policy – Insights@Cofluence https://insights.cofluence.co Fri, 22 May 2020 04:07:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Helping governments understand the information economy https://insights.cofluence.co/info-economy/ Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:33:03 +0000 http://insights.cofluence.co/?p=5188

How can ICT-fuelled trade and economic development help build sustainable communities? The United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) focuses on innovative ways to improve living standards through trade, investment, finance and technology, particularly for developing countries. ]]> How can ICT-fuelled trade and economic development help build sustainable communities?  The United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) focuses on innovative ways to improve living standards through trade, investment, finance and technology, particularly for developing countries.

Torbjörn Fredriksson, UNCTAD’s Chief of ICT Analysis, explains the how good macro- and micro-level data and insight leads to adopting good policies, and highlights how a healthy e-business sector can make a significant contribution to more sustainable communities and economies.

In the area of ICT, what we really need a lot of is impact assessments – to understand what is working, what is not working and why… if government officials don’t have good data it’s very difficult to adopt good policies.

Torbjörn also discusses the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 10-year review, and highlights how collaborations between agencies and disciplines is critical to achieving the objectives of development agendas.

torbjorn fredrikssonAbout Torbjörn Fredriksson

Torbjörn Fredriksson is Chief of the ICT Analysis Section of the Division on Technology and Logistics at the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He is among other things the lead author of the annual Information Economy Report, responsible for UNCTAD’s work on measuring the information economy and lead facilitator of the WSIS Action Line on e-Business.

Torbjörn joined UNCTAD in 2000 and was for eight years one of the principal authors of the World Investment Report. Before joining UNCTAD, he held positions at the Invest in Sweden Agency, the Swedish Ministry of Industry and Commerce the Industrial Institute for Economic and Social Research in Stockholm. He is the author of several books and has published articles related to international trade and investment in such publications as the Journal of International Business Studies, International Journal of Industrial Organization and the Journal of World Investment.

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]]> Young citizens reveal new ways of thinking about government https://insights.cofluence.co/edgeryders/ Tue, 29 May 2012 12:02:43 +0000 http://insights.cofluence.co/?p=4068

EdgeRyders is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, and has been described as ‘the largest think-tank in the world’ where young Europeans are collaborating and sharing experiences about what it means to transition to an independent, active life.]]>

EdgeRyders is a joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Commission, and has been described as ‘the largest think-tank in the world’ where young Europeans are collaborating and sharing experiences about what it means to transition to an independent, active life.

Alberto Cottica and Lyne Robichaud from the EdgeRyders team discuss how the project’s combination of social technologies and open conversation with ethnographic analysis is revealing new ways for Government to design policies and programs not just for young people, but also for society at large.

It turns out, quite unsurprisingly really, that issues tend to be quite tightly connected to each other, so using an exploration system like EdgeRyders means the conversation spills over policy silo walls.

About Alberto Cottica

Alberto is an economist, musician and citizen in no particular order. He is a policy expert at the Council of Europe, lead of the EdgeRyders initiatives as well as an author covering the frontiers of collaboration between citizens and their governments.

About Lyne Robichaud

Passionate about open government for several years, Lyne is an analyst and web project manager, and has been an “Engagement Manager” for Edgeryders since its inception. In February 2012, she joined the 2.0 Committee of the Institute for Consciousness Research, whose mission is to raise awareness that science is about to make a monumental breakthrough, which will help to unlock a new real human potential.

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