USAID is pleased to announce that David Ferguson has joined the Global Development Commons team as its Director. David brings great experience in the information and communications technology field as well as an innovative spirit.

Ushahidi, one of the winners of USAID's 2008 Development 2.0 Challenge, was highlighted by the World Economic Forum as a "disruptive innovator" in information technology for not only developing groundbreaking products and services, but also redesigning business and society.

The ninth annual Tech Museum Awards, which celebrate social entrepreneurs and innovation, were held on November 19 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.  Fifteen "Tech Laureates" were selected from the fields of environment, equality, economic development, health, and education; five won cash prizes of $50,000.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) should be a tool for a development and not viewed as a pancea for all development challenges in emerging markets, panelists agreed at the Net Impact 2009 conference in Ithaca, New York.
 

On November 3, during her remarks at the Forum for the Future in Morocco, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the Civil Society 2.0 Initiative.

The sign of success in foreign assistance is that “We are partners in building capacity for transformational change,” President Obama said in a recent speech in Ghana.

“Africa’s future is up to Africans,” he said.

The Commons is excited to see that USAID partner Western Union has announced it will be certifying mobile platform vendors to provide money transfer services- traditionally only available at Western Union outlets- through mobile phones.

Paul Collier's new online forum at the Boston Review; "Development in Dangerous Places", follows his work in his two books - War, Guns, and Votes, and The Bottom Billion - and promotes the security interests of developing nations.

Yesterday Grameen Foundation announced the launch of a suite of mobile phone applications developed with Google and MTN Uganda (MTN) that deliver services and information that were previously unavailable to Uganda’s poor and disadvantaged communities.

Check out the apps here!