Designing Media and ICT Strategies for Non-Formal Education in Eritrea

Designing media and ICT strategies for a newly formed country like Eritrea, which has endured 30 years of armed struggle, leading to massive destruction followed by serial drought, is fraught with numerous constraints: limitation of human resources (e.g. qualified personnel), infrastructure and financial constraints. At the same time, though it may seem paradoxical, there is an inescapable urgency to generate media and ICT strategies, limitations notwithstanding, to turn out larger groups of people capable of leading the nation from illiteracy and poverty to literacy and greener pastures of a developed economy. A three-pronged effort is directed to cover all target groups and key players – one each towards categorised target groups and the other towards the training of radio and television personnel. It has to be followed by sensitising the government, another major key player in the whole process, to lay down required media education policy and to see to its sustainability. Conceived as the first-ever original and creative document, subject to further refinements as experience of its implementation pours in, what follows is the presentation of major principles that went into development of media education, facilitating direct teaching and enrichment, and quicker and low cost curricular reforms, in order to achieve rapid transformation and poverty reduction in Eritrea.