UNDP ICTDAR extends its initiative “AjialCom- Opening The Gates Of Opportunity” to Yemen and Tunisia

AjialCom youth empowerment initiative aims at assisting the Arab Societies in using ICT to address youth related issues, educating them, improving their knowledge and building their capacities. More than 40% of the Arab population is under the age of 18 and the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, there is a pressing need to invest in Arab youth empowerment. Through AjialCom, ICTDAR aims at achieving two of the UN Millennium Development Goals, namely poverty reduction and the creation of a global partnership for development,. “ICTs offer immense possibilities for reducing poverty, giving youth a voice, and provide them with tools to face the future with hope”, Najat Rochdi, Regional Coordinator, ICTDAR said. AjialCom aims at creating a new citizenship by educating Arab youth on their duties towards their countries as well as their rights. This will enable them to face challenges, and develop into new types of leaders, effecting mindset shift, as well as an entrepreneurship attitude allowing them to play an active role in their local communities. AjialCom operates through youth centers exposing the youth to a wide range of experiences f and assisting them in being more aware of the key issues in their society. Personal issues that might not be addressed openly, such as drugs, HIV AIDS, sexual education are also discussed. AjialCom supplies youth centers with content, computers, servers, and logistics, which in combination with internet access facilitates their necessary IT education and training. As well, it provides ICT training adapted to community needs, via “train the trainer” workshops and ICT support for specific development goals. These goals cover health, education, economic growth, employment, as well as locally specialized content like alphabetization, basic e-health and vocational training. With more than 50 centers in Morocco and Egypt, ICTDAR is expanding AjialCom’s project to Yemen and Tunisia in 2006. As part of the UN MDGs, reducing poverty and illiteracy as well as achieving gender equality and empower women are set goals for the 186 member states to achieve by 2015. In this initiative, ICTDAR empowers, through training and knowledge, deprived youth by affording them learning opportunities that will reap better employment opportunities. This project has been submitted to the Golden Book database.

http://www.ictdar.org/

Regional implementation

    None

Ongoing from to 2007

Various NGOs and governmental Organizations Microsoft

* Access to information and knowledge
* Capacity building
* ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life
* International and regional cooperation

• Goal 1: Eradicate poverty and hunger
• Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
• Goal 3: Promote gender equality & empower women
• Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
• Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

• Project