Hon. Alpha BS Kanu Visits Unesco Boss In Paris
After a very successful outing at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Communications, Hon. Alhaji Alpha Kanu continued his re-branding sojourn in Europe by paying a one -day working visit to the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.
At the UNESCO Headquarters, Hon. Kanu conveyed to Madame Irina Bukhova, Director-General, UNESCO fraternal greetings from H.E President Ernest Bai Koroma. He catalogued the major transformational programs of the Government which was accompanied by a verbal invitation to the Director-General to visit Sierra Leone and witness first hand the development strides the country has made since the end of the civil war.
Addressing the Director-General, at a meeting attended by her senior staff, Mr. Janis Karklins ,Assistant Director-General Communications and Information Sector, Mme. Lalla Ben Barka, Assistant Director-General for Africa among others, the Minister catalogued a battery of planned projects under the Ministry of Information and Communications for which he requires technical and financial support from UNESCO. The projects ranged from training for Journalists at the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, building the capacity of community radio stations, providing scholarship for training in the telecommunications sector, establishment of resource centers to enhance access to information and rehabilitation of the Post offices in the district headquarter towns for training of rural youths in ICT.
In response to the demands of the Minister of Information and Communications, Madame Bukhova described Hon. Kanu’s visit as very important as UNESCO has a project on media sustainability. “We have been working with the Archivists in Sierra Leone, but capacity building is the key word. We accompany countries to fulfill their agenda that is why we will support projects that coincide with Sierra Leone’s ambition. The organization is particularly interested in projects related to vocational training for youths, women, teacher training, e-learning for rural teachers, Access to Information etc” she explained.
The Director-General as a follow up to the general meeting requested the Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Mr. Janis Karklins to meet with the Minister and his team to address the specific needs of the Ministry of Information and Communications of Sierra Leone in line with UNESCO’s mandate and interventions.
Mr. Karklins at the bilateral meeting informed Sierra Leone’s delegation about his organization’s support to 80 to 100 programmes world wide with specific focus on Africa annually. He said support to grassroots community media centers, schools of information, training of trainers in an already existing school are areas of interest to UNESCO. He threw light on a program called International Computer Driving License (ICDL) where you train people without a teacher using specific software for the students.
In the area of universal access, the Assistant Director-General for Communications and Information advised that investment in information infrastructure should be harmonious. Services he said must go with infrastructure. Economics is important in internet infrastructure hence the need for local content. African Governments as a matter of policy should invest in local content and internet exchange points which is cost effective and with a very fast speed.
Sierra Leone is a touristic destination center; therefore all those who download information about Sierra Leone put money in the pockets of outsiders as the servers are hosted outside of the country. If servers are hosted locally it reduces cost and the citizens benefit, Mr. Karklin said.
Although Sierra Leone’s Internet Society has been battling to establish an Internet Exchange Point (SLIX), Hon. Alpha Kanu assured UNESCO of his support to help Sierra Leone develop a local content policy in ICT and the establishment of Internet Exchange Point.
At the end of the meeting, the Minister was requested to nominate an officer in his Ministry who will work with Mr. Ronald Kayanja, the ICI Advisor based in Ghana to develop projects in the Information and Communications sector as well as a Paris Liaison Officer based at UNESCO who will follow up with the sector and work directly with the Paris office.
By Kwame Yankson
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