September 11, 2001
The Digital Initiative for Development (DID) Agency

This international consultative workshop focused on a proposal to establish a new specialized international agency, provisionally called the Digital Initiative for Development (DID) Agency, as response to the need for an entity focusing entirely on finding the best ideas, policies and programs to foster efficient and scalable uses of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the purpose of sustainable development. This new agency would become an international focal point promoting the collaboration of efforts between the various actors, international organizations, corporations, civil society organizations and governments working to bridge the Digital Divide. The workshop was attended by a group of twenty-five preeminent professionals actively involved in the fields of global governance, international development and ICT, who examined the need for the mandate and the functions of such an agency and its potential role in improving the use of ICT as a key component of a comprehensive development strategy.

This workshop was organized in collaboration with the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada. Following the workshop LCPS, the Centre for Global Studies, and their partners in a coalition of think tanks from Peru, Singapore, South Africa, the Czech Republic and India brought this and several other policy initiatives to a number of international forums and actively lobbied for their adoption.