SURVEY OF ICT AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA - infoDev

prises in Africa and the developing world. To date, Digital Links has distributed more than 50,000 PCs todeveloping countriesEdubuntu | www.edubuntu.orgEdubuntu involves a group of people who distribute a complete Linux-based operating system to schools forclassroom use, with future versions being made available for university use. Edubuntu also provides community-basedsupport. Edubuntu philosophy promotes free and open source software and espouses thatsoftware should be freely available, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language,that software should be used anyone including people with disabilities, and that people should have thefreedom to customise and change their software in whatever way they see fit.eGranary Digital Library | http://www.widernet.org/digitallibrary/Supported by partnership between the Hewlett Foundation, USAID, and the McArthur Foundation, amongothers, the eGranary Digital Library provides millions of digital educational resources to institutions that donot have adequate Internet access. They deliver digital education resources by gaining permissions, copyingWeb sites, and delivering them to intranet Web servers in their partner organisations in Africa and otherdeveloping countries. They recently initiated satellite data broadcasting to deliver digital resources to Africaneducation institutions.eLearning Africa | www.elearning-africa.comeLearning Africa is an international conference on e-learning which is hosted annually by the government ofan African country. The main focus of these conferences is on the experiences of ICTs in education in Africarelative to the rest of the world. The conference is organised by ICWE and Hoffmann & Reif Consultants.In 2006 the conference was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; in 2007 it was held in Nairobi, Kenya; and in2008 it will be held in Accra, Ghana.Free and Open Source Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) | www.fossfa.netFOSSFA was launched in February 2003 as a network of practitioners, professionals, and organisationspromoting the use of free and open source software for Africa’s development. FOSSFA has an educationsubdivision focused on the promotion of open source solutions in education in AfricaGeekcorps | www.geekcorps.orgIESC Geekcorps is an international non-profit organisation based in the US that promotes digital skillstransfer and independence through various programmes that involve volunteers with technical expertise.Geekcorps has supported a few programmes in Africa such its Last Mile Initiative in Mali, which promotestelecommunication-based business models for people without ICT access in rural areas, and the DigitalFreedom Initiative in South Africa, which promotes the benefits of ICTs to small businesses.Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) | www.gdln.orgThe Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) is a global partnership of approximately 120 learningcentres that provide tools and services in support of distance learning through ICTs. Learning centres basedin a number of African countries, including Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda, formpart of the GDLN network.Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) | www.gesci.orgPromoted by Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Canada, GeSCI was established in 2003 by the UnitedNations ICT Task Force in an attempt to raise global standards of education for communities in thedeveloping world and to help make the UN Millennium Development Goals a reality. In Africa, GeSCI hasfocused its work in Namibia and Ghana by supporting policy development and implementation. It hasexpanded its work to Kenya and Rwanda as well. GeSCI has also developed knowledge products such as atoolkit on total cost of ownership.www.infodev.org ANNEX 1: Regional ICT in Education Initiatives in Africa 37