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UNESCO’s International Initiative for (CMC), launched in 2001,
promotes community empowerment and addresses the digital
divide by combining community broadcasting with the Internet
and related technologies.
The CMC programme offers a global strategy for addressing
the digital divide in the poorest communities of the developing
world and also among countries in transition. The CMC opens
a gateway to active membership of the global knowledge society
by making information and communication the basic tools of
the poor in improving their own lives.
A CMC combines community radio by local people in local
languages with community telecentre facilities (computers with
Internet, e-mail, phone, fax and photocopying services). The
radio, which is low-cost and easy to operate, informs, educates
and entertains, but also empowers the community by giving a
strong public voice to the voiceless, thus encouraging greater
accountability in public affairs.
A CMC creates social capital by mobilizing participation and
action on development issues, increasing collaboration, repre-
senting citizen and community interests and views by providing
a voice to groups and individuals, connecting with other citi-
zens and communities and ensuring accountability.
CMCs have been piloted in three regions of the developing
world with initial funds from the Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation. Many existing community radio stations, tele-
centres and other grassroots facilities can develop into
community multimedia centres. Building on existing facilities
avoids duplication and offers a solid basis to scale-up.
Through the scale-up of CMCs, launched in December 2003,
UNESCO seeks to have more impact on more people in order to
realize their full potential. This initiative concerns Mali,
Mozambique and Senegal. The CMC scale-up initiative has
‘stretch’ targets: it is beginning with enough funds to create
around 20 CMCs in each country. But from the start, the stated
aim has been to see 50 CMCs established in each country.
Moreover, the target of 50 is the minimum that UNESCO esti-
mates is needed to create critical mass, or enough to really begin
to impact on development. If this scale-up project is to be success-
ful, it should not only reach the target of 50 but also go beyond,
led by national partners and with broad-based support from devel-
opment partners.
Since 2001, UNESCO has established 57 CMCs in Africa, Asia
and the Caribbean. There are 11 other CMCs underway in the
framework of the CMC scale-up initiative in Mali, Mozambique
One of the CMCs