|
AFRILINE will put Africa's emerging IT-literate society in the driver's seat of an African vehicle on the information super-highway.
AFRILINE, an evolving concept in African networking and electronic activism, proposes:
- to link commununities in development,
- to harness the power of information technology to 'level the playing field',
- to facilitate effective exchange of knowledge, experience and expertise among organizaitons,
- to encourage the flow of information from African civil society to international institutions and decision-makers,
- to create an enabling environment for effective collaboration, and
- to enhance the capacity of African civil society actors through expanded IT use.
Information technology is becoming more and more accessible throughout Africa. Cost and infrastructure remain obstacles, and the 'digital gap' is growing as technological advances outpace African education and access. However, the number of users across the continent is growing. Civil society organizations have begun to tap the available technology by:
- utilizing its power as a tool for advocacy--getting information and getting their message out, both locally and globally,
- taking advantage of more timely information and means of communication to become even more proactive, rather than reactive, locally, regionally and internationally,
- communicating with one another and sharing their experiences and ideas, and
- increasing their independence in information gathering as well as representing themselves in international forums.
The participants of the 6th Africa Regional Consultation of the NGO Working Group on the World Bank (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, September 1999) convened a dynamic discussion on how to take advantage of the tools available and how they could best use those tools for their own work and for wider networking. The World Bank/Africa Region has expressed interest in how such a site--African conceptualized, owned and led--would enhance interaction between the World Bank and African civil society.
AFRILINE is a user-centered concept and will ultimate feature:
- discussion forums on specific issues: over time and scheduled real-time 'chat' sessions
- 'kiosk' to enable knowledge sharing and to highlight African civil society actors and their efforts
- a searchable database of African NGOs, civil society organizations and development actors, and
- gateways to country specific issues, 'HOT' issues, news and events, resource links, and more.
AFRILINE is an initiative led by InterAfrica Group's NGO Networking Service Program and was launched in December 1999. Nearly 50 African organizations from some 22 countries have signed on to the concept of AFRILINE.
|