NATIONAL : GINKS ready for three year plan.

Ghana Information Network for Knowledge Sharing (GINKS) has launched its three-year strategic plan that would guide its activities and operations between 2010 and 2012.

The strategic plan which would also serve as a long-term strategic direction for the smooth running of the organisation, has been categorised into four main policies.

Launching the plan in Accra, Mr. Ibrahim Inusah, GINKS Coordinator, mentioned strategies to develop programmes, products and services to meet increase interest in ICT for development (ICT4D), and to use the pool of ICT4D experts and their capacity to digitise data in different media to develop products that would meet the needs of non-literate communities, as some of the strategies.

The rest are to build capacity and advocacy in order to influence ICT4D policy, as well as to use increased interest in ICT4D to expand membership nationwide.

Speaking at the launch, Dr. Robert Awuah-Bafour, Vice President of Ghana Telecom University College, described the strategic plan as very measurable and accessible.

He said Ghana needed to focus on such technology-based ventures as the world enters the 21st century.

Dr Awuah-Bafour therefore stressed the need for the country to support the activities of GINKS, which was pioneering the way in developing ICT that would help take the youth off the streets.

Madam Iva Lokko, a former Director of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Member of GINKS, said ICT4D was not really happening in Ghana because not everybody was gaining from it.

"The issue is not just accessing it but gaining from it and understanding how to use it for total benefit," she said.

GNA/AMA