Third Telecentre Leaders' Forum for Eastern Mena region held in Amman

The event was supported by the Jordanian Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Princess Basma Youth Resource Centre, Knowledge Stations, UNDP Egypt, IDRC, Microsoft and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Over 45 telecentre practitioners, network leaders and telecentre support organizations from the Eastern Mena region (Mashreq) were invited to share their experiences and develop plans for strengthening telecentres in respective countries.

The subjects discussed during the two-day forum at the Ministry of ICT included key issues affecting telecentres in the Mena-Mashreq region, telecentres and disability, telecentres and local community and telecentres and women. The discussions focused also on the sustainability of telecentres in the region.

Eng. Basem Rousan emphasized the importance of Knowledge stations in advancing the use ICT tools especially in rural area towards achieving the goals of the national ICT strategy, including increasing internet user penetration to 50% by the end of 2011.

In that context, Rousan also referred to the National Broadband Network programme aimed at connecting schools, universities, hospitals and government agencies via high speed fiber optics.

He outlined that the connected schools in the villages will be used as access points to provide internet access to the surrounding houses

This forum is the third of its kind. It follows two similar events that were successfully held in Cairo in 2006 and 2008.

The forum was a major step towards the expansion of the Mena telecentre network. It encouraged exchanges between the various participating countries and helped define major key areas for future cooperation.