The Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) organized an International Forum on cross-sector partnerships for the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions for development.

This two-day event, which took place on 6-7 May 2005 in Cairo, Egypt, engaged leaders from business, civil society and government to share experiences, interests, opportunities and challenges in applying ICT for development and to build new partnership-based initiatives for implementing and scaling the socio-economic development impacts of these technologies in the Middle East and North Africa region, as well as in other regions. Yuri Hohlov, Chairman of the IIS Board, and Tatiana Ershova, IIS General Director and Head of PRIOR Directorate, participated in the event as representatives of the GKP Focal Point for Eastern and Central Europe and PRIOR Coordinating Organization.

The participants discussed the following topics:

• Global private sector engagement opportunities and challenges;
• Opportunities and challenges for cross-sectoral partnerships;
• Experiences of successful cross-sector partnerships in the Middle East and North Africa region and in the world;
• Involving the local private sector in ICT solutions for development;
• Human capacity building;
• Local content and applications;
• The role of the private sector in ICTs and disaster preparedness;
• Measuring the impact of cross-sectoral partnerships; and
• Financing ICT for development.

Forum participants were able to:

• Discover opportunities and challenges in forming and maintaining cross-sectoral partnerships in ICT for development;
• Discuss current topics and areas of interest in ICT for development;
• Share experiences in cross-sector partnerships & the effective use of ICTs as tools for development; and
• Meet international and regional ICT for development players with the opportunity to form cross-sectoral partnerships for mutual benefits.

This International Forum was organized by the Global Knowledge Partnership in collaboration with Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt, and American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, and was co-sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), the Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida), the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Microsoft and the International Development and Research Centre (IDRC).

For more information about the meeting please refer to GKP web site at http://www.globalknowledge.org/annualmeeting2005.