IT for Change Bulletin, January 2009

1. Advocacy Update: IT for Change at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2008

At the December 2008 IGF, IT for Change co-organised three workshops on topics of 'Enhanced Cooperation', 'Internet for All' and 'Role and Mandate of the IGF', exploring the impact of techno-social institutional changes and policies on development and social policies, and in reverse, how advocacy at arenas like the IGF are informed by the values and tenets of equity and social justice. Collaborations with the Gender Dynamic Coalition, and between the Dynamic Coalitions on Framework of Principles and the Bill of Rights helped push a 'rights-based framework' to the Internet to the centre stage at the 2008 IGF.

2. New Publication: Rethinking ICTD: 'Back to the Basics' of Development

This paper critically examines the dominant approach to ICTD, and proposes an alternative conception that is rooted in traditional development ethics, theory, and practice. The analysis captures the significance of a rights-based approach, which can provide ICTD a new point of anchor to develop its theory, policy frameworks and practice in a manner that mainstreams it into 'development' with its central ethos of equity and social justice and methods of participation involving bottom-up ownership and appropriation of the processes of development. This paper was presented at the 'Global Forum on Access and Connectivity: Innovative Funding for ICT for Development', of the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID), at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in May 2008.

3. Consultation: Digital Story Telling

IKM Emergent and IT for Change organised a Consultation on 'Digital Story Telling and Local Communication Processes' in June 2008. This Consultation aimed to open up a process of dialogue on contextualised, development-oriented local communication processes. It brought together community practitioners from around India along with researchers from other regions, to look at digital story telling as a powerful medium and format that allows participants of a local communication process to express themselves, make statements, evaluate their own environment, and legitimise their struggles. The Consultation also explored how digitally enabled communication processes can contribute to build a bottom-up development discourse that informs development policies and programmes. A detailed report on the discussion and debate at the Consultation is available.

4. Campaign: Minister Takes Stand Against Privatisation of Public Policymaking

In response to an advocacy campaign – where IT for Change worked with other organisations from the education sector – that private parties with vested interests should not have a role in drafting the Indian national policy for introduction of ICTs in schools, the Indian Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister has ordered the constitution of a new ministerial committee to draft the policy. The Ministry has also directed that in future policy formulation should not be 'outsourced' to private parties. To read more on the collective efforts of the various groups involved, please see the related article that appeared in the daily The Indian Express.

5. Campaign: Open Letter to the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF)

Most of us tend to take the commons and the public nature of the Internet for granted. However, increasing corporatisation and control of the Internet are strongly threatening these fundamental characteristics of the Internet as we know it. Therefore, six civil society organisations in India proposed an open letter to the IGF which met for its third annual meeting in December 2008 in Hyderabad, India. The letter exhorts urgent global action to ensure that the public-ness and the egalitarian nature of the Internet are preserved as its essential features. The possibilities of democracy, equity and social justice in our societies will be significantly impacted by the extent to which we can achieve this objective. The letter has been endorsed by nearly 110 organisations and individuals from around the world.

6. Vacancies: Research Associate and Communications and Publications Officer

IT for Change has vacancies for the following positions:

1. Research Associate - Governance, Social Policy and ICTs
2. Communications and Publications Officer