capacity building

23.06.2004 Responding to the demands of past Time to Get Online workshop participants, Kabissa launches a new Training-of-Trainers program for West African civil society organizations in August. The Time to Get Online curriculum combines self-learning materials and hands-on workshops to help African civil society organizations to build capacity through internet-based information sharing and advocacy initiatives. The Training-of-Trainers model enables us to have an even greater impact on civil society organizations throughout the region by creating a network of ICT training partners empowered to deliver this curriculum in their own communities.

18.06.2004 Policy-makers from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will meet on July 7 to 9, 2004 in Mauritius to discuss the benefits of ICTs in meeting development goals. The meeting will also review current ICT projects and proposals of future projects for funding.

18.06.2004 Nearly 100 participants attended a seminar on developing an ICT strategy for small businesses in Bangladesh, organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

15.06.2004 The UNDP is helping the Bhutan government connect remote areas with ICTs by facilitating access to public access points to enable people get the latest government information.

14.06.2004 The Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to boost co-operation between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal over connectivity, especially setting up of community information centres, capacity building and content.

11.06.2004 The Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation has tied-up with the European Computer Driving Licence Foundation to use ICTs in achieving development goals. They plan to provide electronic communication solutions to the government, business and the civil society.

10.06.2004 To further the benefits of agricultural researches to reach to poor, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research has been allocated $5 million to invest on the strategic use of ICT in the strategic use of agricultural information and communication.

10.06.2004 The Health Information Systems Programme in Andhra Pradesh, India, makes innovative uses of ICT, especially of open source software to deliver health knowledge to medical professionals. A finalist of this year's Stockholm Challenge Award , this project is supported by students from different parts of the world.

10.06.2004 The Development Gateway Forum has chosen eight ICT projects for the first-ever Petersberg Prize, for bringing about socio-economic development through ICTs.

10.06.2004 Digital photogrammetry techniques can be used for documentation of Iraqi cultural monuments to preserve this otherwise vulnerable heritage. In an effort to protect it, a trilateral capacity building programme for Iraqi cultural officers has jointly been initiated by Latvia, UNDP and UNESCO.

10.06.2004 Thousands of disadvantaged Palestine youth in the West Bank and Ramallah use information technologies in local computer centres built under a project of the International Youth Foundation. The project called IT4Youth aims to increase learning outcomes and their employability.

08.06.2004 The Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) has developed a database of ICT projects in Latin America, providing information on over 300 projects. Significantly, it delivers content in the four spoken languages of the region.

08.06.2004 The International Institute of Communication and Development highlights some key problems schools in Zambia face in providing ICT services to its communities. The workshop discussions give a first hand account of the problems school authorities face in sustaining the services.

08.06.2004 City of Bogotá, Colombia is one of the five winners of the Latin American Awards for Digital Cities 2004. An initiative of the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA) and other organisations, the award aims to stimulate ICT enabled socio-economic growth of municipalities in Latin America.

04.06.2004 Farmers in East and Central Africa can now get a better deal for their products as they can have access to market price information on commodities via FM radio, mobile phones, email and the internet. The project called Foodnet is benefiting millions of farmers in this region.

04.06.2004 Creating a 'Digital Solidarity Fund' is imperative for capacity building of the societies to make efforts to bridge the digital divide, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told participants at e-Nigeria 2004, held in Abuja recently. He stressed the need of prioritising WSIS plan of action in developmental efforts in the West Africa.

03.06.2004 Women of the Uganda Network (WOUGNET) participated in the Open Knowledge Network workshop held recently in Nairobi, Kenya. The workshop focused on building a network for content creation and ICT for development activities in East Africa.

02.06.2004 The UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) have forged a partnership on the latter's redesigned Programme for
Development and Training (PDT), an ambitious capacity building programme to tap the potential of ICTs in meeting the development goals.

02.06.2004 There is a clear distinction between commercially run internet cafes and info-kiosks aimed at providing information services to the underserved populace. This report focuses on the sustainability issues of this model of telecentres with case studies from different regions.

01.06.2004 A team of developers has begun work on building a localized operating system in Gujarati language, spoken by more than 5.5 millions in India. The developers have launched their project site called "Utkarsh" which means progress.