Background

ECLAC has replaced the Caribbean Documentation Centre with the Caribbean Knowledge Management Centre to better position the Unit to respond to the needs of a knowledge-based organization and the emerging Caribbean Information Society.

The following projects are central to the aims and objectives of the new Unit:

Caribbean ICT Profiles

Supports the implementation of the WSIS Plan of Action in each CDCC Member State and contributes to the benchmarking of the Caribbean Information Society .

Caribbean Development Profiles

A virtual instrument which assists in the assessment of the progress towards the MDGs in CDCC member states, through the packaging and presentation of development data, indicators, analyses and reports.

Caribbean Digital Library

A web-based resource of Caribbean content on priority areas, including websites, reports, and other publications. 

Caribbean Skills Bank

A web-based virtual environment, which brings together the regional expertise and skill sets to bear on the development challenges and priorities facing CDCC member states.

Communities of Practice

A platform which connects experts and other regional stakeholders, allowing them to collaborate, exchange information and experiences, and facilitate the sharing of best practices on development issues. Our first community focuses on Disaster Mitigation and Risk Reduction.

These projects are beneficial to policy makers and strategic planners in the region.

To maximize their utility, it is necessary to establish a network of institutions within the region. The purpose of the network is to facilitate collaboration and to build knowledge in areas critical to the development of the Caribbean subregion. Countries and institutions will assume primary responsibility for ensuring that their content is included. It is envisaged that the structure of the network will include one National Focal Point (NFP) for each member state, and multiple National Participating Centres within each state. The primary responsibilities of the NFP will be to coordinate the content creation processes of the NPCs, and to subsequently synchronize content with the Regional Centre (RC) at ECLAC.

At the heart of this network is the Caribbean Knowledge Management Portal. This Portal will be deployed in two versions.  At the Regional Centre, the authoritative Portal will provide access to all content from the region, as submitted by the participating centres. The Stand-alone client-side version of the Portal, will be distributed to participating centres.

The Caribbean Development Portal is a fully open-source, client/server based system which is designed in a decentralized manner. In this environment, national participating centres (NPCs) are provided with an in-house version of the system through which the system will be populated and queried. In addition to facilitating access to appropriate institutional content by the wider community, the system includes security and customization features which can be used to facilitate the in-house needs of NPCs, including the publication of private content on their internal portal system.