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> iConnect Africa > Vol. 2, No. 2 Volume 2, Number 2, September 2005 Contributors to this issue: Glory Mushinge, Chris Kakunta, Almahady Moustapha Cissé, Michael Malakata, Ramata Soré, Aloyce Menda, Davis Joseph Weddi, John Ekow Yarney, Aida Opoku-Mensah, Mercy Wambui, Afework Temtime
News Update QUARTERLY FEATURES:
SPOTLIGHT: ICTs and Livelihoods
OUTLOOK: Features on Stakeholders FORTHCOMING EVENTS: October - December 2005
Strengthening the capacity of national
machineries through the effective use of ICTs The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) of the United Nations Secretariat and the Development Information Services Division (DISD) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) held a 3-day meeting "Strengthening the capacity of national machineries through the effective use of ICT" from 28 to 30 September 2005 at the United Nations Conference Centre, Addis Ababa. National machineries are government units set up to support gender equality and gender mainstreaming in the development frameworks of member States as outlined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The meeting was a culmination of 4 sub-regional workshops, held in the past year to train national machineries in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and build their capacity in ICT policy formulation as part of the implementation of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI). The workshops also focused on knowledge management and information sharing. Approximately 132 participants from 42 member States received ICT training in these workshops. Ms. Roselyn Odera, Chief, Gender Analysis Section of DAW, noted that the purpose of the meeting was to share experiences and challenges in utilizing ICTs to advance gender empowerment, and to identify the key obstacles and support needed for the National Machineries in the future. “The meeting will also agree on a proposal for a regional electronic network to serve as a support mechanism for the National Machineries as well as prepare a declaration to be presented in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that takes place in Tunis in November 2005,” she said. On his part, Mr. Chukwudozie Ezigbalike from DISD emphasized the timeliness of the initiative within the regional and global contexts. He noted, “This regional workshop will assess what has been done so far by national machineries in applying the newly acquired knowledge and skills in their work and promoting gender equality in the Information Age.” For more information, contact: Atsuko Okuda (aokuda@uneca.org) Ethiopia
consults stakeholders on WSIS “Three years ago, ICTs had a very low profile in Ethiopia, but high-level commitment has dramatically changed the scene,” said Mr. Eshetu Alemu, Chairperson of the national WSIS Task Force at Ethiopia’s 1-day national consultation on the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), co-hosted by the Ethiopian ICT Development Authority (EICTDA) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on 15 September 2005. The consultations aimed at sharpening a collective response to be presented during the Tunis phase of the WSIS to be held in November on Ethiopia’s progress in implementing the Geneva Plan of Action on WSIS. Key questions under immense debate both in Ethiopia and globally include, political commitment to implement the Action Plan, the issue of who governs the Internet and beyond WSIS, who finances the information society. According to Mr. Gorfu Assefa, a consultant at EICTDA, The ICT sector has seen tremendous growth since Geneva. “Major initiatives are now in place, he said, pointing out that this is largely due to increased high-level political support. “An e-government portal with integrated information resources provides information to citizens online, 35 towns in Ethiopia are enjoying video conferencing and Internet connectivity, 600 schools have an aggressive e-education programme and agricultural research stations have a thriving Internet-enabled network for exchanging information”. He said, and added that by 2008, 18,000 villages will be connected to the Internet through telecentres managed by local communities. But progress has been marred by a number of challenges, said Mr. Eshetu Alemu who underscored the lack of ICT skilled human power, low bandwidth vis a vis existing demand and lack of formal education among the beneficiaries. He observed that there is little or no synergy among the ICT initiatives being carried out by government institutions and thereby “compounding a knowledge gap as to who is doing what.” Nevertheless, as pointed out by Mr. Eshetu, solutions are being provided by partnerships with the private sector and civil society actors. “Ethiopia’s Civil Society has been advocating for the use of Open Source Software, and through the assistance of the British council, multi-purpose telecentres have been established in different parts of the country to service those with low or no levels of formal education. Mr. Eshetu called for the establishment of a multi-stakeholders National Information Society forum and an information society fund for promoting Ethiopia’s information society. “This is critical as we need to address the issue of speeding up standards and localization for proper content development as well as salary incentives for ICT personnel. He also urged the media to join the efforts by being on the forefront of raising awareness on Information Society issues. The meeting urged Ethiopians to take advantage of the African Regional Action Plan on the Knowledge Economy (ARAPKE) that emerged out of the African Preparatory Conference on WSIS, held in Dakar in 2005, which is offering opportunities to African countries to submit proposals for funding and for further discussion in Tunis. For more on the consultations, including Ethiopia's Country Position Paper on WSIS contact Tamrat W.Gebriel (tamratwg@yahoo.com), Secretary of the National WSIS Task Force. Invoking
the Harambee spirit in development projects A meeting on “Reinforcing African Voices through collaborative process” was held on 9-10 September 2005 to discuss the way forward regarding a project whose objective is to build the capacity of African networks and communities involved in ICT. The project will also enable development projects to work more collaboratively and effectively.
Dubbed “Harambee” a Kiswahili word for let’s work
together, and intended to signify the uniting of a community around
a common goal, the project was conceptualized in 2004 by the Association
for Progressive Communications (APC), Bellanet Africa and the Economic
Commission for Africa (ECA). “Participants also focused on their own respective networks and on the areas - such as facilitation, knowledge sharing - for which they feel the greatest need and the greatest opportunity for development.” Added Fullan. Among other things, the project intends to build on existing research and experiences in designing and implementing collaborative processes and technologies. Harambee will assist the project proponents to both support specific networks and communities, and to help increase the capacity to support existing partner networks and communities more generally. The project will also set up and administer a Small Grants Facility to provide networks with funding for the development of greater collaborative capacity, such as training in the strategic use of ICTs and/or Knowledge Sharing/Knowledge Management techniques. For
more: www.uneca.org/aisi/picta/picat05.htm Networking
to serve marginalized groups Lucy Mathai Githaga, who coordinates the Slums Information Development and Resource Centers (SIDAREC) project based in Nairobi, Kenya, believes in the power of networking. “It’s through networking in such meetings that I have been able to benefit from the experiences and ideas that I can take back to my project,” she told participants during a informal closing session of the Partners in ICTs in Africa (PICTA) that was held in Addis Ababa from 7-8 September 2005. The annual gathering addressed the theme “Making Infrastructure and Access Efforts in Africa More Effective.“ She told participants how unaware she had been about the potential for ICTs in projects such as SIDAREC “until I joined GKP”, she said, referring to the Global Knowledge Partners, also closely associated with PICTA. SIDAREC targets out-of-school children to use the community library, learn from folkmedia, audio/visual material and CDs and learn how to use computers. Plans are underway to set up a community radio station. “The project is about empowering youth and build leaders who can assume leadership roles in all sectors,” she says. For more on SIDAREC www.sidarec.or.ke/
The women of Kalomo district, some 400 kilometres South of Lusaka are influencing and transforming the face of the district, socially and economically with the help of new technologies. With support from The International Institute of Communication and Development (IICD) of the Netherlands and Step Out, a private sector firm, these women under the Kalomo Bwacha Women ICT club, are using the only and first resource centre of women in the district to improve other women’s money making activities by using the Internet to market their produce. This in turn helps to increase their money base and therefore, the circulation of money in the district. Kalomo is a rural district and is mainly dependent on farming as it has very few companies offering jobs to the indigenous people. More: http://www.iicd.org/articles/iicdnews.2005-09-06.8181637911 African women media professionals claim their space on the Internet Feminia, an African women's network of media professionals, has created and launched its own virtual environment. The website www.feminia.org is a platform for publication and exchange of articles, programmes, experiences and knowledge about women's issues, discussions, training and effective networking. Topics that are dealt with include: women at the top, defying traditions, gender mainstreaming, the price women pay in times of war in Darfur, HIV/Aids and the vulnerability of girls, interviews with e.g. 'Bayam-Sellams', Cameroonian market women who are driving forces behind the countries economy. The Feminia website is the result of a 5-day 'Internet Production Pathway Course', held in July in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The course was organized with help from Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC), a Dutch center of excellence for media and development, attached to Radio Netherlands. Contact: Madeleine Memb & Léontine Babeni (feminia2@yahoo.fr OR membmadeleine@yahoo.fr OR lbabeni@yahoo.fr)
Chris Kakunta of IICD’s Zambian partner, the National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS), explains how agri-business experts improve their production through Internet access. In the last seven years, Medalido Makombe has been struggling to find spares for his boom sprayer. Fortunately, his spares are now on their way from India to Makombe farms, about 45 Kilometres south of Kabwe. Medalido is among the few privileged farmers that have been browsing the Internet to get information on various issues affecting them as farmers. The Farmers Internet Café, hosted by the Kabwe Farmers Association was established by the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), through support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the USA’s department of Agriculture through the Education Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) programme. The basis of these projects, observes ZNFU deputy Executive Director ZNFU Ndambo Ndambo, was to link the mother body with affiliates at district level while at the same time providing access to information to individual union members. More: http://www.iicd.org/articles/iicdnews.2005-09-06.1315910878 Goat and lizard on the agriculture beat in Burkina Faso TV Koodo, a new television series in Burkina Faso dealing with agriculture and rural development issues, is set to air soon on national television in the country. The show stars two puppet characters: Chevrina, a seductive female goat reporter, and her sidekick Margouillat, a lizard. In each episode they talk to experts and go on the road to shed light on issues such as food security and grain marketing. Each show ends with a report on current grain and livestock prices around the country. The idea behind the show is to bring rural reality home to the Burkinabe public. The intended audience are farmers and those involved in the agricultural and livestock marketplace, but it will also be enlightening and entertaining for the general public as well as policymakers and donors. TV Koodo is an initiative of the Institut Africain de l'Economie Rurale (IABER) with financial support provided by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD). Technical production is by Manivelle Production, and l’Association des gens de Wisga came up with the marionette characters and writes the scripts. TV Koodo has a broadcast agreement with Burkina’s national television and will be screened once a month starting in August. IABER’s website will feature additional information on the topics covered in each month’s show. More: http://www.iaber.bf A
four-month capacity building training workshop for Ethiopian Customs
Authority Officials was launched in Addis Ababa in July and is hosted
by ECA’s Information Technology Centre for Africa (ITCA). This
training is part of ECA’s efforts aimed at strengthening the
use of ICT applications in socio-economic sectors. The training modules,
which have been customized to suit the Ethiopian context, include
sessions on establishing and maintaining information networks, database
management and GIS tools for surveillance and enforcement. The training
is based on an official request to ECA from the Government of Ethiopia
to build the capacity of its Customs Authority to effectively implement
and maintain an UNCTAD software product, known as ASYCUDA, which is
a computerized management system. The system handles manifests, customs
declarations, accounting procedures, and transit and suspense procedures.
More: http://www.uneca.org/disd/
The growth of e-commerce and e-banking sectors in Mali Mr. Mamadou Léo Kéita, is one of Mali’s e-commerce pioneers. He remotely manages a successful art and crafts business in the USA from his home in Bamako, and he has built up a successful business exporting African art and craft to customers around the world. Almahady Moustapha Cissé an Iconnect freelance journalist explores some of the policy challenges which hinder the development of e-commerce in Mali. Like most successful entrepreneurs, Mamadou Léo Kéita is independent and unafraid of risk. “After working for other people for many years,” he said, “I decided to go into business for myself.” Kéita overcame obstacles of capitalisation, poor telecommunications infrastructure and a policy vacuum around e-commerce to build up a successful art and craft export business in one of the world’s poorest countries. Kéita started from next to nothing in 1992, by carrying out his own feasibility study of the project. Based on the study, a bank agreed to lend him six million CFA francs, provided that he personally provided some two million CFA francs. Kéita could only come up with some 600,000 CFA francs in cash. The balance of his investment took the form of works of art. “The lack of fresh capital made the start-up very difficult because the business needed operating capital,” said Mr. Kéita. The gallery opened for business in February 1992. But, says Kéita, for the first four to six months there were no customers. The early years were difficult. The real turning point came in 1997, when the Internet arrived in Mali. Kéita realized immediately the potential of this new tool for enhancing the export part of his business. “The arrival of the Internet was a great relief … e-mails were much more immediate than a fax.” In the same year, Kéita was invited to exhibit his collection in Indiana, in the United States. After the exhibit closed he had the brilliant idea of creating a boutique in Indiana which he stocked with articles from the exhibition. The boutique, Indigo Indiana, became a showcase where US customers could see and feel the items before purchasing them via the Internet from Kéita back in Bamako. “I had my customers whom I was able to deal with from Bamako thanks to the Internet. Better still, with my electronic banking card, I was able to collect my money at the bank window.” He says, adding, “The experiment lasted until 2003, but sales declined after September 11, 2001, which dealt a blow to the market. “ Regardless, the Bamako-based Galerie Indigo is thriving thanks to e-commerce assisted exports. In the space of a few years, the Galerie Indigo, located in the centre of the city of Bamako, has become a must-visit location for art lovers. His clientele is mainly tourists, expatriates and Malians living abroad. Kéita’s goal is to turn his gallery into a window on African art and expression. Impact
Assessment Galerie Indigo in 1999 generated US$ 48,000 in revenues, US$29,000 of which was derived from exports, and five times more than its original capital investment. Galerie Indigo has gradually penetrated overseas markets and now sells to clients in many countries of Europe, South America, and North America. At the same time, Kéita has expanded his network of suppliers to include artisans in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso as well as Mali. In addition to generating revenue for hundreds of traditional artisans in three countries, the gallery in Bamako now employs a permanent staff of eight, including two receptionists. The business also includes a workshop located in another part of the city, which employs six people during busy periods. At first glance, the Galerie Indigo in Bamako appears no more than a handicrafts boutique. In reality, it is the sales point for a network of some one hundred associations of artisans, cooperatives and individuals from Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast and Mali. The products chosen for export include traditional fabrics, Tuareg carved wooden boxes, leather bags, silver jewellery, knives, cushion tops, wrought iron articles, wooden utensils and statuettes and traditional jewellery of these three countries. The distinctive characteristic of this business is the ambition of its manager to progress in the arts and crafts sector, which is well known for its many difficulties, not least the informal nature of the economy in which most artisans operate and their cultural isolation from the prospective buyers of their work. The international market demands products of a uniform quality and finish, which can only be achieved through an intermediary who understands and respects both the needs of customers and the artists’ traditional way of working. “People turn to electronic commerce to save time,” says legal expert Miss Coulibaly. “If there are slow Internet connections and outdated bank management structures, conditions are far from satisfactory for electronic commerce in Mali.” Lessons
Learned Galerie Indigo relies mainly on fax and email and does not even have a website. This is a very simple approach to e-commerce, which nevertheless seems to work. However, given a stronger ICT infrastructure and more conducive policies in the country, Galerie Indigo, the artisans it represents, and other would-be entrepreneurs would certainly benefit from increased reliability, security, and technology options. Michael Malakata, a freelance journalist for Iconnect explains how Zambia’s banks are modernizing by offering electronic services to their customers, thus laying the infrastructure for secure and efficient e-commerce in the country. Technology applications such as electronic and mobile phone banking speed up investment in the economy and could accelerate economic growth. Lack of infrastructure and weak technologies has been the major hindrance to e-commerce development in Zambia. However, Zambian banks have taken the lead in developing electronic services to support e-commerce and to ease the difficulties experienced by clients in accessing bank services. One of Zambia’s largest banks is Finance Bank, which has its headquarters in Lusaka and branches throughout country. Finance Bank has more than 5000 clients and about 2000 clients are benefiting from the bank’s electronic services. Information Technology Director Shahzad Ghazi says that apart from issuing Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards to clients, the bank has introduced the ‘Customer Access System’ and ‘MoneyGram’ services, both of which are computer-based. The bank is using its resources to develop e-commerce for the betterment of the clients and to adapt to the growing trend in e-commerce that is taking root in today’s business, says Ghazi. “The Customer Access System allows customers with a computer connected to the Internet to access their accounts from anywhere in the country or in the world, permitting them to find out their bank balances, among other uses,” said Ghazi. The Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZANACO) not been left behind. The bank has introduced Internet banking, e-tracer, and ZANACO Short Message Service (SMS), all of which make banking easier. ZANACO also provides Internet banking to customers connected to the Internet. According to ZANACO Marketing Manager Daisy Diangamo, to access one’s account one simply needs to go to ZANACO website, click a link to select the service required, type one’s personal identification number and security password for that service, and then use the service. Diangamo says that ZANACO Internet banking allows customers to verify, among other things, their bank balance, foreign exchange rates and the status of cheques. With an e-tracer service, an account holder can receive up-to-date bank statements by email. Many people are nervous about e-commerce because the transactions are paperless and the communications take place on public networks such as the mobile phone network and the Internet. There are always fears that cyber-criminals might hack the system and steal money. However, technology is also at the heart of the security measures that are taken by the banks. Ghazi of Finance Bank says so far no single case fraud has been recorded. Daisy Diangamo of ZANACO explained that electronic services are safe as all the e-mails are encrypted, meaning that only the client is able to read them; hence the system is not under threat. A growing proportion of the clients of Zambian banks are using electronic services, but there is potential to expand the services to clients in rural areas. The services are only available to those who have bank accounts. Electronic commerce needs to be adapted to the local situation, including the large number of people who need financial services but who have a very small income. Profitability of the banking sector in Zambia is hindered by high labour costs and very small markets, making it difficult to achieve economies of scale. E-commerce enables the banking sector to cut costs by reducing the amount of labour involved in processing transactions on paper and handling bundles of cash. The greater efficiency and lower costs offered by e-commerce is therefore an important contribution to the country’s economic infrastructure. Dabson Tembo, an account holder with Finance Bank who is using the electronic banking services, says he is satisfied with the services provided by the bank because he does not need to travel to the bank to access simple services such as checking his bank statement. “However, there is need for the bank to spread its e-commerce services to rural areas so that many people can benefit from the services,” Tembo said. Lessons
Learned E-commerce via mobile phones (m-commerce) has great potential in the Zambian market mainly owing to convenience, flexibility, and increase in the use of mobile phones. Mobile telephones let customers carry their banks in their pockets. Daisy Diangamo of ZANACO bank said that hundreds of retailers for beverages from Zambian Breweries now pay delivery drivers by sending text messages on mobile phones to the bank. The bank then verifies the message and the payment is made. E-commerce
growing in Burkina Faso In Burkina Faso, where e-commerce is still in its early stages, there are nevertheless enthusiastic supporters selling everything from dried fruit to traditional masks to customers around the world. The Internet has opened global markets to large numbers of Burkina Faso companies and merchants in the land of "les hommes intègres" (the honest people) as the Burkinabè are known. The Internet is enabling merchants and agricultural producers find new and more lucrative markets for products such as dried fruit, art and craft items, cotton and karité (Shea) butter, which is used in cosmetics. “We were one of the first organizations, in 1998 and 1999 to use the Internet to find customers in Europe,” states Charles Yvon Tougouma, coordinator of the Cercle des Sécheurs (CDS), distributors of dried fruit and vegetables such as mangoes, tomatoes and onions. Electronic commerce or e-commerce provides the means of buying or selling Burkina Faso products such as sesame, karité butter, gum arabic and cotton without leaving your home or office thanks to the Internet. “I am keeping up with the world in selling my masks and bronze statuettes over the Internet. My customers contact me by email. I don’t need to travel around the world with masks and statues under my arm anymore. That means tremendous savings in the cost of airplane tickets and telephone calls,” remarks Alphonse Ouédraogo, owner of an art gallery bearing his name. He is in touch with buyers in France, in Italy, in Switzerland, the United States and Denmark. Trade Point Burkina, a commercial information center that provides information to traders about niche markets and opportunities, linking up potential customers and suppliers was the vehicle that introduced Alphonse Ouédraogo to e-commerce in 2001. Since then, it has become his preferred way of doing business. All sectors of creative activity and production are open to electronic commerce, from the artisans who sell their creations or products, to large businesses. A coppersmith in a remote village for example, can offer his jewellery around the world in a short time, using the Internet. It would be no surprise to receive requests for information and orders by fax, e-mails, or telephone, along with a variety of business proposals from distant parts of the world. While some merchants have found e-commerce to be a blessing, others see the Internet as mere hype and are distrustful of using the Internet for transactions. The main criticism: customers are used to sampling a product - seeing, feeling, tasting or handling it before buying, which is not possible if one is buying on-line. In the case of dried fruit, the CDS coordinator’s answer is simple: "One can always send samples to buyers." Email
and the web are the main technologies being used to enable business
people to contact overseas buyers for domestic products. Internet
trading enables e-business people to reach out to a large number of
customers. Boubacar Kouraogo, an oilcloth dealer who was looking for PVC tubing, contacted Trade Point to find a supplier. “I was looking for the addresses of foreign suppliers and contacts to import tubing. I had heard that the Internet was effective and gave access to the whole world.” Being self-taught in terms of e-business, the CDS uses search engines such as Google or Yahoo to find its customers. Starting in 1999, this method has enabled them to attract countless clients all around the world. CDS customers are located in Europe and in America. Their market continues to grow. “Our rate of exports has increased by about 30%. At present, we are in negotiations with the American market and if it succeeds, our export rate will increase 100%. When we started on the Internet, we went from 200 million to 300 million CFA francs. In 2005, we hope to reach 600 million CFA francs,” observes Charles Yvon Tougouma, CDS coordinator. Alphonse Ouédraogo, owner of the art gallery bearing his name, is convinced of the solid basis for e-commerce: “My business income is growing. In 2000, before I began to use the Internet, I had revenues of 13,852,655 CFA francs; in 2001 that was 49,912,153, and in 2004, my sales were 30,330,137 CFA francs. This year, I expect to do better. I have six permanent employees and 10 part-time. With my profits, I have been able to build and enlarge my gallery. My investment to date is about 49 million CFA francs. I have also bought a delivery vehicle.” In addition to its financial benefits, the speed of using the Internet for commercial activity also saves time for businesses and reduces costs. “Compare the speed and cost of sending documents by mail or by fax. With the Internet, we can send a large amount of information; our correspondent receives it very quickly and can reply immediately. It costs less too. Savings in time also mean financial gains,” says Issa Benjamin Baguian, director of Trade Point Burkina. A tool of transparency, the Internet enables the CDC and its members located in the different provinces of Burkina to communicate quickly and exchange documents concerning specific orders. In fact, many of the suppliers are located in areas that are not well served by regular mail and would not otherwise receive information on a timely basis. So, use of the Internet for internal communication offers real benefits, strengthening the association and enabling small producers of agricultural products around the country to reach global markets. Despite the small number of e-business firms in Burkina Faso, those who do make use of the Internet remain optimistic about is utility. “The Internet is a trade escort. The customer isn’t the only viewer; the whole word is watching. Those who don’t want to get involved will soon be left behind,” insists Alphonse Ouédraogo, gallery owner. Lessons
Learned While there are advantages to using the Internet for commercial activities, obtaining the material that promotes a presence on the world screen involves costs that can be more or less expensive. To
create a virtual boutique, advertise the products available and sell
them on the Internet involves enormous costs. Trade point Burkina
offers Web site creation and hosting services to its clients at a
cost of 250,000 CFA francs. Web sites that include a database cost
1,500,000 CFA francs. According to the director of Trade Point: “The
service we offer provides an opportunity to be known and connected
to 144 trade centres around the world.” In addition to the cost
of designing a web site, there is also the cost of equipment. The
purchase of a computer and accessories, such as a modem and printer,
adds about 1,500,000 CFA francs, not to overlook the cost of training
someone to operate the system, connection charges and other costs.
ICT
for improved crop marketing in rural Tanzania In 2001 the CROMABU project (www.cromabul.com) was designed to gather and disseminate relevant information regarding crop prices in local and international markets. Based in the Magu area of Mwanza, near the southern shores of Lake Victoria, CROMABU is supported by the International Institute for Communication Development (IICD). Tanzania resembles many countries in sub-Saharan Africa in that it suffers from economic problems due to rampant rural poverty and poor performance of the agricultural sector. Proper application of modern technologies such as ICT can rapidly reduce these problems, says the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 2001 Human Development Report (HDR). Covering 937,062 square kilometers, Tanzania has a huge potential for agriculture with an estimated 43 million hectares suitable for farming. However, only an average of 6.3 million hectares are cultivated annually, mostly by small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farms account for less than four per cent of all farms in Tanzania. The CROMABU project is aimed at empowering small-scale farmers economically by enhancing their access to price information and insights in trade flows. While stakeholders in the agricultural sector are demanding the government ensure a fair-competition policy for agricultural marketing and distribution, CROMABU is levelling the ground by use of modern ICT to empower farmers. According to CROMABU manager Mrs. Naomi Massele, a professional agriculturalist with experience in management of rural agricultural and industrial projects, CROMABU consists of three components. These are the Internet Café that serves the targeted community; price information services; and community development through information and training. CROMABU’s development phase will end in September 2006 and the project is regarded by IICD as a pilot to be replicated in other rural areas with crop marketing problems. Mrs. Massele explains that the project targets 16 villages directly, but the information from it circulates more widely. Information on crop prices gathered from local markets and prices of foreign markets downloaded from the Internet sources are compiled by CROMABU and stored in a database. From this, a simple price index is prepared in the Ki-Swahili language and disseminated to farming villages. Youth, particularly ex-students from primary and secondary schools, are the key channel of communication between the CROMABU and the targeted small-scale farmers in Magu; they are employed as agents and use bicycles to collect and distribute all relevant documents to the villages. Small-scale farmers have benefited greatly from the project. The Internet services have helped them get the best market prices for their produce, namely cotton, groundnuts, maize, beans, finger millet and sunflower. When prices are low in Tanzania, the Internet enables them to secure direct buyers from abroad - some of whom are sometimes ready to pay above the world market price. Before 2002, middlemen (madalali) in Magu, were conspiring to lower crop prices in order to reap unfair profits. The price of good cotton, for instance, currently ranges from Tanzanian shillings 200 (US$ 0.2) to shillings 250 (US$ 0.25) per kilo, while before the project it could be as low as shillings 150 (US$ 0.12) to shillings 180 (US$ 0.18) per kilo. Recent press reports said that small cotton farmers in the neighbouring Bunda district situated about 450 kilometres from Magu refused to sell their product for shillings 180 (US$ 0.18) per kilo to any buyer. They heard that prices are much better in Magu and hence would rather retain their cotton, which after all is a nonperishable product. They anticipate that buyers offering good prices will eventually come! Since ICTs facilitate efficient creation, storage, management and dissemination of information by electronic means, they are powerful tools for fighting some of these impoverishing forces. If a poor African can send a 40-page trade document from Tanzania to Cuba at a cost of just 40 US cents, instead of US$ 50, then there is no doubt that ICTs are cost effective and hence efficient in poverty reduction. Despite the remarkable success of CROMABU, content issues remain a challenge. Most web content is in English, which is considered a language of the elite in Tanzania. Ki-Swahili is the official national language of 34.6 million people of Tanzania, and over 95 percent of the population can only speak, read and write in either Ki-Swahili or other local languages, and hence cannot comprehend most web content, even when they have access. Aloyce Menda is the coordinator of JUSTA-AFRICA , and the second price winner of the UNECA / AISI Media Award 2004.
The Agona Swedru Agricultural Information Centre and Radio Peace are information intermediaries that the Ghana National Agricultural Information Network System (GAINS) has selected to disseminate research findings to farmers in the Central Region of Ghana. Freelance journalist John Yarney explores the impact on local communities. All three children of Ghanaian farmer Osei Kwabiah Amanfi have their school fees paid thanks to the revenue provided by his grasscutter husbandry project. The grasscutter is a fat, furry animal whose natural habitat is the tall grassland of the guinea savannah. Its meat is well loved by people in Ghana and many other African countries. Using simple and low-cost techniques the animal can be bred and raised in captivity and provides a valuable source of protein in the household diet as well as additional revenue. Amanfi was introduced to his new pet project by chance. He had been visiting the Agona Swedru Agricultural Information Centre, a collaborative project between Ghana’s Ministry of Agriculture and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), when he saw a brochure about grasscutter rearing prepared by the Centre. He decided to try it out with the encouragement of the staff of the Centre. “Grasscutter husbandry has provided my nephew, Akwasi Addai, who dropped out of school, with a vocation,” says Amanfi, an organic citrus farmer in Agona Swedru, in the Central Region of Ghana. “Apart from the cost of construction of the hatches that house the animals, they are fairly easy to look after. They eat almost anything and hardly ever get sick,” he says. This is the second animal husbandry project Amanfi is trying out; the first was a poultry project, in which he lost over 95 percent of the birds to disease. “Compared to poultry [this] is good,” Amanfi says. The Agona Swedru Agricultural Information Centre and the Winneba based community radio station, Radio Peace, are two information intermediaries to farmers that the Ghana National Agricultural Information Network system (GAINS) has selected to disseminate research findings to farmers. GAINS is the library and information system component of the government of Ghana/World Bank supported National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) and links the libraries of all the agricultural research institutions under the CSIR, the faculties of agricultural libraries of the universities, the library of Biotechnology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). The network was established to strengthen the information infrastructure to support agricultural research management, which will eventually lead to increased production. To date, GAINS has provided the Agona Swedru Agricultural Information Centre with a series of manuals on VHS videocassette, on topics ranging from grasscutter production, snails, poultry farming, mushrooms and seedling production. Agona Swedru Agricultural Information Centre does not yet have Internet access, so officers of the Centre record the information needs of the farmers, especially those relating to marketing and product specification, and ask them to come back later. The officers then access the information the farmers need from commercial cyber cafes. According to Joel Sam, coordinator of GAINS, there have been many positive outcomes from the network. Researchers that access the network for instance have access to current information in their field and been able to generate research that will impact positively on the country’s agriculture. According to Emmanuel Osei-Bonsu, principal technical officer of the Centre, between 6 to 20 farmers come to the Centre weekly to be trained in cultivation practices especially those related to citrus. A group of physically challenged people from the area went through training in mushroom cultivation and won the district’s farmers award last year in the non-traditional crop category. Farmers are also requesting copies of the VHS videocassettes to keep. But the farmers have more specific information needs, mainly for strategic business information. According to Osei-Bonsu, between 25 and 30 farmers come to the Centre weekly requesting information on product specifications on the international market, before they go into production. They also request information on how they can market their produce. The creative use of information intermediaries to satisfy the information needs of farmers in the vicinity of Agona Swedru is contrasted with what happens in another agricultural town in the same region, Twifo Praso. Twifo Praso, 70 km north of the regional capital Cape Coast, is typical of many of Ghana’s agricultural towns, characterized by smallholdings of cocoa or oil palm land, mixed with vegetable crops. Two villages near Twifo Praso were the focus of a two-year research project on ICTs and poverty reduction, funded by DFID and based at the London School of Political Science (Slater and Kwami, 2005). According to the researchers, the creative use of ICTs can impact positively on the residents of communities whose livelihood is at a subsistence level, with seasonal inflows of cash at harvest times, oscillating with periods of high debt and lack of cash. Daily life is sustained through household vegetable production supplemented by weekly marketing of small surpluses. The district assembly at Twifo Praso has a high standard ICT facility and the researchers think there are already well-established communications networks that can be built upon in various ways, helped by ICTs. “For example, local micro-credit groups, which are already embedded in their communities, could act as more general information providers and mediators, passing on both information requests and answers to and from their local social networks to Twifo Praso. The Internet may play a part in this as an information source, but this could be enhanced by combining it with other ICTs which would allow the local groups to be more effective communicators: again, posters and other visual displays of information, prepared on computer and photocopied or printed, could be enormously effective,” the report of the research says. “Similarly, audio-cassettes, e.g. about fertilizers and pesticides, could be passed along through social networks including local labour cooperatives,” the report elaborates. The researchers identify two information needs of the farming community which ICTs might an important role in filling. The first is the commonly expressed need for market price information. At present this information is collected but not made public, and most knowledge of market prices is conveyed by word of mouth. The second major issue according to the researchers is that agricultural development depends on retaining more value-added processes in the locality, through increased processing of raw materials by local people. They observe that although it is obviously a hugely complex issue involving problems of technical knowledge, organization, capital, coordination, marketing and so on, ICTs may enter into the process in a range of ways. “For example, the Internet may be extremely useful in researching new technical knowledge, and for linking with groups all over the world who are working on alternative technologies for local production. On the other hand, the development of local micro-credit groups and cooperatives as information groups might expand their ideas and ambitions in the direction of more complex processes. By contrast local government and agricultural officers may use a range of communications media to publicize and coordinate initiatives, and may use email and web to build up capital though private and public resources. All of these are quite different communication processes linked to different but related parts of an economic and organizational problem, and need to addressed in detail,” the report said. Amanfi, the citrus farmer in Agona Swedru, lost his second citrus harvest because of the unfavorable prices offered by middlemen for his produce. “I have regretted planting citrus. If I had even planted cocoa the government would have paid me for the crop. I take consolation that the farm is close to town; I can one day sell the land for property development,” Amanfi says. Slater and Kwami’s research sheds light on Amanfi’s dilemma. “The fundamental problem for most of the villagers is cost and difficulty of transport, and the problems of storage, of being price takers rather than price makers. That is to say, if it is uncertain that people can act on information, then the benefits of ICTs are in doubt. Again, this requires us to look at ICTs not simply in terms of broadcasting information but rather in terms of an integrated media and transport system in which people can act more effectively in their best interests.” Slater and Kwami, 2005. The main conclusion is that National agricultural information and research services need to work with local intermediaries in order to become more responsive to local information needs and understand how to package their findings in a way that is more immediately relevant to farmers. Slater and Kwami point out that market price information is only relevant if farmers have the ability to act on it. This ability is dependent on other factors such as transportation networks. In this region of Ghana Internet access is extremely difficult. The project relies on other ICTs such as VHS videocassette, radio and print to reach end-users.
To a layperson in Uganda, it is difficult to explain how ICTs fit into agriculture. But today, shrewd farmers in the rural Kayunga District of Central Uganda understand that ICT is the key to vital information that helps them to plan their crop production and gain access to markets. The Farmers Information Communication Management (FICOM) project is a pilot project which although new, seems to be a success. It is carried out under the auspices of the Uganda National Farmers Federation (UNFFE), the largest farmers advocacy membership organization in Uganda. Kayunga District had some of the most unreachable villages in the country. Visiting the area involves a tough hassle given the terrible neglected road system. Hellene Karamagi, who heads ICTARD, visited Kayunga last year and explained that on her first trip to the remotest parts of the district, she found heaps of pineapples rotting by the roadside for lack of access to markets. Farmers told her that they were waiting for buyers from Kenya and other parts of Uganda including the Kampala. But the buyers were delayed and some of the produce was starting to rot. Karamagi’s instincts were set rolling and she determined to find a real solution for these farmers. One of the immediate issues was that there was a huge deficit in communication to the rural farmer and even at UNFFE headquarters and the member districts. This problem was not limited to Kayunga District alone; it is common all over rural Uganda that farmers whose produce is ready for market have ended up failing to sell due to lack of means of communication with the market. This situation prompted UNFFE to initiate the FICOM pilot, to enable such services as necessary information gathering and effective dissemination to the rural farmers, the districts and UNFFE headquarters. The information gathered and disseminated had to be relevant to the farmers to enable them to make informed decisions when planning their crop production. The project is implemented by an organization called Information Communication Technologies for Africa Rural Development (ICTARD) (www.ictard.org/). The project receives funding from Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture based in Basel, Switzerland. FICOM began with the aim of easing UNFFE internal communication and connection to the districts and other affiliated members in Jinja, Luwero and Kayunga, and among the grassroots farmers who in turn would find it easier to communicate among themselves and with the entire world. ICTARD set out to improve exchange of customized agro- and health-related information between district farmers’ associations and the local, national and global agricultural players. ICTARD also seeks to improve access to existing agro-market solutions using ICT and see to it that additional income is created for farmers groups by providing phone services to the rest of the community. Another goal is to empower farmers’ groups with adequate skills for sustainability of the project. In addition to the organizations named above, other vital stakeholders had to be called in to make the FICOM project a reality. They include the Ministry of Water, Lands and Environment (Meteorology department) and the National Agricultural Research organization (NARO). The project includes the following ICT components in addition to making use of existing channels of communication.
Faced with the challenge of improving communications throughout the UNFFE umbrella organization and among grassroots farmers in the district, ICTARD chose to put emphasis on existing communication channels like the village phone, by increasing on their number and distribution around the three concerned districts. 16 village phones were distributed and form a key part of the information and communication system. Another feature of the project was the use of Worldspace digital radio, through which detailed information on weather conditions in the country is disseminated. Impact
Assessment The farmers themselves have maximized the use of the village phones to access market information from any part of Uganda. They use locally developed SMS services to send and automatically receive updates on market prices. Because of this, farmers no longer have to wait for buyers and middlemen who con them. They have direct contact with the buyers and no more middlemen involved. Some farmers are now able to sell to the big supermarket chains in Kampala, including Uganda’s Metro and Uchumi. They have eliminated unnecessary transport costs. Instead of paying 5000/= (about US$2.5) for transport to look for buyers or be paid with a lot uncertainties, farmers now first make a call to ascertain payments and other related activities. According to ICTARD, the new solutions have improved the farmers’ external relations. Farmers’ groups have been able to communicate both internally and externally, some have managed to get development funds and other related benefits, and they also now have accessible contact addresses for easy communication. Some farmers have also seen the widening of their income base. Instead of depending on only agricultural activities for income, farmer groups are now realizing a side income from the village phones whereby there is possibility-earning money from charging for phone calls made. The
village phones are also offering employment opportunities for telephone
operators. The project is still new, but the impact is already being felt as the first harvest period begins. First and foremost, according to ICTARD there has been an immediate improvement in communication. The UNFFE head offices in Kampala have installed a wireless network, creating an environment of easy and fast communication internally and externally. They have hired an information manager and developed a website, giving UNFFE wider exposure to national and international audiences. In addition, improved communication makes reaching the farmers at the grassroots easier. Districts without Internet connection now have access to updated information from the UNFFE website. Through the project Kayunga and Jinja Districts farmers received computers with printers, photocopiers and Worldspace radio which improved their access to meteorological and agricultural advisory information from the Ministry of Lands, Water and Environment. The district farmers’ association offices are now empowered and recognized as agricultural information dissemination centers. Several farmers have now been trained on accessing and using the information accessed from the Worldspace radio/channel. Member of Parliament Honourable Kakooko Victoria (Kayunga MP) received a phone call from one of her constituents, a farmer who was enthusiastic about having now managed to get access to market information using the village phone. Lessons
Learned A big lesson is that ICTs are no longer the isolated reserve of literate people. The notion that ICT requires ICT literacy and that the technology is very expensive and that the rural people cannot easily adapt to the technologies, is now open to debate. ICTARD says: “with proper planning, the right approach to ICTs can play a big role in poverty eradication in the rural areas.” Another lesson according to ICTARD is that the village phone is the most sustainable means of communication and access to market and other information to improve the livelihoods of rural farmers. Previously, there were phones in the villages but on a very limited scale. The project increased the number of phones and provided the farmers with additional information on how to use them productively. The village phones are very user-friendly, though the phone operators still have to learn some detailed phone functions. With
the Worldspace radio, it is the district technical staff who are trained
as well as representatives from the sub-counties in the districts.
Journalism instructors from institutions based in Francophone Africa participated in a five-day workshop on Media and the Information Society. Held from 8-12 August 2005 in Yaounde, Cameroon, the training was the first in a series of “training of trainers” workshops organized by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) that will aim to integrate information society issues in Schools of Journalism. The workshop was structured around the “African Information Society Initiative (AISI) Media Training Module” – developed by ECA to serve as a how-to guide on issues such as ICT policy development, infrastructure development, intellectual property rights and content development. Discussions focused on integrating the issues into journalism curricula and developing new course work and site visits were made to assess the effectiveness of e-government applications by the Ministry of Works and Public Administration, whose finance and personnel management reform programmes are heavily dependent on ICT applications. In his remarks to the workshop, Mr. Thierry Amoussogbo, ECA’s Regional Advisor said that Journalists and other media practitioners need a range of knowledge and skills to equip them for better analysis of ICT and development issues. He also pointed out that training their instructors "is a first step towards enhancing the quality of their training on ICT issues and in the long run, will contribute to the media’s involvement in building Africa’s Information Society”. Following the training, participants agreed to develop new courses that will offer credits to students as part of their basic journalism training. Short courses and workshops will also be offered for media professionals already in the field. The participants will share best practices and improve the modules on an ongoing basis through an existing "training of trainers network". The workshop was co-sponsored by ECA, the Government of Cameroon and the German Government’s development agency Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). For more information and for testing out the media module online, contact mwambui@uneca.org or http://www.uneca.org/DISD
The
seventh annual African Computing & Telecommunications Summit,
4 – 7 October 2005, ACT 2005 – Crowne Plaza Hotel, Sandton,
Johannesburg, South Africa The Key themes for ACT 2005 are as follows:
More: http://www.aitecafrica.com/act2005/index.htm National ICT policies and strategies: regulation and public access to support multi-stakeholders’ dialogue, 17 – 18 October 2005, Dakar, Senegal The workshop is organized by ECA, the Institut francophone des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la formation (INTIF) as well as the governments of Canada and France, in the framework of the Global ePolicy Resource Network (ePol-Net). The participants are drawn from French-speaking countries in West Africa. The main objective of the workshop is to reinforce the capacities of the decision makers of the French-speaking countries of West Africa in the development of policies and national strategies related to access to ICTs, through dialogue among regulators, lawyers, legislators, public decision makers, administrators of public access points, suppliers of access to the Internet and representatives of organizations working on regional integration. More: http://www.epolafrica.org/psntic Past, Present, and Future of Research in the Information Society, 13 – 15 November 2005, Tunis, Tunisia This event will examine the role of research and the production of knowledge in the information society, with special emphasis on developing areas of the world. Core issues of the conference lie at the intersection of Science and Engineering, Information and Communication Technologies, and Development. More: http://worldsci.net/ ECA Events at WSIS Tunis 2005, 15 – 16 November 2005, Tunis, Tunisia ECA, in collaboration with its partners, is organizing the following events during WSIS Tunis 2005:
For more info on these events and Africa @ WSIS: http://www.uneca.org/aisi/wsis2005/ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2nd Phase, 16 – 18 November 2005, Tunis, Tunisia Following a proposal by the Government of Tunisia, the International Telecommunication Union adopted a resolution at its Plenipotentiary Conference in Minneapolis in 1998 to hold a World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and to place it on the agenda of the United Nations. In 2001, the ITU Council decided to hold the Summit in two phases, the first from 10 to 12 December 2003, in Geneva, Switzerland, and the second from 16 to 18 November 2005 in Tunis, Tunisia. This was endorsed by the UN General Assembly (Resolution 56/183) while according the lead role for the preparatory work to ITU in cooperation with other interested organizations and partners. The
road to Tunis entails a process of monitoring and evaluation of the
progress of feasible actions laid out in the Geneva Plan and a concrete
set of deliverables that must be achieved by the time the Summit meets
again in Tunis in November 2005. Efforts are now being made to put
the Plan of Action into motion and working groups are being set up
to find solutions and reach agreements in the fields of Internet governance
and financing mechanisms. These working groups will provide inputs
to the second phase of WSIS in Tunis. Also, measures will be taken
to bridge the digital divide and hasten the achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals with the help of ICTs. More: http://www.itu.int/wsis/
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