Durban, South Africa. 16-18 April 2007. CIFAL Durban and UNITAR co-organized an “e-Governance, Digital Local Agenda Awareness Raising workshop” from 16-18 April, in cooperation with city of Durban, SmartXchange and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), with kind support by the Basque Public Institutions.
- Participants and organizers
Twenty-one participants from 13 cities from 8 countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia), and 1 national association of municipalities (South Africa) attended the workshop. A representative from CIFAL Atlanta, who presented the case of the city of Atlanta also participated.
The workshop was opened by Ms. Gugu Mji, Director of CIFAL Durban, followed by introduction of speakers and participants. Through an ice-breaking session led by UNITAR, participants got to know each other better and it created a friendly atmosphere among them.
One of the main objectives of this workshop was to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of the Digital Local Agenda among municipalities from English-speaking countries in Africa. Ms. Akiko Miyahara, a UNITAR programme officer gave a presentation on the historical context, the definition and the work plan of the Digital Local Agenda initiative. She also encouraged participants to read the Bilbao Declaration (http://www.it4all-bilbao.org/) and visit the Digital Local Agenda website (www.digitallocalagenda.org), which allows users to contribute best practices, share ideas and experiences and to post suggestions for those who need assistance.
During the 2-and-a-half-day-workshop, participants went through a series of Knowledge Management exercises and proactively participated in small-group discussions. They were particularly interested in topics such as “e-Services” and “Management Readiness” and the best practice sharing took place around these topics.
Participants also had a chance to visit Durban’s ICT project site, namely e-Library project, where they were given a presentation on its historical background, Durban’s integrated development plan, some of the services offered, and Durban’s IT infrastructure. Mr. Lunga Madlala, Deputy Head, Information Services from the city of Durban presented it’s approach to e-Government, which raised interests of participants and was much appreciated. Consequently, at the Knowledge Fair, Durban was the most solicited city among all the participating cities.
SmartCity ICT Conference and Expo took place from the day after the workshop closing, which allowed delegates to benefit from the various presentations around the “SmartCity” concept as well as from the state-of-the-art technologies showcased by number of private entreprises at the exhibition. UNITAR also presented the Digital Local Agenda initiative to the wider audience in the conference.
For more information, please contact Ms. Akiko Miyahara at dcpunitar.org
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