Africa: Launch of the Ideas for Development Blog

19 October 2007
African Development Bank (Abidjan)
press release

Tunis — Ideas for Development, an international blog designed to stimulate debate on economic development issues, will be launched in Washington DC on 21 October 2007 at the World Bank and IMF annual meetings. Created by seven prominent personalities, the blog provides web users with a new forum to share information, viewpoints and visions for the future, with the common goal of advancing the cause of development.

Heads of international organizations will actively take part in the blog: Kemal Dervis, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, Abdou Diouf, Secretary General of the Organisation de la Francophonie, Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, Pascal Lamy Director General of the World Trade Organization, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Jean-Michel Severino, Managing Director of the Agence française de développement, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the World Food Programme.

Ideas for Development is an original platform of exchange - in its format as well as in its content. It will offer many applications such as video, RSS syndicate and e-mail updates. Available in three languages - English, French and Spanish - Ideas for Development will host wide-ranging debates, crossing perspectives and points of views from all over the world.

Development issues meet a growing interest on the internet, yet blogs that address these issues are either of individual web users or of institutions. Ideas for Development's ambition is to promote a genuine and informed debate in which the contributors share their own convictions, both with their peers and with the larger public.

Partnerships will enable other development specialists to take part in the debate. These guest commentators, coming from the associative and academic spheres, will guarantee a lively debate and a broad range of information.

A press conference will be held by the blog's founding members on Sunday 21 October at 2.30 pm at the World Bank, room J1050, 701 18th street NW Washington, DC 20433. USA. To confirm your presence, please click here.

The press conference will be followed by a cocktail.

President Kaberuka's blog will focus on "The New International Aid Architecture", to provoke discussions on whether there are "New Players, New Challenges or Old Problems?" The blog will be accessible on the very day of its official launching.

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