We're building partnerships between global corporations and these amazing local groups," David Morrison, President of NetAid, told The Earth Times. "We built a consumer face for development." Founded in 1999, NetAid is the product of a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Cisco Systems. As Morrison describes it, it was a "marriage of two big ideas--the Internet and the fight against poverty." The two organizations saw the Internet as a tool for social change, one that could be leveraged to spread the fight against poverty around the globe with a specific focus on projects to benefit children.

Morrison is especially proud of the current Schoolhouse project in Peru, which places teenage students as tutors for poor first- and second- grade students. The project is run by Unicef with the sponsorship of (and funding by) Openwave, a technology services company based in California. Beyond monetary support, however, employees of the company are directly connected to the project on a daily basis, over the Internet, supplying the teenagers with teaching materials and guidance. The direct connection, said Morrison, means that the corporation has a more personal interest in the project.

NetAid's contribution is to link up the corporate donors with local and global development organizations. Out of NetAid's database of some 3,000 partners around the world, the corporations can choose a project, or many projects, that they want to fund. NetAid then distributes the funding, along with funding from other private and individual donors, to the appropriate project, following an extensive "due diligence" process.

"We have a system of canvassing the world for 'best-practice' children's projects," said Morrison. "They are the executing partner and we work with them to match them with corporate partners." Over the last two and a half years NetAid has completed 14 projects in countries that include East Timor and Guinea. Currently there are nine projects that are "open," in India, Pakistan, Peru and Ghana. NetAid is now moving to focus its efforts entirely on providing access to education to the poorest children, an initiative called the World Schoolhouse.

"We're zeroing in on the issues of access to education," said Morrison. "Education is recognized universally as a driver of development, and a great number of corporations see it as a priority as well." These corporations are also being targeted more fiercely because, according to Morrison, they are "good corporate citizens, but are looking to express this on a global stage." The new focus on education provides the perfect opportunity for both NetAid and these corporations to channel funding to the right sources. At present, he said, six corporations are actively supporting projects.

On February 3, during the Davos 2002 Summit in New York, NetAid is holding the public launch of its World Schoolhouse program. The original launch date, September 17, was postponed following the attacks in New York and Washington, though work on the projects continued. "There is no better place to hold the launch," said Morrison, "because this is a terrific opportunity to bring this crucial issue to the attention of corporate leaders. I'm looking forward to sitting down with them and listening to their interests and needs, and matching them to the inventory of vetted education projects we have."

Individuals are also encouraged to become involved in NetAid, either as members or sponsors, though these are not mutually exclusive. Members are sent information about projects and initiatives on a regular basis, an effort to have more people personally involved in NetAid's work. According to Edith Asibey, NetAid's Director of Communications, there are more than 50,000 members at present, including some 3,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Individuals and groups can make donations to different projects via the Internet at www.netaid.org. Asibey said that in addition to support given by corporations, more than 12,000 people have made donations to NetAid supported projects in the last two years.