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In each country now PC refurbishing initiatives are active, covering the whole range of tasks from mobilizing donors of second-hand PCs to procurement, refurbishment, transportation, distribution, installation, maintenance and training on the use of refurbished PCs.

Shared experience in the past proves that there is a need for improvement of these overall programmes to make them holistic, sustainable and scalable.

UNESCO strongly believes that much is to be gained from exchanging experiences, improving PC quality standard, sharing know-how, validated processes and tools to enhance access of local populations in the developing countries to low cost or free quality hardware.

This portal is meant to be a clearinghouse of activities, resources, best practices, researches and open content in the field of PC refurbishment. In particular it aims to:

• foster international cooperation and facilitate collaboration and partnerships (logistics, funding, resource sharing, capacity building development) between NGOs, associations, private industry and governments;
  
• build on stakeholders’ experiences and ideas;
  
• share research, audit and impact studies;
  
• encourage a better quality of the delivered PC;
  
• properly keep stakeholders informed of all activities, news, innovations, new resources ideas, training, etc.;
  
• share capacity-building tools (open content, software solutions, etc.).

It is an outcome of the first international meeting of PC refurbishment specialists on "New Synergies for Recycling Information Technology Equipment", which took place in UNESCO Headquarters in March 2003. Its final report is available here.

You are a PC refurbishment project manager, a decision maker having to choose between new and refurbished equipment, the manager of a PC refurbishment/recycling centre, a PC donor or a recipient who needs to find its way among the existing players, this portal is designed for you.