La conférence de Rabat vue par UbuntuNet Alliance Networks

La Newsletter de UbuntuNet Alliance, NUANCE, Vol. 6, Issue 1, May 2013 consacre un article à notre 8ème conférence à Rabat.

Every year, a group of people with a remarkable variety of expertise gather within the framework of The Sharing Knowledge Foundation to examine innovations that have the potential to move the development agenda of the Mediterranean basin (and further afield) forward.  How good it was to participate in the 2013 Sharing Knowledge Foundation annual meeting held in Rabat, Morocco in May where the range of topics examined by renowned experts in the field was vast!  Sustainable energy, transport, finance, water, health, and of course ICT as a lever for development, were among the disciplines explored for new opportunities by renowned experts in the fields.

Indeed our world is changing so rapidly that practitioners in one discipline cannot keep current with significant events in a related discipline.  With only two years before 2015, the end of the first phase of the MDGs to eliminate extreme poverty, where do we stand? This was the key question at the 2013 meeting. What new technologies might there be for providing drinking water to rural communities? Is nuclear energy a viable option for powering a growing population?  How can the research at CERN impact cancer treatment?  Can Africa finance its development? So many questions, But where do we get informed evidence based answers?  Facing “a changing world” through sharing knowledge is the objective of  the Sharing Knowledge Foundation  and the 2013 meeting made a remarkable effort to provide answers!

Dr Robert Klapisch, the founder of the Sharing Knowledge Foundation, is a familiar and enormously respected figure in the REN community, participating in events and identifying developments that should be given wider exposure. As a highly acclaimed scientist, after he retired from CERN, he set up the Sharing Knowledge Foundation to encourage contacts between scientists and other experts from around the Mediterranean basin.  The Foundation hopes to contribute in building a network from within the civil society dedicated to realize concrete projects contributing to a sustainable development, and to reduce disparities between nations.

To achieve its objectives, the Sharing Knowledge Foundation has been organizing meetings since 2004 tackling relevant current issues.  The CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance, Tusu, participated in the 2011 meeting on the lovely island of Malta and I represented the CEO at the 8th meeting held in Rabat, Morocco from 9 – 12 May. It was a very full programme and many opportunities emerged that will be followed up within our communities: It is encouraging that developments within the African REN community are examined and encouraged by this community.

Margaret Nwgira

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