Kuwait Times

Published Date: March 14, 2010

UNITED NATIONS: Sergei Kambalov, executive coordinator of the Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) said late Friday that he was impressed with the work of Engineer Manar Al-Hashash of Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, and expressed hope that thanks to people like her, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be achieved by the target date of 2015. "I am very impressed.

She asked a lot of questions and challenges and I need to do my homework now to be able to respond to these questions and challenges by Monday. So it is a very difficult task for me," Kambalov said on the first day of the Second Strategy Planning Meeting of the GAID Youth eLeaders Committee which began its week-long session here on Friday.

The Second Strategy Planning Meeting is a follow up to the meeting held in Sharm El-Sheikh last November during the Internet Governance Forum hosted in Egypt, and attended by a number of the UN GAID e-leaders.

Kambalov said the GAID Secretariat looks forward to Al-Hashash's participation and "valuable input to the meetings, given her multi dimension experience, both internationally and locally in projects" that enables ICT for development and uses ICT to empower society in Kuwait, specially with "Kuwait e-Award" project of which she is Secretary-General.

He explained that the purpose of the Second Strategy Planning Meeting is to try to bring the energy of young people all over the world, five this time, to help in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). "This is what the organization is working on and this is our paramount objective for this year.

He recalled that there will be a summit next September to evaluate the progress achieved so far in achieving the development goals by the year 2015.
He noted that there is a "huge potential that young people all over the world can bring to this global effort and we need to harness this potential.

The meeting is going to address "the ways how we want to cooperate with young agents of progress in countries all over the world. Their opinion, input, insight, new solutions that they bring are very important," he said. "Sometimes you need something that you never thought about and this is what young people are good for," he noted, adding that "we very much hope that their energy and their creativity will help us.

The meeting will include high level meetings with UN GAID officials to help finalize the 2010 Strategy Plan, and to have the consensus on the strategic objectives. Then the plan will be presented to the UN GAID Steering Committee for discussion and eventually submitted for approval at the end of the meeting.
Asked what the contribution of an expert from Kuwait means to him, Kambalov said that "we are very much interested in working with governments and peoples of the region. We believe the potential of the region is not utilized to the appropriate extent.

He added that he has been trying personally to build contacts with governments and organizations in the region and "I am very encouraged that there are very energetic knowledgeable people in youth organizations in these countries, in particular in Kuwait who are willing to work with us so that together we can move towards achieving the MDGs.

He indicated that he is "very open to this education from young leaders. I personally believe that our organization can benefit a lot from our continued cooperation." Asked if he is hopeful the MDGs will be achieved by the 2015 deadline, he said, "I am hopeful that we are going to be able to make significant tangible progress for people on the ground.

He argued that what is important is not the miracle figures that are to be reported. What matters, rather, is the "tangible improvement of peoples' lives, with dignity, peace and prosperity.

He noted that "we still have five years and I am a big believer in ICT as a tool for development and we will do our best to foster and boost development so that we can report in five years that yes we are able to do what we plan to do in 2015.

On the impact of the global economic crisis on GAID, Kambalov said that "of course it affected everybody. It certainly damped the people's hopes and expectations because they don't want to get back to where they started from.
However, he added, "crises come and go and we remain very determined to achieve tangible progress in development and the MDGs are a great structure for our work towards this goal." --- KUNA