Be committed, make the world better a place - UN Official

The United Nations Resident Coordinator to Cameroon, Najat Rochdi, has called on Cameroonians to be committed in making both Cameroon and the world a better place.

She made the call, September 22, in the course of the Social good Summit in Yaounde, which brought together students, bloggers, journalists and heads of companies to discuss on the role technology and the new media can play in setting up post 2015 development objectives.

Pointing out the importance of technology in a nation like Cameroon, Najat noted that technologies can help when they are used in the context of a certain number of actions.

To her, they can help at the level of education because they can facilitate distant learning and help in establishing a school where there is no school. They can help in every facet of diagnostics, for example, where there’s no field specialist to diagnose in the remotest areas.

It can equally help in the sensitization of more people on the services offered by the government. At the level of civic education it can facilitate better sensitization on upholding civic values. They can enable people have access to documents, so you will not need to travel to get these documents.

The UN Boss held that people shouldn’t only hurry to adopt the latest technological advancements, but make sure the message gets to the target audience. “I think the needs are really driving to the kind of technology we can use.

In most cases a community radio would be much more appropriate than any social media, than any support that would use internet,” she added. On her part, one of the speakers, Elodie Bodolo, frowned at those who use the social media to instigate violence or war.

To her, the social media should serve as an ideal platform through which, people can come together to reflect on the way forward to the problems plaguing their country.

Throughout the discussion, participants at the seminar made some recommendations on what role ICTs and the new media can play in fostering the development of Cameroon come 2015.

It is worth noting that this edition saw Cameroon’s first participation since 2010 when it was initiated. This came as a result of extension by the United Nations Development Programme of the number of countries participating.