Second Batch of African Women Graduate from ECA Cisco Internet Networking Academy

Addis Ababa, 20 Thursday, 2002- 19 African women from 19 francophone African countries graduated from the Cisco Internet Networking Technology Training Course on Thursday, 19 December 2002 .The graduation ceremony marked the culmination of a six-month project that has provided specialized Internet Networking training to the graduates. Most of the participants are employees of governments, NGOs and the private sector.

The training course follows the established curriculum of the Cisco Networking Academy programme operating in more than 133 countries worldwide. It was a six-month residential course conducted in French by a team of certified Cisco trainers at the ECA.

The course, which mainly aims at reversing the current trend of marginalization of African women's access to and use of new information and communication technologies, equips trainees with skills that enrich their professional careers and produce entrepreneurial opportunities in their countries as well.

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs. Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Commission, recalled that one of the targets of the Information Society in Africa was to give to women the opportunity to have equal access to information technology and technological education. In that context, she added that the training the graduates had received sufficiently demonstrated that women could take part in ICT policy formulation and implementation in the African continent. "I venture to think that this training will make you serve as example for other African young girls and women," she stressed, "we all know that the number of trained African women is still insignificant compared to the immensity of the continent's needs, but I am sure you will not only train other women but also other men to ensure that the benefit of your stay in Addis Ababa does produce the multiplier effect expected in your respective countries and in the continent as a whole."

After graduation, the trainees are expected to promote use of ICT in their respective countries and institutions, especially for women groups.

The training programme is a partnership initiative supported by the Government of Japan in collaboration with leading information technology company Cisco system Inc. and InfoDev of the World Bank. It is being implemented in the context of ECA's African Information Society Initiative (AISI), an action framework whose main objective is to promote the use of ICTs in Africa as tools for the continent's development.

In the broader context of ECA's work in ICTs, the graduates will be involved in regional and sub-regional activities, and will be encouraged to participate in the development of national information and communication infrastructure plans in their respective countries.

ECA has been promoting ICTs in Africa for more than two decades in the view to narrowing the information technology gap between Africa and the rest of the world and to speed the continent's entry into the information age.

The training programme earlier targeted a group of 26 African women from 16 English-speaking countries, who graduated from ITCA's first ever Cisco Internet Networking Academy, after a six-month training at ECA. Established by ECA in 1999 ITCA provides on-site workshops and seminars for policy makers, delegates and other participants to promote awareness on the importance of ICTs for economic growth and African nations' economic competitiveness.

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