Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme

Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme is an initiative of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and "aims to promote the development and application of information and communication technologies (or, ICTs) for sustainable human development". Its sphere of work is the Asia-Pacific region.

APDIP says it "aims to meet its goals by focussing on three inter-related core areas". The first is policy development and dialogue, the second is access, and the third being content development and knowledge management.

Aims, approach

From its publications, APDIP says it "collaborates with national governments, regional, international and multi-lateral development organisations, UN agencies, educational and research organisations, civil society groups, and the private sector". It does this with the aim of "integrating ICTs in the development process.

Strategies

To reach its tasks it also employs what it terms a dynamic mic of strategies—awareness raising, capacity building, technical assistance and advice, research and development, knowledge sharing and partnership building.

Countries covered

Below is a list of countries covered by APDIP: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, East Timor, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, French Polynesia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kiribati, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Caledonia, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Marshall Islands, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Team

APDIP's current (June 2006) team comprises chief technical advisor and [Programme co-ordinator Shahid AKHTAR, FOSS consultant Sunil ABRAHAM, programme specialist for content development and knowledge management Christine APIKUL, programme specialist for policy development and dialogue Lars BESTLE, practice team assistant Wasinee TRAYAPORN, programme specialist for access and partnership development James George CHACKO, programme specialist for building capacities and partnerships Phet SAYO, programme specialist for ICT4D based in Sri Lanka Chanuka WATTEGAMA, and IT consultant Khairil YUSOF.

IOSN

Among the techie community, one of the better-known initiatives of the APDIP is the International Open Source Network (or, IOSN), which is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada.

IOSN has been termed a "centre of excellence for Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), Open Content and Open Standards" in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2006, IOSN undertook plans for expansion of its activities with three more "centres of excellence". Till this time, it was largely a network with a small secretariat based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok.

It is now to have three more centres—IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island Countries) and IOSN South Asia. These centres will be based at Manila (Philippines), Suva (Fiji) and Chennai (India), respectively.

IOSN is more focussed on policy and technical advice on FOSS (also called FLOSS, or Free/Libre and Open Source Software) to governments, civil society and the private sector. It produces reports which are put out under the Creative Commons license, and available for download from its website.

External links

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