ICT- 4D Training; Ethiopian MPs graduate
By Mercy Wambui, Communication Officer, ECA
29 November 2004

The second round of ICT training for 40 Ethiopian Members of Parliament concluded yesterday with a graduation ceremony at the Economic Commission for Africa's UN Conference Centre. Speaking at the ceremony, Ms. Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-in-Charge at the Development Information Services Division (DISD), congratulated the MPs, pointing to their commitment to attending the 3-month long training despite busy schedules with constituencies.

The intensive training was conducted by ECA's Information Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA) through a series of lectures, workshops and hands-on approaches to ICT applications. "Capacity-building is a key focus of the outreach programme of ECA's African Information Society Initiative (AISI)." said Ms. Opoku-Mensah. " It is our hope that the useful skills you have acquired will guide your work and your role as advocates for Ethiopia’s information society and especially in the development of the e-policy that ECA has supported."

She highlighted some key collaborative projects by ECA and the Government of Ethiopia, such as the ICT for decentralization study in Ethiopia’s "Woredas" (local administration), ICT impact assessment or SCAN-ICT and E-government applications - notably the public touch-screen kiosk for Addis Ababa's land administration office. She extended ECA's continued support for additional capacity-building with respect to upcoming ICT-projects that the MPs are considering implementing in their respective constituencies.

The Deputy Speaker of the Ethiopian Parliament, Dr. Petros Olango joined the MPs in expressing appreciation for ECA's role in its efforts to understand the ramifications of globalization and the information society. “Since we have duties and obligations assigned by our constituencies, transparency is critical.” He said, adding that despite poor infrastructure, Ethiopia is striving to catch up with the rest of the world and that “The training will help advance Ethiopia and Africa's commitment to e-government and help us improve relationships with our constituencies."

He also noted that the emerging Pan-African Parliament demand knowledge sharing and exchange among African MPs, which will be made possible through the skills the MPs have now acquired.

Speaking on behalf of his fellow parliamentarians, Hon. Ibrahim Abdella told the gathering that the MPs had gained a great deal from ECA. "This knowledge should not be kept hidden. It should be taken to the wider society". He said adding that “this is the right time to apply this knowledge and that the MPs are the right people to apply it at the level of the constituencies”.

For more information visit www.uneca.org/itca  or write to mfaye@uneca.org