Building Communications Opportunities (BCO) alliance

APC is part of the Building Communications Opportunities (BCO) alliance, which is a loose network of experienced organisations in information and communications for development who have made a commitment to learning and collaboration. BCO members, or ‘partners’ as they are referred to, include donor agencies from Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK and international non-governmental organisations. The BCO has funded important APC projects.

What are the BCO alliance goals?

• Integrate ICT4D in development sectors such as health, agriculture or education

• Strengthen the voice of poor and excluded communities and facilitate debate and dialogue through the use of ICTs

• Demonstrate the impact of ICT4D on poverty.

A cornerstone of the partnership is peer learning and knowledge-sharing on how information and communication technologies can be used as a strategic tool for sustainable development and poverty alleviation.

BCO partners are actively committed to the belief that access to and the use of ICTs assists people and communities to have greater choice in determining and improving their lives and their standard of living, for example through:

• Engaging governments around ICT policy or poverty reduction strategies

• Advocating how ICTs can support health, education, agricultural and food programmes

• Raising awareness of how ICTs can promote debate and activism on culture, human rights, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, trade and aid, conflict prevention, and media

• Networking with civil society and other development actors to promote cheaper alternative technologies.

BCO partners’ work includes a wide range of information, communications and development interventions – from media and advocacy, to policy development and capacity building.

BCO offers opportunities for rich reciprocal learning that, because each partner participates in other broader networks, contribute to the ICT4D sector as a whole.

BCO partners in 2006:

• Association for Progressive Communications

• AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters

• Bellanet

• Department for International Development of the United Kingdom

• Directorate-General for International Cooperation of the Netherlands

• Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries

• International Institute for Communications and Development

• OneWorld

• Panos Institutes

• Swiss Development Corporation

For more information write to info@bcoalliance.org or visit www.bcoalliance.org.

Image by Jesie Hart used under Creative Commons license.