Background Created in 1998, the Internet Corporation for the Assignment of Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a US non-profit organization based in Los Angeles, California that is in charge of managing the allocation of Internet domain names and IP (Internet Protocol) addresses on a global scale. Although at first sight its core functions can be…

ITU has been providing support to the UN’s OWG while promoting at the same time the importance of ICTs in the post-2015 agenda. This process has been going on for a few months and apparently discussions on the subject have taken place at several fora. I was however not aware of this. So I was…

For the last few years, UAE has developed comprehensive policies and programmes to establish a National ID system. Institutionally, the country created in 2004 the Emirates ID Authority which has been leading efforts at the national level. In a country with less than 6 million people and average GDP/capita of close to 30,000 USD the…

Context Access to both new technology platforms, such as social networks and mobile technologies, and faster networks has enabled millions if not billions to share information on a global scale. The fact that most of these new platforms are private and operate in quasi oligopolistic fashion, has facilitated the concentration of data in a few…

Last Friday, UNDP Delhi sent me a message indicating that the RC will be participating in the 17th National e-governance meeting in Kochi, Kerala (see  http://www.nceg.gov.in/. I also recieved a copy of the draft agenda and was informed that the RC will be speaking about e-governance and business process re-engineering  -and not on e-participation which…

For the last few months, the Development Management Branch (DMB) of UNDESA’s Division of Public Administration and Development Management (DPADM, see here for organogram of DPADM) has been working in developing a e-participation methodology for use by UN member states to assess the level of people’s engagement with the public sector .

After a an apparently very quiet 2013, interest in SPI seems to be making a big comeback. Most of the people that were involved in SPI 1.0 have moved on, including the staff at Brazil’s Ministry of Planning (MP). New staff, under the supervision of a former director who has rejoined the Ministry, have picked…

The first meeting of the Advisory Board for the WB’s Digital Engagement Framework took place yesterday morning. Participants included WB staff from various sectors as well as external partners (and remote participants) such as UNDP, OECD and the EU among others. We have been supporting this work for the last 10 months or so (see…

Got a request from DGG Directorate to furnish last minute inputs on the above for an anti-corruption meeting in Panama this week. This is what I sent. Needs editing and further thought. Potential of new ICT and networking technologies (latter are important) Streamline cumbersome government processes Increase the efficiency of the public sector Create new…

Last month, UNDP took part in the Seoul Cyberspace conference and we provided the inputs to BDP (see http://blog.raulza.me/?p=2379) for its engagement on a panel on capacity building. The Seoul gathering produced a framework as well as a series of recommendations and programmes that will support cyberspace, particularly in least develop countries. At the same…

UNDP Colombia is keen in beefing up its support to e-governance in the country by focusing on local governments – as the office has an important portfolio of projects that support local communities (see for example http://bit.ly/1fr1H0h). At the same time, the country has a rather large and well-known Digital Government (Gobierno en Línea) initiative…

As mentioned in a previous post, I am working in the development of a couple of the new UNDP IRRF indicators. Indicator 7.6.1 addresses innovative public-private partnerships but seems to put the emphasis on the mechanisms that UNDP country offices can use to forge such partnerships. I had an early meeting with a KICG colleague who…

Earlier today we had a good meeting with the LG DGG team to discuss possible synergies. LG is organizing, in partnership with the Brazilian government, a  large event in Foz de Iguazu  where at least 20 UNDP COs will be represented. LG is keen in pushing ICTs and innovation from the start to capitalize on…