Visit to the CTA

Last Monday I visited the CTA, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation. This visit was enabled by mrs. Ndiaye who informed the Third Chamber about the activities of the CTA during the first study session on food and agriculture. This time I had the opportunity to inform one of her colleagues. I was welcomed by mr. Rambaldi, an Italian with 28 years of experience in development cooperation. At the CTA he has 10 years of experience and works as a Coordinator of Regional Partnerships. After a short explanation of the purpose of my coming we started a most interesting and informative conversation.

As a representative of my team I wanted to hear his opinion on our draft recommendations that we had send him. Further I had some additional questions on our focus. He had read our draft recommendations and came with some suggestions on what to include more and how we could most effectively link up with current issues in the Dutch policy for development cooperation.

One of my questions concerned the inclusion of women in the use of ICT. In response to that he decided to show me a 15 min video on one of their projects in West Africa. The participants in this project are representatives of the Union of West African Rural Women. They have learned how to make use of the PC, the internet and were now instructed on how to make use of web 2.0 applications in order to create a digital platform of exchange between them. Most of these women had zero experience when they began using the computer in different trainings. Although it was not easy to convince these women of the possible profits of using the PC they now certainly experienced the profits of it. Some of the women stated that they had ‘killed a lion’. Learning how to use the computer had greatly helped them to develop new capacities.

The CTA does not only give special attention to the inclusion of women in their projects, they also have special projects for youth. Learning the youth how to make use of the computer and the internet will open up a whole new world for them. As a result they might not feel the need that much to leave the rural area‘s and explore the cities. It could thus contribute to a reduction of the rural exode.

These are only some examples of the interesting projects that the CTA has set up. The conversation with mr. Rambaldi has helped me to get a bit more in depth insight in the activities of the CTA and the world of international development in general. Surely, a man with 28 years of experience in this world who has visited over 60 countries has something interesting to tell.