Commonwealth launches ICT pilot projects

Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon and Foreign Minister Michael Frendo have just launched three pilot projects involving the use of information and communications technology as part of the Commonwealth Connects programme.

The programme emanates from the mandate given by the Commonwealth Heads of Government during the Malta CHOGM last November in their Malta Declaration on Networking the Commonwealth for Development.

The 53 heads at CHOGM endorsed the Commonwealth Action Programme for the Digital Divide, now re-branded as Commonwealth Connects, as the Commonwealth's roadmap for bridging the digital divide.

Following CHOGM, Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon appointed Foreign Minister Michael Frendo as his nominee to chair the programme's steering committee.

The three pilot projects were chosen after all proposals received went through an evaluation process and were judged on the criteria laid down by the committee: Commonwealth value-added, impact and relevance, feasibility, accountability, sustainability and replicability.

The pilot projects chosen are small business training for women in Cameroon using radio programmes and multi-media kits; a programme to refurbish used computers and peripherals for use by schools and at-risk communities for the training of young people in computer studies; rebuilding after the 2004 tsunami by providing widespread access via ICTs to remote areas hit by the disaster.

During a recent presentation at Marlborough House in London, Foreign Minister Frendo said that the Millennium Development Goals underpin the aims of the Commonwealth Connects programme, which are four-fold: to increase availability and use of ICTs; to help citizens and businesses become engaged; to encourage social equality and opportunity through applying the benefits of ICTs and to transfer technology know-how, expertise and experience from technology-rich countries to technology-challenged countries.

"The Commonwealth Connects programme is unique in that it has a strong and engaged network and acts as a forum for multi-stakeholder cooperation, engagement and collaboration," Dr Frendo said.

A number of large multinational companies involved in ICT businesses have already expressed their interest in contributing financially towards the programme through their world-wide corporate social responsibility budgets, he added.

But, he emphasised, for such contributions to materialise, the programme needs to achieve tangible results by the next CHOGM in Uganda next year.