Markle began its work in IT for Development through its participation in the Digital Opportunity Task Force (the "DOT Force") at the Summit of G-8 leaders in 2000 and over the following two years (see Policy Participation). The Foundation joined with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the global consultancy firm, Accenture, to review the record and potential of IT to promote development in the poorer parts of the world. Their conclusions were presented to the G-8 leaders at the 2001 Summit in Genoa in a report entitled Digital Opportunity Initiative: Creating a Development Dynamic.

Early in 2002, Markle, UNDP, and other partners joined to assist specific countries in the formulation and implementation of their national IT strategies. For instance:

• Teams actively supported the IT Policy Commission in Mozambique in the finalization of its "Implementation Strategy" for a comprehensive approach to IT for Development, and;
  
  
• In the Republic of South Africa, a Markle team participated in the legislatively mandated "e-Strategy Task Team" to reform the nation's communications policy framework.

The Foundation also supported a variety of research initiatives focused on various dimensions emphasized in the Digital Opportunity Initiative. For example:

• Daniel H. Rosen, a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for International Economics, prepared a policy brief on New Directions in U.S. Foreign Assistance and the Role of Information and Communication Technology for Markle in 2002. This report provided the basis for a series of meetings with key U.S. government officials on the value of IT for the U.S. Millennium Challenge initiative.
  
  
• The World Resources Institute successfully undertook a private sector strategy towards IT for development, which sought to catalyze business engagement in IT for development and facilitate entrepreneurial enterprises, and market-oriented solutions. Among the activities supported was a Digital Dividend Clearinghouse, an online surveillance system to track bottom-up, village-level IT for development projects in developing countries; the documentation, in collaboration with leading business schools, of a number of business case studies of innovative and entrepreneurial examples where IT was used to stimulate productivity, transform markets, and spur development; a "Creating Digital Dividends" conference, in Seattle in November 2000, which brought together major digital companies, entrepreneurs from developing countries, development agencies and foundations, and government officials to explore private sector solutions;
  
  
• A Program Related Investment (PRI) in Voxiva enabled the new public health oriented voice and data solutions provider to provide technological solutions for the Ministry of Public Health in Peru. Voxiva continues to do groundbreaking work around the world including several additional projects in Peru and a U.S. Department of Defense contract to help track the spread of diseases in Iraqi and the impact of smallpox vaccinations on U.S. soldiers.
  
  
• Bridges.org, an NGO based in a Cape Town, South Africa, has become a leader in the field of e-readiness. To date, it has authored definitive texts on the digital divide and e-policy in Africa, and introduced the concept of "Real Access" to IT - the wide variety of factors that make it possible for low-income people to use technology effectively to improve their lives.
  
  
• Professor Ernest Wilson, Director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, conducted a major study regarding the development of leaders and IT "champions" in a range of developing countries, such as China, Brazil, South Africa and India.
  
  
• Markle participated in the creation of the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI) to work in developing and transitional countries to promote the adoption of legal and regulatory frameworks that support the growth of an open, affordable and user-controlled Internet GIPI's local policy coordinators in 17 countries are now convening dialogues and seeking to build informed consensus among all stakeholder groups in their countries. They provide objective expertise on policy issues, commenting on draft legislation, and assist policymakers and civil society in achieving a better understanding of the legal and regulatory environment needed for the Internet to develop.

The need and rationales behind Markle's work in this area have been recognized and carried forward by numerous other organizations, including development agencies, international NGOs and players in the IT industry. We recently published National Strategies for ICT for Development, an in-depth study of the lessons Markle learned from our experience in this area, which we hope will be a valuable tool to others working in this field.