RESILIENT AFRICA NETWORK
The
ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) funded by USAID is a partnership of 20 African
universities in 16 countries. It is led by Makerere University in Uganda with
Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, Stanford University
and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) as
partners. RAN is one of eight development labs under the Higher Education Solutions
Network (HESN) in the office of Science and Technology (OST),
USAID. The RAN program is led by Prof. William Bazeyo, Dean Makerere University
School Of Public Health and the HESN
Development Lab Director for RAN.
RAN
will strengthen the resilience of communities by nurturing and scaling
innovations from the different universities. It will apply science and
technology to strengthen the resilience of African communities against natural
and man-made stresses. Its objectives are to:
§ Design and operationalize a scientific,
data-driven and evidence-based resilience framework for Sub-Saharan Africa that
builds on the resources already engaged through the RAN.
§ Strengthen resilience at the individual,
household and community levels through innovative technologies and approaches
to development, which will be identified, incubated, tested and scaled through
the RAN, in collaboration with its partners.
§ Enhance resilience-related knowledge and share
it globally, engaging students, faculty, staff, and development experts from
around the world to collaborate on solving resilience related problems.
Development
and humanitarian aid have been historically addressed on a project-by-project
basis within different sectors including health, education, and agriculture
among others. Although these efforts have saved lives and met immediate program
objectives, they have not increased the capacity of affected populations to
withstand future shocks and stresses.
RAN
will hence adopt a resilience based approach to programming that provides a
framework for analyzing resilience and enables people to discover how to be
more resilient to shocks and stresses.
To
achieve this, RAN will engage a wide network of students and faculty members in
improving well-being through generating local innovative solutions to specific
development challenges in African communities.
made shocks and
stresses.
WOUGNET
Women of Uganda Network
(WOUGNET) is a non-governmental organization initiated in May 2000 by several
women’s organizations in Uganda to develop the use of information and
communication technologies (ICTs) among women as tools to share information and
address issues collectively.
WOUGNET’s mission is to
promote and support the use of ICTs by women and women organizations in Uganda,
so that they can take advantage of the opportunities presented by ICTs in order
to effectively address national and local problems of sustainable development.
The new ICTs, in particular, email and the Internet facilitate communication
with one another and the international community. Indeed, access to information
about best practices, appropriate technologies, ideas and problems of other
groups working on similar concerns have been identified as critical information
and communication needs of women organisations in Africa.
While our emphasis is
directed towards Internet technologies, we are also interested in how these technologies
can be integrated with traditional means of information exchange and
dissemination including radio, video, television and print media. Our goal is
to improve conditions of life for women by enhancing their capacities and
opportunities for exchange, collaboration and information sharing.
WOUGNET activities are
carried out under three major program areas:
· Information Sharing and Networking
· Technical Support
· Gender and ICT Policy Advocacy
Through the programs
above, WOUGNET expects to make a significant contribution to the use of ICTs in
Uganda that is in line with the national vision of “a knowledge-based Uganda
where national development and good governance are sustainably enhanced and
accelerated by timely and secure access to information and efficient
application of ICT”. WOUGNET’s key funding partners since inception
include Association for Progressive Communications (APC ), Dimitra Project/FAO,
Global
Fund for Women , Hivos, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP
EU (CTA), and the United Nations Development Program, Pro-poor access
options (UNDP)
Afchix
It is a group of young girls under the mentorship of
Ms.Nodumo .The group is aimed at inspiring young girls in tech to in turn inspire
others so as to build a network of women in tech.
For more info: www.afchix.blogspot.com
WOPA
Women Passion Program is a learning program that is
equipping girls in Uganda with programming and entrepreneurship skills.
It is a community based program seeking to train up to
100 girls and envisions a section of women entrepreneurs that address the
problems in their communities with technology.
For more info: www.wopa.outbox.co.ug
AfriGal
Tech
AfriGal Tech is a team of software
engineers who are passionate about creating innovative software solutions for
the African community.
RUFORUM
Region Universities Forum is consortium of 46 African
universities operating within 22 countries.
It largely addresses unfulfilled role that universities
play in contributing to the well-being of small scale farmers and economic
development of counties throughout the Sub- Saharan region.
For more info: www.ruforum.org
Kahill
Insights
This is an all-round blog by Patricia Kahill. She is a
social Media content Marketer and development practitioner. She is enthusiastic
about technology
For more info: www.pkahill.wordpress.com
