As part of UNESCO’s Initiative B@bel project with support of UNECA and the Ministry of Capacity Building, the workshop reviewed a project proposal - presented by Dawit Bekele - focusing on development of a national standard in Ethiopic script for use by local communities.

The standardization process is a precondition for local content development in languages in Ethiopia like Tigrina, Afar, Amharic and others. Ethiopic is the script used to write Amharic, the official working language of Ethiopia, as well as many other Semitic and Cushitic languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The workshop aimed at discussing Ethiopic standards need assessment, strategies for development, adoption and dissemination of the standards, design of keyboard layout and resource mobilization.

35 participants, with 10% female participation, from Government, ICT-companies, different departments of the Addis Ababa university and UN agencies UNESCO, ECA, UNDP represented a broad range of the national stakeholders in Ethiopia in the ICT standardization process