The United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has launched a call for proposals to develop and finalize an elaborated set of Internet Universality Indicators through a global multi-stakeholder consultation online and offline.
The call is made to interested researchers, institutions, research consortiums, entities and organizations and will run for a one-year time frame from April 2017 to April 2018.
UNESCO launched this new project called “Defining Internet Universality Indicators” following’s its adoption of CONNECTing the Dots Outcome document in 2015 as its new approach to Internet issues and the successful development and application of the IPDC Media Development Indicators.
The aim of the project is to elaborate on appropriate Internet indicators which can enrich stakeholders’ capacity to assess Internet development, broaden international consensus and foster online democracy and human rights towards knowledge societies engaged in sustainable development.
This study will be founded on the UNESCO concept of Internet Universality as the guiding framework which promotes an Internet based on human Rights, and the principles of Openness, Accessibility and Multi-stakeholder participation (abbreviated as the R.O.A.M principles).
There are General Terms of Reference according to which Applicants are to submit their application by email to internetstudy@unesco.org.
For this new project, UNESCO launches this call for proposals to carry out the key deliverable and related tasks within a one-year time frame from April 2017 to April 2018.
The Key Deliverable for the project is to Develop and finalize an elaborated set of Internet Universality Indicators through a global multi-stakeholder consultation online and offline.
One of the specific objectives of the project is to develop and finalize an elaborated draft set of Internet Universality indicators and sub-indicators in line with international human rights standards and within the focus of the Internet Universality concept, with realistic and practical applicability to countries at all levels of statistical development.
Another specific objective of the project is to plan and conduct an inclusive global and regional consultation process with multi-stakeholder groups, which will feed into the drafting and elaboration of Internet Universality indicators, including offline consultations as well as online tools via building and maintaining a dedicated online platform/website with multi-lingual access.
The final deliverable setting out the indicators will take the form of a policy paper in English with maximum 100 standard pages (minimum of 320 words each) excluding annexes and bibliography, as well as a project online platform/website on Internet Universality indicators under UNESCO domain name and server.
A draft of the deliverable will be open on the project’s online platform/website, which is to be created under this project for consultation, while the final version will likely be released as a UNESCO publication.
Depending on the budget, the publication will be translated into 4 to 6 UN official languages, which will inform UNESCO’s 195 Member States and other international policy-makers on internet-related policy making.
Applicant are required to ensure that their proposal include a detailed description of the research methodology; an elaborated plan of a multi-stakeholder consultation; a strategy for the creation of an online platform/website; preliminary elaboration of 5 categories of indicators; a work plan; and a timeline.
Proposals should also include a description of the team including CVs and the requested funding in US$ with a budget breakdown. This budget breakdown should show – if needs be – a minimum and a maximum scale of implementation.
Interested researchers, institutions, research consortiums, entities and organizations are invited to submit their proposals, according to the General Terms of Reference by email to internetstudy@unesco.org.
Applicants are advised to use the caption “Proposal for Defining Internet Universality Indicators” as the subject of the email, for ease of tracing the email and facilitating quick processing. The deadline for submission of proposal is Noon (CET) February 28, 2017.
UNESCO has commissioned preliminary research on the Internet indicators which should be considered as a basis to develop this final deliverable, this initial background paper will be provided to those interested in submitting proposals upon request through the email address: internetstudy(@unesco.org
Submission of applications will be acknowledged upon receipt via email but ONLY selected organizations will receive further notification and correspondences.
For more enquiries on this call, please visit; http://bit.ly/2jGCda6
