Beyond the PC: Helping governments do more with technology
At the Centre Africain d'Etudes Supérieures en Gestion (CESAG), a prestigious regional school of management for West and Central Africa, Microsoft introduced an ICT training program for government leaders and decision makers.
CESAG is located in Senegal, a country making headway in the ICT field. Senegal has been increasing its investment in ICT, jumping 11 spots between 2002 and 2007 in the International Telecommunications Union’s ICT Development Index.
The CESAG ICT training aims to provide officials in the region with the knowledge required to design and implement successful ICT policy to promote social and economic development. Courses provide an overview of technology trends and key policy areas like the impact of ICT on privacy and intellectual property rights.
Trained officials in turn become trainers to their peers, working with Microsoft to update the technology policy curriculum. The program follows a ‘train the trainer’ model designed to increase scale and impact.
“I now have the opportunity to help decision makers understand better how internet works today, what changed, why they must take into account these elements in their political decisions,” says Ndeye Nainouna Diop Diagne, Director of ICT in the Senegalese Ministry of Information, who participated in the training.
“In Senegal, ICT constitutes a pillar for development. We are putting in place policies to develop technology as a tool for development, not as development of ICT per se, but to use ICT in education, in health, in the economy, in agriculture.”
Microsoft’s support fits into its belief that countries seeking to deepen the role of ICT as a development strategy should also increase investment in skills training and ICT literacy among their citizens.
Building on positive feedback and impact, CESAG will expand the training to government officials from across West Africa, becoming a regional hub for ICT policy training.
Watch a video on CESAG and Microsoft’s ICT capacity building support at:
Feb 09, Capacity Building Programs in Africa 4'16" Lowres 35 MB
Feb 09, Capacity Building Programs in Africa 4'16" Hires 189 MB
-- Claudia Toth
Microsoft Global Strategic Accounts
