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Inter-American Observatory on Drugs |
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PROJECTS |
Support for National Drug Commissions in the Development of Information Technology and National Information Systems |
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RESOURCES RESOURCES RESOURCES
Information by Countries and Topics
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Positive feedback from member states on the Observatory’s promotion of national drug information systems resulted in continuation and enhancement of these efforts in 2001. In early 2001, Observatory sponsorship of earlier workshops to promote national drug information systems in Saint Kitts and Nevis and Belize resulted, in Belize, in the formulation of a national plan for automating MEM-related information exchange. Belize’s National Drug Abuse Control Council (NDACC) formed inter-ministerial Committees to work on this activity, for which it is also receiving technical support from the University of Belize. Similar national workshops to develop drug information systems were held in Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic during the second half of the year. National drug information systems capable of automating, integrating and exchanging information on an intra- and inter-governmental level require advanced information technology. To make this technology available, the Observatory cooperated with the United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) and a number of its researchers from United States universities to design, construct and implement projects incorporating such technologies as: machine translation, voice recognition via computer, computer learning, wireless networks and digital government. A planning grant for a digital government project design financed the execution of the workshop in Belize. The
results of that workshop and design input from
Observatory staff provided the basis for the
University of Purdue’s presentation for
financing of a transnational digital government
project to the NSF.
Pilot countries for this project would be
Belize and the Dominican Republic.
NSF approval of this project would be key to
enabling CICAD member governments to automate the
public sector processes necessary to answer the MEM
questionnaire and to construct the underlying
technological platform needed to manage and exchange
this information.
A Web portal where CICAD countries could find
answers to their questions on technology is also
envisaged under the project. The
Observatory has also worked with the NSF to develop
a project to foster communications between
Colombia’s central government and the country’s
Siona Indian population.
The project will make possible automatic and
instantaneous computer translation between Spanish
and the language of the Siona.
Discussions are underway for the
implementation of a similar project utilizing
Quechua as the target language. To
provide CICAD representatives and national drug
council executives with topical and current
drug-related information, the Observatory developed
and published five issues of an on-line bulletin.
It expanded the content of its regional WEB
page by uploading the results of the various
workshops and adding to the information available in
the sections on each country.
Country pages are for the use of national
drug councils for publicizing their work and
achievements. The project monitoring software developed for the Government of Peru by the Anti-Drug Foundation of El Salvador (FUNDASALVA), under contract to CICAD, was translated into English in 2001. Subject to the availability of funding, software installation and training in interested countries are projected for early 2002.
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Last updated Nov/15/01 |
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