Paris, March 27 {No.2000-28} - The Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) ended its 20th session at UNESCO Headquarters on March 24 with a decision to allocate funds to nine media projects in developing countries, in addition to the forty-eight projects approved by the IPDC Bureau in September 1999. The IPDC is to allocate a total of US$2,172,000 to media projects in the year 2000.

Projects approved by the Council cover a wide range of activities. In Africa, the IPDC Council decided: to support training to facilitate the preservation of the audio-visual archives of television stations of Portuguese-speaking states; the establishment of a central printing house for the independent press in Lesotho; and to provide funds to the Mbalmayo Women's Community Radio in Cameroon.

In Central Asia, it was decided: to support Women's Voice radio broadcasts for women in Tajikistan. In Latin America, the IPDC decided to back seminars destined to strengthen the communication capacity in MERCOSUR to promote integration.

For the Arab States, the IPDC decided to help enhance the quality of video and audio programmes and strengthen exchanges among members of the Arab States Broadcasting Union; help establish a media training centre in Oman; strengthen the production capacity of "FM Femmes" radio in Mauritania; promote a culture of peace through community radio in the Autonomous Palestinian Territories; and help to replace radio and television equipment at Institut de presse et des sciences de l'information (Institute for the Press and for the Information Sciences) of the University of Tunis (Tunisia).

Furthermore, during the session, state-owned Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam won the UNESCO/IPDC Prize for Rural Communication for its Kiswahili programme Twende Na Wakati (Let's Move with the Times) which addresses a wide range of topics including family planning, the education of girls, mother and child care, the fight against domestic violence and cultural discrimination as well as AIDS.

The IPDC also held a thematic debate: IPDC: 20 Years in the Service of Media Development - Challenges and Orientations at the Beginning of the New Millennium. During the debate nine speakers presented their views on the evaluation of the Programme following 20 years of reviewing, approving, financing and evaluating more than 700 communication projects in 130 developing countries for US$78,000,000.

The IPDC was created in 1980 to identify the needs of developing countries in the field of communication, to assist in developing technical and human resources in these countries, and to promote the transfer of technology. It provides financial assistance to a wide variety of projects with a view to reducing the gap between industrialised and developing countries in the field of communication and information.