patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) (03/17/88)
Reposted from: United Nations Information Transfer Exchange BBS (1:107/701 on the FidoNETwork) 1-212-764-5912 (3/12/2400 baud, 24 hrs) James Waldron, Ph.D. - Sysop Dorothy Nicklus - NGO Rep N.B.: Item(s) 1 posted to soc.culture.indian " 2 posted to soc.culture.african and comp.society.futures " 3 posted to soc.culture.arabic " 4 posted to soc.women UNICEF Electronic Information Network Welcome / Bienvenue ------------------------------------- DIPA'S EPUB - NEWSWIRES ***** SUNDAY MARCH 13 1988 1 BANGLADESH COMBATS GOITRE WITH IODIZED SALT - NEWSWIRE 668 2 COMPUTER AIDS DEVELOPMENT WORK IN MALI - NEWSWIRE 669 3 PROJECT FOR ADVANCEMENT OF ARAB CHILD LAUNCHED - NEWSWIRE 670 4 THIRD WORLD WOMEN JOIN NORTH-SOUTH CAMPAIGN - NEWSWIRE 671 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPUTER AIDS DEVELOPMENT WORK IN MALI - NEWSWIRE 669 NW669 - Computer Aids Development Work in Mali What started out as a simple inventory of reforestation projects in the Sahel by a group of multinational companies in 1986 has now turned into a valuable project information database to many private voluntary organizations (PVOs) and local government agencies in Mali. In one corner of Bamako, the nation's capital, a 6 by 10 foot converted kitchen sealed tightly against the dust, two Malians shiver in the cold. Mamdou Sekou Toure stares intently into the screen of an IBM personal computer while his colleague, Amadou Bouare hands over a printout of agricultural projects being carried out by PVOs in Mali. The printout, culled from a database of information supplied by PVOs, addresses a major need not only in Mali but throughout the Third World: better co-ordination of aid projects so they can be made more efficient and effective. Art van der Heide, a representative of OXFAM, uses the computer data base, which is located in Bamako, the capital. "In one area," he said, "there are five different organizations working in agriculture, five different approaches. It means that in one village, people are paying for seeds while right next door they are getting seeds free. It means that both projects are compromised. There is no development, just a laboratory experiment." The OXFAM representative said he looked up a project financed by his agency and found they were also receiving funds from Africare for the same thing. He said there was a lot of this kind of duplication among agencies. Recently, it took two days for Mali's Ministry of Health to collect information through the computer that it had been prepared to spend one year gathering. A UNDP representative in Bamako said he was "flabbergasted" when the system provided everything he was looking for on a project. What started out as a database for reforestation now contains information about water, health, agriculture, and an entire range of projects. The project is co-ordinated by the New York-based International Council for Development (ICD) whose members include some of the world's largest corporations such as IBM. ICD is now involved in a series of development projects around the world. A similar system has been set up by ICD in Niamey, Niger, and plans are underway to begin systems in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and Dakar, Senegal. Source: The Christian Science Monitor -- Patt Haring {sun!hoptoad,cmcl2!phri}!dasys1!patth Big Electric Cat Public Access Unix (212) 879-9031 - System Operator Three aspects of wisdom: intelligence, justice & kindness.