Programmes
African Leadership in ICT (ALICT)
Background
The African Leadership in ICT (ALICT) Programme is a three-year partnership between GeSCI, the African Union Commission (AUC) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. The ALICT Programme is conceptualized to model a methodology and multi-stakeholder approach for capacity building and awareness raising of African leaders on the issues of Knowledge Society, ICT, Education, S&T and Innovations in support of the European Union-African Union Strategic Partnership 8 (EU-AU P8) and the AUC Action Plan. The Programme is expected to contribute directly to the implementation of the AUC’s African Regional Action Plan for Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE). The capacity building model will be developed and tested in East and Southern Africa in close collaboration with the AUC and other partners.
Programme Goal
1. Develop a group of African ICT, Education, Science and Technology (S&T) and Knowledge Society potential and future leaders.
2. Build the leaders capacity to agents of change in their own countries and be catalysts for regional cooperation in these domains, both at the country and sub-regional levels.
Implementation
The ALICT Programme will be implemented in 2 phases with phase 1 covering 12 months starting in June 2010 focusing on participatory design, planning, piloting and testing of appropriate models for capacity building and preparation for implementation. Phase 2 will cover 24 months starting in June 2011, and focus on implementing the model found most appropriate and building the capacity of selected African leaders.
More information
The implementation mechanism for the ALICT Programme in East and Southern Africa is based on GeSCI’s African Knowledge Exchange (AKE) Programme that was developed originally in partnership with Finland. The AKE is a strategic knowledge sharing and capacity building community geared towards empowering leaders and policy makers in Africa to make more informed decisions on the proper and effective use of ICTs for the Knowledge Society. It is underpinned by research, good practice and the experiences of peers. The AKE has developed a particular focus on ICTs and education and their critical role in the development of the Knowledge Society, which can now contribute to the development of other ICT policies and strategies on Knowledge Society, S&T and Innovations through this partnership. The AKE fosters collaborative learning, multi stakeholder knowledge sharing and virtual collaboration, including the hosting of communities of practice.
The primary beneficiaries of the programme will be future and potential leaders and policy makers in AUC Human Resources Science and Technology (HRST), the Ministries of ICT, Education, Higher Education, Science and Technology and other Ministries responsible for human resources development in Southern and Eastern Africa. Future leaders are likely to be mid-career managers and practitioners within these ministries.
ASIA and LAC
GeSCI is transitioning from intensive programmatic engagements to regional operations in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This shift is facilitated through strategic regional partners that will provide a base for GeSCI operations.
In India GeSCI’s work is impacting on the second largest school system in the world. With approximately 1.217 million schools, the new ICT in Education Policy could provide ICT based solutions for the largest number of out-of-school children in the world. The stakeholder community is large, enthusiastic and well informed adn has relied upon GeSCI to provide them with critical guidance throughout the national policy development process. Developing a broader knowledge sharing programme in the Asian region is therefore a natural progression from the high-level policy process that GeSCI facilitated in India.
Many LAC countries have ICT4E initiatives that GeSCI could contribute to by sharing Knowledge and promoting the exchange of global ICT4E and ICT4D best practices through regional workshops and conferences. GeSCI will take the lessons learned from its engagement with Bolivia to inform its regional LAC operations which we aim to develop in tandem with a strategic partner on the ground.
