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Promoting the use of African local languages in ICTs
As the use of the Internet and its resources spread, it is becomingly increasingly clear that Africans need information in their own languages to promote greater access to the information society. Consequently, ECA's programme on promoting African languages remains a challenge for the continent and represents a real form of democratizing access to the information society.
AISI emphasizes the importance of preserving and promoting African cultures which include the usage of local languages and content creation, in addition to the assistance towards the development of the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans.
Programme/Activities:
Bamako 2002 pre-conference workshop on African Languages and the Information Society
The Bamako 2002 Declaration clearly spells out the importance of supporting African local languages for local content development, and thus to ensure Africa's active participation in the information society development. This also included addressing the continent's linguistic specificities with the introduction of new technologies that ensures access for all. The Bamako Declaration acknowledged the continent's rich cultural diversity and urged that it should be reflected in cyberspace with accompanying funds for digital archiving of traditional knowledge and heritage as Africa's contribution to the global information society.
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Ethiopic Standardization
ECA, UNESCO and the Ethiopian Government (through its capacity building ministry) are supporting the development and dissemination of Ethiopic standards. In this regard, a workshop was recently organised that discussed on the issues concerning Ethiopic standards need assessment, strategies for development, adoption and dissemination of the standards, and resource mobilization. Ethiopic is the script used to write Amharic, the official working language of Ethiopia, as well as many other Semitic and Cushitic languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The workshop reviewed a project proposal that focus on development of a national standard that makes life easier for developers of products/applications in Ethiopic script for use by local communities.
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