[A12n-forum] UNESCO & 150 Community Multimedia Centers

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI ...  as seen in Balancing Act's News Update 188 - 12 Dec. 2003.


*   UNESCO TO SET UP 150 COUMMNITY MULTIMEDIA CENTRES IN AFRICA

UNESCO and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) will
launch a multi-million dollar project to provide marginalized communities in
Mali, Mozambique and Senegal with access to information and communication
technologies, including the internet.

The project, drawing on UNESCO's experience in establishing Community
Multimedia Centres (CMCs), aims to meet the needs of local populations in
getting and exchanging information in their language and to provide them
with learning and training opportunities. The CMCs combine radio, telephone,
fax and computers connected to the internet. Some of the services they offer
are commercial, helping them become financially self-sustaining.

The project for the creation of 50 CMCS in each of the three countries, i.e.
a total of 150 new centres, marks a huge up-scale for UNESCO's CMCs project,
which to date numbers 20 pilot centres in the continent.

CMCs operating in Africa today have from five to 18 computers each but the
use of these digital resources by community radio hosts means that tens of
thousands of people get indirect access to online information, including
people with low literacy skills. In Dakar (Senegal), and Timbuktu (Mali),
for example, CMCs work with microcredit organizations and are used to help
small businesses with their book keeping. CMCs are also being used to scan
ancient manuscripts and photographs of ancestors.

In Mozambique, the CMCs in Manhiça and Namaacha have signed a national code
of conduct for community radio on election coverage, committing themselves
to provide civic education and news programmes, explaining to citizens, for
example, how and where to vote, and why voting is important.

The key to the CMCs success, according to UNESCO,  is that they belong to,
and are managed by, the communities they serve. The CMCs contribute to
development through activities such as literacy classes, particularly
targeting women, spreading health messages, collecting and disseminating
information about agriculture.

The three-country project will be implemented by UNESCO with
multi-stakeholder consortia constituted of national and international
partners including intergovernmental organizations, government, civil
society and at least one development bank.