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Bridging the language divide: sharing the experiences of French-speaking Africa
2007-08-18
In an effort to ensure that transport practitioners in French-speaking Africa can also share experiences IFRTD –with the support of gTKP- has set up a French electronic discussion group called IFRTD Transport Rural. Set up on dgroups, the list serv is accessible via http://www.dgroups.org/groups/IFRTDtransportrural and is open for all (French-speaking) people interested in rural transport issues.During three weeks in July a virtual discussion was held focussing on issues relating to rural transport services. The discussion centred around three issues.
Each week centred around one of these issues and every topic was introduced with background information, photos and sub-questions to allow the participants to share experiences, ask questions and trigger discussions. Moderated by Vero Razafintsalama from Lalana, an NGO based in Madagascar and specialised in transport issues, twenty-seven participants from eleven different countries followed and/or participated in the rich and lively virtual debates. For more information please visit http://gtkp.typepad.com/rural_transport/2007/08/bridging-the-la.html
Overall the discussions illustrated the big knowledge gap that exists between Francophone and Anglophone Africa and that not enough resources are available for translation and knowledge sharing through workshops. A positive development is the SDC/Skat workshop that will be organised in Chad in September 2007 to enable French-speaking transport experts to network and share experiences. This workshop combined with the new list serv will hopefully help reduce the gap a little but it is obvious that a lot more resources need to be invested in order to close the gap completely! To join the discussions: http://www.dgroups.org/groups/IFRTDtransportrural
