In the context of the Inter-American Forum on New Technologies Virtual Educa Caribe 2006 celebrated April 24-26 in Santo Domingo, a successful meeting between Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD), its sister organization in the Dominican Republic, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE), the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) and Paulo Feitoza Foundation (FPF) from Brazil, in which alliances for the development of new education and technology initiatives were created.

One of Dominican Republic’s main objectives is to turn the country into a great international trade platform focused on exports of goods and services, in this era of global need for professionals in technology. In this sense the country is implementing several strategies; some of them are the National Competitiveness Plan, the Strategy for the Insertion in the Knowledge and Information Society which fights against the existent digital gap, and the 21st Century Educational Plan, which includes new challenges related to population training and employment generation in the near future.

Paulo Feitoza Foundation (FPF) is a Brazilian organization devoted to fighting the digital gap in society, reducing the social exclusion, and increasing the amount and level of information and technology employment. It has 50 training centers which have achieved the reduction of drop outs of schools and universities, and improved the employment opportunities for their students. Through their training system Paulo Feitoza Foundation (FPF) has made possible for 89.4% of their students (some of them illiterate) to manage computer programs,

Java languages, C++ and Python, database systems as MySQL and PostGres SQL, and operating systems as Linux and Windows; they have also achieved the development of Internet Portals in and out of Brazil, and have made it to innovate in several sciences in favor of social responsibility: Ocular Mouse Project for handicapped people is one example.

In addition, the Paulo Feitoza Foundation has developed a commercial model that makes them self-sustainable, and they have contracts with internationally renowned companies as Siemens, EMC, Olivetti, Nokia, Elgin, SDI, Diebold Procomp, Sweda, Philips, Samsung and Thomson Multimedia, among others. They report $10 million a year in jobs to United States and Germany, and they are willing to open a branch of their training centers in the Cyber Park of Dominican Republic.

The Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL) is interested in an alliance with the Paulo Feitoza Foundation to exchange knowledge and experiences, so that the training centers become not only centers for digital education but part of a wider development and employment generating infrastructure, supporting other national strategies.

The meeting took place in the offices of INDOTEL in Santo Domingo, and included the participation of Dr. Jose Rafael Vargas, President of INDOTEL, Natalia C. Rosario, Office of International Relations of INDOTEL; Semiramis de Miranda, Information and Communication Technology Manager, GFDD; Rosanila Feitoza, Executive Superintendent, Paulo Feitoza Foundation; Wilmara Messa, Social Engineer and Manager, Professional Development Centers, Paulo Feitoza Foundation; Nilo Menezes, Project Manager, Paulo Feitoza Foundation; Yamile Eusebio, Educational Programs Coordinator, FUNGLODE; and Paul Goris, Education and Technology Coordinator, FUNGLODE.

GFDD, FUNGLODE, and Paulo Feitoza Foundation representatives at INDOTEL.	From left to right: Rosanila Feitoza, Natalia C. Rosario, and Dr. Jose Rafael Vargas	Form left to right: Yamile Eusebio, Rosanila Feitoza, Nilo Menezes, Wilmara Messa, and Paul Goris.

“Negotiations are needed for multinationals in Latin America to guarantee benefits to local communities”
April 26, 2006

Maria Virginia Quezada from Omar Dengo Foundation stated that multinational corporations or international development agencies in Latin America not always have their interests aligned with the countries’ needs. Mrs. Quezada argued that those organizations do not necessarily do well to the country in which they are working, and that negotiations have to be made in order to guarantee some benefits to the local communities. It is urgent to define the needs of local communities and to regulate in order to achieve common goals.

Mrs. Quezada, from Costa Rica, made her statements in her lecture on “Successful networks between private and public sectors and NGOs for quality education”, a panel discussion part of the Inter-American Forum on New Technologies Virtual Educa Caribe 2006, held in FUNGLODE’s auditorium in Santo Domingo, April 25, 2006.

The representative for Omar Dengo Foundation said that there are several opportunities in the relationship between the Government, the private sector corporations and the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), but there are many risks that must be taken into account to really take advantage of these working bonds.

“In many Latin American examples we have seen that private corporations fill an empty space, which is a dangerous thing because those spaces need to be filled by experiences aligned with each country’s need…”

Mrs. Quezada added that for there to be successful relationships among private and public sectors with civil society, it is needed that countries define public policies, have a clear scope of action and work coherently in the quest for common goals and interests. A National Development Strategy and a National Education Policy are examples of the legislations and strategies that each country should adopt. If that kind of platform exists it is possible to negotiate with private corporations and organizations, as well as with local entities, both academic and of commercial essence, in order to promote development opportunities for local communities.