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Archive data Harvard Institute for International Development Special Unit for South-South Cooperation UNDP Mongolia 1997-1999 United Nations Development Programme United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation World Bank

Digital Transition (And Transformation) In International Development | 1997 – 2016

UNDP Mongolia Communications Coordinator (1997-1999): David South

I launched this portal in 1997, in the middle of a major economic crisis in Mongolia. This award-winning (winner in 1998 of the People’s Choice WebSite 500 award and the CyberTeddy Top 500 Website award) and pioneering United Nations Mongolia development web portal was singled out by UN headquarters as an example of what a country office website should be like.

At this time, Mongolia was still recovering from the chaotic and turbulent transition from Communism to free markets and democracy begun at the start of the 1990s, called by some “one of the biggest peacetime economic collapses ever” (Mongolia’s Economic Reforms: Background, Content and Prospects, Richard Pomfret, University of Adelaide, 1994). There was a thirst for information: access to the Internet was still limited and access to mobile phones was just the preserve of the rich. As a legacy of the past, information, especially that about the outside world and the country’s true economic and social conditions, was restricted. During the years of Communism, even simple travel from one place to the next was strictly regulated.

While today we can take it for granted the world’s information arrives in seconds via the Internet on mobile and smart phones and devices, this just was not the case in the late 1990s in Mongolia.

The UN/UNDP Mongolia development web portal addressed the urgent need to communicate what was happening in the country during a major crisis, and to transparently show what the UN was doing to address the crisis. It made critical data on the country’s development easy to find, and informed the wider world about the country and its people and culture. While the Internet had only just arrived in Mongolia, from the start the UNDP Mongolia Communications Office was experimenting with this powerful new technology to reach a global audience. This included Mongolia’s first web magazine, Ger (launched in 1998).
After the http://www.un-mongolia.mn website launched in 1997, a media campaign began to inform readers of its presence. This ad appeared regularly in magazines, newsletters and newspapers.

Ger Magazine was launched on September 9, 1998 (Ger is the Mongolian word for both the traditional tent dwelling and home). The theme of youth in the transition was explored by a combined team of Mongolian and foreign journalists. The Ger Magazine project had basically three goals: first, raise the quality of journalism in the country, secondly, introduce the country to a wider global audience and, thirdly, by being the country’s first online magazine, prove the Internet was an effective way to communicate. 

Issue 1 of the magazine investigated what life was like for youth during the transition years (post-1989). Stories tackled the struggle to find work in the free market, the booming pop music scene and how it is leading the way in business entrepreneurship, reproductive health, the basics on Mongolian culture, and vox pop views from Mongolian youth.
Issue 2 of the magazine investigated modern life in Mongolia during transition. The team of journalists were hitting their stride by this issue. Stories probed the proliferation of bars and the problem of alcoholism, corrupt banking practices and the loss of savings, how the young were the country’s leading entrepreneurs, Mongolia’s meat and milk diet, “girl power” and the strong role played by women, the burgeoning new media, the rise and rise of Buddhism, and Mongolia’s dynamic fashion designers (this article inspired foreign fashion designers to embrace the Mongolian ‘look’ in the next season’s designs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ger_(magazine)

The UN/UNDP Mongolia homepage quickly became the top resource for development news on Mongolia in the late 1990s.
“A UN System site. A very nice, complete, professional site. Lots of information, easily accessible and well laid out. The information is comprehensive and up-to-date. This is a model of what a UNDP CO web site should be.”
“Information Rich Information Poor: The cost of communication”, BBC News Online, Thursday, 14 October 1999.
“Internet Cafes Brew Change in Mongolia”, UB Post 16 March 1999 by Jill Lawless, cited in One Homeland or Two?: Territorialization of Identity and the Migration Decision of the Mongolian-Kazakh Diaspora by Alexander C. Diener, 2003.
United Nations Cyber Center Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: UNDP Mongolia established the first public internet cafe in its former headquarters as part of the UNDP Mongolia Communications Office hub in the late 1990s.
David South photographed outside the UNDP Mongolia Communications Office with team members Bayasgalan and Bayarmaa (Source:Blue Sky Bulletin, October-November 1998). The new sign (above right) accompanied the inauguration of the first UN public access services for Mongolians, including the UN Info Shop and the United Nations Cyber Center. The award-winning team won in 1998 the People’s Choice WebSite 500 award and the CyberTeddy Top 500 Website award for their work on the United Nations portal at http://www.un-mongolia.mn and the pioneering first UN online magazine, Ger.

Consultant (1999-2017): David South

In 2000, the Kiev-based UN Ukraine team had to improve the design and capability of the mission website to handle new content and online services. There was a strong demand for information on country conditions and how to support the UN’s work (for example, on HIV/AIDS). It was a dangerous time to be involved in any online communications and the media and online communicators were routinely threatened with violence and even death.
Whilst with a UK-based international development consultancy, I worked on the drafting and online launch in 2000 of the World Bank’s Task Force on Higher Education and Society report, Higher Education in Developing Countries: Peril and Promise. At the time, it was still rare to see reports made user friendly for the world’s web audience. As a survey in 2014 discovered, a shocking third of the Bank’s publications are never downloaded, 40 per cent were downloaded just 100 times, and only 13 per cent were downloaded more than 250 times in their lifetime (The Washington Post).
As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were being communicated, the link between the powerful new digital and mobile/information technologies and development goals became explicit in information materials. The cleaner and more modern design introduced with Mongolia’s first human development report in 1997, continued in future publications and online, as can be seen in this screen grab from 2003 and that year’s human development report. The first use of infographics was also introduced in a report on the MDGs for UNDP Mongolia in 2005. Importantly, a country that had been isolated from the non-Communist world for decades, was now routinely using the Internet to tell its stories and post development data.
Human Development Infographics: Infographics have proven a useful visual aid for communicating human development concepts. This example was created for a UNDP Mongolia report during missions undertaken in 2005.
Five years prior to the MDGs deadline in 2015, the David South Consulting website went live (2010). Featuring a new branding and design, it signaled a new design phase more comfortable with developments in social media and online and mobile content sharing. Designed by Solveig Rolfsdottir, one of Iceland’s top graphic designers and illustrators, the website’s design was intentially made compatible with the new global magazine, Southern Innovator (also designed by Solveig Rolfsdottir).
The online story archive for Southern Innovator was launched by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) in 2011. Organized by theme, the stories were cited in blogs, books and reports around the world.
The new template for the United Nations e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions was launched in 2011 and designed by Solveig Rolfsdottir. It included a QR code for mobile and smartphone users to connect to the Southern Innovator website.
In 2016 the mobile-friendly version of the David South Consulting website was launched.
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This work is licensed under a
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ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

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Archive Southern Innovator magazine

Southern Innovator Magazine Is Printed And Readied For Distribution | 31 May 2011

“What a tremendous magazine your team has produced! It’s a terrific tour de force of what is interesting, cutting edge and relevant in the global mobile/ICT space… Really looking forward to what you produce in issues #2 and #3. This is great, engaging, relevant and topical stuff.” 

Rose Shuman, Founder & CEO, Open Mind and Question Box

I had the pleasure of visiting the printing plant to witness the presses rolling with the first issue of new global magazine, Southern Innovator. The magazine has been in careful development and saw its name evolve from Creative Sparks to Southern Innovator. As Shakespeare noted in his play Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” And it is what Southern Innovator is that counts the most.

This first issue is just the beginning of a process, a back-and-forth dialogue with our readers as we refine and improve the magazine to boost its impact. The first issue’s theme – mobile phones and information technology – was chosen because of the sheer dynamism of this area and some jaw-dropping achievements: the growth of mobile phone usage in Africa represents an unprecedented take-up of a new technology, often in some of the poorest places on the planet. That impresses and it seemed right to share information about the amazing people behind this phenomenon and the lessons they learned along the way. It has also become clear in the research behind the monthly e-newsletter Development Challenges, South-South Solutions (published since 2006), that significant future development gains will not happen without the aid of mobile phones and information technology, and, important to note, will need these tools to raise living standards for all the world’s people in an environment of increasing competition and pressure for resources.

Used right, mobile phones and information technology allow the efficient use of resources. But, as anyone who has worked with technology knows, this isn’t a given. Vast sums of money and time can be squandered if technology is not used intelligently, or lessons not learned from past failures. It is hoped Southern Innovator‘s first issue can contribute to a better use of resources, and by taking a broad look at what is happening out there, enlighten readers to new ideas, people and concepts.

Southern Innovator is designed in Iceland by Graphic Designer and Illustrator Solveig Rolfsdottir. 

“Question Box was featured in Southern Innovator, a new publication of UNDP that profiles some of the most innovative ideas coming out of the global South. We were pleased to see many friends in the sector profiled as well, such as Ushahidi, Medic Mobile, and TxtEagle. Take a look at the magazine, as it is a great primer on ICT and mobile innovation from around the globe.”

Question Box News
Southern Innovator Magazine can be found in libraries around the world.

“Beautiful, inspiring magazine from UNDP on South-South innovation. Heart is pumping adrenaline and admiration just reading it”

Peggy Lee on Pinterest
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

© David South Consulting 2024

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Archive Blogroll Southern Innovator magazine

Finding Southern Innovator Magazine | 2022

An ad promoting the magazine’s fourth issue is below:

Team | Southern Innovator Phase 1 Development (2010 – 2015)

Southern Innovator can be read online here:

ISSN: 2222-9280

Website of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC): https://unsouthsouth.org/2014/12/25/southern-innovator-magazine/

Scribd

Issue 1: http://www.scribd.com/doc/57980406/Southern-Innovator-Issue-1

Issue 2: http://www.scribd.com/doc/86451057/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-2

Issue 3: http://www.scribd.com/doc/106055665/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-3-Agribusiness-and-Food-Security

Issue 4: http://www.scribd.com/doc/128283953/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-4

Issue 5:  http://www.scribd.com/doc/207579744/Southern-Innovator-Magazine-Issue-5-Waste-and-Recycling

Google Books

Issue 1: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q1O54YSE2BgC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 2: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ty0N969dcssC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 3: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AQNt4YmhZagC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 4: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9T_n2tA7l4EC&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Issue 5: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6ILdAgAAQBAJ&dq=southern+innovator&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Southern Innovator is held in the library collections below:

Biblioteca de la Asamblea Legislativa de El Salvador: https://biblioteca.asamblea.gob.sv/101180_southerninnovator-a-magazine-celebrating-south-south-innovation-may-2011?q=

Biblioteca Nationala a Republicii Moldova: http://cc.sibimol.bnrm.md/opac/bibliographic_view/399949;jsessionid=C516885A73E277718AE64598E869BC70

British Library: https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990158672410100000&context=L&vid=44BL_INST:BLL01&lang=en&search_scope=BL_Available&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=BL_Available&query=any,contains,Southern%20Innovator&offset=0

Central Michigan University Libraries: https://cmich.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991015822649303781&context=L&vid=01CMICH_INST:01CMICH&lang=en&search_scope=UNIVERSITY_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Southern%20Innovator&offset=0

Centre multimédia sur l’environnement et le développement Dakar, Senegal: http://enda-cremed.org/bpd/opac_css/index.php?lvl=serie_see&id=674

Library of Congress: http://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=15784&recCount=25&recPointer=0&bibId=17462965

Louisiana State University, LSU Libraries: https://lsu.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/lsu/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_LSU$002f0$002fSD_LSU:7935129/ada?qu=southern+innovator&d=ent%3A%2F%2FSD_LSU%2F0%2FSD_LSU%3A7935129%7ESD_LSU%7E0&te=SD_LSU

Malaysian Academic Library Union: https://malcat.uum.edu.my/kip/Record/ukm.b15483824

National Library of Malaysia: https://opac.pnm.gov.my/search/query?term_1=Southern+Innovator&theme=PNM2

Toronto Public Library: http://vc4kb8yf3q.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&N=100&L=VC4KB8YF3Q&S=AC_T_B&C=southern+innovator

Uganda Martyrs University: https://catalogue.umu.ac.ug/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=33335

United Nations Library Geneva: Issues 2, 4, 5: Click ‘Get It’: 

Issue 1: https://tinyurl.com/3s22f236

UN Library at Geneva Available, Stacks A 305.

University of Birmingham: https://birmingham-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44BIR_ALMA_DS51193861790004871&context=L&vid=44BIR_VU1&lang=en_US&search_scope=CSCOP_44BIR_DEEP&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=local&query=any,contains,Southern%20Innovator&offset=0

The University of British Columbia: https://webcat.library.ubc.ca/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=168763&recCount=100&recPointer=1&bibId=6682400

Universitat de Valencia: http://xv9lx6cm3j.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=XV9LX6CM3J&S=JCs&C=JC_018470248&T=marc

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Libraries: http://ent.library.utm.my/client/en_AU/main/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f820$002fSD_ILS:820407/ada?qu=Youth&rw=1200&ic=true&ps=300

University of Cape Town Libraries (print copies destroyed in 2021 fire): https://tinyurl.com/2p8fnv6f

University of Liverpool: https://liverpool.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma991023308133807351&context=L&vid=44LIV_INST:44LIV_INST&lang=en&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,Southern%20Innovator&offset=0

University of Saskatchewan: http://sundog.usask.ca/search/t?SEARCH=southern+innovator&sortdropdown=-&searchscope=8

University of Zambia Online Public Access Catalogue

Washington State University: https://searchit.libraries.wsu.edu/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99900557958601842&context=L&vid=01ALLIANCE_WSU:WSU&lang=en&search_scope=WSU_everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Southern%20Innovator&offset=0

If you would like hard copies of the magazine for distribution, then please contact the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation: Website: http://ssc.undp.org/content/ssc.html. If you would like to either sponsor an issue of Southern Innovator or place an advertisement in the magazine, then please contact southerninnovator@yahoo.co.uk. This is a great opportunity to reach millions around the world and to connect with the pioneers and innovators shaping this new world. With Issue 5 tackling the timely theme of Waste and Recycling, this is the moment to get on board and help support SI. With global urbanization levels continuing to rise, fresh thinking of the kind found in Southern Innovator‘s fifth issue is urgently required.

Follow @SouthSouth1

Southern Innovator Magazine can be found in libraries around the world. Click here to find where: https://www.worldcat.org/title/southern-innovator-a-magazine-celebrating-south-south-innovation/oclc/1127120816?referer=list_view.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/southern-innovator-a-magazine-celebrating-south-south-innovation/oclc/1127120816?referer=list_view

https://davidsouthconsulting.org/southern-innovator-scale-up-fundraiser/

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a
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ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

© David South Consulting 2024

Categories
Archive Southern Innovator magazine

Press Release 1 | Southern Innovator

Press Release for General Distribution

New Magazine Targets Innovators in Global South

United Nations, New York, 20 September 2011

  • Global magazine Southern Innovator profiles innovation culture ending poverty
  • 60-page color magazine gives snapshot of fast-changing world

Southern Innovator (SI) is a new magazine for a fast-changing world. It profiles and celebrates the innovators across the global South finding new ways to tackle poverty, create wealth and improve human development and achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs). In its first issue, Southern Innovator features the people who are re-shaping new technologies – from mobile phone ‘apps’ to Internet technologies – to overcome poverty and to improve the quality of life in some of the poorest places on earth.

SI is based on intensive research and is produced by UNDP’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (www.southerninnovator.org). The Unit is the leading organisation in the world tasked with the goal of sharing knowledge across the global South. It organises events including the yearly South-South Expo (www.southsouthexpo.org), a roaming celebration and gathering of Southern innovators previously held in New York and Geneva, Switzerland. This year’s Expo will be held in Rome, Italy (5 to 9 December 2011).

SI is being distributed around the world through the United Nations network and partners and reaches some of the poorest and remotest places as well as the vibrant but stressed growing global megacities. It is hoped the magazine will inspire budding innovators with its mix of stories, essential information, facts and figures, images and graphics. The magazine will evolve based on reader responses and this first issue is very much the beginning of a journey. As became clear while researching this first issue, many things can change in a short space of time. Few could have imagined the rapid take-up of mobile phones in Africa and how these phones have become integral to development goals across the continent.

SI magazine is a quarterly publication and the next issues will launch in September and December of this year.

A summary for publication is here:

“Southern Innovator (ISSN 2222-9280) is a quarterly magazine published by the United Nations Development Programme’s Special Unit for South-South Cooperation. Launched in May 2011, SI is a new magazine celebrating creativity and innovation emerging from the global South. It explores entrepreneurial solutions to development challenges and uncovers the trends and events shaping the rise of the South in order to spur action on ending extreme poverty and toward reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”

We hope you enjoy the magazine and find its content interesting and illuminating: a snapshot of a fast-changing world awash, as we found out, with innovators, creators and do-ers making their world a better place.

For more information on Southern Innovator contact Cosmas Gitta at cosmas.gitta@undp.org or editor David South at southerninnovator@yahoo.co.uk.

United Nations General Assembly: Sixty-ninth session, Item 24 (b) of the provisional agenda, Operational activities for development: South-South cooperation for development, 17 July 2014.
The research informing Southern Innovator Magazine played a part in the formulation of the UN’s post-2015 development agenda, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

https://davidsouthconsulting.org/southern-innovator-scale-up-fundraiser/

ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5311-1052.

© David South Consulting 2022