|
::
Academia Retreat > ECA
Press Release on the Academia Retreat
|
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 aopoku-mensah@uneca.org
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/
|
|
|
|
|
 |
