E-governance gains: with the right technology, and proper governance, countries around the world increase the speed of development. (Global View).

There are a great number of issues raised by globalization, and at least as many organizations attempting to tackle them. Some are government-funded initiatives and others are non-profit entities attempting to engage public and private sector players in a debate over how to solve critical and increasingly urgent questions -- international water supplies, the creation of full functioning democracies, defining the role of civil society, trade and the place of multinational corporations in its management, the proper development of municipal governments in developing countries, and more.

All are huge issues that can't be managed with one quick solution. Those in attendance at Global Governance 2002 in Montreal last fall certainly came to that conclusion. The focus of the conference, organized by the Montreal International Forum (FIM), an international non-governmental organization (NGO), was "civil society and the democratization of global governance." The triennial conference aims at finding ways in which civil society can have more influence over multilateral institutions, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), international and regional financial institutions, the UN, and regional bodies such as the Organization for African Unity (OAU).

According to the FIM's members, globalization is occurring too fast for governance structures to adapt effectively. Nation states are losing control over matters traditionally within their sovereignty. Global Governance 2002 (G02) was an attempt to better understand these trends and help define the role that global civil society can play in these changes.

The unfortunate aspect of any conference of this sort is the lack of teeth its recommendations have in the field. For instance, John Langmore, director of the International Labour Organization's UN Liaison Office in New York, endorsed a recommendation to establish an economic and social security council and recommended increasing the voting rights of developing countries at the IMF and World Bank. Alfredo SfeirYounis, World Bank Special Representative to the WTO and the UN in Geneva, for his part insisted that imposing a "one country, one vote" rule at the World Bank wouldn't be a panacea, nor a way to democratize it while there is still no democracy at the national level in many countries. To reform multilateralism, he believes that both the private sector and civil society should be represented in international institutions. Whether any of these institutions will respond to such a call, of course, is another matter altogether.

Better Local governance

The basic challenge that G02 participants and others concerned with equitable trade and democratization face is developing good governance on the ground in a lot of countries, and that's something that Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is intimately involved with. The IDRC was created in 1970 to help developing countries find long-term solutions to their social, economic and environmental problems.

In late March, Maureen O'Neil, president of IDRC, delivered a speech on the subject as a panelist at the E-governance: Towards a new approach to international cooperation in the knowledge economy seminar in Milan, Italy. The seminar took place prior to the annual meeting of the joint Board of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank and the Inter-American Investment Corporation in Milan at the end of March.

"In the term 'e-governance,' it's the governance that counts most," said O'Neil in her address. Technology plays an important role in changing our society but it shouldn't distract us from its real purpose. "Achieving and sustaining good governance -- that's still the hard part," she explains. "The more information and communication technologies (ICTs) are available to more people, the more ICTs can help real social and economic transformation."

The seminar explored experiences at the local and national levels in Latin America and the Caribbean, where information and communication technology has been deployed in the executive, legislative and judicial branches to improve public administration, increase efficiency in the provision of public services, and make public officials more accountable to citizens. The event was also planned to promote international cooperation to assist Latin American countries to move towards more comprehensive national and regional e-governance programs.

"One of the most powerful and evident effects of these technologies -- in application is that they can dramatically alter the meanings of traditional boundaries and old borders," said O'Neil. "It is no longer always obvious what is local and what is global, or what belongs properly in the public or private sectors.

O'Neil also discussed the IDRC's experience in the field, where they have been dealing with technology development issues for more than 30 years. She raised two key e-governance goals in her presentation: the good governance of ICTs; and putting ICTs to the service of good governance -- "governance that is transparent, accountable, fair, effective and receptive to the participation of every citizen." By linking these two goals, O'Neil believes that development and democratization together can be accelerated.

New enterprise

"It is clear that in the Americas -- as in most of the developed and developing world good governance must include the creation of legal, financial and regulatory environments that encourage inventive and able people to build new enterprises," said O'Neil. "Environments that speed the registration of new companies, for example, and facilitate access to credit. These are the environments that stimulate the businesses that bring new technologies to market."

O'Neil offered a variety of examples of how IDRC and other organizations work to improve governance through technology.

"In East Africa, Ugandan authorities worked with IDRC to craft new regulations requiring cellular phone companies to install a specified ratio of rural lines for every cell phone network set up in cities," she explains. "The result, several years later, is that Uganda enjoys 98% coverage with cell phones. More than that, Ugandans trade and borrow cell phones to dial into open-line radio programs - a lively new exercise of free speech in a country where open dissent used to be mortally dangerous...

"...FIPA, the Interparliamentary Forum of the Americas, is using ICA (Institute for Connectivity in the Americas) funding to build its own Internet presence, disseminating material to promote parliamentary good practices throughout the region. And just recently, Canada and Mexico have launched a pilot project know as Campus Americas, an e-learning endeavour to improve performance in public services."

At the G02 conference, The Honourable Bill Graham, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, noted, "We have to admit that the issues of our time are so grave and so complex that no state can claim to be capable of resolving them on its own." That's certainly true, and Maureen O'Neil made it clear in Milan that with the right investment, the right technology, and proper cooperation between governments, agencies and private business, great change can be established around the world.

For more information about IDRC visit www.idrc.ca. For more information about ICA visit www.icamericas.net.