Global: UNESCO supports refurbishing PCs

Source: Highway Africa News Agency
http://highwayafrica.ru.ac.za

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), has given its support for refurbished Personal Computers (PCs).

UNESCO in its weekly Communication and Information (CI) bulletin made available to HANA's correspondent, said that in most countries of the world, PC refurbishing initiatives are now active - covering a whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.

The organisation said that shared experience in the past proved that there was a need for improvement of these overall programmes to make them holistic, sustainable and scalable.

"UNESCO strongly believes that much is to be gained from exchanging experiences, improving PC quality standard, sharing know-how, validated processes and tools to enhance access of local populations in the developing countries to low cost or free quality hardware," the agency stated.

According to the bulletin, UNESCO is fostering international cooperation in this field to enhance impact and further sharpen economical models behind the PC refurbishment pipelines, saying "it's at the core of UNESCO's concern."

The UN agency also pointed out that it has created a portal on PC refurbishment so that people could understand further the process of refurbishing PCs.

UNESCO also pointed out that part of it's Observatory on the Information Society, was that this portal was meant to be a clearinghouse of activities, resources, best practices, research and open content in the field of PC refurbishment, between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments.

This UNESCO noted, enables the emphasis of refurbished computers to be focused on the low cost of hardware solutions, open content for off-line PC, programmes, quality requirements for refurbished PC, research, training as well as volunteer services.

It would be recalled that governments at the end of electronic waste confab held last December agreed with the support of the United Nations to work towards the minimisation of e-waste globally.

In particular it aims to foster international cooperation and facilitate collaboration and partnerships (logistics, funding, resource sharing, and capacity building) between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments.

The e-waste confab was an outcome of the first international meeting of PC refurbishment specialists on "New Synergies for Recycling Information Technology Equipment", which took place in UNESCO's headquarters in Paris in March 2003.