Dag Hammarskjöld Stood Up for the UN on Development
Freedom and prosperity must come to Africa from within. Let us pray that it will not resort to quick fixes, revenge, violence, and wars that have kept it down for so many years.
Digital Asia-Pacific in the Twenty-First Century
Change is accelerating in the Asia-Pacific region, including in rural areas, as it becomes the global economy's growth driver. In 2010, the region's developing countries grew at an impressive rate of 8.8 per cent compared to 2.7 per cent for the world's developed economies.
Context and Design in ICT for Global Development
Information and communication technology is deeply woven into the fabric of society and is integral to the way we do business, entertain ourselves, talk to each other, learn about the world, and even feed ourselves. With nearly five billion mobile phones worldwide, the reach of ICTs is increasingly global. However, even with this near ubiquity, the benefits of ICTs remain uneven -- access to the world information society does not immediately grant membership.
The ICT/Poverty Nexus
Despite the persistence of widespread poverty, the use of mobile telephony in African countries in the last few years has grown more rapidly than in any other region in the world. There are now an estimated 500 million mobile phone subscribers across the continent compared to 246 million in 2008. By late 2010, Africa exceeded Western Europe in terms of the number of mobile connections.
Rewarding Scientific Knowledge for Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is a critical issue in the management of global survival and environmental preservation. Increasingly, it is extending its reach across a broad multidisciplinary policy canvas, impacting on economic, social and cultural spheres aimed at securing an improved quality of life for the international community.
Bridging the Digital Divide in Health
A fundamental change in the years since the MDGs were agreed upon is the appreciation of the role that ICT can play in meeting health targets. It was not so long ago that health decision makers were questioning the utility of adopting ICT in health services and systems -- that is, e-Health -- particularly in developing countries.
A Strong, UN-Based Digital Bridge
The United Nations plays a key role in overcoming one of the major challenges and harnessing one of the greatest opportunities facing humankind today -- bridging the digital divide, both among and within countries.
ICT for Poverty Reduction in Lao PDR
Information and communications technology (ICT) holds the promise of making the world a fairer place. Indeed, in many countries, increased information access and social networking are giving citizens a larger voice in local, national, and regional affairs. While the individual and social transformational capacity of information and communications technology is immense, it is often those who already have a voice in national agendas that benefit from the amplifying effect of the technology.
WSIS and the Broadband Divide: Obstacles and Solutions
At the beginning of 2011, there were 5.4 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide, meaning that we have effectively achieved the goal of bringing all of the world's people within reach of the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It is a good time for us to take stock, therefore, with just four years left before the 2015 deadline set to achieve the targets set by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), in combination with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The Role of e-Governance in Bridging the Digital Divide
E-governance should play the leading role in creating usable e-government tools, regardless of the level of education. Some governmental websites are very complicated and unfriendly both in access and content. Adopting an integrated and citizen-oriented approach may lead Governments to increase equal opportunities in the use of ICTs.
Mobile Communication and Socio-Economic Development: A Latin American Perspective
The impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is not limited to the sector in which they are produced, but rather spreads to all sectors of production and consumption. This is also valid for mobile telephony. In addition, its influence increases as network effects do; that is, when the number of people using the service rises.
Dag Hammarskjöld and United Nations Peacekeeping
When Dag Hammarskjöld was appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations on 7 April 1953, there was a full-scale war on the Korean peninsula, the Organization was deeply divided between East and West, and the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council over the refusal of the United Nations to give the now communist Chinese regime a seat on the Council. It was by no means a safe bet that the United Nations was going to be more successful than its predecessor, the League of Nations, in preventing an outbreak of a new world war.
R2P and the UN
More than a decade has passed since Nelson Mandela, in his capacity as President of the Republic of South Africa, addressed the Heads of State and Government of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU). In his speech, he focused on one of the biggest dilemmas the world had been facing since the end of the Cold War: should outside forces intervene in the internal affairs of a state when the civilian population is suffering massive violations of human rights and the state is unable or unwilling to fulfil its responsibility to protect its own people? Although his message was conveyed to those present in Ouagadougou, its essence can be extended to the entire international community.
The Role of Women in Making and Building Peace
Last June in Suai, a small town in Timor-Leste, I held an open day with local women and men to mark the tenth anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. This resolution recognizes the unique impact of conflict on women's lives and highlights their often overlooked contributions to resolving and preventing conflict. It also calls on the international community to involve women fully in every aspect of our work for peace and security.
Conflict Resolution and Human Rights in Peacebuilding: Exploring the Tensions
Preventing wars and massive human rights violations, and rebuilding societies in their aftermath, requires an approach that incorporates the perspectives of both human rights advocates and conflict resolution practitioners. This is easier to assert than to achieve. These two groups make different assumptions, apply different methodologies, and have different institutional constraints. As a result, they tend to be wary of one another.