Information and Development Symposium

Abstract

Summary report on a Symposium on Information and Development, held at the Economic Commission for Af rica (ECA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 7–10 May 2001. The Symposium was a collaborative venture of Oxfam Canada and two Ethiopian organizations, Illubabor Community Library Network and Mekrez Reading Association. The purpose was to recognize, consolidate, celebrate and enlarge the experience of grassroots structures engaged in the delivery of information services at community level, as part of a broader goal of establishing a civil society culture and supporting human development processes. The Symposium addressed three themes: ‘Indigenous Knowledge and External Knowledge: Finding the Balance’; ‘Creating Information Products and Delivering Information Services to Rural Communities’; ‘Using Information Technology to Create and Deliver Information Services to Rural Areas’. The Symposium gave the participants many ideas to implement in their own communities.