BPN 1103 WSA to become a UN GAID flagship initiative

The global digital media competition World Summit Award is about to forge a new alliance with the United Nations in the framework of the Global Alliance for ICT & Development (GAID) of the United Nations. After a meeting in New York at the UN Headquarters, Mr Sarbuland Kahn, the Executive Coordinator of GAID, announced verbally that WSA is going to become the flagship initiative of GAID in recognition of the global reach of WSA and its unique standing in the area of e-content. This decision will be set out in writing at the GAID Annual Meeting and Global Forum on 18-20 May 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Mr Sarbuland Khan said:“GAID places particular importance to initiatives such as the WSA, and welcomes the development of appropriate tools and training content, an essential ingredient of localknowledge sharing, in order to enable communities to find resources most relevant to their needs.
WSA will launch a Flagship Initiative on e-Content within GAID with the objective of creating a meaningful dialogue - involving grass-roots and civil society organizations,
governments, the private sector and other stakeholders - in order to advance consensus and help decision-makers to bring about the appropriate regulatory environment
enabling local content production, dissemination and usage for the benefit of the communities.”

WSA creates and sustains a global network and platform which provides global recognition of the individual achievements of local e-Content producers, establishes insight into what is quality in terms of e-Content and innovative applications, focuses on value add for users, and stimulates entrepreneurship and creativity in the creative industries. WSA directly empowers individuals as entrepreneurs and specifically supports the UN Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and using ICT for the betterment of Society.

Aims:
• Make rich local e-Content issues part of the ICT4D agenda
• Facilitate local e-Content industry economic development
• Bridge the digital divide in e-Content
• Narrow the content gap

Blog Post Number: 1103

Tags: digital divide