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AjialCom in Morocco led to the creation of over 50 youth community access centers, with all related management and IT training, and with the development of sustainable business models for the centers. A new phase of the project has been agreed on which calls fort the creation of 100 new centers by the end of 2007. As part of this initiative, one of the centers will be equipped with hardware, software, and content for the visually-impaired, as a pilot center in Morocco under ICTDAR’s ICTARB initiative
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The main implementation activities that took place in Morocco are:
1-Establishment of 50 community centers
- Locations.
- Activity: Determine the locations for community access centers
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: 50 locations were selected. Original agreement called for 10 locations.
- Remarks: Bernoussi & Moulay Rachid in Casablanca; Ibn Khaldoun in Mohammedia; Bouznika in Ben Slimane; Al Amal in Rabat; 9 Juillet in Tiflet and Hay Essalam in Khemisset were among the first selected as they are located in very poor areas and/or rural area
- Hardware Installation
- Activity: Install 1 server, 12 PCs, 1 printer, 1 surge protector in each center
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: All were purchased and installed
- Software Installation
- Activity: MS software package and 1 Management Kit SW (CIEL) in each center
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: All were purchased and installed
- Remarks: The Management kit is composed of modules of Accounting, Inventory, and Stock Management & Business Management
- Network Installation
- Activity:LAN & Internet connectivity
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: Routers were purchased, configured and installed. Internet access was provided.
- Remarks: All 7 centers are connected
- Multi Media
- Activity: Provide a selection of 62 Multi Media kits
- Prime:SECJ
- Outcome: Provided
- Remarks: Contents were based on a need assessment study. They included educational, entertainment and other subjects.
- Community access centers Furnishings
- Activity: Provide 12 PC desks, 25 chairs, 1 office desk and 1 white board
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: Provided
2-Capacity Building - Institutional
Strengthen the capacities of the Secretary of State in charge of Youth by training the centres’ managers and planning a strategy to enlarge the project vision and making it a national program. Develop a business model for the Community access centers In all training activities, women participation was particularly encouraged and facilitated.
- Management Structure - CACs
- Activity: Establish a Follow up Committee
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: Monthly status reports and work plans
- Remarks: Headed by the National Director, it includes SECJ focal points and an IT coordinator and a National coordinator.
- Management Structure – Task force
- Activity: Establish a task force in every Community access centers
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: Advisory group for the Community access centers
- Remarks: The task force ensures the participatory approach in involving end users in the decision making process; determines priorities based on surveys and needs assessment; requests new services
- Management Structure - CACs
- Activity: Hire managers to run the centers
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: SECJ provided 2 managers for each location
- Remarks: One National Director was hired responsible for the Community access centers operations
- Management Structure - CACs
- Activity: Hire managers to run the centers
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: SECJ provided 2 managers for each location
- Remarks: One National Director was hired responsible for the Community access centers operations
- Training of Trainers
- Activity: Train 80 people – management training
- Prime: Microsoft
- Outcome: 100 managers completed their training.
- Remarks: 5 days course per session.
- Management Information Kit
- Activity: Provide Information kit to centers’ management and train managers on Community access centers and AjialCom objectives
- Prime: Microsoft
- Outcome: Information kits provided Sept 27 th. 2005 and 30 trainees completed a one day training session
- Remarks: Management Information kit includes :
- Guide on how to manage the Community access centers,
- Resource management,
- Membership forms,
- Community access centers Services,
- Internet training
- Internet research
- IT basics
- Office procedures
- Language training (French & English)
- Management courses
- Literacy programs
- Roles and responsibilities,
- Suggested fees,
- An Excel model for statistics records
- Trainers’ manual on Excel, Word & Outlook.
- Unlimited Potential - UP
- Activity: Provide UP in French to train the Trainers
- Prime: Microsoft
- Outcome: Provided in October 2004-July 2005
3-Capacity Building - Individual
Train and educate the youth on the use of IT to afford them new opportunities.
- Train the Beneficiaries – IT Classes
- Activity: Provide basic IT training for students, workers and unemployed
- Prime: Community access centers
- Outcome: 200 trainees registered per month and completed basic IT training.
- Remarks: Starting October 2004, 10 groups consisting of 12 trainees each, received a total of 4 hours of training per group per week for a 3 months period. Each graduate receives a certificate upon completing the course.
- Train the Beneficiaries – CD ROM kits
- Activity: Provide basic IT training for students, workers and unemployed
- Prime: Community access centers
- Outcome: CD ROM kits were made available to students who did not want to/ could not attend regular classes. To date, 5 000 students have used this service.
- Train the Beneficiaries – Language lessons
- Activity: Provide French Language training
- Prime: COMMUNITY ACCESS CENTERS in Bouzknika
- Outcome: 100 students completed French language
- Train the Beneficiaries – UP Training
- Activity: Provide UP training upon request
- Prime: Community access centers
- Outcome: Trainees who were interested in gaining deeper knowledge of the IT, UP kit was made available.
- Awareness raising – MDGs
- Activity: Raise awareness on AIDS and Gender issues
- Prime: SECJ
- Outcome: General campaign to raise awareness on AIDS. Community access centers raised awareness through the use of IT and multi media (CD ROMS, internet access to AIDS related web sites and articles).
- Web site
- Activity: Develop a web site for AjialCom
- Prime: ICTDAR and partners
- Outcome: A needs assessment was completed. Due to limited funding, a decision was taken to postpone it to 2006 along with the development of the youth portal
4-Promotion and New Partnerships
In order to raise awareness of AjialCom and to seek new partnerships with public, private, NGOs and local communities, the following activities were undertaken:
Publication of an AjialCom brochure highlighting the program
- Production of a AjialCom film presented at the launching ceremony of the CACs
- UNFPA & UNESCO. Coordinated activities with their Young for Young program
- Meeting with Talbi-Alami Minister of Economic and General Affairs, in charge of the IT Sector. Presented a report on « AjialCom ». Another report was presented to the Prime Minister who provided support.
ICTDAR led, in collaboration with the SECJ, the development of a business model, including evaluation indicators, for establishing and managing the Community access centers. The focus of this model is to ensure the financial viability of the Community access centers and allow them to function as a real micro-enterprise
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