IICD has always sought alliances, both operational and
strategic, with southern- and northern-based partners from the public, private
and non-profit sectors. These all have diverse but comparable strengths to
bring to development. Partnerships help to share information, add the specific
expertise that is needed for our work on the ground, and help to find the
necessary funds to implement Country Programmes. While our objectives remained
the same in 2007, extra attention was given to developing partnerships in order
to ensure necessary funding.
Partnerships in the Netherlands
Our original partnership
agreements with CORDAID, HIVOS and PSO came to an end in 2007. This was what
prompted IICD to evaluate these partnerships extensively, and that review
revealed not only their achievements, but also the challenges for the future.
Based on the outcomes of the evaluations, the partnerships were renewed and
adapted to the changed needs of IICD and its partners. With Cordaid, the
agreement itself was not extended, but instead converted into a number of
‘programme contracts’ with different Cordaid programme managers. As a result,
project partners are now being funded directly by Cordaid rather than by IICD,
whereas IICD will bring its expertise and guide the implementation of ICTs in
the various projects.
New partnerships were signed
with War Child and TNO. By participating in a tender process with the latter,
we even managed to tap into other sources of funding. Discussions were also
initiated with other organisations such as WOTRO and ICCO.
In June, IICD also signed the
Schokland Accord with the new Minister for Development Cooperation, Bert
Koenders. The Schokland Accord is an initiative of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs to strengthen the commitments of individuals, private-sector companies
and civil society to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
IICD signed the agreement, together with Hivos, OneWorld.nl, Atos Origin, Inter
Access and Logica CMG, which outlines the importance of ICT-enabled development
(ICT4D) and knowledge-based partnerships based on Millennium Development Goal
8. Prince Bernhard van Oranje, member of the IICD Board of Trustees, signed on
behalf of IICD and its partners.
Private partnerships
IICD planned to continue at
least three of its four public-private partnerships in the Netherlands. These
would be assessed on the basis of their continuing to contribute to the target
of ‘procuring innovative knowledge’. Aside from this, the first steps would be
taken towards acquiring new funding through private companies and to see
whether this is a realistic objective on a large scale. IICD managed to renew
existing partnerships with Manobi, Inter Access and Cap Gemini. New
private-sector collaborations were established with Atos Origin and Altran. The
partnership with Ordina ended, though negotiations for joint activities in 2008
are continuing. In all its public-private partnerships, IICD received a
discount on consultancy fees and in some cases no charge at all was made for
consultancy hours.
International partnerships
In 2010, DGIS will be implementing
the ‘25% Rule’, which means that 25% of IICD’s income will need to come from
sources other than DGIS. This rule challenges IICD to find at least one other
international donor such as DFID or CIDA that is willing to join forces in
implementing ICT4D programmes.
In the year under review, the
existing collaboration with the Swiss development agency SDC was prolonged
through a contract renewal of 3 years. The partnership with DFID – which
started in 2002 – came to an end. This was the result of organisational changes
within DFID, including the disappearance of the entire unit responsible for
ICT4D activities. IICD is currently looking for new ways to continue its
cooperation with DFID.
In its search for new donors
to compensate for the imminent reduction in funding, IICD continued discussions
with GTZ, CIDA, Spider/SIDA and other international partners that had begun in
2006. As a result, two Memoranda of Understanding were signed: one with Spider
and the other with the Global Digital Solidarity Fund, a Swiss-based
international organisation that can finance partners’ projects and programmes.
Knowledge-sharing alliances
The importance of having
complementary knowledge partners cannot be underestimated. IICD has a wealth of
valuable experience from its work on the ground, but it is the sharing of this
knowledge and expertise that adds value to it and helps us to gain new insights
into how ICTs can help sustainable development. A core group of knowledge
partners supplement IICD’s base of experience with regard to specific themes
(e.g. health, rural access) and areas (e.g. capacity development, policy
making).
In the year under review,
little changed in the character of the knowledge-sharing partnerships that IICD
had founded in previous years. The Communication Initiative, APC, GeSCI,
OneWorld International, PSO, Bellanet, ItrainOnline, BCO, Dgroups and the
Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) remained the most valuable knowledge-sharing
partners. Together with APC, a research study on effective national ICT4D
policy processes was executed and launched at the Third Global Knowledge
Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Bellanet remained a valuable partner for
hosting and developing online knowledge-sharing platforms like iConnect and
ItrainOnline. Of the aforementioned partners, it is ItrainOnline – which brings
together APC, Bellanet, FAO, UNESCO, Telecentre.org, INASP and OneWorld.net –
that continues to be our main partner for capacity development.
