Strategic lines for the year 2005
InfoPoverty Program
Origins:
This program has been launched by OCCAM since 2001 following the pilot-projects supported
in the villages of Honduras. These initiatives have demonstrated how the use of the Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) can be one of the most important tools to fight poverty and foster development
in the disadvantaged communities of the planet.
Actors:
More than 100 organizations participate in this program and have joined in the
Infopoverty Network, among them there are agencies of the United Nations, such as FAO, IFAD, ITU, UNDP,
UNESCO, UNESCWA, international organizations, like the European Union, the World Bank, OCSE, EBRD,
etc. and several non-governmental organizations, universities, local authorities, research centres, etc.
ICT for Development
Project in Tunisia
The second part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) will be organized in Tunis in November
2005 by ITU (UN agency specialized in the telecommunications sector), under the auspices of the Secretary-General
of the United Nations. The WSIS 2005 will enjoy the participation of about 170 governmental delegations and
of a total of 7000 delegates belonging to the economic world, to the civil society and to the international
organizations. In this context the participants of the Infopoverty World Conference 2004 give mandate to OCCAM,
as acting agency of the Infopoverty Programme, to realize in the village of Borj Touil an intervention that
demonstrates that a thorough use of the ICTs and the providing of the specific services for development can
have a major impacts on the populations, spurring a sustainable and endogenous development. The Advisory Board
of the project includes representatives of the Tunisian Government, as well as maximum experts of the main
international organizations. The accomplishment of the first phase of the project, concerning the delivery
of broadband satellite connectivity, will be immediately followed by a phase of providing of ad hoc services,
such as e-learning, telemedicine, business incubator, e-governance.
E-Peru project
Started in 2003 with the donation of second-hand PCs, it aims at the transfer of technology and competences to
disadvantaged communities in Peru. In 2004, on the margins of the IV Infopoverty World Conference, it has been
signed an agreement between OCCAM and the National Assembly of the Peruvian Rectors for the installation of
some projects aiming at the technological and curricular update of the university students of the Country.
Digital Villages in the Southern Lebanon
Developed in concert with Staffan de Mistura, personal Representative of Kofi Annan in Southern Lebanon, this
initiative has already brought to the realization of 2 digital classrooms that are currently managed by Lebanese
communities. The initiative, which aims at promoting social and economic development in the area, is very
important in the light of the dramatic situation of all the region and of the need to support all those
initiatives able to bring peace and tolerance.
Digital Villages in Honduras
Following the agreements with the Vice-President of Honduras, Armida de Lopes Contreras, it plans for reconstruction
and strengthening of the existing structures in 2 villages of the Honduran selva in order to transfer to this
reality the most advanced services for development, such as e-learning, telemedicine and incubator for small
enterprises.
- Digital Focus
Project approved during the last Infopoverty World Conference, it plans for a local
partnership between Lombardy Region, Chamber of Commerce, Polytechnic of Milan, Polytechnic Foundation,
Università Cattolica, SMAU, Local Education Authority and other realities (with special reference to the
Lombard SME) in order to support the SME in the strategic sector of ICTs in the emergent markets of Africa,
Latin America and Asia.
- Awareness Building Campaigns
Infopoverty World Conference
Born in 2001, the Infopoverty World Conference represents the focal point of the activities promoted in the
ambit of Infopoverty Program. During the years the Conference has received growing adhesions and appreciations,
and so since 2003 the Conference works are considered preparatory for the WSIS.
Infopoverty Seminar
Since 2002 OCCAM organizes seminars about the theme of new technologies for development in the ambit of
international symposia. In particular, the Infopoverty Seminar has been organized in the ambit of WSIS,
the most important event of 2003, with more than 50 Heads of State and of Government.
- Research Activities
Infopoverty Institute
Created with the University of Oklahoma, partner of the Infopoverty Network since 2002, the aim of the
Infopoverty Institute is that of providing on the one hand specific training to the operators of international
and non-governmental organizations, on the other hand specialist courses for clerks of the sector of the
governmental units engaged in fighting digital divide. Furthermore the Infopoverty Institute will provide
on-line services through a portal dedicated to the Tunisian project.
Observatory on the Communication
In the ambit of its institutional activity and in its function as Observatory on
communication, OCCAM will continue updating its database about the state-of-art experiences in fighting the
digital divide, and the most significant activities promoted by international organizations, governments and
civil society in this ambit.
OCCAM Lab
The Laboratory is born in order to study and research about the ICT issue for development
with the mission of realizing the WSIS program. The structure will work as a network in close relationship with
the excellence Centres in the world (NOE) and will evaluate and test new services (broadband and wireless) for
development, individuating in the meantime the best practices in related sectors (e-learning, telemedicine,
e-commerce, e-consulting, e-work, etc.).
Study Seminar
OCCAM will continue to organize - in the ambit of the awareness building campaign about the
digital divide phenomenon and others themes of particular relevance for all the UN system - meetings with experts
of the sector, specialized journalists and students.
Promotion of Cultures
- Platform for the promotion of cultures of diaspora
The Platform for the promotion of cultures of diaspora will have the objective, thanks
to the contribution of the operators of Cinema, Television and Multimedia joined in the Conference, of better
understanding the relevant factors in a vision of progressive integration among populations.
- Euromediterranean Conference on Cinema
The Euromediterranean Conference on Cinema has been taking place since a
decade at the Venice Film Festival in cooperation with the European Parliament and UNESCO and has focused
during the years on the most crucial issues about the process of Euromediterranean integration thorough media,
in the wake of the agreements of Barcelona in 1995 with the participation of hundred of speakers, among the
most significant exponents of the film, culture and international institutions world.
- Euro-Asiatic Conference on Cinema
On the model of what realized in Venice, it has been requested that, in the occasion
of the International Euro-Asiatic Cinematographic Festival, a conference - study seminar will be organized to
compare European and Asiatic realities concerning the specific cinematographic language in the prestigious
framework of the most important manifestation of Turkey in this ambit and with very wide echo at the media level.
- Digitalisation of the cultural heritage of Mozambique
The project has been officially approved by the Ministry of Culture of Mozambique,
but it has been interrupted for the very difficult local conditions. The initiative, that is part of a wide
project for the preservation and the evaluation of the cultural identities, aims at the security of all the
cultural material produced in Mozambique and that, without any effective cataloguing and digitalisation,
risks to be lost for always.
Timetable
February 2005:
Infopoverty Seminar in Geneva in the ambit of PrepCom2
March 2005:
Visit in the United States to present the V Infopoverty World Conference
May 2005:
Infopoverty World Conference 2005
June 2005:
Inauguration of the first operational units in the village of Borj Touil
September 2005:
Euromediterranean Film Conference in Venice
October 2005:
Euro-Asiatic Film Conference in Antalya, Turkey
November 2005:
World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis
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