development

30 officials from the Ministry of Culture in Iraq took part this week in a training course organised by ATiT in Leuven in the use of social media. Speakers from the media and political life in Belgium gave talks to the group during the week on topics like journalistic freedom, dealing with the press and government communications. The group visited the European Parliament, broadcasting station VRT and the European Commission and visited local sites and buildings in Leuven.

On January 24-26, Mathy Vanbuel from ATiT was part of the team involved in the delivery of the AADLC Workshop on Knowledge Transfer in Change Management, organised by the Kenya Global Development Learning Centre on Behalf of AADLC in Mombasa, Kenya. This workshop focused on deveopments taking place within the AADLC on a number of issues including IT and Learning Design, Business Development and Governance and Marketing Strategy.

ATiT staff recently supported the 2nd African ICT Best Practices Forum held in Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso from 21-23 April. The objective of the event, which took place over 3 days, was to provide a practical way for government officials from across Africa to share their own specific experiences and demonstrate practical examples of successful technology solutions in their respective countries, ultimately to replicate them elsewhere. This Forum attracted about 320 delegates from 39 countries represented, for more information, visit the Forum web site at http://www.africanictbestpractices.net

A recent article by Mathy Vanbuel carried in the eLearning Africa News Portal puts forward his views as to why ICTs are crucial for the Continent's development. It traces the evolution from small scale pilot projects in different countries to large-scale implementation actions, with the potential to provide a basis for sustainable change. It highlights the fact that Africa is leading the world in finding ways to utilise mobile phones, wireless networking, solar energy and reusable energy sources, but also points out the need to be realistic given the many demands on Africa's limited resources. The forthcoming eLearning Africa conference, http://www.elearning-africa.com taking place 28-30 May in Accra, Ghana offers an important opportunity to further this discussion and more specifically to focus on the importance of ICT in education and training within this perspective.

To read the full article, visit the eLearning Africa News Portal.

When asked recently for his 2007 highlights, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karel de Gucht, identified the March 2007 Brussels Conference on Good Governance. In his interview with Belgian newspaper "De Standaard", de Gucht states "Probably the international conference on Good Governance that we organized in Brussels, with Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson as a speaker. The conference was broad in its approach, the whole world was present and this potentially has impact on the longer term. We don't only have to talk about the security of countries, but also about human security: cluster bombs, water, good governance." ATiT supported the conference through the provision of a live web site and multimedia. For more information about the event, visit the conference web site http://www.improvinggovernance.be

The Indonesian Minister of Education, Dr. Bambang Sudibyo, recently launched the large-scale BERMUTU Programme to upgrade teachers via an extensive videoconferencing network. This network, utilising sites from the GDLN and Inherent networks, linked 15 locations across three different time zones stretching from Aceh in the western tip of Indonesia to Jayapura in the east. Support and training for the participating sites was provided by Mathy Vanbuel and Sally Reynolds during a two week long visit to Jakarta culminating in the event which took place on 18th December.