Abu-Ghazaleh: Launching Initiative of Electronic Schools Society During WSIS
28 Oct 2003AMMAN – The Economic and Social Committee affiliated with the UN’s General assembly convened a meeting during the assembly’s 58th session in New York.
The general discussions in the committee’s meeting focused on partnerships. Participating in the meeting on behalf of the private Arab sector was Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, in his capacity as Vice-Chair of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force. He delivered an address that focused on partnerships as part of the UN Task Force’s responsibilities.
He further explained the action plans and achievements of the task force concluded through the past couple of years by following a dual path: regional networks and work teams. He clarified that each one of these entities had its own little community so to speak, with each community having particular partnerships, which in turn granted the task force a broad horizon during its work.
Abu-Ghazaleh called on businesses to form these partnerships with an open, flexible and ethical agenda, which will ensure that we learn and benefit from one another, since these partnerships offer unified capabilities that are effective in achieving continuous growth.
He added: “From this perspective, business owners can contribute to the work of the task force through working teams and regional networks that have flexible memberships”.
Abu-Ghazaleh elaborated that the work of the task force over the past two years led to highlighting three major factors for the success of any partnership:
- the existence of necessities that need to be clarified, and focusing on the desired objectives
- strict adherence to permanent foundations by all parties in order to fulfill the common goal
- the desire to work together and committing to the provision of both material and financial resources that are necessary for the common aims
He added that the task force was able to accommodate these three main factors in primary aspects of information technology and communications in the interest of growth, which led to tangible results.
He stated that there is still much to be done in other areas, particularly in global access to information technologies and communications at an affordable cost, achieving human capability growth and enhancing local content.
He stressed that the task force is working hard to achieve these objectives, with the best example for that being “the initiative of the global community of electronic schools”. This initiative aims to improve the educational system in developing countries by following an organized methodology of work and connecting all secondary schools with information technologies and telecommunications, in addition to training programs for teachers, developing local content and schools such that they become focal points to employ information technology and communications in the service of society.
He expressed his hope that the initiative is launched during the convention of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) and that it forms a qualitative contribution in achieving the millennium growth objectives in the educational field.
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