IOM is organising a two-day conference in Rwanda to discuss the role IT can play in facilitating the transfer of skills and expertise from qualified expatriates from the Great Lakes region.

The meeting, which begins on 31 January in Butare, is part of IOM’s MIDA Great Lakes programme, which seeks to encourage expatriates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda living in Belgium with a legal status to take a more active role in the development of their home country.

It will bring together some 65 rectors, deans, professors and experts from 15 public and private African universities alongside international, regional and national organizations and institutions such as the World Bank, UNESCO, the International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa, the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie and the Université Virtuelle Africaine in Nairobi (UVA).

The meeting, which is organised with the National University of Rwanda and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will discuss ways to promote virtual learning with the support of expatriates.

The overall objective of IOM’s MIDA programme is to strengthen the institutional capacities of beneficiary governments to achieve their development goals through the transfer of skills, financial and other resources from expatriates.

This one-year programme was launched on 1 February 2005 and is fully funded by the Belgium government. To date, the programme has allowed 46 expatriates including IT specialists, doctors, veterinarians and architects to complete missions in the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi. One hundred and fifteen expatriates had taken part in a MIDA Great Lakes pilot project, which ran between 2002 and 2004.

IOM’s MIDA Great Lakes Programme is online at www.midagrandslacs.org

For further information, please contact:

Laurent De Boeck Tel (+250) 08 40 94 86 Email: Ldeboeck@iom.int