| December
7, 2007
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and its partners
will award deserving African journalists for reporting on
the effective use of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) in development on the continent. The awards ceremony
will be held during the third Global Knowledge Conference
(GK3) taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11 –
13 December 2007. The conference is a unique gathering of
2,000 global visionaries, innovators, practitioners and policy
makers, all geared to sharing knowledge and building partnerships
on a platform created by and for stakeholders from every sector
- private companies, governments, international institutions
and civil society groups.
The 2007
African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Awards,
now in their fifth year are aimed at supporting African media
to create greater awareness on the role of ICTs in socio-economic
development, as well as supporting their use by African media.
The partners
involved in the 2007 AISI Media Awards include the Swiss Development
Cooperation (SDC), the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP),
International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and International
Institute for Communication and Development (IICD).
"ECA
feels proud to partner with SDC, GKP, IDRC and IICD for this
year’s AISI Media Awards focusing on GK3 themes: Emerging
People, Emerging Technologies, and Emerging Markets, and it’s
important to recognise that African journalists are key actors
in the Information Society, which requires a multi-disciplinary
approach to reporting," said Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, Director
of ECA's ICT and Science & Technology Division (ISTD).
She added, “The increasing number of entries each year
signifies a maturing of ICT reporting in Africa.”
For 2007
AISI Media Awards, close to 120 applications were received
and the Panel of Judges selected First and Second Prize winners
under the eight categories. Winners and Finalists are from
Benin, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria,
Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
The following
are the 2007 AISI Media Award First Prize winners:
- The
AISI-GKP 1st Prize Print category on Promoting the Information
Society, supported by SDC, goes to Mr. Bamuturaki Musinguzi
from Uganda for his article entitled “Taking ICT to
rural communities”. The article uses examples of rural
people who have benefited from the establishment of telecentres
in their community to improve the services they provide
and the profits they obtain for their businesses. It provides
a clear example of how ICTs can lead to an improvement in
people’s livelihood.
- In
the AISI-GKP-RADIO category on Promoting the Information
Society, supported by SDC, 1st Prizewinner Mr. Chabi Godefroy
Macaire from Benin whose story on « La gouvernance
locale tisse sa toile » covers well focused on community
development aspect as well as ICT’s socio-economic
impact.
- Mr.
Bayero Agabi from Nigeria gets the1st Prize in the AISI-GKP
TV category, supported by SDC, for his programme “Why
the phones are not bridging the divide” which provides
a broad coverage on the various facets of using ICTs and
how these could be improved to become a real emerging tool
to help emerging market and emerging people.
- The
1st prize for the AISI-GKP Award under Multimedia/Web Media
category, supported by SDC, goes to Ms. Emily Nyarko from
Ghana for her story on “Developing ICT enabled education
- the future for Ghana”. The article is very comprehensive
showing how the Government of Ghana, with collaboration
from several stakeholders, is seeking to embed ICTs in the
education system, as emerging services (technologies) in
order to create an ICT literate society.
- The
1st Prize for the AISI Award for Reporting on ICT Research
& Innovation, supported by IDRC, goes to Ms. Evelyn
Tagbo from Nigeria for her article on “Nigerian higher
institutions in ICT age”. The article tackles the
important area of using ICTs to spread learning in Nigeria
through e-learning including m-learning.
- Under
the AISI-GKP Media Award for Reporting on ICT Policy Category,
supported by IDRC, the 1st Prize goes to Mr. Adetokunbo
Abiola from Nigeria for the article on “ICT: Bringing
information technology to the people”. The article
tries to showcase great initiatives and link them to realities.
- For
the AISI-GKP Local Content Applications Award, supported
by IICD, the 1st Prize goes to Mr. Haytham Ahmed Abd El-Wahab
Dardeer, Egypt“Contact centers hold the key to investment
attraction”
- Mr.
John Mirenyi from Tanzania gets the 1st prize in the AISI-GKP
Local Content category, supported by IICD, for his article
on “Computer software in Kiswahili beats barriers
to learning and e-commerce”. The article describes
a very important and empowering area of work, improving
access to ICTs for millions of East Africans who speak Kiswahili,
and more importantly, do not speak any European languages.
For more
details visit: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/mediaaward.htm
AISI
Media Awards | website
| programme
| speakers
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