The node was launched at a first node meeting held in Tamale at the Centre for Information Technologies Research and Development (CITRED) on Thursday the 12th of July 2007.

Speaking in a welcome address, the Northern Project Node Coordinator, Agbenyo John Stephen said the purpose of establishing the node is for the benefit of the IICD supported projects in the north and that the node meetings are to bring the IICD supported project staff onto one platform for networking purposes and strengthen cooperation among the project partners.

He stated that the node would undertake a set of participatory activities for and by project partners that would aim at facilitating knowledge sharing on the individual projects and also promote and spread best practices and optimize resources and skills. He also stated that the node meetings would be a platform /channel for presenting and addressing common problems such as connectivity and content development.

The northern project node is made up of SEND Foundation’s ECAMIC Project, Market Access Promotion Network (MAPRONET), Women and Development Project (WADEP), Association of Church Development Projects (ACDEP) and PEPS-C.

At the launch, Madam Patricia Formadi, Project Coordinator for WADEP expressed her joy in the thinking that went behind the formation of the node but however appealed to IICD to speed up with the proposal approval processes.

Representatives at the meeting shared experiences and plan of their projects.

At the end of the meeting, the node came out with a set of activities that should be undertaken by the node to facilitate knowledge sharing and strengthen cooperation among the project partners in the north.