ICT Village model in Borj Touil (Tunisia)

The ICT Village project is intended as replicable model for the diffusion of the services broadband can bring forth in disadvantaged communities of the world. The project will be completed in 2006 and a demo will be staged for the WSIS. In particular, the services orivided will be in 3 main areas: telemedicine, e-learning and e-governance, intended as services able to eradicate poverty and granting sustainable development. The project has been internationally coordinated by OCCAM under the supervision on the one hand of the National Solidarity Fund of the Government of Tunisia and on the other of the Advisory Board including representatives from the most important international organisations (such as ITU, FAO, ESA, UNDP, UNDESA, UNESCO, the World Bank and IFRC) December 2003: Infopoverty Seminar @the WSIS 2003 The Seminar was devoted to how to connect villages to the Digital Revolution and was concluded by the Final Declaration endorsing the decision to promote the use of the ICTs in order to eradicate poverty and spur development in disadvantaged communities. April 2004: IV Infopoverty World Conference The Infopoverty World Conference 2004 continued the tradition of multi-videoconferencing, connecting the UN headquarters in New York to Milan, Geneva, Washington, and countries such as Tanzania, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Russia. The participants in the event approved the Final Declaration endorsing the decision to realise in a disadvantaged community in Tunisia a state of the art ICT Village model to be presented on the occasion of the WSIS 2005. June 2004: Infopoverty Seminar in Hammamet The Infopoverty Seminar held in Hammamet in the framework of the PrepCom1 to the second phase of the WSIS was particularly successful in defining the strategies in order to put into practice what decided in the Infopoverty World Conference 2004. The Advisory Board to the project was set on the occasion, including personalities from the main international organisations, and subsequent talks with the National Solidarity Fund led to the indication of the village of Borj Touil as the seat of the project. February 2005: Infopoverty Seminar in Geneva On the occasion of the PrepCom2, it was illustrated the Working Paper of the ICT Village model as defined following a round of bilateral and multilateral meetings with all the partners in the project. The model is intended as replicable model for disadvantaged communities. May 2005: V Infopoverty World Conference The V Infopoverty World Conference enjoyed the participation of leading representatives from all stakeholders of the information society, and was particularly successful in indicating possible replicability steps in the framework of the UN Alliance for R This project has been submitted to the Golden Book database.

http://www.infopoverty.net/

National implementation:

Ongoing from 2006

National Solidarity Fund of the Government of Tunisia and ITU, FAO, ESA, UNDP, UNDESA, UNESCO, the World Bank and IFRC

* Information and communication infrastructure
* ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life
* International and regional cooperation

• Goal 1: Eradicate poverty and hunger
• Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

• Project