NETWORKS AND DEVELOPEMENT FOUNDATION

MISSION & OBJECTIVES

MISSION

FUNREDES mission is to promote and facilitate the use of Newer Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) in developing countries, and especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, together with international organizations, NGO's, governments, public and private interested institutions, etc., with the purpose of contributing to the regional development and integration.

OBJECTIVES

1. To establish dissemination strategies for the NICT (networks, added-value networks, electronic libraries, interactive multimedia...), which:

    

   • respect the socio-cultural environments as well as the individual and collective freedom;
   • promotes the participation of the people, nations and interested regions in their development;
   • take into consideration the globalization of the information exchange patterns.

    

2. To promote the creation, structuring, preservation and dissemination of the Scientific and Technical Information (S & TI), within national and international frames, with a particular emphasis in the regional and the South-South flows.

    

3. To participate in the formation and organization of end-user groups in order to allow their responsible empowerment of these technologies, and their mature participation in the management of technological solutions. This objective implies the demythologization of technologies and the understanding of their sociological and human aspects.

    

4. To participate in the creation and development of new research networks both national and sectorial, and to organize technical assistance and added value services to existing networks.

    

5. To participate in all corollary activities related to the development of the infrastructures related to Science and Technology, Research, Higher Education and Telecommunications, such as:

    

   • bringing content to existing networks;
   • systematic surveying of networks end-users;
   • the design of context-appropriate dissemination methodologies;
   • organizing effective STI flows;
   • improving the quality of the information and communication interfaces;
   • providing assistance for the negotiation of special telecommunication tarifes;
   • developing and organizing systematic free access to electronic directories and conferences about researches and S & TI
   • globalizing the concept of national research sector, by integrating the researchers not working in their home countries.

    

6. To promote and facilitate womens access to the NICT integrating the gender perspective in the dissemination strategies as a basic requirement for their advance in the society and their equitable integration in the development process.

    

7. To contribute to the structuration and consolidation of the institutional process, as the key requirement for the advance of democratic and integral development.