TWENTY District Information Officers and managers of Community Information Centres (CICs) in the Northern and Upper East Regions have completed a training programme in local content generation and dissemination through Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The four-day training in Tamale, took the participants through the concept and processes involved in local content creation, adaptation and dissemination.
Local content generation describes a process where ordinary citizens have the ability to put relevant indigenous information on the Internet which will be accessible to all users.
The International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), a non-profit foundation that specialises in the use of ICT as a tool for development, organised the training as part of measures to bridge the digital divide between the developed and underdeveloped countries.
The participants were drawn from Bimbilla, Yendi, Salaga, Damongo and Walewale in the Northern Region and Bolgatanga, Bongo, Sandema, Zebilla and Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
The workshop also enabled the information officers and the CIC managers to strengthen the ties between them and share relevant experiences towards developing an effective local-content generation and dissemination process.
The facilitators, Mr John Stephen Agbenyo and Mr Norbert Apentibadek, explained that the IICD was envisaging a world in which developing countries would have unrestricted access to information and communication.
They stressed the need for developing countries to migrate from being passive participants to active participants in the ICT world by creating local content which is relevant and accessible to the community for the purpose of development.
Mr Agbenyo stated that the IICD had signed an MOU with the Ghana government to support the Community Information Centre (CIC) initiative, adding that the IICD was currently supporting 10 CICs in 10 districts in the Northern and Upper East Regions.
“IICD’s support comes in the form of capacity building, technical training and strategic advice to the CICs, all geared towards making the CIC initiative a sustainable one,” he explained.
Mr Agbenyo said through the IICD and the CTA, the various CICs were provided some new equipment to enable them to undertake local content generation and dissemination.
The equipment, he stated, included photocopiers, scanners, digital cameras, projectors, laminators and comb binding machines.
Mr Agbenyo said people engaged in ICT-based local content generation and dissemination must be innovative in making use of both traditional means of communication and information sharing, stressing that they should take advantage of the latest advances in computer application development.
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