A Gateway to change

The Nata Village Blog , and a recent essay I wrote on blogging’s promise for democratic development in Africa, have both inspired me to look more closely at other websites aiding development. The Nata Village blog is refreshing because it focuses on a very small community and talks intimately about their lives. It is therefore something of a grass-roots site, able to serve its purpose simply and effectively. The personal nature of the Nata Village blog is probably one of the reasons it has had such an impact on viewers and therefore has been able to generate significant funds for their fight against HIV in the village.

Yet what about ICT development efforts on a greater national or perhaps global scale? I set out to find a site which shows a commitment to development around the world and constitutes something of a larger scale ICT-for-development success story.

And I think I found one… hurrah!

I found an organisation with a mission to “reduce poverty and enable change in developing nations through information technology” called The Development Gateway Foundation . It is an international non-profit organization providing web-based platforms to make aid and development efforts more effective around the world.

The organisation is working towards a world where: the digital revolution serves people everywhere and creates great opportunities for people due to increased access to critical information; where there is greater reliance on local capabilities; and more effective, better coordinated international aid.

So how is this site aiding African countries at a basic, accessible level? Well the Development Gateway Foundation aims to be exactly that – a gateway to issues and projects in developing countries around the world.

The organisation focuses on three ways in which even small investments in information and communications technology can make a major difference:
• Effective government
• Knowledge sharing and collaboration
• Local partner programs in nearly 50 countries – connecting developing country organizations into a global network to empower them to use information and communications technologies to bolster local development efforts.

This last point is important, because here is one of the reasons the site works so well: while it gives a global overview of issues and projects, it also has a strong local focus. The organisation has helped set up and hosts development sites for developing countries all over the world – including Africa.

One such example is Rwanda Development Gateway (RDG) . The RDG is a group of three “ICT for Development” initiatives under the Rwanda’s Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, being funded by the Government of Rwanda. This project is a national portal for information sharing and represents a one-stop-shop for information on Rwanda and the country's web interface to the rest of the world.

The Development Gateway Foundation acts as a portal – an oversight of and entrance to development issues globally. They are building online resources which enable development information and knowledge-sharing worldwide through bringing people and organisations together, all of whom are working to improve life in developing countries.

The site shows a fair balance between two extremes – a locally-orientated and driven site for development, and a large-scale organisation for development. All online websites for development should remember to keep a clear focus on the people whom they are hoping to assist. If they remember to do this, it seems their priorities, and their site will be pointing in the right direction.