About Spider
Who
The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider) is a resource center for ICT for Development (ICT4D). Spider was established in 2004 and is primarily financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), with complementary funding from Stockholm University. The center is administered by the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) at Stockholm University.
What
We function like a node in a network of actors from academia, public sector, private sector, and civil society. Networking and brokering of knowledge and expertise is combined with support to innovative ICT4D projects in partner countries.
Thematic areas:
- democracy
- education
- health
Crosscutting ICT issues:
- low cost and high quality technology
- free and open source software (FOSS)
- mobile technology for development (M4D)
Crosscutting development issues:
- empowerment of young people
- culture and creativity
- capacity development
Why
Our mission is to support the innovative use of ICT for development and poverty reductio through synergistic partnerships, while strengthening the global ICT4D knowledge base through collaborative networking, brokering, and open sharing of information.
How
We serve as an independent source of knowledge and expertise. Our network ranges from a core of 230 experts in 40 countries to 800 stakeholders around the world, along with a network of 17 partner universities in Sweden. We play the role of ICT4D broker, connecting partners in developing countries with local or international expertise, while facilitating the generation and dissemination of ICT4D knowledge.
We offer catalytic seed funding to innovative ICT4D projects in partner countries. Initiatives must be demand-driven, while corresponding to our thematic and geographic focus. We encourage a multi-stakeholder, participatory project approach, aligned with development and poverty reduction priorities. We can only offer partial funding, but can help partners attract complementary support from other sources.
Where
We focus primarily on the twelve priority countries for Swedish development cooperation: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
The geographical scope is narrower for our ICT4D projects in partner countries and broader for the Spider network.
The Spider center is based at the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) at Stockholm University, Sweden.
