In the next couple of days, I will be working with Anne Nyambura in Somalia, and Ayo Kusamotu in Nigeria, to finish a draft of a plan we will submit to foundations and development banks for funding. Ayo has written on the IBO website about the liberating effects technology can have on the developing world, but potential is not enough. While many efforts are being made to focus the world’s attention on the wars and devastation in many parts of Africa, IBO’s role will be to bring the potential of technology to reduce poverty and create sustainable development opportunities in Africa to fruition. Our hope is that sustainable development trumps war every time. We will continue to inform you of our work, and we hope that many of you will offer to join our efforts in any way that you can.

If there is one thing that 2006 has brought home to me, it is that the power of internet communications technologies to reduce poverty by empowering people across the digital divide is our greatest opportunity. By integrating economic opportunities from one continent to another, we can build bridges between cultures and foster peace and understanding.

In the early days of the internet boom (the mid 1990s), the American Bar Association passed a resolution in its House of Delegates which recognized that electronic commerce requires international cooperation; and, it encouraged international discussion among public and private sectors to eliminate barriers to electronic commerce and to establish uniform principles by which international trade would be conducted electronically.

Internetbar.org has been working on a project to do just that. Our Africa e-commerce project envisions linking people and businesses from both sides of the digital divide in a reliable virtual marketplace where they can safely conduct global e-commerce. By doing so, this will provide sustainable economic opportunities in the developing world with the ultimate goal of poverty reduction. A key goal is that this program will be replicable across the developing world.

Currently, IBO is reaching out to disadvantaged populations in Kenya and Nigeria to enable access to the internet, and provide sustainable online economic opportunities. IBO is working with groups such as abused women, refugees, and youth to access e-payment systems, make agreements over the internet and conduct the full range of e-commerce activities by linking buyers and sellers directly.

We need your help! Please join us!!