Calendar of events

 5-9 May, Science and technology, fisheries and aquaculture regional workshop, Lilongwe, Malawi.
 5-16 May, 9th ordinary session of the Pan-African Parliament, Midrand, South Africa. Source : NEPAD, may 6, 2008

NEPAD TV schedule

 The next NEPAD TV programme on the SABC Africa channel (DSTV Channel 407) is : African Views
 7 May, 8pm-9pm (SA time)

Dr Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) will be interviewed on the current 9th session of the PAP and its challenges and successes.

* Note : the SABC Africa channel on DSTV moved from channel 267 to the new channel 407 on 1 May 2008. Source : NEPAD, may 6, 2008

NEPAD-Spanish Women’s Fund disbursements to start

The NEPAD Secretariat would like to thank all the organisations that have responded to the requests for submitting missing documents. The speedy response is appreciated as it greatly accelerates the disbursement process.

Disbursements will start on 9 May 2008 for the organisations that have submitted complete applications. Organisations with pending documents are requested to submit them as soon as possible.

The NEPAD Secretariat would like to thank all applicants for their patience and understanding. Source : NEPAD, may 6, 2008

All demo e-Schools now in place in Uganda

NEPAD recognises the pivotal role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in accelerating economic growth and development, particularly in the context of achieving a common market and continental integration.

The NEPAD e-Schools Initiative aims at imparting ICT skills to young Africans in primary and secondary schools as well as harnessing ICT to improve, enrich and expand education in African countries.

The objective is to equip all African primary and secondary schools with ICT apparatus such as computers, radio and television sets, phones and fax machines, communication equipment, scanners, digital cameras and copiers and to connect them to the internet. The Initiative will be completed over a 10-year period, with the secondary school component being completed in the first five years.

An MoU between the Government of Uganda and the e-Africa Commission was signed in Johannesburg on 1 July 2005, and Hewlett Packard (HP), Advance Micro Devices (AMD) and a number of other private companies, including Multi-Choice and Learning Things, committed to sponsoring the demonstration project, consisting of six schools in Uganda.

All six e-Schools have been installed and are fully operational in the face of a few challenges such as the high maintenance costs of the equipment.

A Monitoring and Evaluation exercise for the project was carried out in February 2008 by the National APRM/NEPAD Secretariat in conjunction with the implementing partners and Makerere University (Faculty of Computer and Information Technology). The report will be shared with all the key stakeholders of the e-Schools initiative.

The e-Schools implementation agency in Uganda is the Ministry of Education and Sports, which has provided funds for security for the computer laboratories and fuel for the generators. Source : NEPAD, may 6, 2008