TMCnet News
EAC Goes for Meetings By Video(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) An East African Community Sensitization Workshop on Video Conferencing (VC) ended recently at the EAC Secretariat. The VC project was a result of a EAC Council of Ministers decision regarding strengthening the institutional capacity of the Community to push through provisions of the Treaty. The workshop provided insight into establishment and operation of a scalable and extensible Video Conferencing system for interactive Audio Visual communications and virtual meetings among EAC Organs and Institutions, Partner States and other organizations. To create some awareness, the Project Implementation team proposed the development of a comprehensive communication strategy. Speaking during the opening ceremony on behalf of the EAC Secretary General, the acting Director of Finance and Administration, Juvenal Ndimurirwo, suggested participants identify communication priority components of the project as well as implementation timetables. He said while there is a highly technical component of the project, the underlying motive is to support the management process. "It is for this reason that the meeting was tasked with formulating a work plan that will ensure the project is widely known amongst stakeholders at the EAC and Partner States," he said. The EAC Principal Information and Technology Officer, Aggrey Nkondola added that sustainability of the project can be achieved if it is institutionalized to effectively support EAC meetings. He said in addition to the development of appropriate policies and procedures, adequate human and financial resources must be made available to better guarantee sustainability. The workshop was attended by Information Technology and Communication experts from the Partner States as well as IT experts from TradeMark East Africa who provided insight into implementing video conferencing projects. The EAC project has three main components, namely: equipment supply, room preparation and bandwidth provision. Equipment for this project is expected to be delivered to all six sites (Arusha and the five Partner States), by the end of July, while installation will commence in August 2014. The official launch of the project is set for 30 November 2014, on the sidelines of the EAC Heads of State Summit. A Project Steering Committee and a Project Implementation team responsible for decision making and operational implementation respectively have been established. During the end of the workshop, the group developed a communication activity work plan that will address among others awareness creation about the project before, during and after its launch within EAC Organs and Institutions, EAC Ministries, and other stakeholders at large as well as draft human resource requirements for implementation of the project. Copyright East African Business Week. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |