Welcome to the ICT for Development Community’s home page. The ICT for Development community is posited on the conviction that our development goals cannot be achieved without good communications, in terms of hardware, software and liveware.

The ICTD community was launched on 23 November 2006 in New Delhi. Ever since, the community has discussed, among other issues, the Common Service Centre scheme, use of ICT in literacy programmes, ICT and livelihoods, remote sensing in agriculture, setting up and running Community Radio stations, e governance and the role of ICT in local content creation. Queries have been cross-posted with the Food and Nutrition, Education, Water and the Decentralization Communities.
 
We are happy to report that our Community continues to grow steadily, with new members signing up each week. The community had 1375 members as of January 13, 2008. Our membership profile is led by NGOs and other civil society organizations, who account for around 32% of our members, followed by company and independent consultants (20.2%), academic and research institutions (15%), Government (11%) and UN and other international agencies (10%).

The ICT for Development Community completed a year since its inception and a Visioning Workshop was held in December 2007 at Auroville/ Pondicherry to chart out a Vision for the community as well as identify action projects for the year.

Three action projects were identified during the Visioning:

1. Accessibility of Websites for persons with Impairment , Championed by Dipendra Manocha- National Association of the Blind
2. National Policy on ICT in School Education, Championed by Ms Jayalakshmi Chittoor, CSDMS
3. Pro people e-Governance strategies  for inclusive growth, Championed by Mr Vikas Kanungo, Society for Promotion of e governance

We have initiated the Action Group on Pro people e-Governance strategies for inclusive growth have posted an e discussion on Models for Citizen Participation in e-government. And others will follow suit.
 
We would like to thank you for your enthusiastic and involved participation in all our discussions. We hope that the discussions – and the Consolidated Replies – have been of interest to you and have been put to practical use. We look forward to your contribution and participation in further discussions.

Warm regards,   

Rajen Varada & Gitanjali Sah
Resource Team,
ICTD Community