Policy Issues

Senegal’s IT Agency is Working to Make ICT Available to All

Tidiane Seck has been in charge of the Senegalese State IT Agency (Agence de l’Informatique de l’Etat - ADIE) since 2003. Reporting to the President of the Republic, the aim of this organisation is to set up the state’s information and communication technology strategy. From government to eGovernment and from Senegal to eSenegal, here are the transformations that the ADIE strives to promote. Putting new technology at the heart of the government process requires training civil servants. Tidiane Seck knows his subject well. Before his appointment as head of the ADIE, he was director of Dakar University's IT Department and still teaches when his schedule allows it. The research, technology and IT enthusiast tells us of the importance of training, in all its forms, to help transform a country.

eLA: What are the missions of the ADIE and in what way is training a key point in your strategy?

Tidiane Seck: Our spearhead is not simply to encourage the use of new technology within government but also, more broadly, by all citizens. This obviously requires training and the development of skills. We thus make online training modules available to civil servants. Initially, we sometimes had to force this training on people, but we now observe that increasing numbers of people spontaneously apply for it.

We can see that for both government personnel and corporate staff, the demand for training is growing. More and more people want to receive it and continue life-long learning. The same applies throughout society. Everyone should have access to training to become familiar with new information and communication technology; it is a matter of social justice. But here it becomes much more complicated and costly in terms of user licences. We are therefore thinking about how to find ways to overcome these obstacles.

eLA: How do you intend to do this?

Tidiane Seck: Instead of buying content abroad, we need to rely on local companies who will develop it. We need to find the funding and skills to do this. The question of online training content is very important, should be adapted to the public and must also be updated regularly. Therefore, there is much to be done but that does not stop there being a wide range of ongoing local initiatives. Often driven by School/NGO/funding organisation partnerships, they help to develop teaching methods and open the way for more wide-ranging projects.

eLA: Senegal will host eLearning Africa in May 2009. What do you expect from this event?

Tidiane Seck: Senegal is delighted to be hosting this event. It will provide the opportunity to show what we can do, as well as discover the initiatives of other countries in terms of eTraining. I believe that experience sharing is the best way to convince people who are reluctant or sceptical. And if we want to make our training project successful for all citizens, we need to make the maximum number of players in the field aware of the issues in this field.

eLA: What will you be showing?

Tidiane Seck: We will present what the ADIE has done internally to train government civil servants but also what is happening in universities and in the medical field. In terms of infrastructure, this is possible thanks to the government’s intranet resource centre which we are currently completing.

As I was saying earlier, within government, we have set up an online in-service training platform. Everyone can develop their skills throughout their career. All civil servants have access to it. They can be very autonomous but we have noticed that the closer they are monitored, the better are their results.

As far as universities are concerned, the five Senegalese universities will very shortly be interconnected through fibre optics and we will be able to provide a real-life teleconference example for training purposes. For example, a professor at Dakar University will be able to lecture to students in Ziguinchor or elsewhere in the country.

In the medical field, information technology is already very broadly used to exchange skills between establishments and also for training purposes. Examples of telemedicine will be just some of the many successful experiences we will be sharing.

eLA: Thanks for your time.

For more information:
ADIE Sénégal www.adie.sn

February 6, 2009

Newsportal: Policy Issues