February 18, 2004 - Tegucigalpa, Honduras.- Increasing aid efficiency and reducing the duplication of efforts are tremendous challenges faced by development practitioners all over the world. This concern, and the capacity of GDLN to address this by providing relevant tools and knowledge quickly and at the right time, surfaced during the first videoconference of the Honduras GDLN Center.

Honduras’ minister of science and technology, government officials, and other authorities were present at the event hosted by the newest Center in the Network. As part of an extensive visit to the Center, local participants were introduced to the Network through a videoconference that linked Tegucigalpa to GDLN Centers in Spain, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Washington. After a brief welcome by the GDLN team in Washington, Center representatives shared their experiences with the Network, focusing in particular on the opportunities for exchanging knowledge and experiences. Participants in Honduras raised the need for increasing the impact of development efforts in their country, and for specific programs on e-government, education, and public sector reform. A brief discussion explored how programs provided by and through GDLN can help address these issues.

"Policy makers and development practitioners need knowledge instantaneously, at their finger tips, because they often have to make very quick decisions,” said Monika Weber-Fahr, Manager of the World Bank Institute’s GDLN Services team, “And because GDLN counts with the experience of a very diverse set of development partners from all over the world, the Network can provide this information to the people who need it, in an efficient and timely way.”

The Honduras GDLN Center is hosted by the government agency COHCIT (Honduran Council for Science and Technology). It is part of a government program to bring education to excluded sectors of the population, specifically the urban poor and those not living in major cities. The proposal envisions expanding the Center’s reach by creating a national network.

For additional information regarding GDLN in Honduras, please contact Ramon Hasbun (rhasbunc@cohcit.gob.hn).