The ICT4Peace Foundation, infoDev, a global partnership of the World Bank, and ITU are organising a High-Level Dialogue and Thematic Workshop focusing on “ICT for post-conflict reconstruction” during the forthcoming World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva on 16 May 2012.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis on 18 November 2005, acknowledged the “potential of ICTs to promote peace and to prevent conflict” as well as their use in “post-conflict peace-building and reconstruction”.
ICTs are critical tools for fueling post-conflict reconstruction: they can attract private investment, strengthen government operations, help civil society to re-build / build community networks and democratic movements, and communicate the reconstruction progress to a wide range of stakeholders. In a post-conflict reconstruction phase, it is essential for the country in question to develop a coherent and inclusive post-conflict ICT policy, based on a clear prioritization of, and commitment to, deployments and regulatory measures.
infoDev, a Global Partnership of the World Bank, and the ICT4Peace Foundation, with funding from UKaid (DfID), have commissioned a series of case studies of countries at different stages of post-conflict – covering Afghanistan, Liberia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and Tunisia – to examine the contribution of ICTs in more detail. The studies examine how policy-makers and the private sector should prioritize ICT initiatives in the aftermath of conflict and aim to understand how ICTs can contribute to improving service delivery and assisting with nation-building. This research serves as the first large-scale comparative analysis of the role that ICTs play in countries emerging from conflict and it helps to identify the role of information in post-conflict development and social cohesion.
Speakers in the High Level Dialogue
Chairman: Brahima Sanou, Director, ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau
Moderator: Daniel Stauffacher, Chairman, ICT4Peace Foundation
- H.E. Amirzai Sangin – Minister of Communications and IT, Afghanistan
- H.E. Tetsuo Yamakawa – Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination, Ministry of Information and Communications, Japan
- H.E. Beatrice Khamisa Wani – Deputy Minister of Telecommunications and Postal Services, Government of South Sudan
- Prof. Jelel Ezzine – Director General of International Cooperation at Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia
- Tim Kelly – Lead ICT Policy Specialist, infoDev/World Bank
- Juliana Rotich – Co-Founder of Ushahidi
Speakers in the Thematic Workshop
Moderator: Tim Kelly – Lead ICT Policy Specialist, infoDev/World Bank
- Prof. Michael Best, Georgia Tech – on the Liberia case study
- Sriganesh Lokanathan, Senior Research Manager of LIRNEAsia – on the Sri Lanka case study
- Zack Brisson, Principal of Reboot – on the Tunisia case study
- Rima Qureshi, Head of Ericsson Response – on the role of the private sector
Please visit the WSIS website to register.
