Diasporas and new media for development - perspectives

Debate organized by AMIS in order to discuss how ICT can be focused on development, taking existing projects and experiences into account.

The role of new media in communication exchange and the culture of diasporas cannot be underestimated, from themultifarious daily contacts between people across the world, to large scale transfer of remittance.

The meeting will discuss the perspectives of involving new media and diasporas in development processes in the global South focusing on knowledge-transfer and build up of expertise and practices based on new media for development ­what the UN has framed ICT4D.

The groundbreaking work with smart phones in health development and agriculture by mPower Social Enterprises Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh (http://www.mpower-social.com) will be presented, along with cases from Somaliland, and a debatewith stakeholders from the Somaliland diaspora, among them Somali Health for All Initiative Trust (SHIFAT), Hargeisa, Somaliland (http://shifat.org).

Programme

13:00 - 13:15  Introduction: Health, Diasporas and ICT4D - Somaliland as case
                      Anders Michelsen

13:15 - 14:15  ICT led Development Projects for the Underprivileged: Cases from
                      Bangladesh
                      Hasib Ahsan

14:15 - 14:45  Coffee break

14:45 - 15:15  Health Systems Management in Somaliland and ICT (online participation)
                      Musa Yousuf

15:15 - 16:00  Debate
                      Hasib Ahsan, Musa Yousuf, Mahad Farah Aden (all Danish-
                      Somaliland Friendship Society, and Anders Michelsen (University of
                      Copenhagen).

16:00 - End of meeting.

Participants

Hasib Ahsan, mPower Social Enterprises Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh (http://www.mpower-social.com)

Anders Michelsen, Centre for Advanced Migration Studies and Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen (http://amis.ku.dk)

Musa Yousuf, Somaliland Health Initiative For All Trust (SHIFAT), Hargeisa, Somaliland(http://shifat.org)

Mahad Farah Aden, Danish-Somaliland Friendship Society, Copenhagen (http://www.dansl.org)