Open Source CMS Solutions in Africa

Friday February 20, 2004 (07:02 PM GMT)

Pretoria, South Africa, 12.2.2004 - The Finnish government has funded Ungana-Afrika to support Southern African NGOs, which will include the recommendation of appropriate web-site and content management solutions using the Open Source Midgard Content Management System (CMS).

Many non-profit organizations (NGOs) have an advocacy or educational focus, or coordinate the activities of groups of organizations. These organizations have expressed significant interest in establishing a website or they already have one, but lack the skills to update it. Web design skills are highly marketable, and employees with expertise in this area do not stay long in a non-profit environment. Additionally, much has been said about the lack of localized content in Africa, and the generally low technical skill levels are a major contributing factor in this regard. NGOs frequently have a very people-centered interest and are well suited to developing appropriate local content.

Ungana-Afrika and Nemein, Finnish software consultancy participating actively in the Open Source community, with the support of the Finnish Embassy in Pretoria, have determined that an Open Source CMS would provide an environment that makes it far simpler for the organizations themselves to develop and modify site content, and removes from them the burden of technically complex structural development. Ungana-Afrika's eRider model of technical consultancy for NGOs is well suited to constructing the initial website structure, as well as providing training for the organizations in the use of the system.

"Finland is following the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and providing its developmental aid to several innovative ICT initiatives. Midgard Open Source CMS will hopefully add to Ungana-Afrika's eRider concept's relevance in the development community." says Maarit Laitinen, Programme Coordinator in the Embassy of Finland. "The successful partnership between Ungana-Afrika and Nemein opens excellent opportunities for north-south Open Source development cooperation." Ms. Laitinen continues.

Technical support for Ungana-Afrika will be provided by Nemein, a concultancy specialized in web business applications and solutions that are based on the Open Source Midgard CMS Framework.

For more information about this project, contact:

Jesse Maarit Laitinen
Embassy of Finland
+27 (0)12 343 0275
maarit.laitinen@formin.fi

Henri Bergius
Nemein
+358 (0)20 198 6032
henri.bergius@nemein.com
www.nemein.com

Toni Eliasz
Ungana-Afrika
+27 (0)12 809 0531
toni@ungana-afrika.org
www.ungana-afrika.org

Midgard Content Management System
www.midgard-project.org

The eRider model
www.eriders.net"

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