From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#4 (December 1999), page 37
NetAid: new approach against poverty
By Djibril Diallo*
"The international community must not see NetAid as the extended begging hand of the South directed toward the North," President Alpha Oumar Konaré of Mali said on 9 October as he logged onto the NetAid website <www.netaid.org> from the Presidential Palace in Bamako.
By logging on, President Konaré joined other world leaders in supporting the NetAid initiative, an ambitious effort to harness the power of the Internet to galvanize public support for humanitarian programmes. NetAid aims to use the reach and power of the World Wide Web to raise global consciousness about extreme poverty in developing countries and to mobilize support to eradicate it.
President Konaré's concern is not misplaced. With a large percentage of the 1.3 billion people who must eke out an existence on less than a dollar a day living in the South, particularly in Africa, there is every possibility that the world may see NetAid as just another way for the South to beg for help.
President Konaré does not think this should be so. He believes that NetAid must be seen as an opportunity for exchange and understanding aimed at attacking the worst cases of poverty around the world.
The NetAid organizers agree. Conceived as a partnership between the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Cisco Systems, a leading US information technology company, the NetAid website is designed to serve as a global forum for people and groups wanting to exchange ideas and work together to eradicate extreme poverty.
Three concerts, held in New York, London and Geneva on 9 October, formed the centrepiece of the strategy to launch the NetAid website and take NetAid's message to millions of people around the world. Broadcast live simultaneously on the World Wide Web and globally on radio and television, the concerts featured some of the today's leading artists.
At Giants Stadium, near New York, singer Mary J. Blige held court alongside Bon Jovi, Busta'Rhymes, Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows, Black Crows, Wyclef Jean with Bono, Jimmy Page and friends, Puff Daddy, Jewel, Sting with Cheb Mami, and Zucchero. At Wembley Stadium in London, Bryan Adams took the stage along with David Bowie, Bush, Catatonia, The Corrs, The Eurythmics, George Michael, Stereophonics and Robbie Williams. The Geneva concert held at the Palais des Nations, featured Des'ree, Bryan Ferry, Michael Kamen and Orchestra and the group Texas.
The organizers report that by 15 October, NetAid's website recorded more than 40 mn "hits" from people in 160 countries, including more than 2,000 non-governmental organizations seeking to be part of this novel approach to the war on poverty.
Like President Konaré, US President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former President Nelson Mandela of South Africa also are supporting NetAid. On 8 September, the three leaders, linked by satellite at a ceremony held in New York, became the first "world citizens" to log onto the NetAid website.
"NetAid sends a powerful signal that we intend to use the Internet to improve the lives of all people, not just those wealthy enough to afford computers," said President Clinton at the ceremony hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown and Cisco Systems chief executive John Chambers.
President Mandela expressed confidence that "NetAid can help build a better world and increase bonds among people through the Internet." The organizers of NetAid stress that the strength of the initiative is not in its fund-raising capabilities but its potential to raise awareness and provide education about poverty.
The NetAid website is unique. It offers visitors a chance to get directly involved in the fight against global poverty. It lists poverty eradication programmes in developing countries under five categories: hunger, human rights, Third World debt, environment and refugees. Visitors can read about the lives, hopes and achievements of the men, women and children who have benefited from these projects and then take action by donating their time, money and/or expertise.
In the words of Mr. Malloch Brown, "NetAid will have achieved its goal if it succeeds in helping people see that development is an extraordinary force for change in the lives of the world's poor."
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* Djibril Diallo is Director of the Division of Public Affairs, UNDP
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