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About Us
Today, more than two billion people, or nearly a third of the people in the world use one form of information communication technology (ICT) or another. This could be a telephone, a cell-phone, radio or the internet. However, despite the recent proliferation of mobile services and the internet, several billion people, primarily in developing countries, continue to lack affordable access to services that address their basic communication needs, and to a larger extent their basic human rights. This clearly impacts their development adversely.
In addition, although the digital divide between developed and developing countries is shrinking, the digital divide within and between many developing countries, is continuing to expand. This challenge is particularly acute for many Sub-Saharan African countries, which on average have rural populations that exceed 60% and, therefore, require innovative solutions for delivering appropriate and localized applications and services, increasing infrastructure coverage, and realizing the market opportunities that exist.
The African eDevelopment Resource Center was initiated as an intervention to develop the much needed capacity in the region in the usage and utilization of ICT in catalyzing and enhancing the development efforts by government, private sector and non-governmental actors. Through its three main pillars of work Training, Consulting and Research the Center aims at helping the region bridge the digital divide through ICT Capacity enhancement programmes.
Basing our work on a multi-stakeholder approach, the Center develops partnerships with organizations with similar objectives to harness existing capacities and resources in developing the most comprehensive resource on eDevelopment in the continent. The Center uses various building blocks, institutional linkages, and its extensive network of experts and contacts within and outside the continent to achieve this main objective.
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