WORLDWIDE MARKET RESEARCH REPORT - CISE

EC/IST FP6 Project No 026920
Work Package: 6
Type of document: Report
Date: 20.12.2007
File name: OP_WP6_D37_V1.0.doc Version: 1.0
Title: Worldwide Market Research Report 333 / 356
access to the ideas and knowledge available in other countries. Few African universities
have internet access for all students, and where some provision is available, cost remains a
key issue for the institutions. Many research institutions are not linked to their counterparts in
other African countries or to others elsewhere in the world.
To compensate this lack, numerous initiatives have risen, with the purpose to offer to the
African students, more possibilities of knowledge and growth. Some of these are: [A21]
• Acacia Initiative (www.idrc.ca/acacia): The Acacia initiative is an international
program to empower Sub-Saharan communities with the ability to apply information
and communication technologies (ICTs) to their own social and economic
development.
• African Information Society Initiative (AISI) (www.uneca.org/aisi): The African
Information Society Initiative (AISI) is a mission statement for Africa's quest to bridge
the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world, and to speed the
continent's entry into the information age.
• SchoolNet Africa (www.schoolnetafrica.com): is an independent non-government
organization which promotes education through the use for Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) in African schools. It is the first African-based,
African-led, Pan-African school networking institution. It works in partnership with
national school-net organizations in up to 28 African countries. It stands for the right
of every African child to have access to Information & Knowledge and to be a global
citizen.
• African Virtual University (www.avu.org): The African Virtual University (AVU) is a
"university without walls" that uses modern information and communication
technologies to give the countries of sub-Saharan Africa direct access to some of the
highest quality learning resources throughout the world. AVU is bridging the digital
divide by training world-class business managers, engineers, technicians, scientists
and other professionals who will promote economic and social development and help
propel Africa into the knowledge age.
• The Information for Development Program (infoDev) (www.infodev.org): The infoDev
began in September 1995 with the objective of addressing the obstacles facing