Initial plans for our work to support BBGWG (see http://blog.raulza.me/?p=2041) changed dramatically as the private donor who had publicly committed to support the WG pulled the funding. As a result, we had to rapidly craft a plan B which was coordinated by the ITU’s Broadband Commission Secretariat. ITU agreed to provide a coordinator for the drafting…

Following on our mission of last year, the CO was finally able to recruit an international consultant who was in the country for almost 5 weeks. The consultant produced a series of documents which incorporated many recommendations and areas of work. The CO provided detailed comments to the consultant -which were also shared with me,…

Background UNDP is the development network on the United Nations. On the ground in 177 countries and territories, UNDP offers both global perspectives and local insights to help empower lives and build resiliency in developing countries. The organization is also helping nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were set by the international…

OGC is starting research on the above is partnership wit the German Development Institute (GDI, http://bit.ly/13kqp04). A researcher from GDI has already completed a paper on the Tunisian revolution (see http://bit.ly/13kqFML) and thus has inside expertise on the topic. OGC has drafted a concept note (OGC-Concept Note_Social Media & Social Protest and has already met…

For the last few months I have been in touch with the ICT4Gov project of WBI Open Government team exploring ways to work together and build a stronger ground for the real potential and impact of ICTs in governance. More specifically, the idea is to explore in detail how ICTs actually enhance citizen/stakeholder participation in…

Since its formal launching on September 2011 here in New York, we have been following very closely the activities of the partnership. In addition, several UNDP Country Offices have in fact engaged with national OGP activities and support the implementation of  national Open Government Action Plans. Included here are, among others, Montenegro and Ukraine. A…

Last week we meet with the DGG LG advisor to discuss ways in which we could work together. The NTF of the meeting is here. The new focus of UNDP’s approach to local governance will be urban environments but not just large cities. With resilience in mind, the idea is to target fast growing cities…

I received an informal request from UNDP’s post-2015 team to submit a short proposal on ICTs and governance. While it is not yet clear what kind of activities the post-2015 UNDG project will be funding,  one of the ideas that have been floating around is to support concrete on the ground projects  -but hopefully not…

Last week we had a follow-up meeting with Telefónica. We are basically working on three distinct tracks while trying to build a partnership with the company. They are: 1. Global events; 2. MyWorld support in LAC where input to the survey  has been very limited; and 3. Building a regional programme where Telefónica can contribute…

A week on Monday we were asked by the Director of the Practice to prepare a short and sharp text on the work we do so she can make a push for it before her departure. Here is what we prepared with inputs from the egov team. Cheers, Raúl

UNDP Kenya is launching  a new project called Digital Information Centres for Innovation and Development. The prodoc is here. Here are the comments we shared back with the CO, with inputs for egov team members.

Following on a previous request from KSA, I received a follow-up question from the Project Manager in Riyadh. The question was: how to prepare structures to support OSS development industry in the Kingdom?” Here is what I sent back to the Kingdom.

Building on the momentum generated by the Open Government Partnership, the Omidyar Foundation announce last last December the launching of a 45 milliom USD fund to “Make all Voices Count”.  The idea is to provide people, citizens and stakeholders with innovative tools and methods to engage more effectively with governments, both local and national. In…

It seems that DGG, in addition to help draft UNDP’s corporate Youth Strategy, is also planning to launch a complementary virtual platform to give additional voice to the youth. As I understand it, the platform will essentially use multi-media channels to capture the voices of young people (under 25 years of age, in case you…

UNDP Administrator will be participating in this annual meeting (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/activate) and we got a request for speaking points on governance and privacy. Below is what I submitted. Role of ICTs in building open and responsive institutions