UN Volunteers, LDCs and the Cisco Networking Academy Programme

Since 2001, UN Volunteers has partnered with CISCO to coordinate placement of UN Volunteers under its UNITeS umbrella to bring the Cisco Networking Academy Program (CNAP) to Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

The Least Developed Countries Initiative was announced at the G-8 Summit in July 2000. The main partners of the LDC Initiative are Cisco Systems and UNDP. Also involved are UNV, USAID's Leland Initiative, and the US Peace Corps. Bringing the Cisco Networking Academy Program (CNAP) to LDCs allows students the same educational opportunities that are offered to students in more than 80 countries. Providing a workforce with the skills to design, build and maintain the Internet infrastructure is a critical step to bridging the digital divide and participating in the global economy.

Under the UNITeS umbrella, UN Volunteers have been placed in 38 developing countries, 28 of them in LDC countries. The main focus of the volunteers' work is to help the academies become instruments of human development in each country, going beyond standard offerings in computer networks training. This includes working with local NGOs, private companies and academia in order to establish strong public-private sector partnerships. The UN Volunteers under this initiative reach out to people with limited or no access to ICT training opportunities. Particular attention is given to designing targeted programs for reaching youths, marginalized populations and women.

The UN volunteers serving in this initiative receive special technical training from Cisco's Learning Institute, similar to that given to the Academy's instructors. They facilitate information exchange on best practices and community participation, and implement a community strategy for promotion of ICT training and the enhancement of community awareness.

For those CNAPs that double during part of the day as community telecenters, the UN Volunteers under UNITeS work with users in accessing relevant information and using the tools available (for example e-mail and the Internet). For these academies/telecenters, the volunteers conduct training classes on simple computer literacy skills, and provide technical assistance to community members interested in generating local content.

These UN Volunteers are networked together with other UNVs applying Information Communications Technology (ICT) for Development (ICT4D) through a private online discussion group. Online volunteers recruited through UNV's online volunteering service, also participate in this online discussion group.