 |
Tanzania’s
Pioneering Parliamentarian Network in ICT4D
By Ayenew Haileselassie
He is
among the very few members of the “Bunge" (Parliament
of Tanzania) who have their own websites. He launched his
site two years ago. In a country where the predominant language
is Kiswahili, the medium he has chosen for his site is English.
“My
constituents are not the primary targets of the website,”
said Hon. Professor Henry R. Mgombello, MP from the Tabora
Urban area, member of the Parliamentary ICT Task Force and
Infrastructure Committee and lecturer in telecommunications
at the University of Dar es Salaam. “I use the site
to put my constituency on the world map, as well as to address
the problems of Tabora to contacts in Australia, the United
States, and other countries.
”He
hopes that these contacts will contribute to the construction
of schools and roads in Tabora. Tangible offers are yet to
come, but he says some have made promises based on the information
they got from his web site.
Meanwhile, he says that his constituents are benefiting from
the Internet café, which he recently set up and which
also happens to be the first of the two cafés in town.“High
school students use the café to browse for study materials
posted on the web; they also use the café to check
their National Exam results”. Mr Mgombello said. Sometimes
the people who elected him come to his café to e-mail
some of their concerns to him. Some of them may even ask him
to pay for their children’s school fees.
He
incorporates ICT applications in his own profession - posting
lecture notes, exercises and announcements to his students
on the University’s web site.
His involvement in the ICT Task Force and Infrastructure Committee
builds on what a group of Tanzanian parliamentarians have
recently set out to achieve: promoting ICT for development
(ICT4D) through a network of parliamentarians, which they
named “ParlNet ICT4D”, whose idea started during
the second and third prepcom meetings of the World Summit
on Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva in 2003.
At these meetings, Dr Batilda Burian, also an MP and a member
of the ICT and Infrastructure Committee, realized that parliamentarians
could enhance the use of ICT and build the information society-
if only they had better knowledge of ICT and a forum inside
and outside their country.
“During
the prepcom, I attended a meeting of parliamentarians organized
by the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” Dr Burian said.
“I realised that international organizations were recognising
the role of parliamentarians to push national policies and
agenda forward.” She
was also invited to the Third meeting of the Committee on
Development Information (CODI 3) to serve as a resource person
during a seminar for Ethiopian Parliamentarians. CODI 3 passed
a resolution to set up an African Network for Parliamentarians
on ICT.
She was not slow to turn her realisation into action. Back
in Tanzania, she talked with her colleagues at the Parliament,
and approximately 30 of them initiated the Tanzanian Parliamentary
Network for ICT for Development (ParlNet ICT4D).
A
major advantage was that the Government of Tanzania was already
far ahead in recognizing the potential benefits of ICT. Computers
and related equipment have been exempted from all kinds of
tax, thus enabling many Tanzanians to afford their own PCs.
Further, an Implementation Plan for Tanzania’s ICT policy,
which was ratified in March 2003, is also currently under
preparation. The parliament’s web site, http://www.parliament.go.tz/bunge/bunge.asp,
is updated daily and has a wealth of information on a number
of activities.“
The government is indeed aware that ICTs are critical for
achieving good governance, poverty reduction, and improvement
of health and education services,” said Hon. Prof. M.J.
Mwandosya (MP), Minister for Communications and Transport.
Among the strides so far achieved by the country, according
to the Minister, are 100% regional reach by mobile networks
(made possible by four licensed operators), 16 Data Service
providers and 23 Internet Service Providers (ISPs), 24 televisions
and 18 radiobroadcasters covering all regions and districts.
Engineer A.B. Kowero, Assistant Director for Posts, Telecommunication
and ICT, and national coordinator for ICT estimates that there
are about 3,000 Internet cafes in Dar es Salaam only, providing
services for about half a US dollar per hour, which he says
is among the lowest rates in the world.
The
parliamentarians’ faith in the use of ICT for Development
is real. Dr Burian foresees “miracles materialising”,
simply on the basis of what she has witnessed with the advent
of mobile phones in the remote communities of Ngorongoro,
about 900 kms from the capital. This is a major advancement
in terms of urban-rural communication, which used to necessitate
physical movement of people over long distances for lack of
any other means of communication. In addition, community radios
have been set up among the Sengerema people to discuss social
and health related issues, resulting in among other things
a rise in the rate of immunisation.
According to the Minister for Communications and Transport,
in the private sector, several banks offer e-banking services
country wide, and many businesses consider broadband data
services as a necessity for profitable operations. He said
that the government also has a nation-wide electronic payment
system.
Dr Burian managed to convince her parliamentarian colleagues
as well as those in the Infrastructure Committee of the Parliament
to establish the network. In order to realise their objectives,
they requested advisory services from the Economic Commission
for Africa in Addis Ababa, with the specific aim of setting
up an ICT network for African parliamentarians.
ECA’s
response was positive - offering technical and financial assistance,
with a vision to carry the torch from Dar es Salaam to Addis
Ababa, where the African Parliamentarian Network for ICT4D
will be officially launched. Consequently, a two-day workshop,
28th- 29th May, 2004, was held in Dar es Salaam, with support
of the UN-ICT Task Force and the Global ePolNet Initiative,
during which an action plan for the network was adopted and
the network website was launched.
The
Tanzanian network, which will also serve as a pressure group,
has the multiple responsibilities of building the capacity
of fellow Tanzanian parliamentarians, striving for the adoption
and implementation of ICT policies and serving as a role model
for other African parliaments.
“As
MPs, we can be a learned pressure group that uses ICT to make
changes in the country,” said Prof Mgombello. To clarify
tangible benefits of ICT to the ordinary person, the network
will establish constant dialogue and debate with its constituencies.“They
have contact with the people at grass roots level, and know
their needs and see where ICT can help to meet those needs
and to narrow the gap between the people and the technology,”
said Engineer Kowero of the Ministry of Communications and
Transport. Kowero says that his government should focus more
on the positive implications of ICT policy, rather than how
much money it takes to implement as compared to road construction
or wells. “ICT investment will pay back in employment,
capacity building and knowledge.”
Dr.
Batilda Burian summed it up saying: “If Africa is to
leapfrog, we need to take full advantage of the potentials
of ICT.”
|
Forty
Ethiopian MPs from the various standing committees of the
House of People’s Representatives of the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia attended the opening session of an ECA-sponsored
intensive ICT4D training. The training began on 12 May and
will run for 4 months. 