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How ICTs are
helping Angola’s post-war reconstruction
By Matthew White
Thirty years of war have left Angola
with four million internally displaced persons (IDPs), about one-third of
the population. Few are self-supporting, most are crammed into the poorest
sections of poverty-stricken urban areas where disease is rife and
opportunities minimal. The need to get them resettled on the land is urgent,
but the problems are huge.
What is the role
of ICTs in such a situation? Angonet, a non-profit Internet service provider
to NGOs, is providing vital communications links in a country where an
estimated 80% of the infrastructure that existed at independence in 1975 has
been destroyed.
“As humanitarian
organisations step up their efforts to reunite families and return them to
the land, there is a vital need to disseminate information,” explains Allan
Cain, the Canadian who heads Development Workshop, the NGO which runs
Angonet with the support of Acacia.
“It may sound a
relatively simple matter to return people to the land, but there are major
barriers,” he says. “Roads have been washed away, bridges destroyed, and
landmines are still a serious problem.”
It will take years
to re-establish the infrastructure, but in the meanwhile Angonet is helping
humanitarian organisations with the rapid deployment of ICT, It already has
more than 400 NGO users.
Development
Workshop sees Angonet as a contribution to building the capacity of Angolan
civil society. The service’s first server was installed in the runup to
elections in 1992. Later a second server was sited in Huambo, the province
with the greatest number of IDPs. At present this is accessed by dial-up,
but a substantial upgrade of the network is underway. Wireless solutions are
currently under test, and a VSAT facility is due to be installed in the next
two months.
Cain emphasises
that while support for humanitarian efforts is at the forefront of Angonet’s
current activities, there have already been longer-term spin-offs.
“Angola’s most
active Internet service provider, Ebonet, was set up by former colleagues at
Angonet who saw the possibilities for a commercial service. We regard this a
very positive development.”
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