Mozambique Update #3, March 2006

This newsletter gives you updates on the CMC Scale-up Initiative in Mozambique. The Community Multimedia Centres take advantage of synergies between radio and ICT tools to contribute to rural development, improving access to information and education, providing opportunities for communications, information exchange and networking among communities. The multi-country African initiative is being implemented by UNESCO in Mali, Mozambique and Senegal, with funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. It started up in Mozambique in November 2004.

Training of trainers on Microsoft courseware

Maputo 9-13 January, 2006: With the objective of improving technical and pedagogical skills of community-level trainers, more than 20 trainers from CMCs, CPRDs, SchoolNet, CIUEM and the CMC Scale-up Initiative were trained in using Microsoft’s UP curriculum as training courseware. All the trainers received manuals and reference materials to bring back to their centres.

“The training course was extremely useful. I now feel much more capable of training others, and I am using the Microsoft manual all the time,” says Maria da Graça, one of the participants from Nova Radio Paz in Quelimane, Zambezia.

The Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) programme has produced a training curriculum covering the main Microsoft Office programmes (Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Internet, e-mail and FrontPage), and has translated it into Portuguese. All the CMCs, telecentres and CPRDs in Mozambique are currently offering IT training courses, of varying quality. This course was designed as a pilot to test the applicability of the UP curriculum in Mozambique, to increase the quality of courses in MS Office given in CMCs, telecentres and CPRDs.

In a longer perspective the training of trainers will hopefully result in greater client satisfaction, higher prestige and income for the centre and an increase in the pool of skilled people available for local development.

In addition to technical and pedagogical capacity building, the workshop in Maputo also contributed to the promotion and consolidation of the national community ICT network, by bringing together trainees from the whole country, from all kinds of CMCs initiated by different organisations and funders. The workshop also promoted collaboration among different stakeholders at national level, for example CMCs, CIUEM, UNESCO, UNDP, SchoolNet and UTICT.

The training course was held in the MICTI (Mozambique ICT Institute) training centre, funded by Microsoft and organised jointly by the Eduardo Mondlane University Informatics Centre (CIUEM) and the UNESCO CMC project team.

CMC staff learn how to build their own websites

During the weekend of 13-15 January 20 volunteers from CMCs and telecentres all over Mozambique were gathered in Maputo learning how to build their own websites, at a workshop where the highlight was the UNESCO tool Open eNRICH. Open eNRICH is a generic and easily customizable browser, acting as a gateway to a community's own world of knowledge, communication and empowerment.
“We have now downloaded and installed OpenENRICH, and look forward to start making our own website with content and information addressing the needs of the people in Quelimane”, says Maria da Graça from Nova Radio Paz.
Open eNRICH enables communities to quickly and efficiently build their own gateway website, enriched by their own local content and connected to knowledge sources and services that are tailored according to their own information and communication needs. The browser, which can also be used off-line, has been developed by UNESCO, the National Infomatics Center of India and the Open Knowledge Network.
The content produced in the CMCs is available on-line at the central OKN hub, contributing to the exchange of information between CMCs and telecentres around the world.
The training course on Open eNRICH is in line with the CMC Scale-up strategy, encouraging the CMCs to produce useful local content, presented in a userfriendly way. / Computers of Xinavane CMC stolen - and recovered
The whole community of Xinavane were mobilized after hearing the news about the stolen computers at the local Community Multimedia Centre. During the night of 13-14 March thieves broke into the CMC and stole all computers and ICT accessories.
The CMCs was in deep crisis, and searched all day in Xinavane without luck. But due to the great support and mobilization of the communities, not only in Xinavane but also in neighbouring districts, the thieves did not dare to stay with the computers – the next day all the equipment was found dumped in the middle of one of the surrounding sugar cane fields, and is now reinstalled.
Scale-up team starting second round of CMC installations
Aiming to establish at least eight new CMCs during 2006, the CMC Scale-up team has during January and March undertaken field visits to the provinces of Inhambane, Manica and Tete.
It is now confirmed that the CMC Scale-up initiative will establish CMCs in the districts of Massinga, Báruè (Catandica), Cahora Bassa (Chitima), Macanga, Mandimba, Nametil (Iuluti) and Mozambique Island. The two CMCs in Nampula to be established in partnership with UNDP, will be in addition to this.
During the field visits to Inhambane, Tete and Manica, the CMC team finalized agreements with local partners and developed a joint action plan, with the view to getting the Community Multimedia Centres up and running within the next few months.
“It was encouraging to see the high motivation of our local partners. They are all very eager to get started,” reports Polly Gaster, coordinator of the CMC Scale-up Initiative in Mozambique.
The CMC scale-up strategy is to build on already existing management structures, work with local partners, and coordinate nationally.
CMC Scale-up Initiative joins forces with UNDP
The CMC Scale-up Initiative has agreed to be one of the implementing partners of the new UNDP project “Service Delivery Network to Support Decentralization of the Government of Mozambique”. With funding from UNDP, the CMC team will establish two new CMCs in the province of Nampula.
The two CMCs will function as most other CMCs, but additionally have a special role in supporting good governance, by providing Internet access, e-governance tools and training to civil servants at district level. The CMCs will be closely linked to the Provincial Digital Resource Centres (CPRDs).
For more information on the CMC Scale-Project in Mozambique please contact
Nina Bull Jørgensen, Communications Officer, UNESCO Maputo, tel: (+258)82 3393990 or
Polly Gaster, Project Coordinator tel:(+258)21-492601 (+258)82 3264540, CIUEM at University Campus /