Commonwealth sends 600 books a year to Sub-Saharan Africa

Six hundred copies a year of newly published Commonwealth Secretariat titles are being delivered to libraries across Sub-Saharan Africa and Palestine.

These books, which cover a wide range of topics including HIV and AIDS, gender and education, have the potential to reach tens of thousands of library users.

The publications are distributed through a project run by Book Aid International, which aims to deliver books on development issues to those who need them most. As well as the Secretariat, which has been involved for two years, other partners involved in the ‘Books for Development’ project include Oxfam Publishing and the Overseas Development Institute.

One of the beneficiaries is the Non-Governmental Organisations Co-ordinating Council. This acts as an umbrella organisation for nearly 90 non-governmental and community-based organisations working to improve lives of women and children in Zambia.

The Council has set up a resource and documentation centre in Lusaka, which holds a collection of more than 2,000 documents on gender issues and other areas of interest for women as well as some other books on development contributed by ‘Books for Development’.

“A lot of the resources we have here are not available elsewhere - particularly the books we receive from Book Aid,” explains Golden Nachibinga, who has been a librarian at the resource centre since 2000. “Books on NGOs and development are not in the bookshops or in the libraries, even in the university libraries, so this resource centre is really valuable.”

About those who benefit from the centre, she says: “It is used mainly by our affiliate organisations, who come to access reports, brochures and books, but we also allow students from the University of Zambia to come and use the centre.”

The Council also has smaller resource centres in Livingstone, Kabwe and Solwezi. “Some of the books we receive from Book Aid are also sent to these offices, so the books get distributed outside of the capital,” adds Ms Nachibinga.

The ‘Books for Development’ project, which has been running since 2004, sends publications to 12 African countries in total, seven of which are members of the Commonwealth. These 12 countries are: Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A collection of between 100 and 200 new titles are guaranteed for all recipient organisations every year.

The interview with Golden Nachibinga was conducted by Tom Smith, Programme Development Manager for Book Aid International.

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