STRATEGIC PLANNING
Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) Initiative
The Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) Initiative for Africa was launched at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in December 2003 and has been supported since then by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It is carried out in Mali, Mozambique and Senegal.
The goal of the project is to contribute to national socio-economic development and the fight against poverty by providing local communities with (a) access to ICTs and (b) knowledge. The CMCs combine community radios with telecenters facilities and intend to increase local availability of information and services as well as enhance capacity for content production and sharing.
CMCs feature a high degree of local participation and appropriation, where youth have a prominent place and are responsible for community representation, mobilisation, and decision-making. At CMCs young people can also learn new skills, at affordable prices, access new types of information and knowledge, and gain not only experience but also respect and social capital in their communities. The skills required to use and apply new ICTs available at CMCs are, in fact, most easily appropriated by young people.
The project is implemented by project teams under the guidance of UNESCO Offices in Bamako, Maputo and Dakar respectively.
- Start date: 21-05-2008 End date: 21-05-2008