CTA and IICD sign Memorandum of Understanding

The partnership unites two distinctive organisations with a joint interest in capacity building and networking to expand development activities in the rural and agricultural sector in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

IICD plays an important role in the implementation of ICT-enabled development and is the only specialised organisation of its kind in Europe. Set up in 1996 with the aim of fighting poverty in developing countries through the use of ICT, IICD’s philosophy is that access to information and enabling people to communicate is vital for people to improve their own livelihoods and quality of life. IICD applies both modern and traditional media to local partner initiatives in 'traditional' development sectors, such as agricultural livelihoods, in nine countries.

Its new partner, CTA is an ACP-EU institution working in the field of information for development. Its core task is to improve the flow of information among stakeholders in agricultural and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries by providing information products and services, promoting the integrated use of communication channels, old and new, to improve the flow of information and building ACP capacity in information and communication management (ICM), mainly through training and partnerships with ACP bodies.

CTA and IICD have decided to strengthen their collaboration on various projects of mutual interest for the benefit of their stakeholders in ACP countries with an emphasis on conducting of workshops, conferences and training seminars, as well as the joint production and dissemination of publications relating to the use of ICT within agricultural and rural development. In relation to the building of capacity with regard to the use of ICT, both parties will also cooperate in the development and use of Distance Learning tools to be able to increase the number of people that can be trained. Furthermore, CTA and IICD staff will combine their strengths with regard to the development and use of ICT and Management for the ACP region and share their knowledge on the appropriate use of ICT.

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for further collaboration is a logical result of an already existing collaboration between both organisations. Earlier this year, both parties collaborated in the organisation of a Conference on the use of Web 2.0 tools for rural development. In November 2005, CTA, IICD and the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) developed a smart toolkit for self monitoring and evaluation for local partners in the South.