2006 GDLN World Forum: “Partnership for Development – Connecting People and Ideas”

GFDD attended the first Global Development Learning Network – GDLN – World Forum, which took place at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, October 9 -10th..  The objective of this Forum was to share ideas and to seek the commitment of the GDLN (http://www.gdln.org/) worldwide affiliates in the use of tools and technologies to enhance teaching, learning, and
research at the centers located in the member countries. Therefore, GFDD is planning to use this network and resources to facilitate Dominicans abroad to exchange their experience or find opportunities in Dominican Republic.

With the key goal of empowering people through knowledge creation and sharing, GFDD will promote training and learning activities through the use of video conference (ISDN) and IP technology, face-to-face
dialogue, e-learning platforms, teleconferencing, and printed documents, as needed, in collaboration of more than 120 worldwide affiliates.

The first plenary session was hosted by Shigeo Katsu, Vice President of the World Bank for Europe and Central Asia Region. At the end of the session, GDLN affiliates learned about
GDLN history and had the opportunity to share different regions’ achievements and challenges through speakers from Africa, the Americas, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

Affiliates described some GDLN activities that had strong impact in the region. Some are: “to strengthen the justice system in East Timor”, which was a course developed by Dili GDLN center to
reinforce a fair judiciary system following democracy steps; “Fight against HIV/AIDS”, a program that allowed many participants around the world to discuss and give insights regarding the global issue, its proliferation and control; and “Scale up capacity community driven development in Francophone Africa”, which involved an e-Learning course in Africa. 

A great surprise was the presence and speech of the creator of the
GDLN idea, the former President of the World Bank, Mr. James D. Wolfensohn (1995-2005). Mr. Wolfensohn remarked that GDLN, after six years (was launched June 2000), is just the beginning of a learning revolution and that what he expected from all affiliates was to “think out of the box” to be able to accept innovation, to use technology as a tool to reach equality among the peoples and to reduce ignorance as a means to reduce poverty.

After lunch,
parallel sessions were available to all participants. These ranged from “The ABC on the Community”, “Enriching the GDLN Experience with Emerging Social Technologies”, The Client’s Perspective”, to “The Potential of Internet2”.

“The ABC on the Community” session introduced the participants to different options for learning and knowledge sharing, business development, and
management of activities and programs.

“The Potential of Internet2, NRENs and other Partnerships for Expanding Connectivity and Building a Wider Knowledge Community” session addressed the applications already developed and those that are in development with Internet2 in the United States, as well as the Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe – DANTE – in Europe. It also showed how affiliates could have access to Internet2 through the GDLN network.

GFDD is looking forward to starting this new initiative by empowering Dominicans abroad, especially in the USA, to invest in knowledge creation and sharing, to promote business opportunities, and to create a dyn<