BNNRC has been nominated to
become a Civil Society member of
Global Alliance for ICT & Development (GAID) from Bangladesh


The UN Secretary General recently approved the initiative of launching a Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID). The United Nations - Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN- DESA) is now in the process of organizing the inaugural meeting of this multi-stakeholder organ, to take place in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) on 19-20 June 2006. The three tier structure of the Global Alliance is also in the process of being established and will include a Strategy Council, a Steering Committee and a Secretariat.

The Strategy Council will provide overall strategic guidance to the Global Alliance, such as identification of priorities and themes for discussion. The Strategy Council will consist of fifty members from all stakeholders: governments, the private sector, civil society (in particular gender and youth groups), media, the academic and technical communities, as well as secretariats of relevant intergovernmental organizations. The members of the Council will be chosen in their personal capacity and will enjoy equal rights in the work of the Council. The basic requirement for the members of this policy-setting group will be commitment, experience and vision in ICT for development, as well as traditional development fields. Although individual self-nomination is possible, as mentioned on the Global Alliance web-page, The United Nations - Department of Economic and Social Affairs(UN- DESA) made it clear very recently that the UN Secretary General would take into account recommendations for the Strategy Council as submitted by groups of constituencies, such as civil society.

Even though the exact number of CS members of the Strategy Council is not yet known, we can assume that at least 15 Civil Society representatives would be involved in this structure.
In the beginning of the process, The Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the UN (CONGO) got a list of 198 nominees of whom few were self nominated. For facilitating a selection procedure, The Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the UN (CONGO) formed a Nomination Committee (Nom Com) comprising 5 members randomly selected from 45 volunteers to participate in the Strategy Council of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID). Through vigorous scrutiny, Nomination Committee (Nom Com) came out with a list of 63 prospective Civil Society members.

Finally 5 Nomination Committee (Nom Com) members discussed and agreed on the following principles in setting criteria for finalizing Nomination process.

-Recommended candidates should have demonstrated commitment and experience in ICT4D within civil society. They should also enjoy respect and trust of this constituency, would be able to commit time and brains to the work in Strategy Council.

-Recommended candidates must have an excellent understanding of the UN process and principles and of the UN development agenda in general.

-Special attention should be given to the inclusion of specific groupings in the Strategy Council, such as youth, gender, but also persons with disabilities and indigenous populations. The Nom Com will therefore consider with specific attention the nominations submitted by the Working Groups and Caucuses representing these groupings.

-Gender and regional balances will be ensured in the Nom Com recommendation. To that end, the Nom Com recommendation should be composed of at least 2 nominees from each region while the skills and competence of the nominees will mostly guide the Nom Com selection.

In addition, due to the high number of nominees, the Nom Com should attempt to stick to one representative for each country. For the same reason, the Nom Com will select no more than one representative by NGO in the recommendation for the Strategy Council.

-The Nomination Committee (Nom Com) recommendation should ensure a diverse representation of civil society groupings and of age, languages, substantial skills and thematic background, as well as a wide range of actors, including WSIS accredited CSOs or ECOSOC accredited NGOs, but also beyond.

-The nominees must have demonstrated communication skills, mediation skills and advocacy skills.

Through discussion in several sessions, Nomination Committee (Nom Com) finally reached in to a list of 21 final nominees to be selected as Civil Society in Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID). This list is now awaiting to be finalized and formalized by UN Secretary General.

From Bangladesh, AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR, Chief Executive Officer of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio & Communication (BNNRC) was nominated by an anonymous nominator. It is our immense pleasure to inform you that, we finally have come down to the short list of 21 prospective civil society and stands with equal chance to get selected as one of member of Global Alliance for ICT and Development(GAID).