Addis Ababa — A breakout session within the framework of democratizing access to the information age focused on community applications. Various models of community-based multipurpose centers (telecentres) were analyzed with a view to showcase sustainable management models.
Panel presentations on the Rosslyn learning project (adult basic education) in South Africa, the cooperative approach in the US and the Egyptian experience provided insights into a variety of approaches in telecentre management. Discussions focused on a number of difficulties in actualizing partnership frameworks to run telecentres, and noted that in many cases, one or more partners tend to want to manage based on their own understanding of management. Infrastructural challenges in rural centres were pointed out, with emphasis placed on innovative intermediate and or appropriate technologies to circumvent the lack of electricity and telephone lines.
The need to ensure community ownership was underscored, as was the importance of gearing community applications toward providing immediate gratification to community users. Further, they must run on classic private sector management skills with clear accountability across the board.
The tension between running community based centres to make profit as opposed to non-profit making profit was debated, and it was noted that the difficulties encountered by most centres to meet their developmental goals, as well as meet their running costs by generating income are not easy to resolve. South Africa's experiences in the establishment and management of the current 40 telecentres, as well as Uganda's mushrooming ones were highlighted as important case studies from which to draw lessons.
The full text of all speeches, statements, press releases and summaries are available on the ADF Home Page at: http://www.un.org/depts/eca They are supported by video and audio clips of keynote addresses and other major moments. This site also includes the programme, list of participants, theme papers and other relevant background documents.
For more information on the Forum or to interview participants, please contact: Peter da Costa Senior Communication Adviser Economic Commission for Africa P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia Tel: +251-1-51 58 26 Fax: +251-1-51 03 65 Cell: +251-9-20 17 94 E-mail: dacosta@un.org or ecainfo@un.org Web: http://www.un.org/depts/eca
