United Nations, 09 APRIL –The United Nations announced today the appointment of new members to the Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology and Development (GAID).

The new members replace the members of the GAID Steering Committee and Strategy Council hosted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The new members will carry on the strategic work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals through ICT policies as laid out by the outgoing members.

The new members were selected through international consultation with all stakeholder groups to ensure a balance in gender, geographical and institutional representation. The new membership was approved by Mr. Zukang Sha, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, whose Department (UNDESA) oversees the operations of GAID.

The composition of the Steering Committee has been expanded from 12 to 15 and the Strategy Council from 60 to 65, with the new members poised to reflect the growing interest and recognition of the role of ICT in the development and the rising profile of GAID.

The function of the Steering Committee is to provide overall guidance for GAID and to help define the medium and long-term priorities along with the Strategy Council, as well as to serve the Under-Secretary-General in an advisory capacity. For its part, the Strategy Council plays an active role in disseminating the results of policy dialogue to a wider audience and in promoting and coordinating further partnerships with GAID.

Gloria Bonder (UNESCO Women, Science and Technology in Latin America), Jennifer Corriero (TakingITGlobal), Abdul W. Khan (UNESCO), Thierno Ousmane Sy (Government of Senegal), Mohsen Khalil (World Bank), and Ramón Garza (Índigo Media) are joining the committee this term. Dr. Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel, will continue to serve as the committee chair through to the Fall of 2009.

The Strategy Council will be joined by Afghanistan, Armenia, Bahamas, Croatia, Gambia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Nigeria, Qatar, Rwanda, Syria, and Vietnam as new government members; Ibrahim Adel (Zain), Roger Cochetti (CompTIA), Johan F. Khairuddin (Astro plc), Tom Phillips (GSM Association), Peter Tinoco (Cisneros), and Jeffrey M. Nick (EMC Corporation) are representing private sector entities; Clotide Fonseca Quesada (Omar Dengo Foundation), Qiheng Hu (Internet Society of China), Viola Krebs (ICVolunteers), Doroth Okello (WOUGNET), Rinalia Abdul Rahim (Global Knowledge Partnership), Abdulaziz Sager (Gulf Research Center), Parminder Jeet Singh (IT for Change) are representing civil entities. The new members representing other international organizations are Patricia Francis (International Trade Centre), Zhou Yiping (UNDP), and the Network of Local Authorities for the Information Society (IT4All Bilbao).

The term of the current membership was extended to coordinate the GAID leadership with the upcoming GAID Annual Meeting and Global Forum in Kuala Lumpur at the end of May. Over the past year-and-a-half, GAID has benefited from the work of the outgoing members whose support and engagement have been crucial to ensure GAID’s success. They will continue to serve an important and active role as High-level Advisers of the Alliance and in promoting information technologies at the service of development.

For more information, please visit http://www.un-gaid.org or contact Enrica Murmura of UNDESA-GAID, Tel: +1 212 963 5913, e-mail: murmura AT un DOT org