Mission

In the joint efforts to promote development through the ICTs it is important to focus on the inter-operability of systems and integration of the procedures in regards to services (telemedicine, e-learning, e-governance, etc). Thus this Coe would propose to work on all areas of the GAID in order to apply the specific actions at the local level, coordinating efforts so that actions on the ground can be tied with the global development strategies promoted by the UN System agencies and programmes.
This CoE will be an open community, which would welcome the participation of all stakeholders willing to be included, with the aim of putting at the disposal of all members of GAID knowledge and best practices that will be found and accelerate ICT applications in order to make more and more effective the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

Objectives

This CoE will work to study how different hardware, software and related services for development can cooperate and be available through a Platform of e-services for development. Once the theoretical aspects of the problem will be clarified, a Platform of e-services for development (in fields such as telemedicine, education and governance) will be created and will work in close cooperation with the other CoE in order to give the output to the results of their activities. The Platform of e-services will be then implemented on the ground in development projects.

Deliverables

• Study on interoperability of systems to provide services for development
• Feasibility study of Platform of e-services for development
• Testing of the results in 2 ICT Villages created in Sambaina (Madagascar) and Constanza (Dominican Republic) in the framework of the UN Public Private Alliance for Rural Development.

Main items will be presented on the occasion of the VII Infopoverty World Conference, to be held at the UN Headquarters in New York on April 19-20 2007. Testing will start immediately afterwards.

Lead organization

Partners

The partnership process has been going on in the last 9 years among participants in the Infopoverty World Conference. In particular, for specific projects, some opereative nucleouses have been created that have now merged in the CoE:

1. Advisory Board to the ICT Village, constituted at PRECOM 1 of the Tunis Phase of the WSIS:
   Giuseppe Viriglio (European Space Agency); Anton Mangstl (FAO); John Steffens (Infopoverty Institute- OU); Hugh Peterken ( International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies); Pierre Gagne( ITU); Najat Rochdi (UNDP); Abdul W. Khan ( UNESCO)
2. Signatories of the Final Declaration of the Infopoverty World Conference 2006 giving way to the GRID of Centres of Excellence, launched at ECOSOC High Level Segment in Geneva on July 4 2006:
   Italian Association of Telemedicine; Water B2b; Intel; Digital Solidarity Fund; Telespazio; E-content Award; Navajo Nation; Dominican Republic; Madagascar; Siemens; CICT-UNESC; Google Script; COPEAM
3. Adhering entities at the 1° COE meeting at the Infopoverty Exhibition held on February  9 2007 in Milan
   Skylogic-Eutelsat; Policlinico S. Donato; Politecnico di Milano; Università Statale Milano Bicocca; Ingegneria senza frontiere, Patologi senza frontiere
4. New adhering entities for the creation of new e-services
   BASF; Telecom Italia; Faculty of Agriculture - University of Milan; Generation3; WINFOCUS; Parco Tecnologico Padano; Politecnico di Torino; Metropolitana Milanese

Infopoverty CoE is willing to cooperate with all relevant institutions that are part of the G@ID and with its flagship initiatives as well as with all other institutions dealing with ICT4 Development, sharing with them its most innovative services and the Satellite Platform.