E-culture is top priority for
Senegal
By Matthew White
Staff Reporter
SENEGALESE
government is placing the highest priority on fostering an e-culture, with a
series of innovative initiatives aimed at all levels of society, says
Christian Deatta, the Minister of Scientific and Technology Research.
“The
emphasis of the government is on making available ICTs to help people from
the ground up,” he says. “In this we are exploring new frontiers in the
applicability of the ICTs at all levels of society. The aim is to bring
Senegal to the highest level of technological power.”
A
plasma physicist before turning to politics, Deatta brings a rigorous
scientific discipline to his portfolio. His presence at the Acacia
Conference is, he told Acacia WebTimes, indicative of the Senegalese
government’s openness to strong new ideas and its determination to
participate in the development in Africa through the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (Nepad).
“Research is a fundamental key to development of all nations in Africa,” he
says. “It is also necessary to think global and act local.”
Informatics
The
Senegalese government is fully equipped with informatics tools, to the
extent that it even has electronic management of national elections. There
is a strong focus on using ITCs in education, not merely at universities -
which are all well equipped - but even at pre-school levels. More than 50
Senegalese pre-schools are already equipped with computers. “The response
from young children has been very gratifying,” he says.
The
government is also supporting innovative solutions in medicine, agriculture
and many other sectors. Delegates to the Acacia conference have already been
presented with first-hand evidence of the validity of this approach. During
Monday’s debate on ICTs and poverty, they were addressed by a Senegalese
farmer who reported on the benefits of receiving information such as current
market prices via SMS (cellphones).
“Services such as this meet a social originality of Africa, whereby
communications -mainly oral - can now be delivered through mobile phones as
tools and service,” says Deatta. “We have found that our people - and
particularly the young - react very positively.”
This is
one of the main reasons that the government is determined to ensure that
cellular communications are rolled out rapidly the whole .
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