The Acacia Programme: Developing Evaluation and Learning Systems for African Telecentres

The Acacia Programme on Communities and the Information Society in Africa is an initiative of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), designed “to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies [for] their own social and economic development.” The idea for Acacia originated during the 1996 Information Society and Development Conference held in South Africa, the first international conference convened in a developing country to consider the potential of the new ICTs for development. Conference delegates noted a link between the information society and community development in Africa and suggested that “through links at the community level, a Global Information Community governed by people-centred development values could evolve within the more commercially oriented Global Information Society.” Meanwhile, African governments had also recognised the potential contribution of ICTs to African development, and had established the African Information Society Initiative (AISI).