The Commonwealth Secretariat will be launching the Commonwealth Connects Programme at 4 this afternoon, offering a new network of services, a centre of expertise and resources for finding solutions to bridge the digital divide within the Commonwealth.
The launch is being webstreamed live and will showcase the Commonwealth's new website and its key pilot projects.
The programme aims at developing ways to share the Commonwealth's vast ICT wealth and expertise to assist countries that need it most.
Speeches by Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Frendo, who heads the programme's steering committee set up in line with the decision taken at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta last November, and Naimur Rahman, from One World South Asia, will be webstreamed.
The programme is a concerted exercise between the Commonwealth Secretariat and constituent agencies in an effort to mitigate increasing digital fragmentation.
It aims at exploiting the common ICT wealth prevalent in the Commonwealth and enabling the provision of ICT expertise to countries lagging behind in ICT capacity.
At the CHOGM, the heads of government had reaffirmed their belief that the Commonwealth can contribute meaningfully to measures aimed at bridging and closing the digital divide and recognised the ability of ICTs to act as catalysts in creating new economic synergies.
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