ICT4D

The START project, also known as the EuroAfrica-ICT initiative, is supported by the European Commission (DG Information Society and Media), and aims at connecting sub-Saharan Africa and the European Union for ICT partnerships under the FP7 EC research funding programme.

The project is implemented by a consortium led by Sigma Consultants through its Orionis division and two key African Institutes specialising in the ICT field, the Meraka Institute of the CSIR (South Africa) and the Panos Institute West Africa (Senegal).

The 4th group meeting of the EuroAfrica-ICT initiative is going to take place in Brussels, Belgium, on January 31. I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of interesting people there, among them Santhi Kumaran (Head, Dept. of Computer Engineering & Information Technology, Kigali Institute of Science & Technology, Rwanda) and Serge Ferré (Vice-President, Nokia Europe).

Registration seems to be still open, just in case you're interested ;)

512

(Internet connectivity bandwith for Rwanda, measured in kilobit per second, as of 2004. The country had a population of ~9 million people and around 2900 subscribers at the time.)

Following the G8 summit in Germany, Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for International Development, will be available to answer questions on Africa in a live webchat on Thursday 21 June at 10:30am.

Live webcast on National e-Government Strategies: Designing for Success will take place on Tuesday, June 19 from 9:00 - 11:30 am EST. This special event is presented jointly by the World Bank’s e-development thematic group and the Development Gateway Foundation, in partnership with USAID and USTTI. A panel of experts and practitioners from India, Singapore, U.S., World Bank and the USAID will convene to address the process of designing successful national e-Government strategies.

For more information, access this page, or go directly to the webcast at 9 a.m. EST (== UTC-5).