The United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) has been asked by the UN Secretary-General to take the lead in bringing together a coalition of partners to launch the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a volunteer initiative to help bridge the digital divide between nations of the North and South. Since it was announced in April in the Secretary-General's Millennium Report, UNV has met with information technology and development experts to formulate plans. UNV Executive Coordinator Sharon Capeling-Alakija elaborated on UNITeS and new technologies in an interview with Richard Nyberg.

What is UNITeS?

UNITeS is both about volunteering and the new information and communication technologies. It will allow computer- and Internet-savvy volunteers from the North and the South to get involved in building human capacity to make practical use of these technologies while helping to amplify and accelerate development processes.

What does UNV have to offer the UNITeS initiative?

UNV has a tremendous amount to offer in terms of its own infrastructure and its network of partners around the world, including 134 UNDP Offices in the developing world where these UNITeS volunteers will be working. We have experience in the recruitment, selection and rapid deployment of volunteers from anywhere to everywhere. Over the years we have deployed well over 20,000 United Nations Volunteers from 150 countries to serve in about 145 other countries. This global placement of volunteers requires skills. It is a very labour-intensive type of work and UNV has built up this capacity over the past 30 years. We have been able to respond to the changing environment in developing countries and that has enabled us to remain relevant by bringing in new mechanisms such as short-term volunteers, national volunteers, corporate volunteers and volunteers working in humanitarian and electoral processes. We ourselves apply information and communication technology (ICT) in all aspects of our operations. A significant percentage of our recruitment and promotion is done through the Internet. So it seems to me that we are the obvious place to house UNITeS -- UNV can become a platform on which UNITeS can rest.

Who are the main partners in UNITeS?

We are looking for partners from networks that already exist, be it NetCorps Canada, or the global Association for Progressive Communication (APC), or private sector networks such as the Confederation of Indian Industry. Of course, we have our partner volunteer-sending organizations such as the US Peace Corps, VSO in the UK, APSO in Ireland, AVI in Australia and JOCV in Japan. We are also looking for new partnerships in the private sector. We are already working with Cisco Systems in managing the Netaid.org online volunteering facility, and they have just announced a new training initiative with UNV, UNDP, the Peace Corps and UNITeS. We see great potential for corporate volunteering, where companies release employees to serve as a short-term UNITeS volunteer in a developing country for a three-week or three-month assignment.

Who will finance this initiative?

UNV knows very clearly what volunteers cost because we work with that on a daily basis. We see ourselves building on our volunteer management infrastructure rather than having to have to start from zero and spend the next year creating a new organization. The money will come from governments and foundations and hopefully the private sector. The private sector is at the cutting edge of ICT, and it is there that a real understanding of the potential of these technologies to help bridge the economic divide resides. The private sector can generate new sources of financing for development. Luckily, there is a growing understanding that a world that is economically and socially divided is a dangerous world for everybody, and certainly not good for doing business. Everybody has a stake in social cohesion and economic stability that can lead to human development.

The year 2000 seems to be the year of the "digital divide". Why it has gone to the top of the international development agenda?

The new information and communications technologies have begun to change fundamentally not only what we do but how we do it. It has kind of crept up on us, and now the alarm bells have started to go off amongst those of us who are already working in international development and already dealing with the tremendous divide between men and women, between rich and poor, between the industrialized world and the developing world. These new technologies have so much potential to be harnessed to address development issues. The UNDP Human Development Report of 1999 also played a significant role in raising awareness about the issue of globalization and, together with globalization, one of the driving mechanisms of globalization -- the Internet.

Has ICT become the latest fad in development?

I've been working in development for over 25 years and I'm fully aware that people are constantly looking for quick fixes and easy answers. Microcredit is part of the answer. Gender equity is part of the answer. Clean water supply is part of the answer. But none of these things is going to be the final answer for the developing world. I think there is some hubris about ICT right now. ICT is not, to use Clifford Stoll's phrase, 'utopia on a stick'. As we take on board this use of information and communication technologies, we must be sure to apply them to produce desirable development results. UNITeS is about development. Technology is a means to an end, and not the end in and of itself.