3rd Global Forum on Telecentres

The Global Forumon Telecentres is a bi-annual event that aims to provide a platform for sharingknowledge among members of the global telecentre movement and all the differentactors and organizations working towards the achievement of social developmentthrough the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Withinthis framework, the Forum promotes the exchange of innovative ideas, bestpractices, development projects, research results from the different sectors ofsociety to make use of the relevant and meaningful ICTs for development. Also,the Forum provides a venue to learn about emerging technologies that contributeto overcoming poverty.

This event willbe hosted in Santiago Chile from 5 to 7 April 2011 to promote the role oftelecentres as community resources that facilitate employment, productivity andcommunity empowerment. During the 3-day conference, experts and practitioners willbe given the opportunity to discuss issues surrounding the main themes and theevent will be attended by high-level government officials from Chile andtechnology leaders and telecentre advocates and practitioners from around theworld.

About the Forum
Initially, this event was called the Telecentre Leaders Forum which was first held as a workshop during the GKP Forum at the World Summit for the Information Society in Tunis in 2005. The second Telecentre Leaders Forum was held in 2007 in conjunction with GK3 in Kuala Lumpur where network leaders from over 40 countries gathered and launched a new era in the telecentre movement. The Kuala Lumpur gathering offered networks an opportunity to collectively envision future growth and develop innovative linkages across the movement.
Partly as a result of these meetings, there now exists a global network of partners and the supporting infrastructure necessary for strengthening and sustaining telecentres as tools for achieving inclusive growth and socio-economic development. This has led to a need to expand the scope of the conference as well as give it a new name to more accurately reflect the shift and broadened focus.  Thus, the new name “Global Forum on Telecentres”.
The forum has 3 main goals:
1. Networking
Provide an environment in which the diverse members of the global telecentre movement can learn from and about each other and establish or reinvigorate relationships.
2. Collaborative Program Development
Encourage and facilitate the development of collaborative programs, projects and activities targeting under-served communities with special emphasis on employability, productivity, and empowerment of grassroots communities.
3. Tools/Technologies
Familiarize participants with the opportunities associated with a wide range of ICT tools and technologies useful for addressing the needs of the world’s poor and marginalized.