Towards an Information Society - Development Projects

Eng. Venancio Massingue

1st ClUEM Workshop on Developing the Information Society in Mozambique

4-5 Feb 1997

Contents

1. Reasons for a national informatization programme

2. The national informatization progamme

2.1 Sub Programme 1 - Applications

1. Tourism
2. Agriculture
3. Culture
4. Education
5. Environment and natural resources
6. Public Administration
7. Health
8. Statistics

Terms of Reference for the Working Group

2.2 Sub Programme 2 - Promoting Content Development

Terms of Reference for Working Group

2.3 Sub Programme 3 - A National Informatics Policy (NIP)

Terms of Reference for the Working Group

2.4 Sub Programme 4 - Infrastructure Development

Introduction to Telecentres
Terms of Reference for the Working Group

1. REASONS FOR A NATIONAL INFORMATIZATION PROGRAMME

Introduction

The growing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) world-wide has resulted in increasing awareness of the critical role that information and communication play in supporting the development process. This workshop aims to develop a Programme for the Informatization of the Country (Progmma da informatizacao do Pais - PIP) which is designed to develop the use of ICTs in support of Mozambique's development goals at all levels from the national, to provincial, to district and right down to the locality.

The PIPcomprises a series of sub-programmes in the key areas of government policy, infrastructure, sectoral applications (education, environments, health, agriculture etc), and content development tools. This reflects the four areas of focus identified by the various international fora working on developing the global information society. Starting with the G7 pilot project initiated by the developed countries, these principles have since been further extended to the South through the Information Society and Development (ISAD) conference and the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) which has been adopted by all African ministers of planning and development. Many such activities are beginning to take place in other developing countries and if Mozambique can respond quickly to the potential, it can play a leading role in developing new techniques and strategies to meet basic development needs.

For Mozambicans from all sectors to be able to benefit from the use of ICTs and fully apply the PIP, it will be necessary to consider:

• The telecommunication, information and electrical power infrastructure that must be present in all areas of the country.

• Content creation mechanisms which are a vital element to the concept of national sovereignty. It is not possible to determine our own unique information society if we cannot create, systematise, process, store, share and keep custody of information in the country.

• An equitable education system that extends to all of the population regardless of their geographic location through the development of ICTs. In order to attain this goal, teachers must be trained to improve their academic skills, to use ICTs, and to adopt methods of ICT-based teaching for the classroom.

• The health system which needs to provide improved accessibility, medical decision support systems at regional, national provincial and district levels, improved access to skilled diagnosis through tele-medicine and improved distribution systems for reducing costs of medical supplies.

• Our peasants, and small, medium and large farmers which need to keep the history of their lands on databases to avoid loss of crops. They need to use other positive experiences from their counterparts in other countries with the same climate.

• Our Public administration system which needs improved internal revenue management, improved social security administration, efficient tendering systems and improved accessibility to national public administration information, especially to citizens who live in rural areas.

• Our natural environment which needs monitoring of areas threatened by environmental degradation and natural disasters, greater knowledge of the availability of natural resources and improved management and monitoring of the implementation of environment related projects;

• Our tourist sector which needs national and provincial tourist information system for destination and facilities, a mechanism to promote our unique cultural natural, and environmental resource and a system to provide tourism-related information and indicators that encourage and facilitate investment in tourism projects.

The convergence of these ideas and the mastering of all relevant area will be further described by a National Information Policy (NIP) which should also be driven by other national development challenges such as debt management, population, unemployment, job creation, industrialisation, land reclamation, trade, etc. The emphasis is on the need to support decision making at all levels and to provide information and communication infrastructure for government, business and society to enlighten the process of development.

Once developed and adopted, the NIP will be a vital instrument for the development of ICTs and their use in the country. The policy will also serve as a reference 'white paper' on ITCs for government institutions to interact with donors and lenders and will also serve to provide guidelines for bi-or multi-lateral co-operation between Mozambique and other states. The NIP will reflect how we as Mozambicans view the benefits that can be gained by using ICTs in all spheres of our country and society in general.

Background

All societies depend on some form of communications network to define their collective identities and make decisions about their common and binding interests. They make it possible for people to co-operate, to produce and exchange commodities, to share ideas and information and to assist one another in times of need. In fact every part of a society's basic rights is dependant on information and communication - the right to life, to personal liberty and dignity, the right to free expression and to free movement are all facilitated by these networks.

With the potential to affect virtually all sectors of society, ICTs must no longer be seen as a luxury for the elite but as an absolute necessity for the masses, especially in developing countries where plummeting costs and exploding technological possibilities offer incredible potential to improve the quality of life for every person in the nation.

The new information and communication technologies perhaps offer for the first time in recent history an opportunity to uncouple a nation's natural wealth from its information richness, in the past these two have remained intimately linked.

As a result we are now seeing an elevation in the importance of informatics as a sector with a uniquely fundamental impact on society. These technologies cannot simply be treated as any other commercial sector of the economy, to be left to forces of the free market. ICT only in the cities, but even more importantly in the rural areas where the is an agricultural country by nature.

Aside from the clearly apparent benefits for all forms of commerce, health services and education, Mozambique could have many low cost opportunities to provide alternative cultural, tourism and entertainment possibilities. The development of the information highway will also result in man hitherto unpredicted benefits. If it is true that information highways will allow consumers to bypass the middleman sector of the economy, and thus make markets function far more efficiently, then Mozambique has a remarkable opportunity to join the highly efficient microproducers who may inherit the earth from today's lumberin industrial age dinosaurs.

Meeting needs in rural Areas

At the moment, many of the activities associated with the information society are only available to the elite minority in the cities, and bypass the majority of people, 80% of which live in rural areas in Mozambique. This is because the concentration of economic activities in the cities has stimulated sufficient demand to make the information infrastructure more viable to operate while the rural areas are still dependant on very old and unreliable telecommunications infrastructure, much of which uses obsolete technologies.

Until recently, the high cost of providing even basic telecommunication services in rural and outlying areas has limited the potential for providing widespread access to information and communication facilities. This has been one of the major problems for telecommunication planners - how to create the necessary incentives for telecommunication authorities to supply unprofitable services which the state has a commitment to support.

However, the convergence of the telephone, computer and television computer and television combined with their more widespread use is increasing the aggregate demand for telecommunication based services substantially. This will make multimedia broadband services more economic to install in densely populated urban areas and basic telephony and telematic services in the rural areas. When combined with the recent advances in rural and low density radio based telecoms networks, a review of the economics of providing services to remote and disadvantaged areas indicates that there may be room for economically viable service provision to these sectors.

The most appropriate mechanism for this appears to be the establishment of multi-purpose shared community information and communication resourse centres. A variety of projects need to be established, for example, to demonstrate their potential to improve trade, generate jobs, reduce poverty, improve health care and education, and develop indigenous capacity to participate as active producers of culture and products rather than just passive consumers of foreign information and entertainment.

Of particular importance will be: focussing and increasing the levels of demand for service through the collaboration of government and development agencies on projects that will use the service, and adopting models of community ownership that ensure sustainability and replicability.

The incentives for this are high, as the greatly reduced costs and improved 'information richness' that the use of new ICTs can provide are in many respects even more appropriate for rural and remote areas. There are also many other constraints that must be overcome, such as low levels of literacy and poor telecommunications infrastructure. However, it appears that these are all surmountable problems if the appropriate strategies and policies are adopted.

National Information Policy

To make optimal use of ICTs in supporting national development policies and to rationalise the large number of alternative strategies emerging, Mozambique needs to develop a National Information Policy and a top level advisory body to oversee its implementation. To perform this task it is clear that a high level government working group needs to be established within the Office of the President to manage the NIP. To support and advise this group a national advisory body comprising representatives from all sectors of society also needs to be established. Working together these two groups will be able to ensure the implementation of the NIP and chart the country's best routes to the information highway.

Education and Human Resource Development and Strategies

Fundamental to exploiting the possibilities of ICTs is to develop a well educated population. Likewise, increasing the pool of human resources is clearly a key requirement in order to get up to speed for the information superhighway onramp. Aside from implementing a massive effort to increase computer literacy, projects such as providing every pupil with access to a computer, from basic, secondary, technical and higher educational institutions upward, need to be considered.

However, the real art is not the connection of hardware, software or networks, but that of the people working with it. This demands more than technical know-how, it requires a deep understanding of the culture, needs, motives and habits of the people concerned. Formal education, technical training and research all require informatics support which takes into account Mozambican culture and the needs of its people.

To improve 'cultural choice and competition' the government will need to develop systems of incentives to encourage the development of locally produced educational, cultural and entertainment programming so that these can create viable alternatives to the flood of information that will be available from developed countries.

Infrastructure - the Challenge of Multimedia for all Citizens

Because of the low levels of basic telecommunications infrastructure development, another important area where initial support will be necessary is improving the underlying telecommunications infrastructure by working closely with TDM, by using new communication technologies such as wireless system where applicable, and extending the services available at TDM shops.

In addition, a variety of other areas will need to be focussed on, including:

• Developing appropriate information delivery mechanisms.
• Developing information 'content' and applications development tools.
• Ensuring the use of interfaces appropriate for a generally non-literate population.
• Linking electronic information services to more traditional delivery mechanisms such as print and radio.
• Encouraging government departments such as education and health to make use of rural shared facilities to deliver their services and to some of the operating costs of facilities in return for service delivery.
• Involving local communities in defining and managing ICT services and encouraging local entrepreneurs to run the service or establishing frameworks for public sector /private sector partnerships to operate the service.
• Encouraging international development agencies to support ICT projects in a co-ordinated way that strengthens the national strategy.
• Sensitising the international private sector to the opportunities for involvement in supplying services and equipment at discounted rates to help kick-start the development of these facilities, to prototype the use of new technologies and to demonstrate/market their solutions.

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2. THE NATIONAL INFORMATIZATION PROGRAMME

2.1 - Sub-Programme 1) - Applications

Project a) Tourism - Applying ICTS to support national development goals in tourism

Government Objectives:

Policy

Development of projects which will produce the maximum social and economic benefits from tourist resources.

Objectives

• To raise the quality of hotel and similar services.
• To make tourism a national industry which will bring in foreign exchange and provide employment.
• To reinforce regional development through the established tourist industry and to distribute the benefits to all possible areas.
• To promote a greater participation from national industry in efforts to promote tourism.
• To build up adequate legislation on tourism, including that concerned with the formalities of passport and visa issue. and questions of customs and exise. This is necessary to make the country an attractive tourist destination.

Challenges and Opportunities for applying ICTs to tourism development

Challenges include:

• Lack of supply of information on tourist resources which remain unexploited sources of wealth generation from international and national visitors.
• Demand from national and international markets for information on tourism destinations, services, facilities, and best offers.
• Enhancing national and international co-ordination on tour packages including transportation, accommodation, activities, and meals.

Opportunities include

• Attracting more tourists and other visitors by offering high quality information and telecommunication services in tourist resorts.
• Reducing the costs of international promotions for attracting tourists.
• Increasing the visibility of the attractions of Mozambique through on-line promotional campaigns.
• Building national and regional tourism related databases for destinations and facilities.
• Providing a mechanism for virtual travel and information gathering utilising the Internet.
• Provision of tourism related information and indicators that encourage and facilitate investment in tourism projects.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist tourism programmes

1. Connect selected staff of govt office for tourism promotion - (Ministry for Industry , Commerce and Tourism) the Internet.
2. Establish web site(s) containing text, images, video and audio files illustrating Mozambican tourism attractions.
3. Establish a resource centre for tourist facility operators to be able to promote their services, capture images of their facilities and display them on the web, take bookings electronically.

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Project b) Agriculture - ICTs to support national development goals in agriculture

Government Objectives

Policy

• To distribute more land, especially to the family sector and small producers, and to guarantee them land titles.
• To support the family sector through the provision of seeds and agricultural tools and to set up rural extension programmes to stimulate increased productivity.
• To guarantee markets for agricultural produce, and to ensure good storage conditions and prevent losses. To provide incentives to owners of firms who wish to work and invest in this area.
• To ensure progressive self-sufficiency in food and basic products, ensure the supply of raw materials to the national industry, and to improve the balance of payments by producing exportable products.
• To reduce imports of agnicultual materials.
• To promote an increase in cattle -raising, especially of cows.
• To promote a rational and sustainable use of the forests and wild life.
• To promote the maximum use of existing methods of irrigation and the use of other potential sources.
• To promote research and agricultural extension.

Objectives

• To recognise the value of the land as the important and precious natural resource the country has.
• To increase agricultural production.
• To guarantee agricultural development by means of a policy of credit which will support the initiatives of producers, especially the smaller producers.
• To expand and consolidate the methodology of research into production systems.
• To develop suitable varieties of plants and animals for the different sectors of production.
• To develop research into technological "packages" with an emphasis on low-cost technologies.
• To do applied research for solutions to the most pressing technical problems in the agricultural sector.
• To develop research work with a view to defining control methods for the main animal illnesses and plant pests.
• To develop research work with a view to a better understanding of the local species of domestic animals

Challenges and Opportunities for applying ICTs to agriculture

Challenges include

• Limited satisfaction of market needs due to lack of available information to match surpluses in some areas of the country with demand in other areas.
• Limited availability of informatics tools to assist in the logistics of food distribution.
• Lack of information on agricultural exports with the most competitive advantages.
• Lack of guidance for planning of crop planting;
• Lack of warning of pest and disease outbreaks.
• Lack of knowledge of new methods and technologies among the peasant population.
• Lack of access to food market information and pricing to determine optimal harvesting times.

Opportunities include

• Improvement of food security through access to timely information for determining optimal harvesting times, locating sources of surplus, distribution channels and storage facilities.
• Provision of equitable access to new techniques for improving agricultural production
• Improved communication and information flow for better research and extension service linkages;
• Better co-ordination of donors and information flow among donors working in the food sector
• Access to world's knowledge base on agricultural information and journals and improved flow of information on experiences elsewhere in the region.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist agricultural programmes

1. Raise awareness in the agricultural sector of potential of information technologies and develop information priorities for agriculture sector.
2. Establish Internet connections at key institutions in the agriculture sector to increase access to agriculture content, information, experience and knowledge both within and outside of the country. In particular, to:

• Improve links between meteorological centres and agricultural advisory services through supplying them with computer equipment where necessary and the provision of access to the Internet.
• Provide agriculture workers with access to international networks on food production technology and databases on seed stock.
• Establish information systems for monitoring crop production and early warning systems for limiting the impact of pests and weather.
• Improve collaboration and coordination across the agricultural sector.
• Establish a training program for computer technicians, end users, and content providers.
• Establish email listservers for information sharing and discussions in targeted agriculture topics.
• Participate in regional early warning system (eg. USAID's FEWS, FAO's REWU etc) and other online applications

3. Develop rural information delivery systems to provide guidance on government subsidies, access to irrigation schemes and food transportation and storage facilities.

• Based on telecentre development, establish rural agricultural information component in telecentre.

• Establish training program for end users and content creators.

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Project c) Culture - Applying ICTs to support national development goals in culture

Government Objectives

Policy

• To promote activities of local communities, associations and firms, with a view to affirming and valuing the cultural identity of the people, within the country and abroad. To identify and preserve the country's cultural and artistic patronomy.
• To value the languages of Mozambique as storehouses of culture and vehicles for affirming cultural identity.
• To ensure the intellectual, cultural and artistic development of all Mozambicans.
• To promote culture and festivals between institutions and areas of the country as a form of encouraging the exchange of experience and knowledge.
• production of, and trade in, traditional musical instruments.

Objectives

• To identify, preserve and value the cultural and artistic patrimony through better management, supervision and the adoption of policies to encourage culture.
• To encourage individuals and groups to complement the State activities in valuing and promoting culture at home and abroad.
• To protect the affirmation of local cultural identities as one of the factors that express culture in diversity.
• To make use of local materials and to value the knowledge and experience of the people.

Changes and Opportunities for applying ICTs to cultural issues

Challenges include

• Limited resources for preservation of cultural heritage (monuments, manuscripts, artifacts, music, etc.).
• Lack of regional or local access to national cultural sites.
• Lack of awareness and knowledge about different Mozambican cultures.

Opportunities include

• Making Mozambique's museums accessible to all parts of the region as well as to the rest of the world.
• Electronic preservation and documentation of manuscripts and artifacts.
• Increasing accessibility of rare manuscripts and artifacts to researchers and the general public through the development of cultural CD ROM products.
• Communicating knowledge of Mozambique's cultural diversity to different areas of the country.

Potential projects for applying ICTS to assist cultural programmes

1. Connect Mozambique's museums and cultural archives to the Internet - first provide dialup connectivity for all archives' and museums, professional Staff then establish permanent leased-line connections at selected sites.
2. Establish a web site(s) containing text, images, video and audio flies illustrating Mozambican culture traditions.
3. Establish a resource centre for musicians and artists to be able capture their creations and display them on the web.

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Projected d) Education - Applying ICT's to supporting national development goals education

Government Policies and Objectives:

• Improve scientific and technical knowledge.
• Give priority to increasing public access to education by reconstructing and enlarging the school network, by making resources available and by improving the quality of service provision.
• Ensuring that there is a balanced regional development so that the different levels of teaching will be more accessible. Extend tertiary education to the central and northern regions and pre-university teaching to all the provinces.
• Introduce improvements in the curricula, in teacher and head master training, and into pedagogical production of, and trade in, traditional musical instrument.

Objectives

• To create equality of opportunity of access at all levels of teaching promoting a greater participation of women by means of incentive mechanisms of curriculum and material, and the integration into the educational system of all children of school age, and those in difficult circumstances.
• To support initiatives of groups or associations, religious groups, private organisations and other social movements that are interested in expanding the school network and reinforcing its expansion with distance learning.
• To increase the budget of the sector and improve the quality of teaching by the development of executable schemes of training, both initial and upgrading of the teachers, - with the adoption of a model that will ensure a good level of general and technico-professional training and of other forms of incentive for the teaching profession - so as to improve the motivation and the morale of teachers.
• To increase efforts to ensure the provision of school books for all pupils and to take all possible steps to improve their writing publication and distribution.
• To encourage private firms to produce and sell school material, especially in rural areas.
• To create a body of efficient inspectors and pedagogical supervisors linked to a local and a central institution, with the main aim being the schools.
• To reinforce the institutional system and its capacity through the creation of technical and administrative competence at local level, with a view to gradually decentralising the administration.

Challenges and Opportunities for applying ICTs in education

Challenges include:

• High illiteracy rates, especially among women.
• Low numbers of teachers and large numbers of students per class.
• Few schools and universities.
• Few libraries and very limited access to international journals.
• Lack of educational materials.
• Lack of researchers and research facilities.

Opportunities include

• Providing equitable remote access to resources in support of both distance education and the strengthening of local educational capacity;
• Connecting schools, universities and research centres to national and international distance education facilities, national and international databases, libraries, research laboratories and computing facilities;
• Reducing communications and administrative costs by building communications networks linking all educational establishments;
• Promoting and supporting collaboration among teachers and researchers;
• Extending the reach of educational facilities in informal learning, especially to community level.

Examples of Potential Projects

1) Establishing Internet connectivity to strategic educational institutions:

• Improving the connectivity within and between the tertiary educational institutions to allow more students and teachers access to the Internet.
• Assisting the primary school teacher training centre to obtain connectivity and explore computer and Internet uses.
• Incorporate Internet access into programs underway for inservice teacher training. (3000 teachers are in the program now and an additional 15000 will go through the program.).
• Establish an Internet connection m Maputo between CIUEM, MINED, IAP, the National Institute for Education Development and one Maputo school to demonstrate potential.
• Establish connectivity for those institutions involved in the "bookflooding" program so as to maintain the exchange of ideas with national and international partners.
• Where telecenters are being proposed, rural schools and NG0s could participate to support these centers through use of the facility and activities in content creation.

2) Assisting in the development of education content to be delivered through the Internet.

• Assisting the development of distance education curriculum materials and that can be delivered through the Internet. Development of a courseware repository project.
• Assisting the University Faculty of Science and CIUEM to develop software tools to improve mathematics teaching and to bridge gaps between matriculation and university mathematics studies.
• For the bookflooding program, "publish" the final version of the books complete with illustrations on a Mozambique Web page.
• Obtain expertise and advice from more advanced education & ICT projects in other countries such as the Canadian Schoolmate and the New Brunswick community access model.
• Assist the Ministry of Education and the Medical School at the University to collaborate with specialists in other countries with experience in telemedicine.

Projects would include

• awareness building (eg., connectivity workshops, knowledge infrastructure seminars, road shows);
• provision of equipment and connection charges (e.g., computers, modem, line lease);
• training (for end users content creators & service technicians).

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Project e) Environment and Natural Resources - Applying ICTs to support national development goals for environment and natural resource management objectives

Government Objectives

Policy

Development of public awareness of the need to defend and conserve the environment. Development of a national management program.

Objectives

• To manage the environment through a national programme, using efficient control methods.
• To ensure environmental co-ordination, central and inter-sectoral, with local organisations.
• To establish environmental management capacity in all State sectors.
• To establish mechanisms of supervision and management of environmental degradation and other changes in the environment.
• To decentralise and democratise the management of natural resources.
• To guarantee that communities benefit from the use of the local natural resources.
• To educate children and young people in environmental principles and practices as a contribution to a sustainable development.

Challenges and Opportunities for applying ICTs to environmental and natural resource management issues

Challenges include

• Environmental degradation both in rural areas and in the urban environment.
• Inadequate information on availability of natural resources.
• Floods and other natural disasters which often cause chaos, especially on the local and village levels.
• Ineffective emergency communication systems and limited effectiveness of responses by the state and international assistance organisations.
• Theft of national resources.

Opportunities include

• Monitoring areas threatened by environmental degradation and natural disasters.
• Greater knowledge of the availability of natural resources.
• Improving the management and monitoring of the implementation of environment-related projects.
• Using low-cost terrestrial and satellite radio communication systems in emergency situations where there is no access to adequate telecommunications.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist environmental programmes

1. Expand, the UNDP Sustainable Development Network Internet access connectivity project at the Ministry for Co-ordination of Environmental (MICOA).
2. Develop the informatics capacities within the relevant organisations to assist environment-related decision making at the national and provincial levels.
3. Create & enhance national and regional databases on all major areas related to the environment: fresh water, seas, air, land, natural resources, the urban. environment etc.
4. Disseminate environment-related indicators to governments, NG0s, research centres, and international bodies through the Internet.

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Project f) Public administration - Applying ICTs to support national development goals in public administrationf

Government Objectives:

Policy

• The modernisation of public functions, the promotion of human rights and the creation of conditions proper for the exercise of democratic political power.
• Administrative decentralisation and an agreed autonomy of local government.
• The institutional incorporation of traditional authorities.

Objectives

• To create a normative structure suitable for the administration of the new institutional framework.
• To professionalise the public functions and institutionalise mechanisms to judge the public functions and institutionalise professional and technical merit.
• To secure the transparency and efficiency of the administrative activity.
• To lessen bureaucracy in the proceedings of public administration and change the attitudes of government officers.
• Institutionalise criteria for transparency in the functioning of the State.
• To make rules for the proceedings of Public administration.
• To speed up the application processes of administrative activities.
• To ensure that the members of every local cornmunity in the country have the possibility to do their work without necessarily requiring the permanent intervention of the State.
• To exchange the old local State bodies for ones that are more dynamic and active, namely the municipalities.

Challenges and Opportunities for applying ICTs to public administration issues

Challenges include

• Limited management information structures within government.
• Technical communications constraints at all levels of public administration.

Opportunities include

• Improving internal revenue management.
• Improving social security administration.
• Facilitating electronic tendering systems.
• Improving accessibility to national public administration information, especially to citizens who live in rural areas.
• Supporting national and provincial co-ordination, co-operation and standardisation of regulations and legislation.
• Avoiding duplication of efforts in setting up standards.
• Protocols, procedures, guidelines, systems and tools for establishing national databases.
• Increased access to information and knowledge of developments in the sector outside of the country.
• Decentralisation of decision making to appropriate level.
• Improving collaboration and co-ordination across institutions working in urban affairs.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist cultural programmes

1. Creating/enhancing national databases of public administration information which can be accessed on-line by end-users;
2. Linking the databases in a regional forum that allows the exchange of regulations necessary for economic integration and business development among surrounding countries;
3. Establish/enhance loan databases to guarantee integrity and validity of loans;
4. Secure dynamic tracking components for crisis avoidance and debt management.
5. Train public administrators in using computer networks, content creators/providers in developing information for distribution over network, and computer technicians in computer networking and maintaining and managing networks.
6. Establish information servers in the relevant ministries, their parent institutions, and 5 executive councils.
7. Development of an information strategy paper for the urban Sector.
8. Link key provincial offices (at least the Executive Councils of the 10 provincial capitals.)
9. Assist MAE in becoming more proactive in disseminating information and explaining the new laws and regulations which are prepared and gradually enacted by Parliament

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Project g) Health Applying ICTs to support national development goals in health

Government Objectives

Policy

• To increase the availability of essential health care, with stress on preventive medicine, mother and child health, and to improve the quality of the care provided, train more staff and improve staff living and working conditions.
• To rehabilitate and construct in the next five years, about 600 health posts.
• To promote the development of the national capacity for research and management of the National Health System.

Objectives

• To increase the availability of essential health care to cover the whole of the Mozambican population and at the same time improve its quality and sustainability.
• To give priority to health provisions to weaker sections of the population, to the rural areas and to the groups most at risk of health problems.
• To offer more health services.
• To improve the quality of the health care provided.
• To train health personnel.
• To improve the living and working conditions of health workers.

Challenges and Opportunities for applying ICTs to health issues

Challenges include

• Epidemics, spread of infectious diseases, AIDS, etc.
• High levels of infant and maternal mortality rate.
• Low levels of life expectancy.
• Limited access to health care facilities.

Opportunities include

• Enhancement of health administration and management through medical information systems;
• Establishment of general information "health profiles"(i.e. for AIDS, for infectious diseases, etc.), specific patient "information profiles", and decision support systems on regional, national, provincial and district levels.
• Linking health centres, delivery services and medical transport to enhance patient access to these facilities and provide more efficient services to the patient.
• Improving access to skilled diagnosis through tele-medicine.
• Improving distribution and reducing costs of medical supplies.

Examples of projects for applying ICTs to assist health programmes

1) A 2-year connectivity programme for health centres and practitioners through co-ordination of all major donors with the Ministry of Health:

• Establish Internet connectivity at key health education and information-intentive institutions in the health sector (i.e. health students at the Faculty of Medicine at UEM, Ministry of Health, medical libraries, etc.) to increase access to health content, information and knowledge thus contributing to the goal of promoting continuing education of health workers.
• Develop Internet mediated partnerships and outreach to medical institutions in other countries.
• Develop concerted use of information and communication technologies to training health practitioners, and develop outreach work with the country's main training facilities for primary health care.
• Based on the establishment of proposed telecenters, provide the provinces access to the computerised library at the Institute of Health as well as access to medical support services. Also, use telecenters to deliver telediagnostics & telemedicine to hospitals.
• Establish Internet links at medical supply and pharmaceutical offices in order to improve coordination of these goods.
• Assist lower tiers of government to obtain connectivity to facilitate the shift of project management to these levels.
• Provide training in computer maintenance at the provincial levels of the health administration system

2) Assist in the development of Health information content and systems/software to automathis content.

• Medical information systems research and development.
• Finance the necessary human resources at the Institute of Health to input data into the computerised database.
• Translation of medical information systems into Portuguese and local languages.
• Extend the access and use of the Epidemiological Information Notification System at the Ministry of Health.
• Promote and enhance the existing email listservs for information sharing and discussions in targeted health topics.
• Creation of online medical reference works in Portuguese/other languages.
• Bring telemedecine specialists to Mozambique for consultations with the Ministry and the Medical School at the University.

Projects would include

• awareness building (e.g. connectivity workshops, knowledge infrastructure seminars, road shows);
• provision of equipment and connection charges (e.g. computers, modems, telephone time/leased lines)
• training (for end users, content creators, service technicians).
• development and facilitation of partnerships with international organisations with experience in use of informatics in health.

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Project h) Statistics Applying ICTs to support national development goals in national statistics

Challenges include:

• Lack quantitative information on the status of the development of the country.
• Lack of ability to closely monitor the progress of the development of the country.
• Lack of tools to identify areas and sectors which are not meeting national development objectives.
• Lack of quality data from the provinces.

Opportunities include:

• Ability to develop the country's electronic 'nervous system' to be able to rapidly identify problem areas and development needs.
• Ability to assess the progress of existing development objectives and monitor the performance of various strategies.
• Ability to link Mozambique with a region-wide statistical network.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist statistical programmes

1. Support the implementation of ICTs and Internet connectivity at the new National Statistical Institute (INE).
2. Develop international connectivity to link the INE to a "regional statistical network" consisting of African users and providers of statistics.
3. Develop connectivity to the outlying cities by providing e-mail access for the rapid transmission of statistical data from the provinces to Maputo. This could include such data as price statistics and crop forecasting data, in which case it should be linked to the PIP projects in agriculture. Also, develop a training program. and methodology to ensure the integrity of this data.
4. Establish a local version of the Africa Live Database (LDB) in the INE and to provide Mozambique with access to the regional LDB in Washington.
5. Establish a training project to help both the suppliers and the users of statistical data become more familiar with operating within the new information technology.
6. Establish a program monitoring the information system using Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies, remote sensing and satellite early warning systems. These tools would allow the government and international organisations to anticipate such problems in advance and enable them to respond more effectively and proactively when the need arises.

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Terms of Reference for Programme 1 Participants Applications

1. Refer to any supporting documents.
2. Define communication gaps in your sector: (Questions to think about)

• With whom do you most often communicate? Need to establish better communications? Where are they located?

3. Define information gaps in your sector: (Question to think about)

• With whom do you most often share information (i.e. reports, spreadsheets, data, etc)? What is the nature of the information?
• How is the information collected and distributed and to whom? Is it relevant and useful?

4. Based on identification of communication and information gaps, define precise project goals and objectives.
5. Propose implementing agency, participating Mozambican organisations, and who is to be connected (users and beneficiaries).
6. Identify what information needs to be shared in project and method (email,Web). If content creation and organisation on a Web site is identified in project then define where web sites would be housed and which agency would be responsible for content creation and maintenance.
7. Define specific project activities.
8. Define anticipated outcomes and benefits of this project.
9. Define project monitoring process and indicators.
10. Determine next steps and action tasks to carry out project. Also identify the agency that will be responsible for each specific action, and the timetable in which the action item will be finished.

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2.2 Subprogramme 2) - Promoting Content Development

Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges include:

• Limited skills (technical, analytical in identifying appropriate demand, in ensuring integrity of data, etc.) for the creation of content for information networks.
• Lack of software systems in local languages for building content.
• Lack of tools (software, hardware, knowledge of pedagogical needs, etc.) for developing online instructional materials.
• Lack of priority for efforts to create local content.
• Limited availability of system to link traditional media (print, radio/tv ) to content delivered ICTs.
• Lack of clear definition of mechanisms, process and strategies for the collection processing, maintenance and custody of data and information

Opportunities include:

• Expanding the breadth and depth of local content and delivering this information to a national and international audience.
• Developing the necessary skills and aptitudes for developing relevant and reliable content.
• Establishing the physical facilities to meet the demand for content creation across all sectors.
• Capturing existing content from traditional media (print, TV,radio) and distributing it electronically to a national and international audience.
• Developing content that is accessible to a larger portion of the Mozambican population.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist content building programmes

1. Identify the priority information and communication technology application area with the highest impact on socio-economic development at national and provincial levels.
2. Encourage the establishment of content building service centres (some possibly attached to telecentres) which can provide web site development and advice, and to help establish organisational web servers for small and medium.
3. Organisations. These service centers will also provide other related content development services such as database development access to audio/video servers and CD ROM mastering facilities.
4. Develop a range of methods for information dissemination developed from on-line resources such as news bulletins and radio programmes.
5. Develop training programmes in:

• Web-based content development;
• In analysis of user needs and to identify what information services the users in their constituency require;
• Accessing information available from national, regional and international sources;
• Establishing methods of information collection and analysis;
• Establishing systems for updating data on a regular basis.

6. Establish systems that address the variety of languages used in Mozambique, its oral traditions and low levels of literacy by:

• Translating software and information delivery systems into local languages,
• Establishing "Specialised Information Dissemination Units" (SIDID) which can also be attached to telecentres, (see Programme 4), to help users obtain information easily and to guide them in a 'user-friendly' way, by acting as a translation service and by providing teleconferencing facilities.
• Supporting 'information brokers' to act as intermediaries between the knowledge bases and the users' information needs - these will be skilled people who are familiar with the available sources of information and are able to answer particular requests for information, or are able to pro-actively identify relevant information and pass it on to their constituencies.
• Developing awareness of and skills to apply interfaces appropriate for a generally non-literate population such as text-to-audio and touch-screen systems, webTV, voice recognition, as well as multilingual interfaces and improved machine translation facilities for the major languages.
• Supporting the use of special equipment for the disabled, such as braille keyboards and voice cards for the blind.

7. Develop national policies that:

• Ensure timely and accurate provision of information for decision support systems.
• Encourage the development of value-added information services including electronic publishing and networking facilities.
• Support initiatives which build local content.

Terms of Reference for Programme 2 Participants - Content.

1. Define content needs/constraints/problems.
2. Based on number 2 above, define precise project goals and objectives.
3. Propose implementing agency, participating Mozambican organisations, and who is to be connected (users and beneficiaries).
4. Define specific project activities.
5. Define anticipated outcomes and benefits of this project.
6. Define project monitoring process and indicators.
7. Define next steps and action tasks to carry out project. Also identify the agency that will be responsible for each specific action, and the timetable in which the action item will be finished.

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2.3 Sub-Programme (3) Establishing a National Informatics Policy (NIP)

Current situation

There is no National Informatics Policy at present, although key government officials, including the President and the Prime Minister, recognise the development potential of the informatics sector. Government officials are keen to see that Mozambique links to the global information highway (see video: Internet in Mozambique) and have been discussing possible formulation of a policy following the release of the AISI framework paper and the ISAD conference in May 96.

Related information policies have been developed by the Office of Information, and related telecommunications policies by the INCM/ Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Developing a National Infirmities Policy

The government has recognised the importance of informatics and broad access to information as essential development tools, and many agencies are keen to support growth in this area. To ensure success, however, the policy environment must be modernised. The policy development process should involve a broad range of interests and levels of society (Departments from government, particularly education and health, provincial governments, the university, NG0s, including those working at the community level the private sector, etc). The objective of a National Informatics Policy (NIP) should be to ensure increased access to educational, scientific and development resources for areas and sectors of the population which have not been able to take advantage of the benefits of information and communication technologies. Furthermore, the national level policy also needs upward links on an international level to the AISI and ISAD programmes.

Given the intersectoral implications of a NIP and its implementation through all levels of society, a top level government working group needs to be established within the office of the President to manage the NIP. To support and advise this group, as well as foster broadbased debate, it is desirable that a national forum comprising all sectors of society be formed. This forum could create an enabling environment to support public debate and programme reform, and provide the appropriate technical advisory infrastructure in Maputo.It may also be worth considering the establishment of a sub-unit charged with program management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting to ensure that results of a NIP reach government decision-makers in a timely fashion and that opportunities for further investments are made known to the private sector and the donor community as well.

Possible Goals for a National Informatics Policy

An NIP for Mozambique should:

1. Ensure that sectoral informatics activities are co-ordinated and benefit from shared infrastructure development, training, and implementation practices.

• Encourage pooling of local demand for specific informatics solutions.
• Decide on the priority sectors for informatization (education,environment, health, agriculture, etc.) and the responsibilities for enacting the projects.
• Promotion of joint projects between small & medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and universities.
• Devise models of co-operation between government and the private sector in the use of informatics.
• Define roles for multinationals to participate in a national informatics programme.
• Encouragement of group activities among different ministries and also with other developing countries in the region to spread the costs of project development.

2. Raise awareness levels within all levels of governmental bodies (national, provincial, district), the private sector and the public about the use of informatics in development programmes and to ensure clear recognition of the role of informatics.

• Demonstrate the advantages of informatics in different economic sectors and promote the holding of conferences that present success stones and state-of-the-art seminars which expose stakeholder organisations to available informatics resources.
• Encourage the creation of TV and radio programmes on informatics and the information society.
• Encourage the production of an informatics awareness CD, translated into local languages, and widely disseminated.
• Encourage support for organisations that focus on informatics

3. Examine existing laws and regulatory environment and draft proposed amendments and changes to this legal framework.

• Identify policy constraints to the spread in use of informatics, such as import taxes on informatics equipment
• Participate in the WTO and other international fori such as the Global Information Society (GIS) on intellectual property rights.
• Identify constraints and benefits to the promotion of Mozambican culture through development of informatics

4. Prioritise and budget implementation of the National Informatics Strategy

• Provide guidance to government on budgetary allocations relating to programmes to informatize Mozambique.
• Define short term goals and long term strategies and policies.

Terms of Reference for Programme 3 Participants - National Informatics Policy

1. Refer to any supporting documents.
2. Definition of the objectives for a National Informatics Policy.
3. Define and finalise the terms of reference for the high level NIP working group (NIP WG).
4. Propose the criteria for selecting potential members of the NIP Working Group.
5. Define and finalise the terms of reference for the wider stakeholder group that will advise the NEP WG - the NIP Advisory Group.
6. Propose the criteria for selecting potential members of the NIP Advisory Group.
7. Define project activities.
8. Define anticipated outcomes and benefits of project.
9. Define project monitoring methods and indicators.
10. Define how the process of developing the NIP will be undertaken.
11. Define the time scale for establishing the NIP WG, the AG and the NIP itself.
12. Define the nature of the government's responsibilities for ensuring the goals of the NEP are met.
13. Propose how collaboration with other international organisations will take place.

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2.4 Sub-Programme 4) - Infrastructure Development - Improving the national information and communications infrastructure

Challenges and Opportunities

Challenges include:

• Low penetration of the telecommunication network outside the city centres;
• Lack of technical skills to install and maintain ICTs.
• Absence of local dial access to the Internet outside the capital cities.
• High-cost public access facilities to the Internet.
• High cost and low availability of digital leased lines.
• Limited awareness in government and the private sector of the low cost of installing ICT-based information and communication services

Opportunities include:

• Combining the convergence of the telephone, television and computer with shared access models to provide cost effective information delivery mechanism for providing access in rural areas.
• Exploiting the development of new telecommunication technologies to deliver services in areas currently not serviced by the traditional network.

Potential projects for applying ICTs to assist infrastructure programmes

1. Establish a series of telecentres in rural and urban areas (see details below) which also act as a test bed for new technologies, innovative partnership arrangements and tariff and charging mechanisms.

• Conduct feasibility study for telecentre to determine market demand, infrastructure requirements, and existence of human entrepreneurial expertise.
• Conduct awareness raising program in selected area to generate support of local community.
• Training programme in administrative and business skills for small telecentre service providers.
• Exploit broadcast data systems to provide low cost information dissemination in areas without adequate telecommunication infrastructure.

2. Establish program to harmonise the development of the physical infrastructure with the PIP:

• Extend the physical telecommunication infrastructure in areas of the country that lack the facilities required.
• Extend the geographical coverage of the physical infrastructure and adding new capabilities and services; adapting and adopting new technologies to satisfy current demand within the context of Mozambique's individual circumstances.
• Improve the capacity of the data communication links to surrounding countries and to other continents.
• Evaluation of new low-cost wireless data communication technologies which address short and long distance telecommunications infrastructure deficiencies.
• Develop access to broad-band services and bandwidth on-demand facilities for low cost multimedia applications.
• Improve the reliability and availability of electricity supply to maintain reliable communications networks by extending the electricity infrastructure and by using low cost integrated solar power and battery recharge systems.

3. Establish program to strengthen environment for development of a national Internet network infrastructure.

• Training programme for telecommunication and networking specialists in how to plan, design, install, operate and especially to maintain communication and information networks.
• Improve network reliability and flexibility by providing duplicate links and equipment.
• Using modem network management systems to optimise and monitor the use of the networks.

4. Identify policy recommendations for enhancing the ability of the telecommunications network to handle the demands of the PIP.

• Establish a programme to ensure national, provincial and international interconnectivity and interoperability of telecommunication networks.
• Establish a programming to ensure low cost Internet access from every major town, or distance independent tariffs for calls to nearest access point.
• Establish a clear set of standard and criteria by which to evaluate any national information and communication initiative project.

Introduction to Telecentres

Public access ICT facilities have acquired a variety of names such as 'virtual village halls' and 'multi-Purpose telelearning centers'. Recently they have taken on the full name of Community Multi-Purpose Information and Communication Centres (CMICC's), but 'telecentre' has become the most generally accepted short form of the term.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), first proposed the telecenter as part of the Buenos Aires Action Plan. It suggested that a series of pilot community telecenters be established to test the viability of the various solutions that have been suggested to create the necessary institutional models financing guidelines and exchange tarrif structures.

Services provided:

Telecentres will be a low cost method of providing library services through the provision of access to national and worldwide electronic information banks as well as providing information support for literacy campaigns, basic and non-formal education, information on government programmes and facilities for the generation and exchange of community based information.

Other teleservice facilities envisaged are access to the Internet for business NGOs, farmers and the public interested in online banking, market information, weather forecasts and promotion of their products, as well as basic office administration services such as telephone, typing, printing and faxes. Depending on location and demand, other applications such as telemedicine and formal distance education programmes can be added.

Long-term sustainability of the proposed telecentres is expected to be achieved through fees paid by the users in the private sector, NGOs and the public. The state, too, will be able to use the telecentres to increase the efficiency and quality of public services and make savings in delivery of, for on and healthcare. Once sufficient demand for these facilities has been demonstrated, their sustainability will be ensured by the continued involvement of the stakeholders and the interest of the local private sector in operating the service.

It is expected that there will be a variety of institutional models for operating the telecentre. Some may be owned by the private sector, but others may be owned by the local community and in other cases it may be TDM or a government ministry which may take on the task.

New policies will be required to accommodate and encourage these novel models of service. They will also require interdisciplinary cross sectoral co-operation and private-public sector partnerships to be viable and to achieve the objective of contributing to economic, social and cultural development.

A fundamental determinant of the success of a telecentre project will be the extent of participation from. a wide range of local and international organisations, and the degree of cooperation between them. Aside from collaboration from the partners in establishing the infrastructure of the facility, there will probably be an even greater need to collaborate in the development and adaptation of "content" and demonstrating the impact of ICTs on specific applications, target a specific occupational sector, such as student agricultural extension workers, health practitioners and community media.

Centralised activities carried out by resource centres in the capital and in centers of expertise elsewhere will be a necessary complement to telecentres. They will require national or regional projects in application development and human resource capacity building for example, telemedicine, distance education and government information decision support systems will require centrally located "sources" of "content" and specialist support staff. In this respect the investment in creating a single telecenter in a country will make the establishment of the others simpler and more viable since they will be able to benefit from the centralised capacity building that has already taken place.

Extending the telecenter concept

Aside from the basic model of a telecentre described above, there are a number of alternative implementation of the basic concept that are envisaged. Many of these are aimed at specifically addressing the low penetration of ICT equipment among the African populations a whole.

1. Extension of the telecentre's telecommunication infrastructure to surrounding organisations. Having built a telecommunications link to a remote area, other organisations and individuals will be able to build another layer of outwards from the telecentre location by using computers on their own premises to dialup or leased line links to the telecentre 'hub'.
2. Installing access points in primary and high schools. While not directly accessible to all of the community, meeting education needs so important that special efforts should be made to provide low cost communications links in schools, especially those close to a local telecentre. In many cases these facilities will be accessible to a broader component of the community during the weekends and evenings.
3. Workplace access points. Shared access facilities will be installed in businesses with large staff, which could be jointly managed by the company and the workforce.
4. Radio linkages. Radios have the greatest penetration of all communication devices among rural Africans. The potential for improving the linkages between the new communication technologies and the traditional media offer substantial potential for enhancing their role. Community radio stations can be assisted to disseminate information delivered via the Internet to their audiences and to promote awareness of the telecentres and the use of ICTs in general.
5. SMME ICT services. Many small businesses, especially general dealers, provide a single public telephone (known as a 'chatterbox' in South Africa) as a service to the public where there are no public telephones provided by TDM. This service could be augmented by installing a combined telephone and touch-screen multimedia Internet terminal, such as the Iphone.
6. Small ISPs. The total costs for the set-up and first year's operation of a small Internet Service Provider can be as low as $40 000 if incorporated into an existing office-based business.
7. Many entrepreneurs are unaware of these low costs or do not have access to the technical skills needed to install and operate such a facility. If sufficient sensitisation and technical training can take place, many small towns across Mozambique could realise the benefits of local Internet access.

Guidelines for the preparation of a telecentre proposal.

Below is described a 'model' telecentre which provides the full range of possible services. Not all telecentres will need to provide all these services, and most will only start with some of them and have other services added gradually. (*= a service that could be provided centrally)

1)Voice telephone services:

• Local, long distance and international calls
• Voice Mailbox service
• Receive calls

2) Facsimile service:

• Type, send and receive faxes

3) Secretarial services:

• Photocopying, word processing, data analysis and document scanning

4) Library services:*

• Book locating and ordering

5) Hard copy bulletin board:*

• Latest local, national and world news
• Market prices
• Jobs
• Trade opportunities
• Classified advertisements

6) Public Internet Access (drop-in and dialup services):

• email accounts
• drop-in email sending (voice or hardcopy transcription) and reception to hardcopy/voice for the non-literate/non-computer literate.
• dialup PPP/SLIP accounts
• dialup UUCP/FIDO accounts
• dialup and drop-in WWW, FTP and USENET News access.
• taylored Web-site guides to online resources for the local community.*
• hosting of autoresponders for information requests.*
• web page hosting, including registration with indexing services and full text search tools.*
• email to fax service.*
• email to postal service.*
• wireless and leased line access for large local organisations.
• Internet training courses for individuals and groups.

7) Computer literacy training courses:

• basic word processing and office software
• computer hardware maintenance
• computer networking
• web site development

8) Distance education courses accessed through Internet, radio and television.*

9) Bask literacy training

10) Secretarial courses

11) Teacher training courses

12) Telemedicine and telediagnosis facilities.

13) Web-based local government admi