IICD undertakes international knowledge sharing activities based on identified needs in our focal countries. We facilitate collaboration between international and national partners, bringing them together to exchange and distribute information. Those involved in this process have the chance to discuss challenges and lessons learned, and to learn from each other via live events, online fora and publications.

International Thematic Networks

International initiatives are often organised under thematic topics. Each year, IICD identifies a selection of priority themes. Thematic networks or communities of interest then address these. Priority themes or topics are also the focus of IICD supported research each year, and result in reports and other publications.

Examples of international thematic initiatives and products:

• East African Community e-Government Working Group
  Works towards the successful implementation of eGovernment in the Partner States of the East African Community through a proposed Regional eGovernment Framework.
• Cross-Country Learning Events
  Cross-Country Learning Events (CCLEs) bring ICT4D practitioners together. With their valuable experience in designing and implementing projects in a specific sector, they can share and make explicit their lessons learned, and together identify key issues currently playing a role (positive and negative) in ICT projects.
• South-South Exchange
  The South-South Exchange workshop (a joint initiative by M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Hivos and IICD) is a travelling workshop where the participants move from village to village in the host country, meeting the local people and learning how they use ICT in addressing their problems. The workshop participants in turn tell the local population how they handle similar problems back home in their countries and in their projects. In this way the workshop provides an opportunity for collective learning in a real-life setting.
• Open Source Health Management System Care 2X 
• IConnect collected: a collection of articles about experiences in ICT for education, livelihoods and governance in six African countries.
• i4d magazine: a magazine that publishes the Iconnect articles.
• I collaborate, e-collaborate, we collaborate: a joint PSO/IICD publication on e-collaboration that brings national research to an international audience.
• Health Management Information System (HMIS) reports, such as the publication 'Cordaid-IICD Health Programme Uganda', produced by IICD in collaboration with Cordaid, which is aimed at an international audience
• Dgroup: 'Itrainonline community of trainers': which was the result of a capacity development and knowledge sharing workshop held in 2006.

International Knowledge Sharing Partnerships

Building long-term partnerships has proved an excellent way of supplementing IICD's expertise base and facilitating international knowledge sharing.

Examples of knowledge sharing partnerships include:

• Building Communication Opportunities (BCO) Alliance
  BCO is a partnership of NGOs and bilateral agencies working to 'investigate, mobilise and support ICT for Development opportunities that impact poverty'.
• iConnect
  The BCO partnership partly funds the iConnect Online initiative which promotes the effective exchange of experiences and knowledge on the use of information and communication technologies for development.
• GenARDIS
  GenARDIS is a small grants fund to address gender issues in information and communication technologies for agricultural and rural development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP countries). The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) are partners in this initiative.
• iTrainOnline
  iTrainOnline, a joint initiative of eight organisations with exceptional expertise in computer and Internet training in the South, responds to the need for a single source on the web containing a selection of the best and most relevant computer and Internet training resources for development and social change.
• Global Teenager Project (GTP)
  GTP links secondary schools in both the developing and developed world within a virtual learning network, thus creating an upcoming generation of information-literate, knowledge-oriented, culturally-aware individuals.
• Technical Centre for Rural and Agricultural Cooperation (CTA)
  The partnership unites two distinctive organisations with a joint interest in capacity building and networking to expand development activities in the rural and agricultural sector in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
• OneSite Europe Contacts Database
  OneSite Europe is a venture by several European partners to jointly maintain a contacts database. The partners are: CIDSE, EADI, ECDPM, Euforic, INASP and IICD. A former partner, the OECD Development Centre, provided financial and content support. The joint database is used by each of the partners for internal management tasks. It is also the basis for a publicly-available directory of development organisations.

Other activities include participation in debates, workshops, and seminars on ICT for Development. Examples include the Web2forDev workshop, Yale conferences, and eLearning Africa.