Telecentre Research Framework for Acacia

Excerpt from the Executive Summary found on the website

"The purpose of this consultant study is to outline an overall telecentre research and impact assessment framework for Acacia and to propose operational mechanisms through which the research framework can be implemented.

The Acacia initiative of IDRC is designed as an integrated program of demonstration projects and research to advance the access of disadvantaged communities in Africa to modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) and to apply them to their own development priorities. In its initial phase, Acacia is concentrating much of its effort on community based telecentres. It is funding pilot telecentre projects principally in Senegal, Mozambique, Uganda and South Africa. The telecentres to be included in the Acacia research and evaluation framework vary from phone and fax shops which offer some word processing and printing; through telecentres (such as in the South African USA program) which have phone, fax, photocopier and computers with Internet connectivity; to the higher investment "polyvalent" telecentres of the ITU-UNESCO-IDRC partnership, which can include facilities for visual teleconferencing and tele-medicine."

Click here for the Table of Contents and the study by section in PDF format.