compound bar, called UNdercover -or secondary triage area, was still open for…

  • Heading to Baghdad IV: Sorting out the “last mile”

    By the time the Rhinos arrived at Stables, I was almost out of stamina. The 3 plus hours we had to wait to board the armored buses were the worse for me. They seemed like 3 years. I tried not to sit much as that would inevitably crown the sleeping elf. And knowing the Stables…

  • Heading to Baghdad III: A time-space warp

    No one on the team traveling to Iraq was very excited about missing the helicopter. Most of them had slept close to nothing in the last 24 hours and were really yearning for a comfortable place to rest. I was a bit ahead of all of them -actually, 8 hours ahead, thanks to my own…

  • Heading to Baghdad II: So close but yet so far

    It still seemed like the middle of the night when we exited the plane and started walking on the tarmac. A UN security guide was leading us into the US Army base located at the airport. The base is called Camp Sather (see here for more details) and has been in place since the invasion…

  • Heading to Baghdad I: A step at a time

    This is the third time in the last 4 months that I have done the NY-Amman leg. I have been to Jordan several times since 2003. But this was the first time I was coming to Jordan to take off the following day to another country. The original plan, designed many weeks ago, was to…

  • Antalya: Going to the Airport

    The eGovShare 2009 meeting (http://edem.egovshare2009.org/ organized by the Government of Turkey and UNDP (among others) was held in the Kervansaray Hotel which is located in Lara, to the east of Antalya. The hotel has a U-shape. There is a 300 meter long hall in the middle of the U. All rooms face outwards and the…

  • Latinux Magazine Interview

    “Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are not an end in itself but rather a means to reach people and enhance their lives.” (Raúl Zambrano) Born in Colombia, Raul Zambrano is trained as an engineer, sociologist and economist. He currently works as ICT and e-governance policy advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) headquarters in…

  • Mobile Technologies (MTs) and Human Development: Harnessing the potential to tackle social exclusion

    Brief Concept Note Prepared for Ericsson Background The exponential growth of mobile technologies in the last 8 years surprised even the more optimistic observers. Today, close to 3.5 million people have access to a cell phone, a number that dwarfs the existing number of Internet users (about 1.2 billion), particularly in developing countries. Africa is…