In November 2006, the five regional commissions of the United Nations embarked on a three-year project aimed at empowering poor and disadvantaged communities through the transformation of existing ICT access points around the world into nodes in regional/global knowledge networks. The project aimed at increasing the involvement and engagement of disadvantaged communities  with emphasis on women and youth by encouraging and promoting the dissemination, in existing or yet-to-be created access points, of knowledge in key areas of sustainable development like employment, education, gender and health.

Regional knowledge networks were created in Africa, Eurasia,Western Asia, Asia Pacific and latin America. In Africa, the network is composed of participating community telecentres from East Africa – (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi) and Southern Africa (Zambia and Zimbabwe) commonly referred to as Knowledge Network of  Community Telecentres-KNACT.

In  2010, UNECA working with ESCWA and other regional commissions commissioned the development of a global knowledge network portal to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and network globally. This portal has been designed and is now available online at www.knowledgenets.net. Network members will use this platform to share knowledge and network globally.  Some of the priority areas that knowledge will be exchanged include, Agriculture, Health, Gender, Education and Micro-enterprises among others.

In Uganda, the participating centres are Nakaseke Community Multimedia telecentre, Buwama Multipurpose Community Telecentre and Kubere Information Centre- http://kic.wougnet.org.

Written by Janet C Achora