Bolivia, Tanzania and Mozambique have captured the first three of
12 spots in a United Nations programme aimed at upgrading and
building the IT infrastructure in countries that are lagging behind
the rest of the world in those areas.
The Global Digital Opportunity Initiative was created by the UN's
Development Programme and the Markle Foundation. A further 45
countries are vying for the remaining nine spots in the two-year
programme.
"It is a medium-scale initiative. It is designed to have some
successes," said Julia Moffett, managing director of the Markle
Foundation. There are no plans to expand beyond the initial scope,
she said.
The programme will begin with an extensive assessment of each
nation's needs. It will not be an out-of-the-box, one-size-fits-all
solution, Moffett said. The countries that are applying for help
are accustomed to making specific requests about what they need to
the UN, the World Bank and other organisations, and their requests
to the Global Digital Opportunity Initiative have been just as
specific, she said.
After the assessment is conducted, a scalable infrastructure plan
will be designed and implemented. Once in place, it is expected
that other governments and companies will go into each country to
provide additional help and funding.
The programme will be closely monitored because it requires UN,
governmental, educational, business and non-profit organisations to
contribute in order to be a success. Moffett said that bringing
together these organisations has its advantages and its challenges.
"These organisations have very different styles and very different
speeds," she said. But she added this also allows the project to
draw from a variety of experiences and resources to make sure the
right plan is brought to bear at the right time.
The programme will be joined by a number of companies offering pro
bono services, including, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems,
Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.
Moffett said it was important to draw in as many big-name players
as possible to give the effort credibility and to assure people
that the funding and the knowledge needed to make the project
successful would be there.
What the initiative wants to avoid, for example, is building a
telecentre in a rural village that cannot be used by anyone because
of cost and incompatibility with other local systems, she said.
Once the project is under way, said Frederick Tispon, the project's
director, there will be a need for individuals, as well as for the
companies and organisations that have already signed up, to assist.