French Institute of Conakry
I spent one week working in Conakry on a consulting assignment for the French Institute. I had to study the National Research and Education Network (NREN) in Guinea and I had also to find eLearning solutions to improve French learning in Guinea. It was an intense week as I had to find time to meet with colleagues from the French Institute, Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the University of Conakry, local telecom providers and the French Embassy.
I spent the whole week running from meetings to meetings to have a quick overview of the ICT ecosystem and needs. The country had just experienced a coup that ended the 12 month presidency of Moussa Dadis Camara. He left after one of his bodyguards tried to kill him and the nation was in bad shape. Conakry had some ICT infrastructure, including an optical backbone loop, but it was not working. It was possible to access to the Internet only via satellite connections or through a long distance wireless bridge with Senegal. The French Institute and the French Embassy were not fond of supporting ICT projects because it was too expensive for their budget.
Thus, I designed a French language eLearning project and I drafted a NREN concept note based on my experience in Benin. Both projects were quite exiting for me and I submitted my documents to the French Institute expecting they will start one of these projects requesting additional budget in Paris.