Between 14 October and 5 November 2009, APCICT and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kyrgyzstan trained 120 provincial governments in six of the seven provinces of Kyrgyzstan in the effective use of information and communication technology for development (ICTD). The training is based on the "Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders" (Academy ) comprehensive ICTD training curriculum that has been translated into Russian by the National Information Technology Center (NITC) of Kyrgyzstan.
The official launch of the Academy in Russian took place in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on 30 September 2009. This was followed by an Academy workshop targeted at senior policymakers in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, held on 30 September - 2 October 2009 at the Tajik Technical University, and a national Academy workshop in Kyrgyzstan on 5-7 October 2009 at NITC for ICT policymakers from 25 government ministries and agencies.
UNDP Kyrgyzstan has integrated the Academy in their capacity building programme for the provincial governments. This APCICT-NITC-UNDP partnership has made possible the extension of the Academy Programme to six of the seven rural provinces of Kyrgyzstan. They are: Talas, Jalal-Abad, Osh, Issyk-Kul, Naryn and Batken.
These training workshops focus on modules 1 and 2 of the Academy that examines the linkages between ICT and the Millennium Development Goals, as well as ICT policy and governance. They are led by Russian-speakers who have undergone APCICT’s training of trainers programme. These resource persons have developed case studies directly from the CIS countries, which are presented at the workshops to enhance the relevance of the training content and depict the benefits of these technologies in a context familiar to the audience.
A number of planned activities promise to further extend the reach of the Academy Programme in CIS countries:
- The APCICT-NITC-UNDP partnership will roll out modules 3 and 4 of the Academy in 2010 that focus on e-government and ICT trends.
- The NITC will launch in 2010, the Russian version of the APCICT Virtual Academy (AVA - http://ava.unapcict.org), an online distance learning platform.
- Universities in Kyrgyzstan are starting to develop a new curricula for their students using the Academy.
- Open Society Institute/Assistance Foundation of Tajikistan is planning to translate the Academy modules into Tajik language, subject to funding approval.
- Tajikistan is organizing the very first meeting of the Presidential ICT Committee in December 2009.
The Academy is a comprehensive ICTD curriculum for policymakers to fully leverage opportunities presented by ICTs to achieve national development goals and bridge the digital divide. Since its launch in June 2008, the Academy has been adopted, localized and rolled out in several countries in close collaboration with government ministries, national training institutes and universities. For more information on the Academy visit http://www.unapcict.org/academy.
