Set out below are a number of links to websites related to ICT and development. All are interesting. We provide a summary of each website and encourage you to visit them.

http://www.tanzania.go.tz/

The official national website of the United Republic of Tanzania, which is maintained by the Government.  It was inaugurated by His Excellency President Benjamin William Mkapa (our 3rd President) when marking Tanzania's 40th Independence Day celebrations on 9th December 2001.  In both the English and Kiswahili languages, this site provides authoritative information about the country and also offers links to numerous other websites concerning Tanzania.  Its existence is a demonstration of the commitment of Tanzania's Government towards using ICT to promote good governance, attract investment and enable effective participation in the globalised economy in areas as diverse as trade, tourism, cultural exchanges, etc.

http://www.moct.go.tz/ict

The official website of the National ICT Task Force, under the Ministry of Communications and Transport.  The Ministry has been required to coordinate fragmented ICT initiatives, so as to have proper planning on resource mobilization, allocation and its optimal utilization for efficient implementation of ICT activities in the country.  Therefore this Task Force assisted the Ministry in formulating and preparing a flexible and implementable National ICT Policy document; and to recommend a feasible and cost-effective institutional set up for ‘National ICT Body’ that will take up a responsibility of the Principal Overseer and Coordinator for all ICT activities in Tanzania. This Institution amongst other tasks will perform the formulation and review of ICT policies, strategic planning, management (monitoring and evaluation) of the implementation of ICT development activities in the country.

http://www.tzonline.org/

Tanzania Online is a gateway to information on development issues in Tanzania. It is a UNDP/UN, Government of Tanzania and Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) initiative to address problems faced by Government officials, policy makers, private sector, civil society, donor community, researchers and academicians accessing information on development issues in Tanzania.

http://www.developmentgateway.org/

The Development Gateway is being built by the World Bank and a number of donor countries to promote the exchange of knowledge on a wide range of topics.  The organization has a number of activities:

1. Research and Training Centers - a network with hubs in the developing world, to exchange ideas and test ICT applications that will benefit the poor 

2. ICT Development Forum - knowledge sharing on key ICT issues, promoting partnerships and synergies between public sector, civil society, and private sector

3. Grants and Investments - support to ICT projects and programs which are helping address the digital divide at the local, national, regional, and global levels

4. Development Gateway Portal - an interactive portal facilitating access to information on sustainable development.  There are also a number of  topic pages, including e-government, e-learning, ICT for development, food security and many more.

Tanzania's own  Country Development Gateway was established in January 2002, through a broad-based partnership hosted by the Economic and Social Research Foundation.  The portal is now available at http://www.tanzaniagateway.org/

http://www.isaca.or.tz/

This is the website of the Tanzania Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association^® (ISACA™), created in mid-2001. With more than 22,000 members in over 100 countries, ISACA has since 1969 become a recognized global leader in IT governance, control and assurance. The Association assists IT governance, control and assurance stakeholders deal with IT management, IT risk and IT process, and their interaction with corporate governance, corporate management, corporate risks and corporate processes. ISACA provides value through various services, such as research, standards, information, education, certification, and professional advocacy. It also helps IS audit, control and security professionals to focus not only on IT, IT risks and security issues, but also on the relationship between IT and the business, the business processes and the business risks.  The association also has an affiliated Foundation, for leading-edge research in support of the profession and an IT Governance Institute as a "think tank" for greater understanding of the roles and relationship between IT and enterprise governance.

http://sdnhq.undp.org/it4dev/

UNDP is already helping countries gain access to the digital economy in places ranging from Estonia to East Timor, including of course Tanzania. The organization supports the launching of new networks and helps construct policy frameworks for Information and Communications Technology (ICT). It is well worth downloading and reading the "Concept Paper" on this excellent website.

http://www.bridges.org/index.html

Bridges.org's mission is to empower people in developing and emerging countries to use technology for themselves, by: a) providing public education about technology use; b) promoting policy-making that removes barriers to the use of technology; and c) creating a body of knowledge about digital divide issues.

http://www.digitaldivide.org/

Digital Partners, a Seattle-based nonprofit institute, evokes the leadership that catalyzes investments in technology content and infrastructures needed by the poor.

http://www.iicd.org/

The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) assists developing countries to utilise the opportunities offered by information and communication technologies (ICTs) towards realising sustainable development. IICD uses a cross-sectoral approach, in which the local "agents of change" themselves identify and develop proposals for realistic ICT applications.  IICD has partners in Tanzania (some of whom are also members of eThinkTankTz), who are in the process of building up their own site at www.ictTanzania.org to reflect and support their growing activities.

http://www.bellanet.org/partners/aisi/adf99docs/governance.htm

The African Development Forum. This paper reviews the issues facing African countries in adopting information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance governance in four areas, reducing poverty, providing basic human needs, improving public administration, and enhancing democratisation

http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/mongolia/links/MnICTPlan.htm

ICT Development in Mongolia. A very interesting action plan for 2000 to 2003, and encompasses the Vision 2010 developed on a collaborative basis.

http://www.nitc.org.my/

The National Information Technology Council of Malaysia (NITC Malaysia) is the country's premier organisation that strategically manages IT in the interest of the nation. The Council functions as the primary advisor and consultant to the Government on matters pertaining to IT in Malaysia's national development.

http://www.idrc.ca/acacia/

The Acacia Initiative is an international programme to empower sub-Saharan communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies to their own social and economic development.

http://www.unites.org/index.html

The intention of the initiative, the United Nations Information Technology Service, or UNITeS, is to create a worldwide programme for information technology volunteers. They will work with their developing country partners to strengthen capacities for applying information and communications technologies (ICT) to human development, in particular in areas such as health, education, environment and small and micro- enterprises. Note that Riku Asikainen of the eSecretariat is a UNITeS volunteer.

http://www.readinessguide.org/

This Guide is both an educational resource that describes the determinants of a community’s Readiness for the Networked World, and a diagnostic tool that systematically examines those factors to assess a community’s Readiness.  The guide was developed by the Information Technologies Group in the Centre for International Development at Harvard University

http://www.mcconnellinternational.com/

McConnell International (MI) is a global policy and technology management consulting firm that helps clients seize opportunities in the new economy. Its proven approach of using trusted public and private networks to leverage the risk of e-business and e-government gives clients a unique advantage. MI currently manages the United Nations-sponsored global cooperation network of government Internet policy officials from over 120 countries.

http://www.dotforce.org/ (website no longer available)

The Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force) is composed of members from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors of G8 countries plus the European Union, and includes invited participants from 9 developing countries (including Tanzania).  The first DOT Force plenary meeting was held in Tokyo on November 27-28, 2000. This was followed by a series of informal meetings, and public consultations, which enabled the DOT Force's Joint Secretariat (World Bank / UNDP) to prepare a draft report with concrete recommendations on how the G8 can take up digital opportunities for bridging the global digital divide.

A second formal plenary meeting was held in Cape Town in March 1-2, 2001 wherein it was agreed that an enhanced consultation among DOT Force developing countries was urgently needed.  The South Africa delegation offered to also host the consultation assisted by the Tanzanian delegation, and the meeting was held in Pretoria on 23-24, 2001 ahead of the third formal plenary meeting of April 23-24 in Siena, Italy, during which the DOT Force report was completed, carrying a series of nine Action Points, for the G8 Heads of State to take on board at their Summit in Genoa during July 2001.

Subsequently, in October 2001, a consultation was held in Montreal, Canada, to set up an implementation framework and agree on deliverables under each of the Action Points for the coming months.  These deliverables were reported back and assessed by DOT Force members at a subsequent conference in Calgary, Canada, on 6-8th May 2002.  The main agenda at this final DOT Force meeting in Calgary was to agree a common format for reporting progress to the forthcoming G8 Summit, and also to pave the way for integrating the activities of DOT Force within the new UN ICT Task Force, which had been established in November 2001. 

At the G8 Summit of 2002, held at Kananaskis near Calgary on 26-27th June 2002, the DOT Force Report Card was officially presented at a ceremony where African stakeholders were represented by Ms Maimouna Ndeye Diop of Senegal (public sector) and eThinker Mr Simbo Ntiro of Tanzania (private and non-profit sector).  Commenting on the outcome of their deliberations, the G8 Summit 2002 Chairman's Summary stated: "We reviewed implementation of the DOT Force's Genoa Plan of Action and welcomed its initiatives to strengthen developing countries' readiness for e-development, such as the e-model to improve the efficiency of public administrations and to enhance the transparency of national budgeting".

The DOT Force website (now no longer active) served as an information resource on the DOT Force process, with downloadable publications and options for public consultation and input. The Tanzanian delegation to the DOT Force included David Sawe and August Kowero (both eThinkers) who represented different branches of the Public Service, and Simbo Ntiro who represented the eThinkTank and thereby simultaneously covered the ICT concerns of both the non-profit and private sectors.

http://www.unicttaskforce.org

On 20th November 2001, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, set up the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force to co-ordinate the UN's agenda for bridging the digital divide, following a request from the UN's Economic and Social Council in March 2001.

The task force comprises what Mr Kofi Annan calls "an inspiring group of government officials, industry experts, non-governmental organization leaders and others from every part of the world".  It is an innovative mechanism – the first body created by a intergovernmental decision of a United Nations in which members, representing governments, civil society (including the private sector, not-for-profit foundations, NGOs and academia) and organizations of the United Nations system have equal decision-making power.

 During the official launch and first working session of the Task Force, a decision was made to form four regional networks in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East that would feed into the work of the Task Force.  The task forces are constituted around six themes and working groups – National and Regional Strategies, Governance and Policy, Capacity Building, E-business and Entrepreneurship, Resource Mobilization, Low-cost Connectivity and Access.

This initiative is intended to lend a truly global dimension to the multitude of efforts to bridge the global digital divide, foster digital opportunity and thus firmly put ICT at the service of development for all.  To achieve tangible and sustainable results, action in the area of ICT-for-development must be local, cooperation should be promoted at the sub-regional and regional levels, but the broad agenda should be set globally. The contribution of the United Nations to this effort, via the ICT Task Force, reflects the Organization’s unique strengths – legitimacy, universality, global development reach and experience and presence on the ground, as well as its convening and catalytic roles.

 http://www.infodev.org/

http://www.globalknowledge.org/

The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) is an evolving, informal partnership of public, private and not-for-profit organizations. Partner organizations are committed to sharing information, experiences and resources to promote broad access to, and effective use of, knowledge and information as tools of sustainable, equitable development. The GKP emerged from the cooperation of several dozen organizations in sponsoring the Global Knowledge 97 conference, "Knowledge for Development in the Information Age" in Toronto, Canada in June 1997.

http://www.balancingact-africa.com/

Balancing Act is facilitating the development of content for the internet and other new media technologies in Africa that will have an impact on people’s lives and that they will want to use, in the three fields of economic, social and cultural development. Whilst the primary focus is digital products that can be delivered through things like e-mail, the internet and CD-ROM, we are also interested in development of appropriate linkages between new and old media (eg community radio, satellite, the internet and multimedia) that will deliver to Africa’s less well-connected rural areas  Among other things, Balancing Act publishes News Update, a weekly e-letter on the internet and new media in Africa that goes out to over 3,500 subscribers (as at 15/8/01) in government, the private sector, NGOs and education.

http://www.kpmg.co.tz/other/eGovernment%20in%20Eastern%20Africa.html

Globally, few governments have fully embraced the opportunities offered by recent huge developments in Information Communications Technology (ICT). The rapid pace of change in recent times has meant it is difficult to know where we are heading, and for our governments to make informed decisions on "e". On the heels of other articles written by consultants in KPMG East Africa this article will demystify "e" further. Simbo Ntiro of KPMG-Tanzania explores the relevance of eGovernment to governments in Eastern Africa…