The idea is to move from the so-called “perpetual pilot project syndrome” to projects that can make a difference on the ground and to challenge delegates to provide real world, deployable ICT solutions for development and to encourage practitioners and high-level participants to brainstorm real world ICT driven solutions, which will meet development challenges head-on.

This three-day Forum aims to:

• bring stakeholders together to examine concrete projects, proposals and models that will help integrate least developed countries into the global economy through the effective deployment of information communication technologies (ICTs).

• bring together decision makers from stakeholder organisations and engage them in fruitful discussions that will hopefully lead to commitments that can be implemented on the ground.

• find innovative solutions to the problem of under-development and to set the stage for replicating solutions or projects that have worked elsewhere.

Rationale

• There is consensus amongst the international community that ICTs are important for sustainable economic development and instrumental in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

• ICTs when viewed through the prism of the Millennium Development Goals have the potential to create new opportunities especially for those in the least developed country category, who have thus far been excluded from gains in human development.

• If properly harnessed the fruits of the unprecedented pace and scale of global flows in information, products, capital, people and ideas, are limitless

Providing a Rare Opportunity

This Forum will provide a rare opportunity for key players to come together not only to discuss but also to map out practical strategies for deploying ICT projects for development. The Forum is a complete departure from past such forums where the end product has tended to be reports and expressions of commitment