e-Village Initiative

The e-Village Initiative draws on a variety of technologies as well as face-to-face media and communications-related activities, such as a film club and regular awareness-raising workshops and programmes directed at stimulating dialogue and addressing local concerns. Local participation is central to this project. For example, the e-Village will be the site of what organisers describe as "the very first community radio station in Jordan and the Arab region." The station will discuss social, cultural, and economic issues of interest to the local community, who will in turn be responsible for running the radio station and determining programme content.

In order to build the capacity of villagers to carry out such media- and technology-rich projects, the centres are providing training under 7 programmes: a socio-economic development programme, a technical skills programme, an extracurricular educational programme, a media programme, an information and awareness programme, a volunteerism programme, and a technology programme. Public-private partnership is key in ensuring that villagers have access to the technology itself, and to high-quality capacity building experiences. For instance, the skills-and-training programme is being carried out with Microsoft and Cisco Systems, and internet infrastructure and connectivity is being improved through collaboration with both government and private sector telecommunications organisations such as Jordan Telecom and Intel.

To motivate and encourage youth involvement in ICTs and community life, an Intel Computer Clubhouse and Lego Robotics Lab have been built, complemented by Learning Resource Centers in schools that aim to give young people access to opportunities to learn design, engineering and computing skills within a creative and safe after-school learning environment. (UNIFEM worked with the Queen Zein Al Sharaf Institute for Development (ZENID) to train individuals from the local community to work in the Mleih Clubhouse). One learning centre in the Lib School for Girls is allowing teachers and students to collaborate on school projects using ICTs.

Each centre in the e-Village is tailored to serve the varied needs and interests of the local population. For example, a Mosaic Centre, a Local Village Production Centre, and a Packaging and Labelling Centre have been set up with the purpose of providing villagers, especially women, with the necessary skills to enter the job market and improve their livelihoods. Local products are now being labelled, packaged, marketed and distributed, and business ideas of local entrepreneurs incubated.

Technology, Gender, Women, Youth, Economic Development.

Plans are being developed to replicate the project in a number of countries in the Arab Region. In addition, several partners have placed orders from the e-Village mosaic workshop and the printing and packaging centres, which UNIFEM claims is directly benefiting the women from the local community who run these centres.