Dear Femi, I would appreciate discussing this with you, as CawdNet is also working on a course for Local Government (LG) officials in Nigeria.
CawdNet has a long standing interest in local government. Our late founder's inital vision was based on working with all ten local governments in Oke-Ogun. People who know our history know that our founder Peter Oyawale was murdered, in the early days of the project, and therefore things became fragmented - but depite this, the original vision of working within the LG structure has remained. Two of the three chiefs who stepped forward to continue Peter's work were ex LG chairmen. Throughout the history of our project the three Chiefs have made it their business to ensure that all LG chairmen have been updated on progress at appropriate times. These links mean that within CawdNet we have expert knowledge of Local Government systems and needs. One of our chiefs, who now holds a position at state government level, has a long term concern with tackling the problem of what he describes as "endemic corruption" in local government. I am currently exploring training possibilities, on the Chief's behalf, with a friend of mine who runs courses, in London, on IT in local government for people from many countries, including Nigeria. At the local grassroots level, and completely separate from our Oke-Ogun work, CawdNet has been approached to present a course for LG officials from rural areas in north central Nigeria. I am not sure how this request first came about - other than the way most CawdNet things happen - which is in response to need and as a natural development of other things that are being done in the community. The request seems to have been influenced by local knowledge about work we have done, and are contining to do, with rural teachers. For details about the course for teachers (plus photo) see <http://teacherstalking.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/TeachersTalkingCourse> You mention "The challenge is to design an ICT training program for the leadership of the local govenment in a way that exposes them to the benefits ICT can have on the larger rural community". This is an area I would very much like to discuss. One of my main concerns in designing the CawdNet course is how early we cover certain aspects of ICTs which potentially introduce considerable conflicts of interest - issues relating to improved efficiency (possible job losses) and transparancy for example. Who, amongst LG employees, will welcome greater efficiency - when it is common knowledge that LG offices are already overstaffed, unemployment is rife, and there is no social security system? Who wants transparency, if transparency means loss of income? I look forward to continuing discussion with you, either on or off list. Pam CawdNet convenor www.cawd.net - and click the CawdNet choice On 5/13/05, Femi Oyesanya wrote: > A friend of mine....is in the process of organizing a training seminar > for Nigerian Local Government officials. > > It is a 3 week session....The challenge is to design an ICT training > program for the leadership of the local govenment in a way that exposes > them to the benefits ICT can have on the larger rural community. > > So my question is: Has anyone on this List worked on an IT training > curriculum for a rural population's local government? I am curious about > the list of topics covered. I will appreciate any inputs. ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For past messages, see: http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html
