Pakistan Telecentre Network (PTN)

A common platform for public-private sector organizations to outreach in rural areas under JV

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have had a significant impact on the lives of people – bringing them closer together, making differences less important and amplifying economic activity and growth. As a global best practice and vital agenda of many international organizations rapid improvement in development sector like health, education, governance and economic improvement is being organized
through establishment of Telecentres which become the hub and coordination centre of the area to take forward such developments.
In recent years developing countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India etc have achieved tremendous progress in development sector through these telecentres and have been successful in involvement of common man in development efforts under an organized program.
In Pakistan there have been few Isolated efforts to establish such telecentres but due to lack of-coordination between relevant Public & Private sector organizations and NGOs, there has been little success in coordinated approach in this regard. Rural Pakistan, where nearly 70{e1f18614b95d3cd6e4b3128e1cd15d99b042a60a5a19c19b7a8e07e7495efa10} of the population lives, is yet to profit from these proven development strategies.
To make a coordinated effort in this regard few like minded ICT professionals in public and private organizations having on ground experiences in E-village project and International level experience in ICT4D have decided to establish Pakistan Telecentre Network (PTN) for creating a platform to organize and promote the existing efforts of telecentres by stakeholders in Public/Private organizations. Few planned objectives of PTN are as under:-
●    Create awareness about usefulness of telecentres in public, private organizations and specially in NGOs working in rural areas;
●    Promote knowledge of best sustainability models of telecentres;
●    Prepare and conduct training programs for professionally starting, managing and sustainability of Telecentres. ( Standardized courses would be designed and kept updates as per best International practices );
●    Build synergies and promote Cooperation models between Public & Private sector organizations and NGOs to work together in areas like health, education, economic empowerment and single point of delivery of Government services in a rural area;
●    Development and regular updating of education/information portals in local languages in areas of common education, health, agriculture, economic empowerment and good governance etc. This information would also be available off-line ( on local machine ) in those areas where there is no Internet or poor bandwidth;
●    Promote the interests of the telecentre movement throughout Pakistan and establish coordinated linkages with International efforts of telecentres;
●    Strengthen the telecentre networks in Pakistan to develop, organize and disseminate knowledge;
●    Promote the exchange and sharing of resources, skills, competencies and knowledge between and among its members;
●    Build  and promote  partnerships  with  various sectors and development partners and Collaborate  with  members on  joint initiatives to increase the sustainability of telecentres and their contribution to socio-economic development.
●    Establish District coordination centres ( DCC ) for promoting close liaison within relevant stake holders like academia, students, NGOs, banks and other public & private sector organizations having common objectives to extend their services to rural areas
The first meeting of the founding members (organizations/NGOs) already managing  telecentre(s), planning to do so or intend to extend their services to rural ares through these telecentres has been convened on 12th September in Islamabad.
Those interested to join may contact ammar@brain.net.pk