A recent report indicates that we are now creating 2.5 quintillion (1 followed by 18 zeros) everyday thanks to the explosion of new technologies and mobile devices. This is what now is known as big data.  The big issue with big data is the fact that almost 90% of such data is unstructured and thus…

Late last week I got a short notice request from both BoM and ITU to join an impromptu e conference call to discuss UNDP’s contribution to the inter-agency paper we are drafting. As I was unavailable in such notice, we all agree to  rescheduled the call for early this week. The day of the call…

Unlike last year, the GWG has set more modest goals for the annual Broadband Commission NY which usually precedes the opening of the UN General Assembly. This is probably the result of two things: 1. The upcoming change of the USG that heads the ITU and the resulting uncertainty as to the future of the…

The Broadband Commission Working Group on Gender has agreed to produce a short digital report for the upcoming meeting in New York on 21 September. Below is the draft outline I shared with the thematic cluster leaders who are supposed to complete 2 or 3 case studies. Case studies are a powerful way of sharing…

Here is the final version of the interview I did for the above. The final text was edited by Aid Connect staff. A pdf version of the magazine that contains the interview is here. Tell us about your background and experience I’m the Global Lead and Senior Policy Advisor on ICT for Development and e-governance…

After a few long weeks of silence, I got an unexpected message from the innovation center asking me if there was any chance that they could drop the participation element from the overall e-governance framework we shared with them during the mission last March. Even though the constitution of the Western Cape calls for public…

As it is now customary, we will be participating in this years’ WSIS review gathering in Geneva.  But this time it seems to be a very especial occasion for three reasons: 1. UNGIS, led by ITU, is pushing hard to have another global gathering right after the new development agenda is endorsed by the UN…

We received a request from the RR in Tunis on the above. Apparently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is keen on moving on this as e-visas are a) a good way to capture revenue; and b) a starting point for strengthening security concerns at the national level  -with some inherent risks involved in terms of…

UNDP South Africa has been invited to be part of an expert group meeting that will discuss on the policy, legal and technical requirements for Open Government in South Africa on 5 – 6 June. Here are the remarks we drafted that will be delivered by UNDP’s Country Director

Below is the concluding sections of a crowdsourcing paper we submitted to ICEGOV 2014 for possible publication later in the year. 4.4 Main Findings All three examples studied above were undertaken by provincial and local governments where development gaps are usually more glaring. This indicates that in most cases it is probably better to start…

I was one of the 7 panellists that participated in The Guardian’s live chat on the role of technology in advancing the MDG agenda. The panel included a couple of experts on humanitarian aid which in my book is a bit different from actual development assistance. In any even below are some onf my inputs.…

As part of the CEB cybersec working group, UNDP has agreed to take the lead in two of the five thematic areas identified by the CEB Steering Committee, namely the role of cybersec in development and the post2015 agenda, and the coordination of cybersec activities of all UN agencies via UNDG. Below is the first…

Love is Colder than Death, that is the title of a film made a famous and now dead German director. This seems to be the case with IBM as our partnership refuses to die but it is usually very cold, most of the time. That is until I get this very unexpected messages from our…

For the last few months, OCHA has been developing the idea of launching a humanitarian data lab (or hub) which it sees as an expansion of the work that has been undertaken for several years now, IRIN included. The latest concept note was shared last week a few days before the conference call that took…

The Administrator will be participating  in this event on Contributions of North-South, South-South, Triangular Cooperation, and ICT for Development to the implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda which take place at the UN in New York on 21-22 May. She will be making a 10 minute speech. ExO has requested inputs from South-South, Post2015 and our…