For those of us in Africa:

Academic Retreat on the information society

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with the Ford
Foundation, is organizing a two-day retreat on the theme "Intellectual
Leadership and the African Information Society Initiative: What Role for
Africa's Academic Community?" to assist the African academic community
advocate for and define a role in the emerging information society on the
continent.

The retreat, scheduled for June 14-16 in Addis Ababa is part of ECA's
efforts to engage with key stakeholders in building an information society
and solicit their input for the preparatory process of the World Summit on
the Information Society to be held in Geneva in December this year and in
Tunisia in 2005.

Under the framework of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI),
ECA considers the higher education community as the intellectual backbone
that can lead Africa into the digital age and sustain it, according to a
statement from the Commission's Development Information Services Division
(DISD).

"Although the use of  ICTs  had been spearheaded by many higher education
institutions in Africa for over ten years, it is clear that momentum has
dropped since then," says Karima Bounemra Ben Soltane, the Director of
DISD. Through the retreat, says Ms. Bounemra Ben Soltane, ECA is hoping
that these institutions can recapture the intellectual leadership needed
for developing the information society in Africa.

The retreat is also part of a series of Ford Foundation-sponsored
activities underlining the importance of 'visioning' or 'imagining' various
aspects of the role of the African university of the future. It is
supported through the Foundation's Higher Education in Africa Project.

For more information, please contact Aida Opoku-Mensah, ICT Team Leader,
DISD, at [log in to unmask]

The related websites:

Online Discussion on the African Academia and the Information Society:
http://www.dgroups.org/groups/aisi-academia-l

African Information Society Initiative (AISI): http://www.uneca.org/aisi/

The Ford Foundation: http://www.fordfound.org/

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS):
http://www.itu.int/wsis/




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