Subject: The first issue of Partners the Newsletter of the Global Knowledge
Partnership (GKP) follows. As the GKD List is an important forum for
GKP members and potential members, we want GKD readers to know what's
happening within the GKP, and also welcome your ideas and views.
Partners is available via the Internet at www.globalknowledge.org
Regards,
Joan Hubbard and Lesley Simmons
GKP Secretariat
The World Bank Institute
_______________________
P A R T N E R S
Welcome to Partners, the Newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership,
bringing you news and views from GKP, via mail and the Internet,
monthly. Submissions are welcome; details at the end.
* GKII Update: The GKII Planning and Program Committees met in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia on July 13 - 15, to review preparations for the March
2000 GKII Conference. The outcome of a GKP informal working group on
Governance on June 21st and concerns expressed by many partners about
the slow pace of GK II program development and fundraising, set the
stage for revisiting the design and scope of the GKII Conference.
Agreement was reached on a three dimensional event, which retains the
original focus on Access - Empowerment - Governance. It includes:
- A GKP Action Summit, to bring together current and prospective GKP
member organizations and interested individuals to discuss the
issues and challenges posed by the three themes of the conference
and to agree upon a two-to-three year strategic action plan that
promotes partnerships and concrete action among the public, private
and non-governmental sectors. This will be organized by the GKP and
will take place on March 8 and 9.
- The Global Knowledge Forum, an integrated series of plenary
sessions and working groups targeted to a broader audience primarily
from developing countries and designed to raise awareness about, and
identify critical issues and best practices for addressing the
challenges of access, empowerment and governance. This will be
organized by the Government of Malaysia.
- The Knowledge Fair, to showcase best practices, lessons from the
field, new technologies and tools, and innovative strategies that
use knowledge and information to address development challenges.
This will be organized by the Government of Malaysia and will take
place March 7 - 10.
A joint plenary, on March 7, of the GKP Action Summit and the Global
Knowledge Forum participants, will kick off the Conference and a joint
plenary on March 10 will conclude it.
For more information contact Joan Hubbard, at the GKP Secretariat
jhubbard@worldbank.org
* Following Progress On Three Tracks: GKP's focus over the next 12 to 18
months, and the focus of the GKII Conference, follows three tracks:
access, empowerment, and governance. Track coordinators are coordinating
the programming and development of each track with the help of small
working groups. The three Working Groups will now refocus their efforts
towards developing the program for the Action Summit in the period
leading up to the October GKP meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After
this Addis meeting, the working groups will lay the groundwork for the
March 8/9 Action Summit. A program facilitator will be identified to
guide them in these efforts and ensure effective liaison with the
organizers of the Knowledge Forum. Bellanet will create three virtual
workspaces in support of the planning process which will allow partners
(and the public) to contribute to and discuss the development of each
track. The contacts are:
Access: Kerry McNamara at the GKP Secretariat, at
and Don Anderson at the Association for
Progressive Communications, at
Empowerment: Hans D'Orville at UNDP, at and Martin
Khor at the Third World Network at
Governance: Roger Dumlie at CIDA, at and
Ms. Rinalia Abdul Rrahim at the Government of Malaysia, at
Watch "Partners" for regular progress reports.
* GKP Website: www.globalknowledge.org is being redesigned to be more
user friendly and attractive as well as more useful to members. Look
out for the new site on your computer soon. For more information,
contact Kerry McNamara at the GKP Secretariat at
kmcnamara1@worldbank.org
* Events:
- Strong role identified for electronic publishing in developing
countries. A workshop held from May 10-12, in Oxford UK, focused on
scientific communication and publishing in the information age.
Organized by the British Council and the International Network for the
Availability of Scientific Publications, it was attended by
practitioners from Latin America, Asia and Africa and a small number of
partner organizations and networks involved in supporting their
initiatives. The workshop provided a forum for discussion of the
perspective, the content and the visibility of scholarly communication
for marginalized scientific communities. One of the main outcomes of the
workshop was the vision, outlined in a communiqu? to the World Science
Conference in Budapest, June 1999, which stated that electronic
publishing provides a potential for developing countries to play a
fuller and more active part in the international scientific community.
On-going activities which require financial support to enable the vision
to become a reality were identified. Details of these and full details
of the workshop and its conclusions can be found at:
http://www.oneworld.org/inasp/on%20village/index.html.olution-edu.html8.aspp0806 For more details contact Rachel Roberts
at the British Council at Rachel.Roberts@brit
- Pilot Knowledge for Development Workshop takes off. A pilot workshop
Using Knowledge for Development was held in Helsinki, Finland at the end
of May. Participants were from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland
and included policymakers from government agencies, private sector and
NGO representatives, and staff from World Bank field offices. The
six-module pilot course was developed, prepared and delivered under the
umbrella of the Global Knowledge Partnership by the Government of
Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communications, the British Council,
the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, and the World
Bank Institute. The next pilot is scheduled for the Fall of 1999 in
Singapore and will be targeted to policy makers from East Asian
countries. For more information contact Carl Dahlman at the World Bank
at cdahlman@worldbank.org
- The National Consultative Workshop on GKP Themes, was held in Malaysia
on June 15. An initiative of the National Information Technology
Council, which represents the Government of Malaysia in the Global
Knowledge Partnership, the event brought together key groups,
(community-based organizations, the private sector, the public sector,
the media and academia) to raise their awareness of the GKP themes, and
to promote dialogue between and among them, to build consensus. For
more information go to www.globalknowledge.org.my
- Roundtable initiates new Network on the American Experience: On
Friday June 25 the Benton Foundation, the U.S. Department of Commerce
National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the
World Bank sponsored a Roundtable on Information Technology and
Knowledge for International Development: the American Experience. Held
at the Benton Foundation offices in Washington DC, participants from
some 40 organizations explored the roles knowledge and information and
ICTs play in economic and social development and how to build an
American consensus for the most effective ways to share that experience
internationally. Discussions were led by American members of the GKP,
including NTIA, US AID, Sun Microsystems and Dell. Participants learned
from each other about the existing public and private sector efforts
that provide access to, and empower citizens to take advantage of
telecommunications technologies. And they explored ways to encourage
greater involvement of American organizations in the GKP. Participants
in the one-day roundtable established a Network that will feed into GKP.
This network will focus on finding ways in which the American
experience can be shared internationally as well as ways in which
American members can learn from international experience. For more
information contact Joan Hubbard at the GKP Secretariat at
jhubbard@worldbank.org
* Next Partnership Meeting:
The next partnership meeting will take place on October 29 and 30, in
Addis Ababa immediately following the African Development Forum. Major
agenda items will include GKP Governance Structure and preparations for
the March GKP Action Summit. Details of the meeting will be
disseminated in late July. In the meantime, contact Joan Hubbard at the
GKP Secretariat, for further information, at jhubbard@worldbank.org
* Calendar:
August 25-26, 1999
The African Computing and Telecommunications Summit, St. Johns College,
Cambridge, England
Lead Agencies: AITEC UK. For more information see GK-AIMS or contact
aitec.admin@dial.pipex.com
September 5-9, 1999
Highway Africa 99, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
Lead Agencies: Rhodes University
For more information see GK-AIMS or contact Naume Ziyambi at
naume@ru.ac.za
September 13-18, 1999
India GK Forum Series, New Delhi, India
Lead Agencies: The British Council, India, National Inform, UNDP, WHO,
World Bank Institute
For more information see GK-AIMS or contact P. Jayarajan at
Jayarajan@bc-delhi.bcindia.sprintsmx.ems.vsnl.net
September 15-16, 1999
Conference on Information Technology in Asia: Information Equality in
the Next Millennium (CITA '99), Merdeka Palace Hotel, Kuching, Sarawak,
Malaysia
Lead Agencies: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, IFIP
For more information see GK-AIMS or contact Roger Harris at
roger@fit.unimas.my
October 25-29, 1999
African Development Forum, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Lead Agencies: United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)
For more information see GK-AIMS or contact Karima Bounemra at
bounemra.uneca@un.org or Tel: +251 1 51 72 00 Fax: +251 1 51 44 16
Subscribe now: Partners will be issued monthly, if you wish to receive
this regular briefing, or if you know of others who ought to receive it,
please send mailing details or e-mail address to lsimmons@worldbank.org
Comments and suggestions? Items for inclusion? Send them to
lsimmons@worldbank.org
____________________________________
Partners is the newsletter of the Global Knowledge Partnership, a
growing partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organizations
working together to help people access knowledge and harness information
and communications technologies that will help them live meaningful and
fruitful lives.
Editor: Lesley Anne Simmons, The Global Knowledge Partnership
Secretariat, c/o The World Bank Institute, The World Bank, 1818 H
Street NW, Washington D.C. 20433 Tel: 1 202 473-1785 Fax: 1 202 522-1492
e-mail: globalknowledge@worldbank.org
website www.globalknowledge.org
Lesley Anne Simmons
Knowledge Products and Outreach
The World Bank Institute
Tel: 202-473-1785
Fax: 202-522-1482