@GdnDevelopment comments and Dadamac September 19, 2010
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Thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself - and hello everyone.
I am here partly as a communication channel between UK and Nigeria and partly as a commentator and practitioner on ICT-enabled collaboration.
In my role as a communication channel (and with special reference to MDGs at present) I am here to represent the work of my friend and colleague John Dada at Fantsuam Foundation in Nigeria. There is a short video on the work of Fantsuam Foundation here . John's holistic approach to local community development through Fantsuam Foundation relates to all of the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).
John and I work together as "Dadamac", enabling better communication between UK and Nigeria. You can get a flavour of our collaboration by reading Nikki's blog, which covers our weekly UK-Nigeria online team meetings and more.
Thanks to the long term work of John and his team there is good connectivity at Fantsuam through Zittnet
Together, through Dadamac, we offer to other people the communication systems and strategies that we are using, if they are interested in genuine collaboration rather than top down interventions. People can work with us either through our registered charity Dadamac Foundation for a philanthropic of volunteering approach, or on a commercial basis through Dadamac Limited
My personal belief is that we need much greater dialogue. We need collaboration and effective sharing of ideas and good practice - http://www.dadamac.net/blog/20091015/pam-we-want-street-lights If these ideas resonate with anyone reading this then John and I would be happy to explore some kind of collaboration at Attachab eco-village or elsewhere.
We need to break down wrong assumptions - one of the first things I learned through my friends and contacts in Africa was to hold my assumptions lightly. They have often been turned upside down during the ten years I have been connected with grass-roots community development, initially through my friend the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale
I have also been able to explore ways that the Internet is relevant in ICT4Education and ICT4Development through my collaborations with contacts in Nigeria and elsewhere. I have not yet written up much about my reflections, but am starting to do so at Dadamac Analysis. It is the socio-technical side that particularly interests me - but I will not go into that now.
My main reason for coming here is to introduce the unusual and effective communication channel that Dadamac has between the UK and the daily realities of community development in Africa, and to make our knowledge and networks available as appropriate in this forum.