Burkina Faso welcomes the second ICT Best Practices Forum
Personalities from the public and private sectors, international community of donors and non-governmental and intergovernmental sectors will join the Burkina Faso government to welcome the second African ICT Best Practices Forum, which will be held in Ouagadougou, the capital, from 21st to 23rd April 2008.
“In view of the success of the first Forum last June, the government of Burkina Faso is once more committed to making this second edition, with a determinedly pan-African dimension, a success. There is no doubt that the format of this forum provides African governments with a framework to facilitate access to the information and technological solutions they need to modernise their society and offer the highest quality public services”, declared Joachim Tankoano, Minister of the Post Office and Information and Communication Technology.
The ICT Best Practices Forum is organised by Microsoft, in partnership with the government of Burkina Faso and the European Union. This year's meeting will continue debate on the theme of electronic governance, focusing on aspects that could favour the creation of an “effective partnership to promote electronic governance on the continent”.
This event will bring together Heads of State, ministers, ICT specialists as well as representatives of international banks, government institutions, universities, civil society and the private sector. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft and Dr Cheick Modibo Diarra, Chairman of Microsoft Africa, will also attend the event.
Using successful projects as their basis, delegates will discuss the key factors guaranteeing success of electronic governance as well as partnership models that can be established within this context in public and private sectors, civil society and banks.
“Very often it seems that many African countries face the same challenges”, explained Dr. Cheick Modibo Diarra.
“By allowing governments, private organisations and NGOs of the continent to share their best practices, it will no longer be necessary to ‘reinvent the wheel' each time to find the solution to a problem of set orientations for a project”.
“This sharing of best practices should be extended to all development sectors if we want our continent to make a determined commitment to progress and the well-being of its populations,” concluded Dr. Diarra.
