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| World Bank infoDev project |
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infoDev's mission is to help developing countries and their international partners to maximize the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in combating poverty and promoting broad - based sustainable development. Created in 1995 with the objective of addressing the obstacles facing developing countries in an increasingly information-driven world economy, infoDev has until recently been primarily a grant facility for pilot projects using information and communication technologies (ICT) to combat poverty and promote development. In the past few years, ICT - for - development initiatives have proliferated and the resources devoted to ICT in development portfolios have expanded. To meet current challenges, new infoDev strategy has been developed. It's target goals are to strengthen the linkages between pilot projects, evidence, analysis and action in harnessing ICTs for development. infoDev will launch an intensive program of support for research, analysis, and evaluation, impact monitoring, and toolkit development focused on distilling the lessons of experience from the past ten years on the impact of ICT on poverty, with a particular focus on mainstreaming and scaling up successful ICT approaches and applications.
InfoDev Incubator Initiative
The Incubator Initiative, launched with resources from the Government of Japan, is a new infoDev flagship initiative, aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and private sector development in developing countries. This Initiative will be dedicated, over an initial three-year period, to the establishment of a network of incubators to facilitate the emergence and development of small and medium size Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) enterprises in developing countries. One of the mechanisms employed to nurture small firms for more than two decades is "business incubation", providing qualifying new start-up businesses with a set of facilities -- physical space, shared services, business and privacy policy advice, and financial inputs - to facilitate their creation and assist them until "graduation", when they have the capacity to "survive" in the outside competitive environment.
Recognizing that there are many incubators in developed and developing countries, this Initiative facilitates their networking in order to harness the potential of local individual knowledge and expertiese. Exchanges of experiences and best practice at the regional and inter-regional levels are a priority of the initiative. Following these objectives the infoDev Incubator Support Center - iDISC was established under the grant agreement with the Information for Development - infoDev - Program of the World Bank Group, the Brazilian Association of Technology Parks and Business Incubators (ANPROTEC) and the International Business Incubator (IBI) of Silicon Valley. The Support Center is the first phase of the infoDev Incubator Initiative, which is dedicated to the establishment of a network of incubators to facilitate the emergence and development of ICT - enabled small and medium size enterprises in developing countries.
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