Canada Fund for Africa Networking Exhibit

ITCA staff, in conjuction with the ECA Communication Team, arranged an ECA exhibit for the Canada Fund for Africa Event. Although the event ran from 6 – 8 June, 2005 at the Addis Sheraton Hotel, the ECA exhibit was only operational for the Networking Bazaart held on the 6th of June. During this time, ITCA and CommTeam staff were able to engage and attract visitors to the exhibit where a number on interactions were used to provide detailed information describing key activities that have resulted from ECA’s partnership with the government of Canada.

Objectives
The primary theme of the exhibit was to highlight a number of AISI activities that are being supported directly and/or indirectly with Canadian funding. In addition, ECA staff members remained present after setting up the exhibit to address the inquiries of participants regarding ECA’s work programme. Particular focus and dialogue was directed at:

1. Describing the Division’s programme and activities
2. Describing ECA’s e-Polnet node activities
3. Describing ITCA’s training, portal development and other activities
4. Explaining the need and development of the virtual learning academy ( vLAC) and courseware modules related to it.

To accentuate our efforts, a collage of resources were disseminated or displayed at the exhibit. These included:

· CDROMS (containing the AISI video series, ITCA Promo Video, documents and other materials)
· Selected ECA publications and brochures
· The HIV/AIDS Kiosk
· The Kebele Land Information Portal

Outcomes
A number of inquiries were received and staff received follow-up requests regarding the possibility of localizing (in addition to customizing) training efforts. Some participants wanted to discover ways in which our kiosks could be located within rural and field offices and whether or not we could provide training and support resources to their staff. As a means of documenting these requests, staff collected the business cards of these participants so that they me be contacted at a later day.
  For more information, contact Makane Faye at itca@uneca.org