"Senegal is delighted to be hosting this event. It will provide the opportunity to show what we can do, as well as discover the initiatives of other countries in terms of eTraining. I believe that experience-sharing is the best way to convince people who are reluctant or sceptical," says ADIE Director Tidiane Seck.

ADIE's mission is to encourage the use of new technology within government but also, more broadly, by all citizens. For this purpose, the agency has set up an online training platform for both government personnel and corporate staff where everyone can develop their skills throughout their careers.

At eLearning Africa, major education institutions from Senegal will present to an international audience what the country has done to train government civil servants as well as what is happening in universities and in the medical field. In terms of infrastructure, this is possible thanks to the government's intranet resource centre, which is currently being completed.

The five Senegalese universities will very shortly be interconnected through fibre optics, thus being able to provide real-life teleconference experiences for training purposes. For example, a professor at Dakar University will be able to lecture to students in Ziguinchor or elsewhere in the country.

In the medical field, information technology is already being used very broadly to exchange skills between establishments and also for training purposes. Examples of telemedicine will be just some of the many successful experiences that will be shared at eLearning Africa.

Now in its fourth year, eLearning Africa has established itself as the key event on ICT for development, education and training on the African continent. Its mission is to bring people together who are actively engaged in education and in the implementation of learning technologies in schools, universities, corporate training programmes as well as in education in the public sector.

Participants are policymakers such as Ministers of Education, representatives from government agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), development agencies and international organisations, senior executives from businesses, as well as practitioners from all fields of education. The conference will be held in both English and French.