TechPlus+ | Technology & Development Redux

  • Weekly Update: 15 July

    This week was essentially focused on the upcoming BDP agenda for change and the follow-up to the GMM. I posted some of my inputs earlier in the week in this space. Overall,  BDP seems to be taking a low profile approach to the change process being push by top managers. If anything, BDP should prepare…

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  • BDP Change Process

    BDP has been asked to submit a three page document to the AA by Friday. Below are some of the inputs I provided. Here are additional inputs as well as 5 slides on the KM cycle that you might want to share at the meeting tomorrow 1. It is essential for BDP to seriously take…

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  • Weekly Update: 8 July

    I was on leave most of the week although I was checking email all the time. If I don’t then I will spend a lot of time just catching up on reviewing and replying to accumulated emails. Here are some small bits: the Bangladesh evaluation mission is on.The CO wants to start the consultancy before…

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  • Internet and Economic Growth

    As part of the so-called “Internet Freedom” agenda which is being pushed by several Western Democracies, we can also find a complementary economic development agenda that highlights the potential growth and job creation benefits of the Internet. The recent G-8 meeting in Paris had a two day e-G8 forum (see http://www.eg8forum.com/en/) which mainly focused on…

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  • Weekly Update: 1 July

    The GMM (global management meeting, previously knows ad tte global RR meeting) took place this week in Tarrytown, North of NYC. I heard that close to 300 people took part in the meeting. Substantive discussions before the meeting were arranged using TeamWorks but were closed to the general UNDP public. At least 7 additional groups…

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  • Weekly Update: 24 June

    The mMDGs saga seems to be finally coming to and end. The programmer that the company we recruited appointed for follow-up is indeed very good and responsive. The final beta version is now ready as is the capability of uploading new data into the app without having to touch the source code. I still need…

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  • More on Development 2.0

    This is a reply to one of the techies of the KM group who inexplicably went after a few comments I posted on the Development 2.0 space.Go figure! Hi Johannes, I have been fortunate enough to have been in UNDP since it first started using ICTs for our development programmes, back in 1992. The core…

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  • Weekly Update: 17 June

    Yet another mission got a no go signal at the last moment. But this time the mission was postponed not canceled. Ashes from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano created air traffic havoc in the Southern Cone, forcing the cancellation of innumerable flights and stranding thousands of passengers in many airports across the globe. The free traveling…

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  • ICTs, “Green” Human Development and Rio +20

    I was asked to prepare on very short notice a few comments on the above, based on a draft (DGG-Green-HD-draft) that DGG had prepared a few days back. Here they are. Background for Rio +20 (institutional memory) 1. UNDP was heavily involved in part of the follow-up of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. On…

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  • Weekly Update: 10 June

    I finally managed to speak to the EU/Danish consultant who had originally planned the e-governance workshop in St. Kitts. Apparently, the situation was much more complicated than what I originally thought. The workshop was going to be partly financed  by a EU project that is implemented by the Ministry of Finance and Sustainable Development (MFSD),…

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  • Development 2.0?

    There is a TWs group running under this name, apparently managed by the KMG person out posted in Bratislava. The group is somewhat active, thanks in part to this same person’s dynamism. At any rate, I am not entirely sure what Development 2.0 means, but it does remind me of the now old and obsolete…

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  • Of Cells and Brains

    Cell phones make extensive use of radio frequency electromagnetic fields to function properly. From this point of view, cell phones are pretty much like sophisticated digital radios with computer power, connected to large radio or wireless networks. However, unlike old style radios, cell phones must be used in close contact with our body and specially our…

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  • Weekly Summary: 3 June

    Over the long memorial day weekend, I managed to hurt my back one again. Spend a couple of days mostly in bed and was unable to go to the office or work on email for long periods of time. I was supposed to be on official mission in St. Kitts and Neves the day the…

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  • Weekly Update: 27 May – Caracas

    Being back in Caracas for the fourth time in the last 5 years has given me the opportunity to gauge the evolution of the Revolución Bolivariana launched at the beginning of the Millennium. I was indeed surprised when the CO told me that they will collect me at the airport, something that has never happened…

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  • Social Innovation: A New Development Priority?

    Social innovation seems to be emerging as a new development priority where “social entrepreneurs,” both for-profit and non-profit, are being called upon to assist governments in delivering essential services and enhancing access to information. But unlike the now seemingly old “public-private partnerships,” social innovation is also fostering new solutions to deliver the goods (or improve…

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