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About Me

Born in Spain in 1963, currently living in Argentina. Holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech, an M.Eng. in Mechanical/Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley and an M.S. in Information Society Studies from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), where is pursing a Ph.D. in the same area.

His main areas of professional and research interest are (i) ICT mainstreaming into development cooperation, (ii) knowledge management for development, (iii) institutional networks for development, and (iv) the evolution of Human Development processes in the Network Society context.

Since 2004 he has worked as an independent consultant on development issues (with entities from the government, civil society, business and university sectors), carried out research and taught about ICT4D in Masters programmes of some Spanish universities.

Worked in UNDP and the UN Volunteers programme from 1994 until 2003, focusing increasingly on ICT for Development. At UNDP he was part of the Info XXI group (1997-8) that promoted greater integration of ICT into development’s work. At UNV he set up and managed the ICT Volunteering ‘UNITeS’ initiative announced in Kofi Annan’s 2000 Millenniu
m Report, and the UN Online Volunteering service (www.onlinevolunteering.org).

During that period represented UNV in the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society, and was co-chair of the Human Capacity Committee of the UN ICT Task Force during that period.

Location:
Spain, Madrid
Current role:
Consultant on ICT and Development, and Development Networks
Gender:
Male
Associations:
Aula Solidaridad - Spain, LINKS - Argentina, Red para la RSC - Spain
Languages:
English, Portuguese, Spanish
My website links:
Manuel Acevedo
Universities:
Caltech, UC Berkeley, UOC
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More About Me

I'm passionate about

Putting technological innovation for Human Development at the forefront of development cooperation, particularly (not exclusively though) in terms of ICT.

Also about networking dev cooperation

An idea worth spreading

The way forward for development cooperation needs to marry the Human Development (Sen) and Network Society (Castells) paradigms. It is relevant to consider an ICT-powered type of cooperation, which by virtue of its structuring in and around networks, could be called ‘Network Cooperation’.

To get to this approach, the intl. development cooperation system needs to undergo significant transformation. Firstly, on its architecture, towards variable geometries of nodes, links and hubs/systems, designed for collaboration and the use of knowledge. Secondly, with a re-engineering of cooperation practices, applying network dynamic and tools to projects, management, and processes to achieve development objectives of health, education, etc.

Network Cooperation would be characterized by:
- using networked production methods
- ICT mainstreaming (yes, finally!)
- networked projects
- (serious) knowledge management
- promotion of network social capital
- multi-stakeholder project

Talk to me about

Tech Innovation for Development
Tech Innovation in Development Cooperation processes
ICT for Development
Development Networks
Knowledge Management in Dev Cooperation
Strategic CSR

People don't know that I'm good at

Singing...
Writing poetry

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