Deal All,
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a significant
impact on the lives of people - bringing them closer together, making
differences less important and amplifying economic activity and growth. As
a global best practice and vital agenda of many international
organizations rapid improvement in development sector like health,
education, governance and economic improvement is being organized
through establishment of Telecentres which become the hub and coordination
centre of the area to take forward such developments.
In recent years developing countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India etc
have achieved tremendous progress in development sector through these
telecentres and have been successful in involvement of common man in
development efforts under an organized program.
In Pakistan there have been few Isolated efforts to establish such
telecentres but due to lack of-coordination between relevant Public &
Private sector organizations and NGOs, there has been little success in
coordinated approach in this regard. Rural Pakistan, where nearly 70% of
the population lives, is yet to profit from these proven development
strategies.
To make a coordinated effort in this regard few like minded ICT
professionals in public and private organizations having on ground
experiences in E-village project and International level experience in
ICT4D have decided to establish Pakistan Telecentre Network (PTN) for
creating a platform to organize and promote the existing efforts of
telecentres by stakeholders in Public/Private organizations. Few planned
objectives of PTN are as under:-
1) Create awareness about usefulness of telecentres in public,
private organizations and specially in NGOs working in rural areas;
2) Promote knowledge of best sustainability models of telecentres;
3) Prepare and conduct training programs for professionally
starting, managing and sustainability of Telecentres.
( Standardized courses would be designed and kept updates as per
best International practices );
4) Build synergies and promote Cooperation models between Public &
Private sector organizations and NGOs to work together in areas
like health, education, economic empowerment and single point of
delivery of Government services in a rural area;
5) Development and regular updating of education/information portals
in local languages in areas of common education, health,
agriculture, economic empowerment and good governance etc. This
information would also be available off-line ( on local machine )
in those areas where there is no Internet or poor bandwidth;
6) Promote the interests of the telecentre movement throughout
Pakistan and establish coordinated linkages with International
efforts of telecentres;
7) Strengthen the telecentre networks in Pakistan to develop,
organize and disseminate knowledge;
8) Promote the exchange and sharing of resources, skills,
competencies and knowledge between and among its members;
9) Build and promote partnerships with various sectors and
development partners and Collaborate with members on joint
initiatives to increase the sustainability of telecentres and
their contribution to socio-economic development.
10) Establish District coordination centres ( DCC ) for promoting
close liaison within relevant stake holders like academia,
students, NGOs, banks and other public & private sector
organizations having common objectives to extend their services
to rural areas
The first meeting of the founding members (organizations/NGOs) already
managing telecentre(s), planning to do so or intend to extend their
services to rural ares through these telecentres has been convened on 12th
September 2012 at 5 PM in CIT Plaza Behind MCB F-10 Markaz Islamabad
( Tel o51/2294126 & 051/2101207). All those who are interested to join PTN
may kindly send their views/comments and the following information.
a) Name of the organization:-
b) Name of the contact person:-
b) Address:-
c) Contact info & Email address
d) Current involvement or Plans about telecentre.
e) Suggestions.
Those who can not join this meeting physically may send above information
and they would be engaged in subsequent regional meetings.
Also looking forward to have your views/comments on the subject.
Happy Eid Greetings. With my warm regards.
Ammar Jaffri
0300-8551479
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