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United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS):
A Legacy


UNITeS Partners

"Many people would volunteer their time and skills to narrow the digital divide if they were asked"
Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator, 1998 - 2003, UN Volunteers programme

UNITeS drew support and collaboration from a loose network of collaborating organizations. These organizations came from all development stakeholder groups: governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society organizations (CSOs), development and volunteer-sending agencies, academia and the private sector. Some of these institutions had proven expertise in the use and applications of different ICTs for solving problems or expanding choices in development processes; NGO networks, ICT companies and universities come to mind. Others had significant experience in managing volunteers, such as volunteer-sending agencies (VSAs) or NGOs that involve volunteers in much of their work.

The common thread among all UNITeS collaborating organizations was that they were interested in taking action to narrow the digital divide. Collectively, and using the UNITeS mechanism, they endeavored to allow the maximum possible number of volunteers to be productive in serving real needs expressed in developing countries, and to do so with good personal/working conditions and under a well-managed initiative.

Types of institutions that typically became hosts of ICT volunteers affiliated with UNITeS included:

Below are organizations who collaborated with UNITeS and UNV, formally and informally, regarding ICT volunteering. It also includes links to organizations that related in some way to ICT volunteering, that UNITeS relied upon for materials and information to help all volunteers applying ICT4D.

  • Cooperating and collaborating institutions & initiatives
  • Founding institutions & initiatives
  • Volunteer sending organizations
  • Volunteer matching services

    Cooperating and collaborating institutions & initiatives

    These organizations played a role in cooperating and collaborating with the UNITeS initiative, formally and informally. Their support came in the form of helping to fund or host ICT Volunteers, collaborating on ICT projects with UN Volunteers, promoting ICT Volunteering and UNITeS resources, or significantly contributing to the UNITeS Knowledge Base.

  • CISCO Systems
  • Digital Divide Network - Benton Foundation
  • Digital Opportunity Channel - One World
  • Equal Access
  • George Mason University (Virgina, USA)
  • Government of Bhutan
  • Government of Japan
  • Government of Jordan
  • Government of Lesotho
  • Government of Mongolia
  • International Union of Local Authorities
  • Netaid
  • Soros Foundation
  • TechSoup
  • U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
  • UNDP Asia-Pacific Information Development Information Programme (APDIP)
  • United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
  • United Nations Foundation (UNF)
  • United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force (UN ICT Task Force)
  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
  • World Links for Development Programme (WorLD) - World Bank
  • Founding institutions & initiatives

    These organizations collaborated with UN Volunteers in 2000 regarding the creation and direction of UNITeS:

    Volunteer sending organizations

    These organizations send volunteers to developing countries. Many of these organizations include ICT volunteering in their activities:

    Volunteer matching services

    These organizations and initiatives are focused primarily on promoting volunteer service for other organizations, particularly in developing countries:

    To see the complete, original UNITeS web site and its resources, including its extensive knowledge base, look up unites.org at archive.org

    Since the UNITeS archived list (above) is out-of-date, here is an up-to-date list of ICT Volunteering / Tech Volunteering initiatives. This is a list of tech volunteering / ICT4D initiatives, some defunct, some still going strong, that recruit tech experts to volunteer their time support either local nonprofit organizations or NGOs in developing countries regarding computer hardware, software and Internet tech-related tasks.

    Back to the UNITeS Legacy home page

    This archived version of the UNITeS web site is hosted by Jayne Cravens