Tools to Fight Poverty in Africa

Toward coherent policies for social ownership

By Ramata Molo Thioune

Knowledge analyst, Acacia, IDRC, Dakar, Senegal

This brief highlights key results from various research projects, supported by the IDRC Acacia Programme, on the introduction of ICTs in rural, urban and peri-urban communities of four African countries. It includes recommendations for decision-makers, development bodies and researchers on how ICTs can become efficient development tools in Africa.

 RESULTS

Experiences in Uganda, South Africa, Kenya and Senegal have revealed that:

 ICTs can help reduce poverty and contribute to development: Trade Point, an e-commerce initiative in Senegal, provides a number of entrepreneurs an opportunity to improve their income through the use of email and the Internet. In South Africa, the Msunduzi project, by offering information and training resources to community leaders through a web site, has contributed to the restoration of the pollution-threatened Msunduzi River environment.

Thanks to the introduction of ICTs in Senegalese schools and a greater access to information and more modern and diversified communication tools, pupils are becoming more aware of and involved in prevention strategies to combat AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. Rural women in Uganda and Kenya now have more resources enabling them to better exercise their civic rights; thus allowing them to contribute significantly to the development of their communities. In Senegal, access to adapted support material and tools for decision-making through ICTs has enabled rural community leaders, who are often illiterate, to improve the management of their community resources, in an effort to improving local governance.

 Strategies for introducing ICT must be backed by local initiatives: The most suitable ICT strategies are those articulated around local development problematic, focusing on community participation, while specifically targeting the most innovative groups.  

Appropriate contents are essential for the adoption of ICTs:  communities tend to use communication resources (telephone, email) more often than the information conveyed by the Internet,  particularly because the content of the latter is inappropriate to the needs of the majority of its potential users.  

Connectivity is far from being optimal: while the fight for a more appropriate content remains a priority, the existence of and access to a reliable and cheap telecommunication network are also essential to the adoption of ICTs. 

Training campaigns and public awareness are preliminary conditions for the use of ICTs for development purposes: those who are trained or made aware of ICTs adopt them more rapidly than the others and are able to demystify them earlier.  

There is a very unequal access to ICTs: rural communities, women and illiterate groups (formal and informal literacy programmes) have fewer opportunities to access ICTs.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In order for ICTs to be a resource for development, measures need to be taken, particularly by policy makers, to ensure that a larger majority of people can gain access to them. The measures suggested below, among others, could contribute to helping people benefit from the potentials of ICTs, while limiting their negative consequences (deepening of inequalities, for example).

States should implement a coherent and comprehensive national ICT policy and create an enabling environment favourable for ICTs. Such a policy should recognise the particularity of every sector, as well as the needs of people, in order to facilitate access to a large group of potential users. Specific measures would, among others, consist in backing the introduction of ICTs with improved access to credit facilities (financial support to entrepreneurs involved in e-commerce), economic infrastructures to support production and distribution(warehousing, production lines etc.), and statutory and juridical framework that is appropriate to the context of the information economy.

Pursue vigorous awareness and training programmes on the role of ICT in the development process. This can be achieved through supporting ICT training units in schools and assisting programmes for illiterate communities by putting in place appropriate training supports and access points that could serve as training centres in the community.  

Search and implement  technological solutions that enable the integration of a large majority of people, such as illiterate people, women, and low-income groups. These technological solutions concern both the content of and access to telecommunication services:

    Support the search for alternative technologies that demand fewer infrastructures (satellites, wireless technologies, multimedia tools etc.). Despite the availability of basic telecommunication infrastructures and very modern technologies (fibre optic cables, Internet, mobile phones, satellites, broadband networks, etc.), the majority of potential users in rural areas cannot afford the high installation and maintenance costs required to use electronic and telecommunication technologies (Internet, email, telephone, etc.)

    Reproduce the successful models of community access centres (telecentres) on a larger scale, in order to reduce the digital divide and promote the use of these centres, as well as that of intermediaries or go-betweens, such as the managers of these access sites, so that they in turn can assist the non-literate to gain access to ICTs. Experiences drawn from Acacia have shown that those managers play a significant role in ensuring sustainability by adapting the centres’ services to the interest of their populations.

    Encourage initiatives to create and refine technologies and supports allowing these specific groups access to information. These supports could be audio or visual interfaces.

 Reducing access and connexion costs for a just access, through:

    Introducing preferential rates for rural areas, schools and underprivileged groups for connection to the national telecommunications network.

     Exempting taxes on equipment and services used and provided by community access sites.

Targeting and integrating marginalized groups:

    Implement and support projects that are specifically