A publication of the GAID Committee of eLeaders for Youth and ICT, In collaboration with TakingITGlobal and the Youth Unit of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie

This publication was d with two purposes in mind. The first is to showcase the efforts of individuals and groups who are inspiring a transformation of attitudes and actions to renew communities the world over. The second is to pay tribute to the millions of young people serving as ‘change makers’ for their societies by implementing the ideas of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals in a myriad of ways.

Prepared by: Brian Gutterman Shahreen Rahman Jorge Supelano Laura Thies Mai Yang
Advisor: Ambassador Rafat Mahdi

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be an extremely powerful enabler in efforts to bring positive and sustainable development to countries around the globe. Today, almost a full decade into the 21st century, we live amidst an unprecedented revolution in the advancement of ICT. We are also, however, surrounded by widespread poverty, and social and economic inequalities are the norm. Considered as a powerful tool to promote social and economic development, education has become a primary focus of the recently forged Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) community, especially in the Least Developed Countries. One way of ensuring equitable development targeted at the very poorest is through universal social protection, including education, health and income.i This paper aims to explain the current state of how ICT is being used in education and how it can better benefit current and future users.

The topic of this book is "social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom," to use the noble words of the preamble to the United Nations Charter. The book is organized around the six core values that form the basis of the Millennium Declaration, adopted by world leaders at the Millennium Summit in 2000.

These six core values are freedom, solidarity, quality, tolerance, respect for nature and our shared responsibility, and each will serve as the basis for a chapter.

More than forty years ago, in 1962, then-Secretary-General U Thant warned that an explosion of violence could occur as a result of the sense of injustice felt by those living in poverty and despair, in a world of plenty.

Today, both the risk and the potential for a solution have increased. Information technologies bring to our living rooms, and even our breakfast tables, glimpses of events from every corner of the globe. More people, in more places, know what is possible, and what is possible for each and every person has expanded almost exponentially.

Information technologies can help us to overcome the obstacles to development caused by isolation and by lack of information. Or they can contribute to a world where the rich get richer, while the poor and the disenfranchised fall further behind.

If we are to ensure that the noble aims of the Millennium Declaration are to be met, and that the tools we now have at our disposal are put to best use, we must think clearly, work cooperatively and build creative partnerships with civil society and the private sector.