web.idrc.ca/en/ev-36392-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
Sorghum Improvement (Somalia) - Phase II
Andrew Ker
Edited Abstract
Sorghum is the staple cereal for most inhabitants of Somalia, a seriously food-deficient nation. In phase I of this project, the foundations of an enduring national sorghum program were laid. In phase II, researchers will continue work begun in phase I. To improve sorghum production and utilization, they will develop technology acceptable to small farmers in the rainfed growing areas of Somalia. Specifically, phase II will support research to develop high and stable-yielding sorghum cultivars that mature quickly, resist drought, diseases, pests and birds, and are acceptable to Somalian farmers; improve soil and crop management practices; and train local scientists in order to strengthen Somalia's research capacity.
Post Project Abstract
Based on selections made in phase I, eight local lines were evaluated in yield trials. Little yield variation was found between the lines. Four exotic lines were tested in 15 locations and showed promising results. Some hybrid sorghums were produced. High-yielding exotic lines were crossed with local lines. Several sorghum nurseries were used to study stemborer, shootfly, and midge. The best stemborer-resistant varieties were noted. Observation nurseries were assessed mainly for rate of plant maturity, plant height, and seed yield. Multilocational and on-farm trials were initiated in co-operation with other agricultural institutes. Researchers found that phosphate placed near the seed at planting resulted in high yields and uniform stands. A mini-dehuller acquired by the researchers was operated and used for preliminary tests. Researchers began efforts to establish both standardized sorghum cooking methods and a taste panel to determine the acceptability of improved sorghum lines. Study continued in a third phase.
Total Project Cost : 479500.0
Project Code : 830008
Geography Keywords : Somalia ESARO/BRAFO
Funding Amount : CAD479,500.00
Funding Fiscal Year : 0
Project Project Status : Closed
Project Project Type : Research Project
Project Responsible Officer : Andrew Ker
Project Region under study : Sub-Saharan Africa
Geographic Area Under Study Regional Office
Somalia ESARO/BRAFO
Project Duration months : 36 months
Project Extension months : 0 months
Project Canadian Collaboration : NO
Project Administrative Unit : ESARO / BRAFO
Project Commencement Date : 1983-09-01
Project Planned Completion Date : 1986-08-31
Project Actual Completion Date : 1987-03-31
Total Internal Funding : CAD479,500.00
Total External Funding : CAD0.00
web.idrc.ca/en/ev-36392-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html
Industrial Development Information Service (Somalia)
Michael Hailu
Post Project Abstract
This project was cancelled on the advice of the project leader, before the objectives were achieved. Mogadishu, the project site and Somali capital, was invaded by rebels in December 1990, and by January no outside communications were possible. The project shipped and installed printing equipment and a computer, and got the existing printing press in operation. Two issues of the Industrial Management Review (IMR) and the first issue of a new newsletter were published; as well, several brochures for selected companies were started. The project was also able to provide training for the project leader, a library assistant, and a reporter from IMR. Researchers concluded that although there were many problems with implementing project activities, important progress was made.
Edited Abstract
As part of its development plan, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Somalia has established an Industrial Development Information Service. The Service groups the Ministry's Library and Documentation Centre and the Editorial Research and Production Design Sections which is involved with the publication of the Industrial Management Review (IMR) Journal. This project will reinforce the Service by providing training to information staff; and by reinforcing its documentation base to provide an efficient information service for industrial enterprises in the country and institutions involved in industrial development. The project will also develop the Ministry's capacity to publish the IMR journal to improve its quality and ensure its viability.
Total Project Cost : 205200.0
Project Code : 880304
Geography Keywords : Somalia ESARO/BRAFO
Collaborating Officers : Renald Lafond
Funding Amount : CAD85,000.00
Funding Fiscal Year : 0
Project Project Status : Closed
Project Project Type : Research Project
Project Responsible Officer : Michael Hailu
Project Region under study : Sub-Saharan Africa
Geographic Area Under Study Regional Office
Somalia ESARO/BRAFO
Project Duration months : 24 months
Project Extension months : 0 months
Project Canadian Collaboration : NO
Project Administrative Unit : ESARO / BRAFO
Project Commencement Date : 1989-09-12
Project Planned Completion Date : 1991-09-12
Total Internal Funding : CAD205,200.00
Total External Funding : CAD0.00
http://africa.oneworld.net/external/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unicef.org%2Finfobycountry%2Fethiopia_18246.html
© UNICEF Somalia/2003
Real lives
Community in Somalia uses goats to help finance their dream to educate their children
Members of the Bansofe Community Education Committee look on as one of the teachers stands among his goats.
In Somalia, if parents do not take the initiative their children will not get an education.
Only 17 per cent of school-age children attend school in this war-scarred country. Yet, in the small village of Bansofe, its 270 families banded together to make educating their children possible.
A year ago, a UNICEF-trained education supervisor arrived to help mobilize the community. Poverty and political instability notwithstanding, the villagers became excited about the idea of their children going to school. To this end, they formed a Community Education Committee, consisting of five men and two women.
First the community built three simple huts to be used as classrooms. Although the crude rooms could not protect students very well from the sun, rain, wind and dust, the parents hoped they could protect their children from a life of illiteracy, the legacy of civil war.
Community action
The Education Committee realized, however, that a building without a teacher is not a school. With low family incomes, the odds seemed insurmountable that they could afford to pay a teacher.
Determined to see the dream of literacy for their children become a reality, the committee was not about to let the lack of money deter them. They did not have much money. But they did have capital – livestock.
“They came up with the idea of each child’s parents contributing one goat as fees for the teacher,” says one local leader. “To make the effort sustainable, they chose to give the teacher female goats to multiply his flock.”
The initiative seems to be working. The head teacher, Ali Adan Ali, has a flock of 156 goats. In return, Bansofe has a school filled with pupils in Grades 1 and 2 and an enrolment on the rise.
The Community Education Committee understands that every child has a right to a primary education. So the payment to the head teacher not only takes care of their children but also 27 orphans and 2 children from very poor families who could not afford the goat. The Committee decided that it was the community’s responsibility to support them.
© UNICEF Somalia/2003
An elder of the Bansofe Committee and a teacher hold one of the goats.
Focusing on girls
Currently, there are three teachers in the school and an enrolment of 166 students – 47 of which are girls. The girls’ enrolment of 28 per cent is less than the 35 per cent average for Somalia. But the Committee vows that girls will make up half the pupils in the near future.
UNICEF supports the school with donations of blackboards, chalk, jump ropes, maps, globes, textbooks and other supplies. It also provides education kits and the Education Management Information System, a standardized school data-collection system that includes school and class registers and student report cards. Perhaps UNICEF’s most important contribution is teacher training.
There are still huge challenges. The school has no furniture. The floor is dusty, the roof is leaky and there are no sanitation facilities. But the core – the community’s will – is in place. With UNICEF and non-governmental organization World Vision, the parents are determined to see to it that the physical environment improves.
Regardless of its flaws, the school is tremendously important to the village.
“We have had so many years of suffering and our children have gone without an education,” says a committee member. “Even if it takes 100 years, we will educate our children.”
And they will – with a dream and a goat.
At a glance: EthiopiaThe big picture
UNICEF home
Real lives
Female Genital Cutting: Painful procedures in the name of tradition
It is a big day for eight-year-old Hanna Tadesse* and her best friend helps her get ready. Today is the day her parents have decided that she will be circumcised.
“We know about the health risks, but this is our tradition,” says her mother, Asrat Tadesse*. “Without it, she won’t be married. We believe it is a kind of cleaning.”
Neither Asrat* nor her husband will be with their youngest child when she is subjected to female genital cutting (FGC), a practise which includes removing or altering the female genitalia.
“The mother doesn’t want to hear her crying. She will be far, far away,” says UNICEF Ethopia’s Assistant Project Officer for harmful traditional practices (HTPs), Tabeyin Gedlu. “These young children don’t know about health questions. Everything is imposed by their parents. They accept it.”
No one has explained to Hanna* exactly what will happen to her today. She watches silently as the women prepare the area where the cutting will take place, but begins to cry when the traditional practitioner arrives.
It takes six women to hold down the panicked eight-year-old girl. The women cover her head with a scarf and she screams hysterically for her mother. The practitioner coats Hanna’s genitals with ash to steady her grip before slicing off the clitoris and using kerosene aferwards to sterilize the wound. The bloody offering is placed on a palm leaf and taken to Hanna’s parents at their home in the village of Offa Gendeba in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) of Ethiopia.
“She almost lost consciousness, because of the pain. She was just limp, held up by the women,” says Tabeyin. “From a complete body, they made her incomplete.”
The practitioner, Tinsae Wolde* was paid 10 birr, or a little more than a dollar, to perform FGC on Hanna. This was the second circumcision she had performed that morning.
“I am treated with great prestige, with great respect,” the practitioner says. “In the busy time, I can do 20 per day to supplement my income. But if I get another income, I will leave this job.”
Circumcision keeps girls out of classrooms
Estimates of the total number of women living today who have been subjected to genital cutting in Africa range between 100 million and 130 million. Some 26 million have been subjected to infibulation.
FGC is practiced in varying degrees throughout Ethiopia. The most severe form of this practice, infibulation, in which part or all of the external genitalia is removed and the vaginal opening is narrowed by stitching, is practised in in the Somali, Afar, Harari, and some parts of Oromia regions of Ethiopia. In other regions, such Tigray, the clitorial hood is removed with or without the entire clitoris. FGC does irreparable harm. It can result in neurogenic shock (spinal shock), septicaemia (blood poisoning), severe infection and even death.
The age at which girls are made to undergo FGC also varies from region-to-region. In Amhara and in some parts of Afar, it is done during the first 10 days of life. In Somali, Afar and Oromia, girls are subjected to FGC between the ages of seven and nine, or just before marriage between the ages of 15 and 17. The type of FGC practised in SNNPR, is a form of excision in which the vagina is narrowed and the clitoris removed. This procedure can result in infections and hemorrhaging. When the girls grow up, the resultant scarring can tear, causing complications during labour.
According to government figures, approximately 54 per cent of girls in SNNPR are subjected to FGC. The rate is even higher in other regions: 92 per cent in Amhara, 96 per cent in Afar, 99 per cent Oromia and 100 per cent in Somali.
Manyahlishal Madebo, head of the Wolaita Sodo Zone Women’s Affairs Office and a lawyer by training, confirms that the practice is extremely painful and dangerous since no anaesthetic and antibiotics are used during the procedure.
“As a result of circumcision, they can not go to school,” says Madebo. “It happens in August and September. When they fail to register, they can’t go to school. If they are not circumcised, their friends insult them so they want to be circumcised. We [explain to] families that it is harmful. [Families and communities] say ‘it’s our culture, our tradition,’ [but] society must accept it’s harmful to them.”
UNICEF believes that FGC is a fundamental violation of girls’ rights and throughout Africa is working with government partners to bring about grassroots change. “The Government, religious leaders, professionals, the whole society must be committed,” says Tabeyin. “Only with constant teaching and society’s support, can we stop it.”
Grassroots training
Teacher training and sensitization workshops have resulted in dramatic reversals in attitude among participants, particularly where videos on FGC have been screened. In one community, a Muslim religious leader broke with tradition after taking part in a workshop and allowed his daughter to get married uncircumcised. Similarly, several workers from regional agricultural bureaus have got married without having their wives undergo FGC.
“We must train people from the grassroots [level] that these harmful traditional practices can be stopped. These harmful traditional practices impact women and children. Together we are striving to protect women’s and children’s rights,” says Asmake Major, a training officer for the Regional Women’s Affairs Office in Awassa.
With support from UNICEF, the Regional Women’s Affairs Office has trained more than 10,000 people to work in the community to educate their peers about the physical, psychological and emotional impact of FGC in an effort to stop the practice.
Almaz Mulugeta, chairwoman of the Women’s Association in Wolaita Sodo, says that whenever there is a social gathering, she takes the opportunity to teach women about the dangers of female genital mutilation.
“When there is a wedding ceremony and the women are chopping the onions for the feast, I tell them. When there are funerals, I talk to them,” she says. “Unless women are organized, we will never eradicate this problem.”
*Note: Not their real names
At a glance: Ethiopia The big picture
Real lives
Males join the fight against harmful traditional practices
Addis Ababa - Abebe Kebede cried the first time he saw a graphic film of a young girl being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM).
“At first I didn’t know anything about harmful traditional practices,” said the 20-year-old high school senior at Bole Senior High School in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. “After I saw that film, I was devoted to stopping the practice.”
Abebe joined the anti-HTP (harmful traditional practices) club at his school and later became its head. “Before I joined, I was accepting of the practice. My behaviour changed because of the education at my school.”
Abebe Kebede (no relation) is a programme officer at the National Committee on Traditional Practices of Ethiopia (NCTPE) who trained Abebe. “He’s a really devoted student and committed to ask for support,” he said.
When his older sister, Abebech, gave birth to her own girl, she refused to have her circumcised after talking to her brother.
Slow but steady progress
FGM is practised in varying degrees throughout Ethiopia and the age of the girls varies from region to region. Reasons given for FGM range from regulating a woman’s sexual desire to ensuring fidelity to taboos against uncircumcised women handling grain or serving food.
UNICEF is working with the government’s Women’s Affairs Offices and NCTPE to eradicate such practices, which endanger the health of women and children.
“Increasingly, the subject of HTPs is gaining ground as a public issue of major concern as a result of strong social mobilization campaigns conducted with the support of UNICEF,” said Zewdie Abegaz, head of UNICEF’s Gender and Child Protection Unit in Ethiopia. “Today, there is a noticeable shift to a milder form, meaning partial instead of complete removal of the clitoris.”
At Abebe’s high school, club members broadcast 15-minute programmes to educate students on subjects ranging from HTPs to reproductive rights and the dangers of drugs. Currently, there are about 30 high schools in Addis Ababa that have student sensitization courses, and more than 500 youth trainers have been trained in the last four years.
“We are trying to have behavioural and attitudinal change,” said Bizuayene Habte Michael, a teacher at Bole Senior High School, who supervises the club. “It takes a long time. It takes a generation.”
“It’s better to teach young people-to-young people. They can talk to me about sexual issues freely,” said Abebe, who has been a peer counsellor for two years. “They are afraid of going to counsellors. With me they are not afraid, but open, both the boys and the girls. They listen to me. Even though I’m graduating, I will still keep working.”
Changing minds, changing traditions
This summer, Abebe and two other club members travelled to his home in Debra Sina in the Amhara region where they counselled local villagers. He has even used his own money to pay practitioners not to perform FGM on the girls in his village. The price of a circumcision ranges from 4-12 birr (approximately $0.50-$1.40) where he lives.
“The mothers don’t want their daughters circumcised, but the men want it, so it will continue,” he said.
Even some of Abebe’s own family are against his efforts to stop FGM in Ethiopia. “They believe that I am spoiling the tradition,” he said.
Seyoum Birru, a coordinator for NCTPE, had his mind changed about female circumcision by his Irish home economics teacher, who was vehemently against FGM. He said he was against her teachings at first, but eventually he decided she was right. He refused to allow his wife and mother-in-law to circumcise his own daughters.
Seyoum says his organization tries to promote positive traditional Ethiopian practices such as breastfeeding and care of the elderly. They are working to convince the population that FGM and other HTPs must be stopped.
“These traditions are harming society, especially the ladies and the children,” Seyoum said. “Children are innocent, and they can’t speak for themselves to stop this practice.”
Grassroots campaign
In Addis Ababa committees are working in more than 300 kebeles, or districts, to teach women about the health risks of HTPs and giving them a voice to exercise their right to stop the practice.
“These taskforces are aimed at the grassroots,” Seyoum said. “People are reporting to the taskforces, and they will intervene. Even some people phone my office saying, ‘They are going to circumcise this little girl. Can you help her?’ And I will go to the home and I tell the mother the health implications, that they may lose their child due to infection, loss of blood or problems with delivery later.”
NCTPE has sponsored week-long Training of Trainers sessions in the Ethiopian capital for about 55 participants over the last three years with UNICEF assistance.
Still, some critics insist the committee should not interfere with Ethiopian tradition.
“But we teach that their child can die from circumcision. Our aim is [to] eradicate it from our country,” Seyoum said. “We are moving to the grassroots level and discussing with the people that this tradition is harming them. Gradually we can eradicate it, but it takes a long time.”
Digital Solidarity, Key to Africa’s Development — Interview with Mr Abdoulaye Wade, President of Senegal
Mr Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal. (IDRC Photo: Jérôme Gérard)
2003-12-11
Mame Less Camara
In Dakar, on December 2, 2003, Mr Abdoulaye Wade, President of the Republic of Senegal, accorded Senegalese journalist Mame Less Camara an exclusive interview on behalf of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Mr Wade is coordinator of the information and communication technologies (ICTs) aspect of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The interview took place on the eve of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), held December 9 to 12. President Wade considers the new technologies one of NEPAD’s eight priority sectors. In fact, he says, the new technologies “have shown the way for giving concrete application to NEPAD in partnership with developed countries.”
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Mr President, as coordinator of the ICTs aspect of NEPAD, can you tell us what position Africa will take at WSIS?
I would simply point out that NEPAD, which is Africa’s vision for its future, is also a long-term plan for Africa’s development in partnership with developed countries. I mention this because the very essence of NEPAD lies in the new ICTs, with the advent of the information society. These new technologies are one of NEPAD’s eight priority sectors, and they are therefore part of a whole, an integral element in an overall mechanism.
Therefore, when we speak of the digital divide, this is a gap that separates us from developed countries. I say that because we have to address this in all fields — infrastructure, health, energy, and so on — in order to be able to say that the proponents of the new technologies have shown the way for giving concrete application to NEPAD in partnership with developed countries.
So what is Africa's position? We want to see principles and mechanisms for closing the digital divide. It is not a question of doing this gradually or in dribs and drabs — we simply have to close that gap.
So how does Africa propose to overcome the digital divide?
In terms of principle, we have said that this issue needs to be seen in the context of digital solidarity. In terms of mechanisms, we are proposing a fund. Of course the fund is not the only mechanism, and there could be others. But we in Africa have chosen the digital solidarity fund.
At the outset, our ambition was to secure a moral commitment from the international community in the form of a charter, because the problem is so important. There would be nothing coercive about this charter. We were thinking of a declaration, in the form of a moral commitment in this particular field, reaffirming the unity of humanity, which is now in effect split by the digital divide.
I believe our partners have not understood us very clearly on this. In Geneva, I will have the opportunity to return to this question. That strikes me as essential. It's like a constitution, where you need a preamble to set out the philosophy that will inspire the citizens. This is also our approach in thinking about the charter. Digital solidarity as affirmation: people declaring their solidarity in the digital field in order to close the gap.
And how will these mechanisms work?
We have to translate this intention through the digital solidarity fund. That is the link. The digital solidarity fund has to be organized, it has to have a management, headquarters, and mechanisms.
To handle implementation, a world sponsorship committee is planned. In Geneva our work must not stop at a declaration. We need to put permanent structures in place. If the fund is created, it will have its headquarters in Geneva, in absolute transparency. This international committee is now being constituted. It will certainly include one country from Africa, one from Asia, one from Europe, the United States, and Brazil.
We also have to explain how it will be financed.
If we take the example of Canada, here is a country that is helping with its own means, with IDRC resources, to close the digital divide. Other countries are doing so at their own pace. How can we reconcile the digital solidarity that we are proposing with bilateral cooperation? As I see it, we must not confuse the two issues. Creating the digital solidarity fund does not affect bilateral cooperation at all. Digital solidarity is something new that will be added to existing cooperation mechanisms.
It is here that we disagree with Europe, which wants Africa to use existing cooperation mechanisms, improving them if necessary. But as I have said about NEPAD, we do not accept having bilateral cooperation funds recycled through NEPAD. NEPAD is something new, and so we are not asking them to recycle existing cooperation through the digital solidarity fund or in some other way. If that was the case, we would not go to Geneva.
The information society in Africa presupposes some conditions such as people’s ownership of new technologies. This poses problems of sensitization and training. What importance do you assign to this aspect?
Thanks to international cooperation, computers are now becoming available in schools, for illiterate people, and the disabled and so on. This is to say that the problem is a lack of equipment. It is very reassuring for Africa, indeed, to realize that our backwardness is not one of mental astuteness or intellectual capacity. It is simply a question of means and techniques.
If Africa had to develop by following the path of Europe, the United States, or Canada, that would take at least a century and a half. But we are in a hurry, and we are going to copy Canada and the United States and move directly into the information society. Instead of going through the stages of agricultural development, processing, and the industrialization of the 19th century, we are jumping with both feet into the digital world. And then, through a process of feedback, we will work on the other issues.
We are going to use ICTs to combat poverty. An example of the importance of information technologies is that, today, you can provide information from the Web to women, who then see how others do things — process vegetables, care for children, combat diseases, etc. Canadian cooperation is setting an example — it is increasing the capacity of small farmers and rural women to understand their situation better by making comparisons. So ICTs have a role in overcoming poverty.
There is also a challenge when it comes to content, such as preserving local know-how and communicating knowledge.
We are in a hurry, and so we have to do both. We must import and at the same time we must create the conditions for import substitution. We can do that, but it needs two things: on one hand, intelligence, I mean the ability to use this information; and on the other hand, the means and equipment.
We have the human resources: what we don't have is the equipment. That poses a complex and difficult problem, but it is also a very exciting problem because the leading edge of scientific research is certainly ICTs. Of all the sciences, the most complicated one, and we might say the one that drives the world, is ICTs. If we succeed in closing the digital divide, we can do the same in all other sectors.
Access to information technologies is still very uneven for people in Africa. What do you intend to do to reduce disparities within African societies?
I made the point some years ago when we were talking about these things for the first time, that the digital divide is not between certain Senegalese and the developed countries, but that it exists globally between us (Africa) and developed countries and also within our own countries between Dakar, for example, and Darou Mousty and Matam.1
Looking at the percentage of the population that has access to or can use the new ICTs, all you need is a graph, shading in the countries that have so many telephones per person, so many Web sites and such, to see that we are at the bottom of the scale. Meanwhile very few countries are at the top, and the potential for equipment and communication is concentrated there. We have said, since we were delegated to defend Africa's interest, that we can identify an upper margin and a lower margin that is reasonably accessible, and these margins will delineate the information society.
We have defined a situation using quantitative criteria, and now we — those of us at the lower end of the scale — know what to do to join the information society. That brings us back to computer equipment, of course, but also to training so that people can use these tools to enter the information society.
Africa already has severe disparities between men and women. How can the digital divide be prevented from perpetuating and worsening this gender gap?
You are already familiar with the campaign I am waging for the advancement of women and for equality of opportunity, to bolster women who have lagged behind men because of colonial policies. Access to ICTs merely mirrors the gap between women and men. The gender problem exists here like everywhere else. My philosophy is to try to help women reach the top as quickly as possible, and that depends on us alone.
Women can contribute more to decision-making if they are at the top, where they can influence the progress of other women and of society. The fate of women must not be left up to men — that would be a tremendous mistake. That would be unilateral, and I can tell you that things will go much better if we leave it to women to close the gap between men and themselves.
Africans often cast their relationship to technology in terms of having it take root and being open to it. How can they appropriate the new information technologies while maintaining their identity as Africans?
Cultural identity doesn't mean that “I'm not going to take an airplane because my ancestors didn't invent it.” It is clear that when people use these technologies, they express themselves and they are creative in accordance with their own culture. Teach children to draw using a computer. The child from Senegal will not draw the same way as one from Norway. It's a means of cultural expression that is available to everyone. Moreover, thanks to these new technologies, our culture is better known around the world.
Canada has already taken some initiatives to use the new technologies for sustainable development, for improving connectivity and so on. How can these Canadian initiatives help to meet the NEPAD objectives in the field of new information technologies? Are they moving towards the notion of digital solidarity?
On the principle itself, I must say that Canada's policy in Senegal and some other African countries is an application of digital solidarity. It is through solidarity between the Canadian people and the Senegalese people, between the Canadian government and the Senegalese government, that Canada is helping us to benefit from digital possibilities and potential in nearly all fields of economic and social life.
You may ask me why am I so intent on promoting digital solidarity. It's because Canada is the only country that is doing that here in Senegal, in terms of cooperation that is as broad and as deep and that embraces all fields. I'm not saying that others don't do the same thing. Whether it’s the World Bank, France, or other countries, others are doing so in a certain number of sectors. But to my knowledge, Canada is the country that is doing it most widely and in most depth. And that's what solidarity is all about.
Why do you think Canada would be providing this cooperation if it were not based on the principle of solidarity? It would be good to generalize this approach. But as soon as you generalize something, you have to organize it. To be most effective, it has to be done by affirming this solidarity so that all developed countries that have capacities in the ICT field enable us to justly benefit from them, help us put this potential to work for our development.
With Canadian cooperation, we are in the process of closing the digital divide. When you connect Senegalese school children to young Canadians, you are taking that step — you are closing that gap.
In effect, we have had digital solidarity with Canada, but the expression did not exist. It's like Molière’s Mr Jourdain, who was speaking prose without knowing it.
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(1) Darou Mousty and Matam are two areas of Senegal that are among the most remote from the capital city of Dakar.
http://web.idrc.ca/ev_en.php?ID=46183_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC
In Conversation: Venàncio Massingue
Dr Venàncio Massingue, Vice Rector of the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Mozambique.
2003-11-17
Kevin Conway
Dr Venàncio Massingue is Mozambique's information and communication technologies (ICTs) champion. Vice-Rector of the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), he bridges the worlds of academia and politics. He has used his knowledge of both these worlds to help bring Mozambique into the "information age." He has been successful, but, given the challenges his country faces, he also still has a long road ahead.
Dr Massingue was born in a village 275 kilometres from Mozambique's capital, Maputo, in "one of those little round houses" that dot the Mozambiquan countryside. His father died when he was seven, leaving his mother to raise four children on her own. A woman with no "formal education who didn't know how to write," his mother had a very "strong influence" on his life, he says.
Throughout his life, Dr Massingue has made the most of the opportunities presented to him. His father's brother provided him with a place to stay in Maputo so he could attend school. Later, when his uncle moved to Namaacha and opened a bar, the young Massingue went with him. Working for him before and after school, he eventually earned enough to attend technical school where he studied electricity. Technical school whetted his appetite for learning and he soon found himself at UEM pursuing a degree in engineering. His stint in engineering was cut short when the Director of the UEM's informatics centre plucked the promising student from his studies and introduced him to computers.
It was during his time at Delft University in Holland, however, that the energetic engineer began to formulate some of his ideas about how ICTs might help shape his country's development path.
Dr Massingue spoke to IDRC Reports online magazine about his experience and the role of ICTs in development.
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Can technology accelerate a country's development?
Yes, but you have to define development. I believe that whatever we do should be people-centred and should aim to improve the quality of life — health, education, and, socioeconomic position — of each person. The question is then, "what role can technology play to contribute to these definitions."
My government has what are called "five year plans," where decisions are made on what needs to be done. Education is a priority, health is a priority, etc. We looked at these and asked how technology could help. And the marriage — if you want to call it that — between the government plan and technological tools has been excellent in some areas.
Can you give some examples?
In the '80s and beginning of the '90s, when people around the world thought about Mozambique, two phenomena came to mind: hunger and war. I wondered: "What can we do to make people realize that there is something else?". So I started a small research project that led to the establishment of the Internet in Mozambique. Now, instantly, people can have accurate information about Mozambique.
But with the Internet and email, we then asked "what can we do to move this beyond academia?." And that is where the model of telecentres came from. Rural communities in Mozambique have problems with communications, with getting information. By putting telecentres in place, people in these communities can obtain information quickly. Telecentres can facilitate access to education.
You were able to garner support from Mozambique's prime minister and president for your work. This has been translated into a national ICT policy. How did you achieve that?
In 1992, I developed a model that became the new Centre for Informatics at the UEM (CIUEM). It took three, four years but the results we produced were very solid. We brought the Internet to Mozambique and set up a computer maintenance centre at the university. Maybe these seem like funny stories, but in the '80s, if anything broke down we had to send it to either South Africa or Europe.
In 1996, I organized an international symposium (the International Symposium on Informatics and Development: A World in Transition). One of the themes was how to develop a national information policy. I invited most of the Cabinet members, including the prime minister. After this the prime minister said, "I want you, the centre (CIEUM), to prepare a policy."
I suggested that what would be better would be some sort of task force led by the prime minister or president. He accepted that and took on the job. So my bosses — if you want to call them that — have vision and a good sense of things, of what will work and what will not.
Can you tell me how you “fed” the policy process?
The process had two sides: scientific and political. A lot of groundwork had already been done and we were looking for moral, technical, and material resources to support the initiative we had started. So when the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) began supporting ICTs in Africa in 1996 through the Acacia initiative, the first project we submitted was to create the secretariat, the Mozambique Acacia Advisory Committee Secretatiat (MAACS). We needed something to serve as a reference point, a body to energize the process. So the role of MAACS was and is to do the academic, scientific thinking, and feed the processes going on.
We knew we wanted an ICT policy — there were many people talking about this, but they did not know what it was. In our minds it was very important to demonstrate by doing. So we decided to undertake two pilot projects to validate the process.
First, we began with the idea of supporting communities, of looking at things that have an impact on the community. That is where the idea of a telecentre came from. We knew we wanted something to empower people by using technology. We wanted something people could see. For example, they could go to a remote area and see people using technology. This way they would know this is not the fantasy of politicians and academicians!
Then I set up a team with members from CIEUM, the African Study Centre, the Faculty of Economics, and from our telecom company, Telecommunicacoes de Mozambique (TDM). The team developed a research document on Mozambican telecentres because the meaning of telecentre is different in different countries and we needed our own. This is how the first telecentres were born.
Second, we also realized that the majority of our people are young. So we thought it was very important to create a project targeting youth. This was SchoolNet Mozambique, and we made sure we had people from the Ministry of Education on this team.
These two projects were instrumental in providing feedback to the process of developing policy.
What would you say are some of the key lessons others —donors, for example — could learn from your experience?
First, you want to be clear that you want to change the way things are being done; you want to change for the better. So the main message is: we must be critical of the way things are done.
Second, you have to identify, or create, or contribute to the creation of champions at all levels. Most of the things I have done were possible because people said "We think you can do it." This is very important. You have to empower, you have to support what the Americans call "champions" at all levels.
Third, I think it is very important to listen to what people say is relevant to them. This is not a simple issue. Sometimes donors have their own priorities and ways of doing things. New ideas can disturb these, but it is important that they find ways of accommodating new ideas because very small ideas can become very big.
For example, the first time I connected Mozambique to the Internet I had a "286" (megahertz) computer and a 300 baud modem. Now we have a two-megabit connection, a satellite, and many, many more people using the Internet. So, you have to appreciate the potential in a seed. What we are talking about now started at the end of the 1980s and it is only at the end of the 1990s that we really started harvesting the fruits of our labour.
Fourth — and for me this is very critical — is the need to create a critical mass of knowledge. It is very important that you have people who can carry out research, who can do technical work, and who utilize technology correctly. In Mozambique we are straining educational and human resources now, so we must work very hard.
Fifth, it is very important to maintain an element of research in what you do, because research brings knowledge and knowledge can influence policies. Policies, when well implemented, can bring the desired development. So it is very important that in all programs, a research program be always present.
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In 2000, Mozambique's Council of Ministers approved a national ICT policy — the first in Africa. A year later, in a speech he delivered to an international symposium convened to translate Mozambique's ICT policy into an implementation plan, the country's president, Joaquim Chissano, said: "I call on members of the Government and of civil society to exercise dynamic leadership and not to neglect any legal or regulatory means to create a favourable environment for the development of ICTs in the country, in such a way as to properly and adequately provide its multiple benefits to the people."
In June 2002, Mozambique's Council of Ministers approved the National ICT Policy Implementation Strategy. The strategy will provide the framework and entry points for development partners to support the country's ICT Policy. The work of Dr Massingue and his team has come full circle: research has informed policy to shape development.
Kevin Conway is a senior writer in IDRC's Communications Division.
In Reports magazine: Telecentres: A One-Stop Communication Shop, by Kevin Conway
Telecentres: From Idea to Reality in Mozambique
Jertrudes, a market vendor in Manhiça, Mozambique, enrolled in a computer training course at a local telecentre. (IDRC Photo: Kevin Conway)
2003-11-17
Kevin Conway
"With computers," says Polly Gaster, "it's garbage in, garbage out. The human element still dominates."
Don't talk of computers or other information and communication technologies (ICTs) leapfrogging stages in a country's development. History, she points out, is littered with high-stepping technologies that fell flat.
The researcher from Mozambique's University Eduardo Mondlane Informatics Centre (CIUEM) does concede, however, that "you can get quick adoption of computers or other ICTs, but you have to have all the other bits and pieces too: the human resources, the way the technology is introduced, what's done with it, and training — these are all critical components."
A formidable challenge
Dealing with all the "bits and pieces" is something with which Gaster has become quite accustomed. In 1996, she led a multidisciplinary team charged with pilot testing telecentres in Mozambique. From the beginning, the project's goal was to create a tool to promote local development, especially in rural areas where 80% of Mozambique's 17 million citizens live.
The challenges were, and still remain, daunting: Mozambique is a large country lacking in infrastructure (although, in telecommunications, it is improving thanks to large investments by the Mozambican government); 60% of Mozambique's population remains illiterate and unemployment is high; the number of Internet users hovers at about 8 per 10 000 people (compared to close to 4400 per 10 000 in a country like Canada); and new subscribers who can afford the installation fees can still wait more than four years for a telephone line.
At a practical level, Gaster notes, "nobody knew what a telecentre in Mozambique would look like. So we asked Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to support a proper feasibility study."
Two pilot sites were identified: one in the town of Namaacha, 70 kilometres southwest of Mozambique's capital, Maputo City, along the border with Swaziland; the other in Manhiça, 78 kilometres north of the capital. [See related article: Telecentres: A One-Stop Communication Shop] In both study areas, researchers gauged local information and communication needs, family income and spending priorities, and economic and demographic trends, as well as people's willingness to pay for new or improved services.
"The feasibility study was really a way of getting to know the people and getting a little feel for local dynamics," says Gaster.
A menu of services
To no one's surprise, the study confirmed the telephone as the principal means for communicating with the outside world and radio as the standard medium for receiving information. It also highlighted health and education as spending priorities after "food and water-type expenditures. Where people really wanted telecentre services was in the areas of education, basic communication, and computer skills," says Gaster.
The menu of products and services created to meet these needs included: access to the Internet, electronic mail, use of computers, training in the use Microsoft Office software packages, printing and related services (digitization, word processing, the production of invitations, business, and visiting cards, etc.), photocopying, fax and telephone services, television and video, and a small library. In Namaacha, because of established trade ties with neighbouring Swaziland, an English course was also offered.
To date, photocopying services and the public telephone have proven to be the telecentres' most popular features. Much less used are email and Internet service. To use either, patrons must first access the telecentre's Internet Service Provider, the CIUEM in Maputo. Connecting to their server means a long distance phone call and the high cost is prohibitive for most users.
Computer training is also popular. "It is one of the most sought after services and something people will pay for," says Gaster.
Reaching out to women
Other organizations have also capitalized on the telecentre's training facilities. For example, the Forum Mulher, a national umbrella organization for women, was able to secure funding for its affiliates, groups such as the Manhiça market vendors. [See related article: A New Window on the World for Women] A key outcome, says Lucilia Xerinda, the Forum Mulher's course coordinator, is the confidence that comes with mastering new skills and an unfamiliar technology. "Women no longer believe that computers are for men and young people only," she says.
Despite the Forum Mulher's efforts, Gaster's own data shows that women use telecentres less often than do men. The telecentres' most devoted clients are young men aged 17 to 25. This is likely a reflection of the greater amount of formal education young men receive compared to young women. Both groups see computing skills as a springboard to better jobs, but men are more likely to pursue their ambitions.
Constraints to expansion
Despite an assessment indicating that the people of Manhiça and Namaacha value their telecentres, Gaster admits, "we haven't been able to implement all that our telecentre theory implies we should do in terms of proactive development work." One of the reasons she cites is the cost and quality of current telecommunications products and services that make Internet access and email to costly for ordinary people. "It's also prohibitive for the telecentre itself given that we've been trying to test out this business of a sustainable model," she says "The telecentre staff are afraid to use the Internet because they know they'll get this whopping phone bill at the end of the month."
Human resources are another constraint. "Our telecentres," says Gaster, "are run by 22 year-olds with a tenth grade education. Their ability to initiate, to experiment, to go further — especially given the cost of experimentation — is limited. So you must train, and retrain. Too often we do not have the time or budget to do all these things as well as we would like."
Future prospects
When Gaster looks to the future, she notes with some satisfaction that the idea of a telecentre and all it entails has entered the vocabulary of people at the provincial level. She can also point to the telecentres' pride of place in the country's ICT policy and the implementation strategy, as well as to how the notion of universal access has been enshrined in the same two documents. "I hope it will lead to other initiatives with different people in different parts of the country," she says, "because we do not want to build up a franchise. Our job is to pilot, test, prove, disprove, and so forth."
She worries, however, about the current debate within Mozambique surrounding sustainability and the role of the private sector in the creation of telecentres in other parts of the country. "My big, big concern is that we are losing the original concept of a telecentre as a proactive tool for local development. We are getting hung up on this other discourse about sustainability, etc., at the cost of those other bits and pieces that require funding, like training women. This is a conundrum that has not yet been solved. It's something that has to be constantly kept in mind by people who work in this area, whether private or public."
The Best Policy: Telcom Research from an African Perspective
Telecommunication policies must be based on an understanding of African realities, according to the LINK Centre. (IDRC Photo: Y. Beaulieu)
2003-11-17
Lisa Waldick
Five years ago, no-one expected mobile telephones to be ringing in the pockets of farmers hoeing in the fields of rural Africa. However, by the end of 2001, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)1 estimated that 28 African countries, representing more than half the of the region's countries, had more users of mobile telephones than of fixed-line phones. Farmers are using mobile phones to ensure the best prices for their crops, small-scale entrepreneurs are contacting potential clients, and grandparents are talking to their children and grandchildren hundreds of kilometres away. The exponential growth of mobile phones has defied predictions that the technology was too expensive to be viable in Africa.
This unexpected blossoming of mobile connectivity is one more argument in favour of African-based policy research, according to Alison Gillwald, research director of the Learning Information Networking Knowledge (LINK) Centre. The Johannesburg-based Centre is an educational body that focuses on public policy, regulation, and management in the area of information and communication.
The golden egg of connectivity
The rise of mobile phones in a continent with limited access to fixed-line telephones has people rethinking strategies for providing universal access to phone service. "People are saying, ‘let's harness the mobile operators in order to deliver universal access.' Now to harness them into a fixed-line model... could work if it is done very carefully, but it presents a really serious danger of killing the goose that has laid this golden egg of mobile connectivity," says Gillwald. [See related sidebar: Universal Access Models]
Part of the problem is that the African context is vastly different from that of Europe or North America, but prevailing models of how to regulate telecommunications are based on the theory and experience of developed economies. Business models for wireless phones have developed in a setting where the vast majority of the population already has easy access to a fixed-line telephone. Moreover, strategies for providing universal access to telecommunications services (such as fixed-line telephones) were likewise developed in a context where only a tiny percentage of the population lacks access to a fixed line.
"We are using universal access models developed in the North to address the last five 5% of the population. The problem in Africa is the inverse: you actually have to get 90% of the people onto the fixed-line network," says Gillwald. "We will always need those marginal access models because we will always have the last 5% as well. But we have to make a much bigger quantum leap, that will allow us to get people onto the network at affordable prices, as was done with mobile phones."
Upwardly mobile
It is perhaps because thinking about mobile phones was so shaped by the experiences of Northern countries that the story of mobile phones in Africa surprised everyone, including the original operators who rapidly exceeded their sales projections. "GSM technology [global system for mobile communications] was seen as so expensive it wouldn't work. Not only did it work, it took off more than anyone ever expected... it just responded to an incredible need for communications access," says Gillwald.
Whereas many Africans simply couldn't take on the cost of a monthly fee for a fixed-line rental, the option of prepaid telephone calling cards opened new doors. People got the money together to buy the cellular phone, purchased prepaid cards, and then controled their phone usage. If they ran out of money, they stopped making calls — and only received them. People in villages began sharing phones.
Isaac Musumba, Ugandan Minister of State for Finance in Charge of Planning, has seen this phenomon first-hand. There were no telephones in the village where he grew up and this made communication difficult.
"Each time I wanted to talk to my father, I would drive to the village. We are talking about 180 kilometres from the city. So I bought him a mobile phone and said: ‘You will not call anybody, but you will receive my calls.' Then he learned that the neighbour also wanted to call her son. The neighbour came, paid him some money, and used that phone. His home became like a telephone centre. Eventually, another son also bought his father a phone. And then some villagers bought phones."
"What happens now is this. People have buyers for their maize, their coffee, their produce in town. So they call a buyer and say ‘Hello, we have 10 bags of maize. Do you need them? And what's your price?' They get the answer and then they call another buyer to ask ‘What's your price?' They get the best price. They ask: ‘How do you want it delivered, when do you want it delivered.' In the past, they would just put it on a lorry and deliver even when the buyer is not interested, even when the market is down. Now, they actually do find out."
Musumba's father is not unusual. "We have a situation today where we have at least 70% prepaid customers across the network," says Gillwald. "And 30% are on contract. Now that's a completely different model from the North." She adds that the prevailing thought was to evaluate the profitability of wireless phones by considering calls made from the phone and not calls received. "In Africa if you only looked at the AP [Average Revenue Per User] of the person who is buying the phone, you would not invest in the continent; the tendency is to look at things in terms of call origination only. That's a developed economy model," she says.
Putting ICTs in context
Of course, GSM is just one small element of an almost dizzying array of telecommunications technologies. Undersea fibre optic cable using modulated light to transmit digital data over long distances; wireless fidelity (wifi) technology that can provide low-cost, high-speed access to the Internet; VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) satellites that can be used for telemedicine, rural telecommunications, or distance learning — the list is long and continues to grow.
Governments the world over are grappling with policies to make the most of these information technologies for their countries' social and economic development. The issues are complex and broad. How should the radio frequency spectrum be allocated? How can competition and innovation in the information and communication technologies (ICTs) services sector be promoted? How can consumer protection be ensured?
One of the LINK Centre's goals is to foster in-depth knowledge of issues that are specifically relevant to the African context. For example, many African countries have recently liberalized telecommunications. Yet the results of this process have been largely unstudied. Analysis is needed to determine gains for the consumer and the roll-out of much needed infrastructure, according to Gillwald. This information can help support African governments in their work to formulate policies that are both appropriate for their countries and visionary.
"Made in Africa"
To achieve this goal, the LINK Centre is building a network of African researchers to generate information that can be used to formulate "made in Africa" telecommunications policies. The Centre plans to draw on local capacity, while at the same time also collaborating with researchers elsewhere. The research program is supported by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
"Very often research on Africa is done by people who are not African," says Gillwald. "They come and do the research and then move on. There has not been very much collaboration with African partners. Obviously we [in Africa] do have the skills, we do have the passion here, we have a lot of things to offer."
Research generated by the LINK Centre network will inform the Centre's training program — and the training program will inform the research. LINK provides education and customized training on ICTs, including certificate courses, executive courses, public seminars, and Master's and PhD degree programs. Trainees range from reporters specializing in ICT issues, to community activists, to government regulators. The degree programs are targeted to African regulators and policymakers, she adds.
Through training and by putting new information into the public domain, the LINK Centre hopes to contribute to an informed debate on what are, essentially, complex policy issues. "I think that locating the debate in a developing-country context is absolutely critical. Understanding that it is a global economy that we have to work in — but taking into account a local context based on serious analysis of what the issues are here," says Gillwald.
"The global economy and the information society are such different things from the industrial society and the nation-state, and the way things worked before," she continues. "It's all new. People are grappling for solutions. If the only solutions are the ones that have been devised by the World Bank or other organizations, people are going to use those. We need African solutions that are at least there alongside the other options for people to choose from."
"The incredible growth of wireless prepaid telephone tells us something about Africa," she adds. The hope of the LINK Centre is to help uncover more "unexpected" ways to take a quantum leap forward in an African information revolution.
Lisa Waldick is a senior writer in IDRC's Communications Division and the editor of Reports magazine.
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For more information: Heloise Emdon, Senior Program Officer, Acacia, IDRC Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa, Satellite Office c/o Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Halfway House, PO Box 1234, South Africa 1685; Phone: +27 (11) 315 3515 / 3035; Fax: +27 (11) 313 3086; Email: hemdon@idrc.ca
Alison Gillwald, Research Director, LINK Centre, Graduate School of Public & Development Management, Faculty of Commerce, Law & Management, University of the Witwatersrand, PO Box 601, Wits 2050, South Africa; Phone: +27 (11) 717 3904; Fax: +27 (11) 717 3910; Email: link@pdm.wits.ac.za
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Sidebar
Universal Access Models
Universal access refers to providing all citizens with equally priced services, as well as access to an equivalent range of services. The challenge has been to reach rural, remote, or disadvantaged communities. The approach used in the industrialized world hinged on granting monopoly control to telecommunications companies in exchange for an obligation to provide universal access to telephone services. In Northern countries this method made sense in the last century: infrastructure costs were relatively high, but most people lived in cities that could easily be serviced at a relatively low cost. Revenue from high volume business users could also be used to offset costs to consumers.
These factors don't apply to Africa today. Infrastructure costs have plummeted and wireless and satellite bandwidth can make rural areas as easy to reach as urban areas. The demographics of Africa are also different; in many countries, most of the population lives in rural areas. Many experts see a more rapid introduction of competition in the sector as a better model for achieving the required levels of infrastructure and affordable services to support universal access.
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(1) ITU World Telecommunications Development Report 2002, quoted in South African Telecommunications Sector Performance Review by Alison Gillwald and Sean Kane, August 2003.
New Wireless Network for Uganda's Healthcare Workers
A health care worker conducting a survey using a PDA. (SATELLIFE Photo: Mark Grabowsky)
2003-11-17
Lisa Waldick
The introduction of cellular telephony has revolutionized Uganda's communication industry, increasing national teledensity by 350% since the first network went live in early 1995. Now the networks that brought remote villages their first voice connectivity are opening new doors for the delivery of health care.
Physicians and health care workers working in locations without fixed-line telephones or regular access to electricity face serious problems in sharing and accessing critical medical and public health information. It can be challenging for them to gain access to updated treatment guidelines for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, or country-specific essential drug lists. It can take months before epidemiological surveys, done on paper in remote areas, can be input into a computer in the capital city of Kampala. This drastically limits the capacity of the health care system to track and respond to disease outbreaks.
However, Uganda's well-established cellular network is now being used to create a new platform that will allow health care workers to access, record, and transmit data. SATELLIFE: The Global Health Information Network, a nonprofit organization focused on improving health in developing countries, an Uganda Chartered HealthNet (UCH) located at the Makerere University Medical School are pilot testing a wireless system that uses handheld computers and battery-powered Linux computers.
The study is being supported by the Connectivity Africa program of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). [See related sidebar: Innovative Technology for Africa] If the pilot shows that the technology is useful and viable, UCH and SATELLIFE hope to take the project nationwide.
A powerful tool
Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are proving to be a powerful tool for doctors and health care workers in Uganda. Often considered as computer accessories in the North — a handy extension of a desktop computer — PDAs are filling a critical gap for Ugandan health care workers in rural and remote areas. "Just start thinking about the PDA as a computer," says Holly Ladd, executive director of SATELLIFE, "It's got more computing power than the spaceship that went to the moon. It's not a substitute for a full computer, but where you have no electricity or where you can't spend US$2000 a person [on a computer], this is a nice tool. It can be used for storing data, for doing math, for record retrieval, for writing text, and for reading books. It can be used for email and other communication when paired with a telephone line. It can do most of the things that you would need a computer for."
“PDAs are an affordable option for medical professionals in Uganda,” says Patrick Okello, Project Manager of the Uganda Health Information Network. “PDAs are within their means — and they are easy-to-learn and user-friendly. PDAs also enhance a doctor’s efficiency in terms of keeping track of patients and treatments.”
When SATELLIFE tested the use of PDAs in Uganda in 2001, they were found to be a valuable way to bring scarce and much-needed medical information into the field. "Hand-held computers are a simple device to move information all the way out to where care is being delivered. Because you can carry a hand-held computer, you can carry five books in your pocket. It's difficult otherwise," says Ladd.
Moreover, PDAs were found to be an extremely efficient tool for conducting surveys to determine the prevalence of disease such as measles or malaria. The use of PDAs improved accuracy and reduced duplication across surveys, according to Okello. “It’s also much faster to collect data using a PDA than paper — and a lot cheaper,” he adds.
However, says Ladd, what makes the PDA a particularly useful tool is connectivity. "A hand-held computer alone — it's not quite the sound of one hand clapping. But it's only half of the answer."
The wireless servers
Connectivity for the PDAs is being provided by a wireless server created by WideRay, a wireless technology company. The server, known as a jack, is about the size of a thick textbook and relies on industrial-grade batteries that can last more than a year. As Andrew Blackman, vice-president of sales and business development at WideRay explains: "Essentially, the jack is a cell phone. At the back end of the box itself, there is cell phone connectivity. On the front end, the jack connects to the hand-held computer. So the jack basically acts as a store and forward cache of content."
Jacks are being installed in health care facilities in the Rakai and Mbale health districts. They use the cellular network to interact with a central server located in Kampala. Healthcare workers can use the jacks to download information, such as medication alerts or guidelines, as well as upload information, such as survey results or email consultations with other healthcare workers.
From a technical standpoint, says Blackman, the jacks have tested well in Uganda. "We work with wireless operators all over the world. Working in Uganda is not that different technically from working in the US or Europe or other parts of the world. The real advantage that wireless communications is bringing to places like Uganda is that they can literally leapfrog past decades of [fixed-line telephone infrastructure] development and get to a point where they are on par with the rest of the world pretty quickly. Even the most remote villages we went to, we had cell phones that were in coverage, and we had connectivity."
“Connectivity will go a long way in linking hitherto disadvantaged healthcare providers who live and work in remote areas, far removed from the better infrastructure of the city,” says Okello.
The impact for policymakers
The use of the jack servers will mean that policymakers in the national government will have access to the critical data they need to allocate resources in a fraction of the time it has taken in the past. "If it takes two months for reports to move from a sub-district level to the Ministry of Health, where the information then waits until someone is able to enter that information into a computer, what you are looking at is historical information," says Ladd. "It's a very different experience to get an email — a flash — when you turn on your computer in the morning saying that there is a critical shortage of supplies or a disease outbreak happening right now."
She adds that sending information, such as medical guidelines, from Kampala to outlying areas is equally as critical. "If you have a country that is considering using antiretroviral drugs for HIV, for example, there is a tremendous body of knowledge constantly being developed that needs to be translated into guidelines for care. If people don't have access to information about how to use antiretrovirals, how are they going to use them appropriately?"
A new market?
However, she cautions that PDAs and jack servers represent only one tool, not a panacea. "There are lots of issues around the rest of the healthcare system's ability to actually mobilize a response. This doesn't change the lack of resources, the lack of staff, the lack of medication. It doesn't change any of that. It's not a cure for the health system. It is a way to help people get a handle on finding a cure for the health system."
It is also a way to increase the information available to individual health care professionals so they can more effectively do their jobs. The response of physicians to the device during the training was quite positive, according to Blackman, who conducted training sessions. "People picked up on the technology pretty quickly. They immediately started thinking of applications, saying things like: 'this would be great for looking up information on drug interactions on the spot when I was with a patient'."
Ladd says she hopes that the project will help to illustrate that PDAs will prove to be as ubiquitous as cell-phones have become in Africa. "When you look at the growth of the cellular telephone industry and the number of individual subscribers, you can learn from that. People in Africa will spend money on technology."
"We don't want to be in the business of selling PDAs — that's not our job. Our job is getting healthcare information to the field. So one of our goals with this project is to convince the manufacturers of hand-held computers that there is a market in Africa for this technology."
"It's grandiose to think that the introduction of an information system is going to improve healthcare for the people of a country," says Ladd. "I happen to believe it will. But if we can make physicians and healthcare workers more able to care for their patients because they have more information, then we've gone a step towards that goal."
Lisa Waldick is a senior writer in IDRC's Communications Division and the editor of Reports magazine.
For more information: Steve Song, Manager, Connectivity Africa, IDRC, PO Box 8500, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1G 3H9; Phone: (613) 236-6163 ext. 2268; Fax: (613) 567-7749; Email: connectivityafrica@idrc.ca
Holly Ladd, SATELLIFE, 30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472,USA; Phone: (617) 926-9400; Fax: (617) 926-1212; Email: hnet@healthnet.org
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Sidebar. Innovative Technology for Africa
Wireless technology for PDAs is one example of the kind of project being supported by Connectivity Africa, a program supported by IDRC that was announced during the G8 Summit held in Kananaskis, Alberta in 2002. Connectivity Africa will build on Canada's experience in connectivity projects in Africa and adapt Canadian expertise and models to the needs of African countries, particularly in education, health, and economic development.
"Connectivity Africa is looking at how to leverage new and improving technologies that have potential for Africa," says Connectivity Africa manager Steve Song. "PDAs are a good example of this."
"There are a lot of inexpensive technologies that are emerging on the market — technologies that were once complex," he adds. "For example, wireless LAN [local area network] connections used to be very complex. Now you find them in the business lounge in the airport. Technologies are becoming cheap; they are becoming commodities. And once a technology becomes a commodity, it has the potential to spread very quickly. I see our job as making sure that Africa has the capacity to capitalize on these technologies to improve the impact of development activities."
In addition to supporting innovation in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), Connectivity Africa is also focusing on finding ways to facilitate regional integration in Africa; on building capacity for research and development related to ICTs, particularly in African universities; and on increasing opportunities for partnership and convergence.
http://africa.oneworld.net/external/?url=http//www.ifpri.org%2Fevents%2Fconferences%2F2003%2F120103%2Fclosing.htm
Pretoria Statement on the Future of African Agriculture
Preamble
Significant poverty reduction will not be possible in Africa without rapid agricultural growth. Only improved agricultural productivity can simultaneously improve welfare among the two-thirds of all Africans who work primarily in agriculture as well as the urban poor, who spend over 60% of their budget on food staples.
Regrettably, past performance has proven inadequate. Africa remains the only region of the developing world where per capita agricultural production has fallen over the past forty years. To stem deepening poverty, social inequity and political instability, African farmers, governments, international partners and the private sector must all do better in the future. Recognizing this imperative, African Heads of State and Government agreed, at the African Union Summit in July 2003, to make agriculture a top priority and to raise budget allocations for agriculture to a minimum of 10% of total public spending within five years.
Africa's sluggish aggregate performance, however, masks a rich historical record of substantial agricultural successes. Though these episodic and scattered booms have proven insufficient to sustain aggregate per capita growth in agriculture, they do prove informative in pointing to promising areas for effective intervention in the future. In a rapidly changing global environment --with increasingly concentrated market power and rapidly changing biological, information and communication technologies -- and given growing pressures on the natural resource base and public budgets, governments and their private sector partners must learn to apply the lessons from these past successes.
Evidence from a series of successful episodes in African agriculture suggests two fundamental prerequisites for sustained agricultural growth as well as a number of promising specific opportunities:
Fundamental pre-requisites
- Good governance. High-level political commitment has consistently proven essential to improving the welfare of farm households. It translates directly into favorable policy environments and budget allocations to agricultural support institutions and related infrastructure. Effective farmer organizations remain central to improving the communication and articulation of farm sector needs to government. Both farmers' organizations and governments must take responsibility for initiating overtures and organizational forms to make this possible. We call upon governments to work closely with the private sector, civil society and farmers' organizations in the allocation of increased public funding to agriculture. In consultation with the private sector, governments should create and facilitate an enabling environment for the private sector to perform.
- Sustained funding for agricultural research and extension. Raising productivity remains central to boosting farm output and lowering consumer food prices. Virtually all of the successes we have identified involve some form of improved technology: biological, agronomic, mechanical or organizational. Therefore, governments must elevate funding for agricultural research and extension. Furthermore, it is important that farmers' innovations be mainstreamed into the research agenda. Governments, together with donors, must ensure the training of staff capable of mastering new biological research technologies. Given the growing role of private research in biotechnology and hybrid breeding, governments must develop partnerships and protocols for making new technologies developed in the private sector available to smallholder farmers.
Promising opportunities
- Soil and water conservation. We have been impressed with the number and range of innovative efforts by farmers and researchers to sustain soil fertility and water resources in response to increasingly degraded natural environments. Therefore, further testing of these models across national borders merits additional examination and support with the aim of refining and scaling up successes in restoring and sustaining soil fertility. This will require interaction among formal researchers, farmers and their supporting institutions.
- Replication of proven commodity-specific breeding and processing successes. We are impressed with the importance of upscaling cassava breeding and processing research to meet food security, livestock feed and industrial uses. Strong complementarities across regions suggest regional cooperation and sharing of biological and mechanical technologies will magnify returns. Tissue-culture bananas and Nerica rice offer further examples of commodity-specific replication potential. NEPAD and leading centers of technology development should take the lead in initiating this exchange.
- Marketing and information systems. Mechanisms for aggregating and improving the quality of the products of smallholder farmers and providing relevant and timely market information will enhance market efficiency. This will prove necessary in enabling them to compete in increasingly concentrated domestic, regional and global markets. A variety of models exist - contract farming among cotton and horticulture producers, dairy marketing groups and others - for grouping small farmers into economically viable market entities.
- Vertical supply chains. To improve efficiency, raise value-added in production and processing, and ensure improved coordination between producers and final markets will require increasing attention to supply chain management rather than an exclusively production orientation. Successes in cotton, horticulture, dairy and maize all reveal the importance of vertical farmer-to-market coordination.
- Regional cooperation in trade and agricultural technology. Regional trade offers significant potential for moderating food insecurity through cross-border exchange. Harmonization of trade regulations on a regional basis will prove necessary to facilitate these commodity flows. In research as well, countries along common agro ecological zones mean that regional technology and information exchange offer significant opportunities for sharing research and development overheads, expanding benefits and reducing costs. This cross-border technology exchange has proven vitally important in the cases of cassava, maize and natural resource management technologies. For this exchange, capacity-building is necessary. NEPAD and the regional economic organizations remain uniquely suited to facilitate such exchange.
We believe that with renewed commitment to building partnerships between governments, farmers' organizations, international partners and the private sector, significant gains are achievable in African agriculture. And achieve them we must, to ensure significant economic growth and poverty reduction in the decades ahead.
International Conference on Successes in African Agriculture. Building for the Future. December 01-03, 2003, Pretoria, South Africa
http://africa.oneworld.net/link/gotolink/addhit/49114
Gender digital gap in Africa - How to expand women’s access to ICTS
09/22/2003, Ngathie Diop: CATIA
Information and communication technologies have proven to be effective in driving social and economic development. They have the potential to give voice to isolated people living in remote areas and to create jobs for the unemployed. They can also help to improve existing businesses. However in Africa, women do not have equal access to ICTs. Due to many reasons, the majority of African women are excluded from them. What benefits women can get from ICTs? What are the barriers women face to access to ICTs? What can be done to remove those barriers? These are the questions that will be addressed in this note.
ICT opportunities for women
The first of these opportunities is the direct access to information and training. The use of Internet has allowed millions of women in the continent to have access to e-commerce and information related to many things: the protection of their rights, health, childcare, education, agriculture and environment issues as well as world issues in the area of international relations and world politics. Internet provides them with a forum of discussion and e-conferences in which they can participate to exchange ideas and experiences with other women the world over. The “Communication For Women” program launched by ENDA TIERS MONDE (a non governmental organization) in 1995 in Senegal is one of the country’s four community experiences aimed to promote the use of Internet among the different segments of population. Not only this program provides Senegalese women with a wide range of information but it also convenes women from West Africa region to ICT training sessions and e-conferences for large discussion on women empowerment and health issues. The program is equipped with PCs, fax machines, printers, Internet access, etc. However, unlike typical cyber cafes, The “Communication for Women” program also offers women with access to expert advice and services that cater to specific issues, mostly healthcare and e-commerce.
In some remote villages where there is electricity connection, the use of Internet has helped indigenous women preserve their cultural identity. This means once they are trained in Internet and video production, they can capture community stories in video and market them to the rest of the world via Internet. When made in their own language and culture, this video has proved to be an effective way of preserving the community’s cultural identity in the era of globalization that is storming the world.
But these are not the only ICT opportunities for African women. Information and communication technologies have also a great potential of job creation. In Senegal the number of women working in ICT community services has increased in the last 2 years. Today about 35% of cyber cafes and telecentres owners are women who have proved to be excellent in running these businesses. This situation is not unique to Senegal. Women in Ivory Coast, Guinea, Nigeria, the Gambia and Morocco have settled business running cyber cafes, telecentres or telephone shops. This gives them more income to improve their living conditions.
Moreover, women still subject to cultural or religious restrictions and not allowed to work outside their homes can use Internet to improve their small businesses. This is possible with the access to e-commerce which helps them market their products in various fields of economic activities while staying at home. These economic activities include arts and crafts, sewing, decorations etc.
Despites these opportunities, women’s access to ICTs is very limited because of many reasons.
Factors affecting women’s access to ICTs
No one disputes the fact that ICTs have a great potential to create opportunities for African women. But no one can also dispute the fact that women’s access to ICTs is very limited. Unlike their male counterparts, the large majority of women are excluded from the technology revolution. This is due to many reasons: The lack of education and training, cultural and religious restrictions, inadequate ICT policies.
Although national governments are making efforts to uplift the female literacy rate, the overall rate is still low among women compared to other parts of the world. Only 49% of African women have a chance to go to school and reach high-level education. The rest can neither read nor write the foreign languages used in computers. Even the overwhelming majority of those who have been to school do not take sciences and technology subjects including engineering and computer sciences. They predominate in areas which give them little access to ICTs. These areas include literature, gender issues, women studies, law, etc. Given the lack of adequate training, the majority of women work in ICTs areas that require fewer skills. These areas include secretarial services, transcription services, claims processing etc. It is difficult for women to reach high skilled and well-paid positions in the fields of software development and programming, geographical analysis etc.
In some parts of the continent where women are still subject to cultural and religious restrictions, the female literacy rate is lower, going down to 30% in remote rural areas. These cultural norms inhibit women ‘s involvement in education and training, and other social activities. They also restrain them from getting a job outside their homes. Unlike men they have no chance to use a computer at office or go to public services like cyber cafes or telecentres where they can have access to Internet. And given the high cost of PCs, Internet and telephone connections, most women cannot afford to pay their own computers to have access to Internet from home. As a consequence, they are isolated from the rest of the world with no access to information and other ICT opportunities.
Besides, the lack of adequate ICT policies undermines the chance of women to have access to ICTs. All over the continent men are the ones who set ICT policies and determine their future. National policies rarely include women perspectives and needs. It is therefore difficult for government to raise awareness among women if the majority of them are excluded from policymaking process.
Priority areas for action
In order to correct the gender digital gap in Africa, governments need to take a range of actions. These include better education and training system, better ICT policies, and lower cost of ICT devices. This requires also personal efforts from women to take the challenge of the gender digital divide.
Lifting the female literacy rate is an indispensable requirement if governments want to stimulate female computer literacy and skills. This entails to break down social norms which refrain mothers from sending their daughters to school. It is important to launch national campaign of sensitization to raise awareness among women so that they understand the importance and value of education for the future of their children particularly their daughters who are to play a key role in the development process.
Beyond putting more girls to school, governments have to maintain them there until they reach high level of education. They also have to put more computers at schools, both primary and secondary, to expose women to science and technology at an early age. This can be done only if the curriculum is changed to include ICTs in primary and secondary classes. There is also a need in most African countries to create more training colleges to provide women with rich ICT education knowledge on the principles and practices of designing, building and maintaining computer networks, programming and data analysis etc…This is an excellent way to prepare women for well paid jobs and leadership responsibilities in ICT areas.
Since national ICT policies do not include women’s needs and preoccupations, any attempt to reshape them to involve women in the decision and policy making process will help narrow the gender digital gap. In this regard, more efforts are to be made by governments to include women’s needs in education, training, access and agriculture in ICT policies. This will help raise awareness among women and make them understand the importance of ICTs in the development process. By reforming policies, decision makers can make PCs and Internet connections more affordable and open to all members of society, particularly women who range for the majority of the poor in most parts of Africa.
At a personal level, African women are expected to make more efforts to expand their access to ICTs. Their ambition should be one thing: to be able to fully participate in the digital economy and help their countries reap the benefits of the technology revolution. The best way for them to achieve this goal is to be willing to learn more about sciences and technology at school to better understand the use of computers and Internet. If they want to participate fully in the development of their societies women have to play an active role in breaking down cultural and religious barriers that refrain their social, economic and political emancipation.
Conclusion
It is clear that ICTs have the potential to change the lives of women in Africa. Women can use e-commerce to improve their businesses or create new businesses. ICTs also create job opportunities for women. But a great majority of African women are still excluded from the use of ICTs. Bridging the gender digital gap requires personal and national efforts. Women should arm themselves to be decision makers and actors in the process of using the new ICTs to make sure that their needs in the fields of education and training, access and infrastructure are included in national ICT policies. To harness women’s role as active participants in the development process, African governments need to work to reform existing ICT policies and establish a sustainable environment aimed to break barriers women face to have access to ICTs. This will help catalyze economic growth in the continent.
The Africa ICT Policy Monitor is an initiative of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)