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CONFERENCE TITLE: NETWORKING AFRICA'S
FUTURE
SUBTITLE: LESSONS OF EMPOWERMENT FROM
COMMUNITIES
Governments must take the initiative
KWA MARITANE (South Africa) - If the African Century is
to have meaning beyond political rhetoric, more African governments need to
be pro-active in removing barriers to the rapid socio-economic progress that
is possible through harnessing the power of information and communications
technologies (ICTs).
Clear consensus on this emerged from the Acacia
conference, Networking Africa’s Future, attended by some 200 delegates from
more than 20 counties last week.
The purpose of the conference, held at the Kwa Maritane
game lodge on the edge of the Pilanesburg Game Park, was to close the loop
between research and awareness, and between knowledge of projects and
strategies for the future, said Maureen O’Neil, president of the
International Development Research Centre. The IDRC is a public corporation
created by the Canadian government to help communities in the developing
world find solutions to social, economic and environmental problems through
research.
The IDRC launched the Acacia Programme in 1997 to fund
research into the impact of ICTs on poverty in Africa and to demonstrate
that the benefits can reach disadvantaged sub-Saharan communities. To date,
Acacia has invested R230 million in programmes focused on four countries:
South Africa, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda.
Many presenters demonstrated highly successful
projects:
-
Students' networks in Indonesia providing 24-hour-a-day Internet access
at a cost of less than R4 (four rands) per student per month;
-
A
cellphone-based market information service that has raised the income of
Senegalese farmers;
-
Economic
empowerment of rural women in Uganda;
-
Delivery
of electronic communications to the rural poor in many countries via
telecentres.
The conference was not just a talk shop. The IDRC used
it as a platform from which to launch Connectivity Africa, a major
initiative of the Canadian Government aimed at improving access to ICTs in
Africa by applying Canadian expertise especially in relation to education,
health and community development. An initial budget of Can$12 million
(aboutR63m) over three years will be used to fund projects in four specific
areas:
-
Innovation in the use of ICTs;
-
African Regional ICT Futures;
-
Research and development in African ICTs;
-
Partnership and convergence.
Connectivity Africa will complement the work of Acacia
but will be more explicitly technological, in line with supporting NEPAD’s
regional integration objectives.
"The time has come for governments and telcos to join
forces in a common effort to improve access to ICTs in Africa, working
together to eliminate barriers to inter-connection and to low-cost solutions
that can make a real economic difference to Africans," said Steve Song,
manager of Connectivity Africa.
Significantly, the conference had better connectivity
than most African cities and even some countries, including Burundi,
Eritrea, Niger, Central African Republic, Chad and Equatorial Guinea, noted
communications expert Mike Jensen. Underlining how easily bandwidth can be
provided anywhere it is needed, Telkom and two other South African satellite
connectivity providers (Sentech/Infosat and Transtel) took less than a day
to set up their services.
But despite the undoubted success of many ICT
initiatives, there was clear evidence of frustration over barriers that are
slowing roll-out of these solutions. While governments have often
facilitated the work of the IDRC, outdated regulations are an ongoing
problem.
Indeed, a major theme at the conference was the need
for telecoms reform. Few at the conference appeared to disagree with
Professor William H (Bill) Melody of Wits University and LIRNE (the Learning
Initiative on Reform for Network Economies) that network economies and
information societies are dependent on effective reforms in the telecoms
sector and that, further, reform begins with telecoms liberalisation.
“The speed of regulatory reform must increase and be
directed at stimulating investment in the infrastructure foundation for
information societies,” he said.
On the subject of interconnection, Melody was
particularly critical of the fact that South Africa’s four major networks --
Telkom, Transtel, Sentech and Eskom -- are not interconnected because, in
terms of current legislation, this would be illegal. Linked, they would
jointly cover almost the whole country. “This is a fundamental issue and has
to be solved.”
The over-riding challenge for Africa, he said, is “to
create regulation that leads, rather than lags, technological and market
developments, providing a catalyst for investment and growth in
e-economies.”
Providers of value-added services must be able to use
the network as efficiently as possible. In this regard Melody strongly
recommends the separation of telecoms facilities and services, comparing
this with what happened in the computer industry. Since software was
unbundled from hardware, the software market has grown very much faster and
now dwarfs the hardware market.
ends
Connectivity Africa Launched to Help
Bridge Digital Divide
The IDRC used the Acacia conference as a platform to
Connectivity Africa, a major initiative of the Canadian Government aimed at
improving access to ICTs in Africa by applying Canadian expertise
especially in relation to education, health and community development.
The Connectivity Africa initiative itself has a budget
of Can$12 million (about R63m) for the first three years. This is in
addition to the regular spending through the Acacia budget which is more
Can$5m a year about R26m). The new funding will be used for projects in four
specific areas:
-
Innovation in the use of ICTs,
-
African Regional ICT Futures,
-
Research and development in African ICTs,
-
Partnership and convergence.
Further, additional funds have been promised. In a
video address to the conference, Canada's Minister of International
Co-operation, Susan Whelan, said Canada had budgeted an annual increase in
aid of 8% a year until 2010, half of this increase is pledged to Africa.
In total, the amount IDRC/Acacia has invested is
actually Can$31.2 Million CAD (about R156m) -- Can$22.2m (R111m) in
Acacia's first phase and Can$8.8m (R44m) in the second). It is planned to
invest at least an additional Can$15,3m (r76m) up to 2005.
The initiative, part of Canada's response to the G8
Africa Action Plan, is one of three initiatives in support of the work of
the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOT Force), an international coalition
of government, industry and civil society organisations seeking to help
bridge the global digital divide. DOT force is co-chaired by IDRC president
Maureen O'Neil.
Connectivity Africa is being implemented by IDRC in
partnership with the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Day-to-day
management will be in the hands of manager Steve Song and his team, with
strategic direction by a steering committee co-chaired by IDRC and ECA. The
initiative will be implemented within the context of the African Information
Society Initiative pioneered by ECA.
"We are facilitating a dialogue so that we can explore
good ideas with other organisations on how best to use innovations in
technology, said Song.
An example of such innovations has just been introduced
in Kampala where partners Healthnet and Satellife are pioneering the use of
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) such as Palm Pilots to improve the speed,
accuracy and security of surveillance health data.
Song said PDAs can be bought for less than US $100.
Thus 20 can be bought for the price of a new laptop. "They are more robust,
less likely to break down; easier to learn and to adapt to. They can be used
through cellular networks and provides better reach than the Internet."
Connectivity Africa will complement the work of Acacia
but will be more explicitly technological in line with the goal of
supporting NEPAD‚' regional integration objectives. The work will be carried
out through each of IDRC's regional offices in Johannesburg, Cairo, Dakar
and Nairobi.
ends
Telecoms Liberalisation Vital to Growth,
says Melody
The proposition that network economies and information
societies are dependent on effective reforms in the telecoms sector /
information infrastructure, as posited by Professor William H Melody of Wits
University and LIRNE (the Learning Initiative on Reform for Network
Economies) was widely accepted by delegates to the Acacia conference. The
debate now centres on "how".
Melody, a man of vast international experience,
contends that reform begins with telecoms liberalisation. And while the
title of the formal debate that followed his address -- Is Liberalisastion
the Answer? -- appeared to challenge this view, the debate itself really did
not. Debaters Brian Longwe of AfrISPA (a group of Pan-African Internet
service providers) and Alison Gillwald, research director at Wits
University's Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre,
differed on approach and detail, rather than on substantive issues.
Nevertheless the conference plumped squarely for
reregulation -- the position argued by Gillwald, a close associate of Melody
-- which took 61.3% of the vote.
Melody argues that inadequate regulation is the
limiting factor constraining development of the e-economy and information
societies. "The speed of regulatory reform must increase and be directed at
stimulating investment in the infrastructure foundation for information
societies," he said.
While many African states have been slow to reform, he
cites Botswana as "a world model for credible regulation. Not so South
Africa. Melody singled out the conference's host country as one of the
backward in this regard, with Telkom monopoly power, "confidential"
politics, and restrictions on information society development. He quickly
adds, though, that SA is not alone in this. He is highly critical of the
fact that South Africa's four major networks -- Telkom, Transtel, Sentech
and Eskom -- are not interconnected because, in terms of currently
legislation, this would be illegal. Linked, they would jointly cover almost
the whole country. "This is a fundamental issue and has to be solved."
Countries with monopoly telcos must make a commitment
to empowering regulators to implement policies, he argued. The over-riding
challenge for Africa, he said, is "to create regulation that leads, rather
than lags, technological and market developments, providing a catalyst for
investment and growth in e-economies."
ISPs and other providers of value-added services must
be able to use the network as efficiently as possible. In this regard he
strongly recommends the separation of telecoms facilities and services,
comparing this with what happened in the computer industry. Since software
was unbundled from hardware, the software market has grown very much faster
and now dwarfs the hardware market.
Melody acknowledges his frustration that informed
advice based on long experience often falls on deaf ears, but is convinced
the weight of initiatives such as the Learning Information Networking and
Knowledge (LINK) Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand, which
conducts research that stimulates and informs public debate, will eventually
win through.
Partly funded by the Acacia Project, LINK is one of
four international research partners contributing to LIRNE's World Dialogue
on Regulation for Network Economies. The theme for 2002 is Stimulating
Investment in Network Development: Roles for Regulators.
ends
Local Content a Must for African Schools
African schools need their own content that is relevant
to local contexts as a way to integrate information and communications
computer technologies (ICTs)effectively into schools' curricula, according
to research findings presented at the Acacia conference.
Much of the content now available through the Internet
is developed elsewhere and is not often relevant to African countries.
The main issues that affects the use of ICTs remain
connectivity, and the availability and affordability of telephones and
electricity.
These findings are part of a detailed report on the way
technologies for the Internet affect education in Africa.
The Acacia programme for schools in Africa, known as
SchoolNet, is funded by the IDRC. The centre sets up computer facilities in
schools in nine African countries. Completed projects ranged from having
limited success to being very successful. The findings include the following
key points:
-
Factors such as lack of infrastructure, shortage of
ICT skills, the geographic location, and failure in the culture of use of
technologies affect a project;
-
There is a need to address issues of how to make
schools ICTs sustainable in terms of financial and human resources;
-
The most successful SchoolNets appear to be the ones
that have dedicated champions;
-
In countries where incomes are low, and where there
is no culture of volunteerism, it is difficult to sustain the necessary
momentum with volunteers only;
-
Project management and implementation skills are
scarce in Sub-Saharan Africa, and even more so in rural areas;
-
The development of local capacity in technical
skills, a team of trouble-shooters, people capable of upgrading and
refurbishing computers, and setting up help-desks, are particularly
necessary; and
-
Close working relationships with policy-makers and
their involvement in implementation processes has proved to be the single
most enabling factor in development around the use of ICTs in education.
ends
African Information Revolution is Wireless
Hotspot Roaming is low-cost solution to "last mile"
connectivity, says Wireless G's Carel Van der Merwe
While much of the ICTs sector in North America and
Europe is experiencing doubt and retreat, something entirely different is
happening in Africa, IDRC president Maureen O’Neil told delegates to the
Acacia conference. "The African Information Revolution is wireless."
And, indeed, among the new technologies on display at
the conference was Wireless Hotspot Roaming (WHR), which offers affordable,
high-speed wireless Internet access.
WHR enables users of Wi-Fi enabled notebook computers
and PDAs to connect to the Internet or corporate intranet via a wireless
network that is up to 50 times faster than a typical 56k modem.
But are sophisticated technologies what Africa needs?
Carel van der Merwe, CEO of Wireless G, an alliance between Intel, Internet
Solutions and Wi-Tel, reacted to the question with transparent disbelief.
"Africa needs this system because it makes the
continent more accessible to international business people and investors,"
he said. "But more than that, the technology lends itself to the rapid,
low-cost roll-out of a new wave of connectivity into rural areas not
currently served by telecoms. It’s a paradigm shift, a leapfrogging of
earlier technologies."
While the technology is leading-edge, Van der Merwe’s
company has concentrated on building an effective and sustainable business
model.
The "hotspot" concept relies on hotspot venue providers
investing in the technology in return for a share of revenue earned at the
hotspot with the service provider. Typically it takes Wireless G one day to
install the technology at a selected site, which may be an airport, hotel,
shopping mall, restaurant or office building etc. Hotspots throughout the
world are increasingly being interconnected through fast-growing global
alliances and roaming agreements.
Any user whose service provider is part of the
alliance, can use any connected hotspot without having to take out a new
service contract. Payment can be effected through a credit card, a
subscriber contract or Wireless G prepaid card, or traditional ISP billing.
Johannesburg shopping mall Sandton Square is already a
hotspot, Wireless G is now installing pilot sites for a telecoms operator
and Johannesburg International Airport is due to become a hotspot within
weeks.
Of immense importance to Africa, said Van der Merwe, is
the fact the Wi-Fi technology can extend the range of existing technologies,
whether landline, radio or satellite.
He cites the example of a mine in a rural area. "At a
very low cost we can build on the mine’s infrastructure to extend the
network into neighbouring rural areas. Typically, we can transmit 11Mb/s
over a single hop of 80km, with no duplication of resources."
In another - actual case – Bloemwater a South African
parastatal, has agreed to allocate a portion of its network bandwidth to
provide services to a nearby rural settlement. Not only was this done at an
installation cost of R10 000 (under US$1250), it was done with complete
security.
For years telcos have been bemoaning the high cost of
"last mile" connectivity and looking for a low-cost solution. Hotspot
technology, said Van der Merwe, is just that.
ends
Telecentres hotly debated at conference
In much of urban Africa, small-scale private
telecentres that exploit the convergence of technologies to provide
cost-effective services where most people cannot afford a PC, phone line or
Internet connection are becoming widespread. Yet, the subject of telecentres
was among the mostly hotly debated at the conference.
Telecentres have been seen as an important way of
realising universal service objectives in rural and remote locations where
most Africans live, there are more than 20 international pilot projects
scattered throughout the continent to test different models, means of
implementation and mechanisms for sustainability. But some challenged the
perception that telecentres are an essential component of universal access.
Many future activities in this field are likely to be
aimed at supporting the emergence of community learning centres and other
forms of shared public access, according to Mike Jensen, a consultant with
experience in more than 35 African countries.
Jensen told the Acacia conference that a major barrier
to telecom service provision in Africa has been that the costs of
installing, maintaining and using the infrastructure have been high, while
income levels are usually low. However, now that the infrastructure can
carry a range of ICT services and not just voice calls, providing access has
become more feasible, especially if costs are spread across many people
making use of a variety of services through public access centres.
A basic requirement for most telecentres, he said, is
that the communications regulatory environment be conducive, supporting the
principle of third-party provision of communication, information and related
services. In much of Africa, however, operators of these facilities must
usually pay standard retail tariffs for services, leaving little room for
markup and profit margins to ensure sustainability.
Senegal is one country that has taken a difference
route. There, service providers receive a substantial discount on
residential call tariffs. There are now over 10 000 public telephone shops
licensed by Sonatel (the PTO) and run by local entrepreneurs. Many have
added fax, Internet, email & word processing services and are serving a much
broader range of information needs among surrounding communities. These
telecentres now account for about 13 000 lines and 30% of Sonatel's traffic.
In Nigeria, said Jensen, the telecom network outside
the major urban areas is so poor that there are very few rural telecentres,
while in urban areas hundreds of large cybercafes and thousands of smaller
business centres have emerged to provide relatively low-cost access to the
Internet and other services. These are encouraged by a regulatory
environment which allows them to provide cheap international phone calls via
Voice over IP.
Rural areas often have very poor infrastructure – in
many African countries more than 80% of the phone lines are concentrated in
the biggest city, he noted. The recent availability of low-cost two-way VSAT
offers the potential to provide Internet and voice connectivity anywhere on
the continent for as little as US$200 a month. Outside of the urban areas
demand for low-cost VSAT is likely to be substantial, assuming that
regulatory impediments are overcome.
IDRC Director Richard Fuchs characterised the technology as
"a pebble in the Lake of ICTs" -- an initiative whose ripples spread a long
way from the point of impact. A social investment in getting rural people
started in the process of development, telecentres encourage the circulation
of ideas and lead to the startup of new businesses that change both lives
and livelihood, he said. As such, they are "an answer with a past and a
future."
Not everyone is convinced. Gaston Zongo, a former
executive director of Acacia, challenged the perception that telecentres are
an essential component of universal access. He pointed to what he said was
the failure of the telecentre appoach to help low-income groups, citing
expensive and often faulty electricity supply, language differences and
inadequate local content.
Calling for a rural telecoms policy for Africa, Zongo
said telecentres had not proved sustainable.
In the vote that followed the debate, the majority of
delegates (69.3%) agreed with Fuchs that telecentres are an essential
component of universal access, 25.7% supported Gaston's view and 5% had no
opinion.
Note to Editors:
Information on a successful telecentre initiative in Timbuktu is contained
in the article slugged Acacia / Timbuktu.
ends
Technology's
Ability to Alleviate Poverty 'Not Proved'
Following a brief review of the literature on the issue
by researcher Dr. Catherine Adeya, and three presentations on empirical
studies and actual projects, delegates listed to a debate on the theme: Do
Information and Communications Technologies Really Have an Impact on
Poverty?
At a conference where most participants were seen to
have a vested interest in promoting the use of ICTs in Africa, an
overwhelming pro vote would have seemed a foregone conclusion, but not so.
Riff Fullan of Bellanet, a non-profit organisation --
funded in part by the IDRC -- that helps the international community to work
together more effectively, especially using ICTs, argued that ICTs are, in
fact "as likely to worsen poverty as to alleviate it."
Evidence suggests that they have exacerbated existing
inequalities, he said. Further, in many countries, the environment in which
ICTs could help to reduce poverty does not exist. Among factors that
adversely affect ICTs' potential to address poverty are widespread adult
illiteracy, affordability of the solutions and the fact that most content is
of questionable local relevance. A key issue for many African countries,
said Fullan, is that investing in ICTs means not investing in other
priorities.
An opposing view was argued by Meddie Mayanja, an ICT
communications development specialist with the World Bank Institute, who
cited instances of improvement from three different types of ICT project in
Uganda. These projects resulted in the creation of a successful e-commerce
initiative in a slum area, the second provided training in enterpreneurship
for jobless youths, and the third -- and most dramatically successful --
resulted in a steep fall in maternal mortality rate: from 500 to 271 per 100
000 between 1996 and 1999.
Following the formal debate, the conference gathered in
small groups to continue the discussion.
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E-Culture a Top Priority for Senegal
Senegal's Minister of Scientific and Technology
Research, Christian Diatta, outlines his government's ICT policy
Senegal has taken a different route to telecoms
liberalisation than most of its fellow African nations, with the result that
some 30% of the traffic of local PTO, Sonatel, is generated by more than 10
000 public telephone shops run by local entrepreneurs.
According to Christian Diatta, Minister of Scientific
and Technology Research, this success is an outcome of the Senegalese
government's determination to place the highest priority on fostering an
e-culture, with a series of innovative initiatives aimed at all levels of
society.
"The emphasis of the government is on making available
ICTs to help people from the ground up," he said in an interview at the
Acacia conference. "In this we are exploring new frontiers in the
applicability of the ICTs at all levels of society. The aim is to bring
Senegal to the highest level of technological power."
A plasma physicist before turning to politics, Diatta
brings a rigorous scientific discipline to his portfolio. His presence at
the Acacia conference, he said, was indicative of the Senegalese
government's openness to strong new ideas and its determination to
participate in the development in Africa through NEPAD.
"Research is a fundamental key to development of all
nations in Africa," he said. "It is also necessary to think global and act
local."
The Senegalese government itself is fully equipped with
informatics tools, to the extent that it even has electronic management of
national elections. There is a strong focus on using ICTs in education, not
merely at universities -- which are all well equipped -- but even at
pre-school levels. More than 50 Senegalese pre-schools are already equipped
with computers.
"The response from young children has been very
gratifying," he said.
The government is also supporting innovative solutions
in medicine, agriculture and many other sectors. Delegates to the Acacia
conference were presented with first-hand evidence of the validity of this
approach. During a debate on ICTs and poverty, they were addressed by a
Senegalese farmer who reported on the benefits of receiving information such
as current market prices via WAP-enabled cell phones.
"Services such as this meet a social originality of
Africa, whereby communications -- mainly oral -- can now be delivered
through mobile phones as tools and services," said Diatta. "We have found
that our people -- and particularly the young -- react very positively."
This is one of the main reasons that the government is
determined to ensure that cellular communications are rolled out rapidly the
whole .
ends
Information Revolution reaches Timbuktu
Information and communications technologies (ICTs)
really can make a difference in Africa, Birama Diallo told the Acacia
conference. He spoke from his experience of running a community telecentre
in Timbuktu, one of the world’s most remote towns -- surrounded by desert
and 1000km from the Mali's capital, Bamako.
Diallo is co-ordinator of the Timbuktu Multi-Purpose
Community Telecentre, which provides a cyber café, telephone and fax
facilities, radio, a training room, a news room, a maintenance and repair
department, and television and video.
He works with 25 000 townspeople and with nomadic
desert tribes. He is adamant that the telecentres have made difference to
the economy through tourism, animal husbandry, agriculture and trade. Other
benefits include support for education, special projects for women,
teachers, and small businesses, and for agriculturalists.
In tourism, guides and small firms have direct contact
with tour operators at large. Some even have their own web sites.
A computer literacy project for women in small
businesses uses transformed keyboards in the local languages of Tamacheq and
Songhai. They develop their own databases for finance and communicate with
women in other countries and share business ideas.
Health projects include the training of rural doctors
in ICT, while teachers and students are also catered for as well as a "Kids
teach Kids" project with children regarded as "innovators" providing new
levels of expertise through computer games. Radio is used for an interface
with nomadic tribespeople who live mostly in groups of 800 to 1000; most are
illiterate.
An important part of the ICT programme is working with
Islamic leaders in the community. The centre is an Arabic literary centre
and trains many people to use computers.
The centre is funded by the IDRC, Unesco, the ITU and
the community itself. Diallo said about 60% of the users of the centre are
under the age of 40, and 28% are women. A survey of the 2000 regular users
of the telecentres showed that 95% of respondents were using information at
a practical level in areas such as HIV/Aids treatment, nutrition, cattle
care, agriculture, economic issues and control of the desert.
ends
How ICTs are Helping Angola's Post-War
Reconstruction
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 information and communications
technologies (ICTs) in such a situation? With assistance from the IDRC's
Acacia Project, Angonet, a non-profit organisation, is providing Internet
services to NGOs. This is proving a vital communications link 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," said Acacia conference delegate Allan Cain, the
Canadian who heads Development Workshop, the NGO that runs Angonet.
"It may sound a relatively simple matter to return
people to the land, but there are major barriers," he said. "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."
ends
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