Each member provides the APC network its unique perspective and experience, thus participating in the construction of a rich and diverse global community. FUNREDES is no exception: this new APC member comes into the network with an almost 20-year history in information and communication technologies (ICTs), a key geographical position (it is the only member in the Caribbean) and great thematic diversity. APCNews talked with its director, Daniel Pimienta, via e-mail.
Pimienta’s personal history and that of FUNREDES are intricately linked. He was born in Morrocco where his studies focused on applied mathematics and computer science. 1988 was a year of changes: the then future director of FUNREDES left his job at IBM to move to Santo Domingo (the city where the organisation is currently headquartered), Dominican Republic, with the objective of extending European research networks to Latin America and the Caribbean. “The European becomes Caribbean, he learns what the South is from the inside and discovers that research is not limited to universities but also includes non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The concept is broadened and progressively refocused towards development,” Pimienta enthusiastically summarises.
In this manner a new profile for the use of ICTs in third world countries takes shape. Furthermore, a dream – as he defines it – becomes crystallised: connecting Latin America and the Caribbean. Through Latin Union (Unión Latina), an organisation that builds bridges between countries that share Latin-derived languages, Pimienta drove the REDALC (Network of Latin America and the Caribbean) project. Pimienta tells us that “[this project] marked the period (between 1988 and 1995) as a dynamic that allowed for the creation of the networks of Peru, the Dominican Republic and Haiti and gave rise to many modern ICT for development concepts”.
REDALC continued growing and the projects activities grew and became diversified. Surveys, research and documents were produced, workshops and meetings were organised, a unique methodology was developed – one that takes into account “the issue of the creation and development of networks of computers interlinked over a distance for research in the particular context of developing countries”. Concepts and tools unheard of at the time, such as virtual communities, were explored: new doors were opening. .
FUNREDES was created in 1993, when the REDALC group restructured itself as an independent NGO. The simple name “Networks and Development Foundation” (“Fundación Redes y Desarrollo”) conceals a strategic and complex vision of ICT. Daniel synthesises this process: “When Union Latina becomes independent, the team takes ownership of the research-action concept and accelerates the union process with civil society. At the same time it redirects its objectives: in 1993, the prospective vision was no longer of connectivity but of human networks and virtual communities”.
What are the current axes of the organisation? “Of the original organisation, Latin Union, FUNREDES has retained a strong awareness of the issue of linguistic and cultural diversity in the information society (see http://FUNREDES.org/lc) and has been able to contribute significantly to a topic where civil society is not very present,” explains Pimienta. He insists on a key guiding principle for all of FUNREDES activities: ethical rigidity. This is a characteristic that has been inherited from its founders: Senaïda Jansen, Pablo Liendo, Catherine Dhaussy and the director himself. This fundamental value transversally covers each of the programmes. Despite this, the need to increase the visibility of the ethical dimensions of ICT has already been identified and it will be the axis of research-action.
Another of the issues that permeates FUNREDES’ actions is gender. Pimienta explains that the presence of Senaïda Jansen was key for this process: “she is a person that has a background in this and has known how to – using a mixture of humour and firmness – make gender a solid transversal axis, by first working on educating her colleagues”. The organisation does not carry out specific gender-related activities, as it recognises the existent diversity of competent organisations and programmes. “We have preferred to have it remain a firm transversal axis and to continue filling other strategic deficiencies that exist in other areas,” concludes the director.
“As strong as the gender and ethics axes, is the transversal axis of collaboration, for which FUNREDES may have been one of the most available and consistent NGO in the region,” adds its director. For Pimienta this is an intrinsic part of the network society paradigm and he notes “the passage way vocation” of the organisation that links groups or regions. This process will be reinforced through its new APC membership. FUNREDES’ participation in the Network on the social impact of ICT (RedISTIC, http://redistic.org), which it inspired, reflects this.
The social impact of ICT (and how to make it positive) is the theme that inspires all FUNREDES’ programmes and activities. The organisation has begun and led, since the REDALC period, “a vibrant virtual community of actors [related to this impact] in many advanced experiments and a management of the process that some have considered to be exemplary”. This refers to the MISTICA (Methodology and social impact of ICT in Latin America and the Caribbean) Community, http://FUNREDES.org/mistica), that “has marked a period for ICTs in the region, creating bridges between academia and civil society, fomenting the collaboration and creating opportunities for collective work through networks and the issue of diversity”. It is from this community that OLISTICA (Latin American and Caribbean observatory of the social impact of ICTs in action, http://FUNREDES.org/olistica) – which is also coordinated by FUNREDES – came into existence.
Beyond the programmes, the organisation is currently undergoing a transformation process. “The new direction is to privilege the transfer of our know how and field experiences, in every manner possible, for project coordination, which has kept us working tirelessly for the last 18 years,” announced a recent press release from the organisation (http://FUNREDES.org/espanol/institucion/institucion.php3/docid/475). The objective is to become a “think tank”, a group dedicated to research, consultancy and education.
According to its director, “FUNREDES will no longer be the tireless coordinator of projects for which it has been known,. Rather, it will try to be a catalyser, facilitator and companion of other projects, while it broadens its introspective work in order to affect public policy. Keeping in line with this, it is very probable that FUNREDES will deepen its ties with academia in the coming months”.
APC and FUNREDES have worked together on different occasions. Pimienta wraps-up this process: “the relationship, distant at the origin, even with occasional tensions, has patiently, tenaciously and finally, very naturally, grown closer and become first one of collaboration, and now one of membership.” The World Summit on the Information Society has been a key process in giving substance to this rapprochement, especially regarding “collaborative activities in the field”.
How is this joint endeavour going to be carried out as a result of FUNREDES’ membership? “On the one hand there is the impatience of newlyweds to “do things” together. On the other hand, there is the current transition situation at FUNREDES, which is a response to the scattered energies of years past, accompanied by a drop in the available human resources, which calls for patience and selectiveness”. In the short term, the idea is to “specifically focus on precise synergistic actions”.
