Dear GKP Members,

GKP EXCOMM ELECTION 2009

I am pleased to announce the results of the GKP EXCOMM Election 2009, which concluded on 30 June 2009.

A. Member Participation

Voters:
56 (49%) of eligible GKP Member Organisations voted in this election

Candidates:
16 (14%) of eligible GKP Member Organisations stood for this election

Thank you to all candidates and voters for participating in the elections and congratulations to the following successful candidates!

B. Election Result

Based on the number of votes and nominations secured (see list in Section C), the following 4 GKP Member Organisations are hereby elected to the GKP Executive Committee term of 2009/2011:

1. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Sherif El Tokali, Information & Communication Technology Specialist

Raul Zambrano

2. OneWorld International

Naimur Rahman, Director, OneWorld South Asia

Rajendre Khargi, Chair

3. Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS)

Ravi Gupta, Director

Jayalakshmi Chittoor, i4d Team Leader

4. eCOM-LAC - Latin American and Caribbean Federation for Internet and Electronic Commerce

Anthony Harris, Executive Director

Oscar Messano, President


The following 3 GKP Member Organisations are hereby elected to the GKP Executive Committee term of 2009/2010:

5. Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO

Niamh Brannigan, Manager

6. Panos South Asia

Kishor Pradhan, Regional Deputy Director/Country Representative

Sameer Deep Lepcha, Project Coordinator

7. Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL)

Alain Berranger, Member of the Executive Committee, Board of Directors

Carlo Dade, Executive Director


These 7 new EXCOMM members will join the following remaining EXCOMM members who are serving their 2008/2010 term:

C. List of All Election Candidates, Votes and Nominations Secured

List of GKP Member Organisations who stood for EXCOMM election and the number of votes and nominations secured:

 

1. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)	49 / 6
2. OneWorld International	39 / 3
3. Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS)	29 / 5
4. eCOM-LAC - Latin American and Caribbean Federation for Internet & Electronic Commerce	26 / 3	*
5. Global eSchools and Communicaties Initiatives (GeSCI)	26 / 2
6. Panos South Asia	26 / 1
7. Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL)	25 / 4	*
8. Bellanet	25 / 3
9. D.Net (Development Research Network)	20 / 1
10. Fantsuam Foundation	16 / 2
11. Thai RuralNet (TRN)	16 / 1
12. Science and Arts Foundation (SAF)	13 / 1
13. Slums Information Development and Resource Centre (SIDAREC)	9 / 1
14. DIDACTICA - Ecole Superieure de Management et des Technologies de I'Information	8 / 1
15. CMB Training Center	6 / 1
16. Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humbolt (IMT AVH)	6 / 1

 

* In accordance with clause 10 of the EXCOMM Election Procedure, in the event of a tie in the number of votes received, the candidates with the HIGHER number of NOMINATIONS prevail.

 

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Justine Chew
Election Administrator

*********

D. Elected Candidates' Statements of Intent

1. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

UNDP is the UN's global development network, an organization advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. World leaders have pledged to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, including the overarching goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. UNDP's network links and coordinates global and national efforts to reach these Goals.

The UNDP mission is to support countries to accelerate progress on human development. This means that all UNDP policy advice, technical support, advocacy, and contributions to strengthening coherence in global development finance must be aimed at one end result: real improvements in people’s lives and in the choices and opportunities open to them. UNDP has championed this integrative approach to human development since the 1990s, using the Human Development Reports, launched under the leadership of the late Mahbub ul-Haq with Amartya Sen, as important tools in this advocacy. Central to the human development approach is the concept of human empowerment. In addition to income, it treats access to education and health care, freedom of expression, the rule of law, respect for diversity, protection from violence, and the preservation of the environment as other essential dimensions of human development and wellbeing.

2. OneWorld International

Respected Members of GKP Network,

GKP’s value proposition has been well established over the last 10 years of its existence, and this fact was reinforced during the work and deliberations of GKP3.0 Task Force. At this time when the global ICT4D and K4D scenario is changing, the evolving landscape offers opportunity for GKP as a network to harness its inherent strengths and competences; and deepen the empowering engagement of ICT within core development agenda: poverty eradication, food security, health and educational attainment, societal transformation and empowerment, climate change et. al. As a multi-stakeholder network, GKP is uniquely positioned to unite civil society, business, academia and the government – to appropriately connect ICT innovations and development aspirations of the underprivileged, especially in the South. Members need to collaborate in true network spirit to accomplish this rejuvenation of GKP.

 

OneWorld has been working to harness the democratic potential of Information and Communication Technologies to bring about a world where resources are shared in a fair and sustainable way, where human rights are nurtured and protected, and where democratic governance structures enable people to shape their own lives. Translating this mission into action, we are involved in customizing state-of-art ICT technologies to provide solutions at the grassroots that positively impact the lives of the poor, by enabling access to critical transformational information and strengthening their voices within national and international development agenda. Our focus has continuously been to consolidate and upscale past achievements, innovate on newer ideas, and demonstrate the efficacy of ICT applications within core developmental efforts and interventions.

 

I thank the Members for expressing confidence in our abilities and nominating OneWorld to serve at the new GKP EXCOMM; and in this positive spirit, do accept this valued nomination. We believe that the newly constituted Executive Committee will effectively lead GKP to adapt to the change in ICT4D and K4D paradigm, and translate these emerging challenges into a series of great opportunities to take forward GKP’s mandate. On behalf on OneWorld, I pledge our support and contribution to this endeavour to make GKP a truly vibrant and highly competent network. We count on your vote and support for taking this journey ahead.

In Solidarity,

Naimur Rahman
On behalf of OneWorld Network

3. Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS)

CSDMS would be happy to work with like minded partners in developing a new vision and direction for growth of GKP. We think that GKP has played and can still play an important role in shaping the ICT4D agenda globally. CSDMS has been engaging stakeholders across continents through its ICT4D publications (like i4d, telecentre magazine etc.) through its knowledge sharing events (eIndia and eAsia) for last 6 years. We can leverage our stakeholder network to help visualize and contribute to strengthening GKP.

4. eCOM-LAC - Latin American and Caribbean Federation for Internet and Electronic Commerce

I am enthusiastic about the relaunching of GKP. This will be an exciting challenge, an opportunity to develop the network further, building on the past years of experience, and leveraging the unique opportunities for bringing the benefits of the information society to the disenfranchised. We hear about the "objective" of bringing the second billion users onto the Internet. Since the city dwellers worldwide are mostly participating as Internet enabled users, even if only through a cybercafe or public booth, I am certain the second billion users will come from rural and remote areas, and the expertise and experience of the members of the GKP network, are a great starting point to address these objectives.

During the recent task force process, I have advocated for an alliance between GKP and GAID, because it was a fact that governmental and private sector participation in GKP were not significant. I am also convinced that mobile communications deployment will be a great opportunity to reach remote areas with ICT4D.

In summary there's a lot to be done, many regions of the world need help, and I hope I may have a chance to contribute at EXComm level. eCOM-LAC has been successful since it's startup in 1989, in harnessing the expertise of organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, for the development of the Internet and Electronic Commerce, also with active participation in social inclusion activities through a regional school enablement project funded by the @lis program. Over the last three, years, our entity has garnered support in the region for a world-class project to become a top-level domain registry, to manage the '.lat' domain as an identifier for latin american communities worldwide. In partnership with the University of Technology in Monterrey, eCOM-LAC will be presenting a bid to ICANN as soon as the application window opens in early 2010.

5. Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI)
GeSCI hereby confirms its intent to contribute GKP as well as EXCOMM by providing expertise in the sector of ICT in Education. GeSCI is a global organization and works closely with other global organizations promoting Inclusive Knowledge Society and ICT for development.

6. Panos South Asia

Dear GKP colleagues,

Greetings from Panos South Asia (PSA), Kathmandu, Nepal! I am pleased to inform you PSA has been nominated by SDC to the GKP EXCOMM Election 2009 and we have accepted it. As many of you are aware of it, PSA as a media development and communications for development (C4D) not-for-profit subregional organisation (wwww.panossouthasia.org), operational in South Asia, has been working in the areas of ICT capacity building of media and civil society organisations for more than a decade now. We have been basically working in the areas of facilitating ICT capacity building (both skill and infrastructure) and thematic local content development (knowledge generation/aggregation, management and sharing) for mainstreaming poor and marginalised voices in the mainstream development processes. We see harnessing the potentials and tapping the new opportunities opened up by the advent and rapid development of ICTs globally and in South Asian countries as an opportunity to raise people's voice and facilitate participation to better the ways people in South Asia countries are governed and their development is being undertaken. With your voting for PSA to represent the South Asian GKP members in the EXCOMM Election 2009, we can assure you that PSA will to the best of its abilities represent the South Asian perspectives in the GKP. Thanking you for your cooperation.

Best regards, Kishor Pradhan (on behalf of PSA)
Deputy Director/Country Representative Panos South Asia Kathmandu, Nepal

7. Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL)

Our intent is to implement the Task Force recommendations recognizing above all that it is the members that are driving the network. The following principles will guide us in the process:

1) GKP is unique in the ICT4D/K4D/C4D field because it is the only global network that is membership-based and cross-sectoral (in the USAID use of the word, which means that the three (3) sectors are present inside and side by side in a same network: civil society sector, private sector and public sector).

2) GKP will thrive if we maintain the following three critical characteristics: membership-based, global, cross-sectoral.

3) Donors and development agencies should be welcomed members as they exist in all 3 sectors (public like SIDA, private like Google Foundation, civil society like the Ford Foundation, etc...). However, we should state upfront that donors that become members of GKP are not expected to fund GKP, like all other members, just pay their membership fees and engage in the activities of the network. I do think that donors that wish to be members of GKP should however refrain from governance duties if they actually fund GKP, core or project/program, or they can elect to simply fund without becoming a member. The principle that a donor should be at arms' length to a grantee is so obvious from governance, conflict of interest and ethical stances, that I am flabbergasted that so many of them don't get it.

4) I believe the new GKP network should be inclusive and open to all willing members, like the Academy Of Management or Facebook networks for instance. Let everyone and anyone join in GKP if they pay their fees. The bad apples will drop out anyway, either from lack of participation or from peer vetting...

5) Membership should not be limited to Institutions only. I favor the hybrid approach where both institutions and individuals can join... not only because it will contribute to financial sustainability but because it will enrich knowledge generation and dissemination of the GKP network, notably through participation and volunteering.

6) I favor an hybrid membership fee structure: low for individual (say $100), higher for organizations (say $1000). A fee scale should differentiate between members located in OECD, emerging or developing countries, higher for the former and lower for the latter. All this to encourage participation on one end and financial sustainability on the other, based on the fee setting principle of "charging what the market can bear".

7) GKP should be a leading proponent of global ICT4D/K4D/C4D sector consolidation. I think the donors need to clean up their act about their participation in the ICT4D/K4D/C4D development arena. This should be based on the Paris declaration on aid effectiveness, a joint action plan that developing countries and the donor community have created. I would seek close collaboration and integration when desirable and/or possible with GAID, Infodev, Development Gateway and many other such organizations.

8) A membership driven knowledge generating and sharing organization like GKP aspires to become can hardly reach its full potential without publishing and disseminating on a regular basis.GKP 3.0 should quickly offer to all members an ICT4D/K4D/C4D publication (preferably applied research publication not a "vulgurisation" magazine). This will require a partnership or partnerships with someone like IEEE Communications Society, IOS Press (IT4D), CSDMS (A GKP member), Wired, ITPRC.com,, etc...

9) I believe a transition period requires a stable, capable and willing host organization which will grow the network and the membership while the rationalization and consolidation also takes place. A driven network leader must also come forward and be empowered with mandate and resources. A transit governance structure must be put in place. Ideally, the host organization should be located in the developing world and only in an OECD country if that first option is not possible. A transition period of 18 to 24 months should be enough to migrate to a permanent secretariat status.

10) Secretariat location and size: the southern location criterion should prevail if at all possible. The host country should subsidize the office space, the server space and the national salaries. The reason for that is long term ownership and reputational benefits accrue to the host city/country. The secretariat services should be minimized and performed mostly by virtual/web-based means with network substantive responsibilities decentralized to members and a regional structure like the current RCs for instance (see next section).

11) Regional structure: The network should be regionally driven first... with recruiting and facilitating resources made available to the RC or equivalent. The regional networks would think globally but act regionally. Global events would be contemplated if fully funded (like GK4 in the Middle East). An annual meeting could be envisaged if members were willing to pay their way - like the Academy of Management for instance...

12) Governance structure: It should be light in numbers and structure, membership-elected (every 3 years to start until the network becomes more robust?) and meet mostly virtually, at least in early years.

13) Activities/programs should be regionally driven. In conclusion, GKP 3.0 would become a member-driven network, with a large membership, paying modest fees, where membership initiatives and volunteering would be common and valued because of the returns and benefits to members from participating would outweight the cost of membership.