The Nata Village Blog , and a recent essay I wrote on blogging’s promise for democratic development in Africa, have both inspired me to look more closely at other websites aiding development. The Nata Village blog is refreshing because it focuses on a very small community and talks intimately about their lives. It is therefore something of a grass-roots site, able to serve its purpose simply and effectively. The personal nature of the Nata Village blog is probably one of the reasons it has had such an impact on viewers and therefore has been able to generate significant funds for their fight against HIV in the village.
Yet what about ICT development efforts on a greater national or perhaps global scale? I set out to find a site which shows a commitment to development around the world and constitutes something of a larger scale ICT-for-development success story.
And I think I found one… hurrah!
I found an organisation with a mission to “reduce poverty and enable change in developing nations through information technology” called The Development Gateway Foundation . It is an international non-profit organization providing web-based platforms to make aid and development efforts more effective around the world.
The organisation is working towards a world where: the digital revolution serves people everywhere and creates great opportunities for people due to increased access to critical information; where there is greater reliance on local capabilities; and more effective, better coordinated international aid.
So how is this site aiding African countries at a basic, accessible level? Well the Development Gateway Foundation aims to be exactly that – a gateway to issues and projects in developing countries around the world.
The organisation focuses on three ways in which even small investments in information and communications technology can make a major difference:
• Effective government
• Knowledge sharing and collaboration
• Local partner programs in nearly 50 countries – connecting developing country organizations into a global network to empower them to use information and communications technologies to bolster local development efforts.
This last point is important, because here is one of the reasons the site works so well: while it gives a global overview of issues and projects, it also has a strong local focus. The organisation has helped set up and hosts development sites for developing countries all over the world – including Africa.
One such example is Rwanda Development Gateway (RDG) . The RDG is a group of three “ICT for Development” initiatives under the Rwanda’s Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research, being funded by the Government of Rwanda. This project is a national portal for information sharing and represents a one-stop-shop for information on Rwanda and the country's web interface to the rest of the world.
The Development Gateway Foundation acts as a portal – an oversight of and entrance to development issues globally. They are building online resources which enable development information and knowledge-sharing worldwide through bringing people and organisations together, all of whom are working to improve life in developing countries.
The site shows a fair balance between two extremes – a locally-orientated and driven site for development, and a large-scale organisation for development. All online websites for development should remember to keep a clear focus on the people whom they are hoping to assist. If they remember to do this, it seems their priorities, and their site will be pointing in the right direction.
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Wednesday, 1 August 2007
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Global development plan continues to fail
The UN has recently released an Africa and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2007 report which states that sub-Saharan Africa is not on track to achieve ANY of the MDGs. This is cause for concern, bearing in mind we are exactly half way through the period in which the goals were meant to be achieved. Guido Schmidt Traub, from the UN Development Programme says "the stark reality is that there's not even a single country in the continent that is on track to achieve the MDGs". So what has gone wrong?
The Africa & MDGs report says although there have been major gains in several areas and the Goals remain achievable in most African nations, even the best governed countries on the continent have not been able to make sufficient progress in reducing extreme poverty in its many forms.
Before I discuss this issue any further, let me remind you of the Millennium Development Goals, which committed to:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
(You can go to the official MDG site to find out more)
The Africa & MDGs report shows while there have been some success stories, they are few and far between, as targets have failed to be met in all of the eight categories. The report attributes continued challenges as ranging from lack of capacity to unfair global trade, as well as the failure of rich countries and donors to live up to their pledge of doubling aid to Africa.
My previous discussion about the new economy increasing the digital divide has interesting implications here, as the era of technology and digitisation may be a contributing factor to increasing global economic divides, and preventing the achievement of the MDGs in countries like those of sub-Saharan Africa.
However, this is not to say that the MDGs are unachievable and we should all give up. Reports such as the ICT for Development: Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals shows there are projects around the world where ICTs have successfully aided development. As I discussed previously, developing countries need to work effectively with the changing global regime of ICTs and need to adopt practices such as telemedicine, distance learning and e-government in order to work towards development in this new economy.
This 2003 report sees what we can learn from ICT projects in developing countries about proper design, sustainability and impact of such interventions. It notes the widespread hope within the international development community that ICTs could potentially “be a powerful tool of development and poverty reduction, and of achieving the Millennium Development Goals”.
We need to transfer hope and plans into concrete reality. The Africa & MDGs report says donors need to “accelerate their plans to scale up assistance” and concludes on a positive note, saying that “despite the lack of progress towards the MDGs, the Goals remain achievable in most African countries”.
Yet time is indeed running out, and the commitments made and reaffirmed by world leaders “must be urgently translated into practical plans with systematic follow-through”. Once again, world leaders need to put talk into action, and one of the key areas they should be focusing on is how ICTs can be used in development.
See the following articles on this issue:
China's Xinhau news agency
SABC News
The Africa & MDGs report says although there have been major gains in several areas and the Goals remain achievable in most African nations, even the best governed countries on the continent have not been able to make sufficient progress in reducing extreme poverty in its many forms.
Before I discuss this issue any further, let me remind you of the Millennium Development Goals, which committed to:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
(You can go to the official MDG site to find out more)
The Africa & MDGs report shows while there have been some success stories, they are few and far between, as targets have failed to be met in all of the eight categories. The report attributes continued challenges as ranging from lack of capacity to unfair global trade, as well as the failure of rich countries and donors to live up to their pledge of doubling aid to Africa.
My previous discussion about the new economy increasing the digital divide has interesting implications here, as the era of technology and digitisation may be a contributing factor to increasing global economic divides, and preventing the achievement of the MDGs in countries like those of sub-Saharan Africa.
However, this is not to say that the MDGs are unachievable and we should all give up. Reports such as the ICT for Development: Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals shows there are projects around the world where ICTs have successfully aided development. As I discussed previously, developing countries need to work effectively with the changing global regime of ICTs and need to adopt practices such as telemedicine, distance learning and e-government in order to work towards development in this new economy.
This 2003 report sees what we can learn from ICT projects in developing countries about proper design, sustainability and impact of such interventions. It notes the widespread hope within the international development community that ICTs could potentially “be a powerful tool of development and poverty reduction, and of achieving the Millennium Development Goals”.
We need to transfer hope and plans into concrete reality. The Africa & MDGs report says donors need to “accelerate their plans to scale up assistance” and concludes on a positive note, saying that “despite the lack of progress towards the MDGs, the Goals remain achievable in most African countries”.
Yet time is indeed running out, and the commitments made and reaffirmed by world leaders “must be urgently translated into practical plans with systematic follow-through”. Once again, world leaders need to put talk into action, and one of the key areas they should be focusing on is how ICTs can be used in development.
See the following articles on this issue:
China's Xinhau news agency
SABC News
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Development as a wholistic process
I was starting to build a rather bleak picture of ICTs and development in Africa – there seemed to be a lot of policy making going on, and not enough projects with tangible results. Upon closer inspection, however, I have come to realise there are in fact numerous worthwhile projects of various shapes and forms all over Africa. One such program, the e-learning Africa news portal ‘Intel Teach Program’ , proved to be an excellent case study of ICTs development. This program promoted the effective use of technology in DZJ Mthebula High School in a semi-rural region of Limpopo province.
What struck me about this story were two key nuances: firstly that dumping technology in a community is useless unless the skills are taught for the consumption of and production using this technology. Secondly, this case study emphasised the importance of focusing on schools and introducing students to technology which can aid their learning experience, and teach them the skills they need to thrive in the knowledge economy/ information society.
Mthebula High School was donated computers by Telkom a few years ago, but none of the teachers were incorporating the technology into their instruction. School language teacher, Mercy Ntlemo, attributed this to most of the teachers lacking “the specific knowledge and training to integrate technology in any substantive way”. This meant the computers were gathering dust, barely used beyond basic information retrieval and simple word processing.
This example speaks to the larger debate within ICTs and development: development needs to happen on a multitude of different levels. It makes no sense to think you are aiding development by donating free technology like computers to those who lack the skills to utilise this technology effectively.
In this particular case, Ntlemo underwent the Intel Teach Program, a professional development program designed to help teachers integrate technology effectively in the classroom with the objective of helping students build 21st century skills. Ntlemo felt she really benefited from the training and following her success, many other teachers did the program, to help “conquer their technophobia”.
This training program exposed the teachers to new approaches for creating assessment tools and aligning lessons with educational learning goals and standards. Additionally, they discover new ways to incorporate the use of the Internet, Web page design, and student projects as vehicles for powerful learning.
As a result of the Intel Teach Program, Ntlemo says that technology is now an integral part of the curriculum at DZJ Mthebula High School, and project based learning is the norm. The training program revolutionised the way the teachers used the computers – a wonderful resource which until then were being completely underused. Ntlemo says the program “has revolutionised the way we teach.”
So what does a story such as this one teach us? It teaches us that we need to have a wholistic approach to development, and that development occurs within a particular context – such as lack of digital literacy. We need to understand the contexts of the communities needing developments in ICTs so that development does not become a worthless endeavour but rather a meaningful process of change.
To find out more on some of the interesting ICT development projects in Africa, visit the following links:
1. Un Economic Commissions for Africa
2. Acacia: Communities and the Information Society in Africa Program
3. APC Women’s networking support program
4. World Bank: Africa and the knowledge economy
What struck me about this story were two key nuances: firstly that dumping technology in a community is useless unless the skills are taught for the consumption of and production using this technology. Secondly, this case study emphasised the importance of focusing on schools and introducing students to technology which can aid their learning experience, and teach them the skills they need to thrive in the knowledge economy/ information society.
Mthebula High School was donated computers by Telkom a few years ago, but none of the teachers were incorporating the technology into their instruction. School language teacher, Mercy Ntlemo, attributed this to most of the teachers lacking “the specific knowledge and training to integrate technology in any substantive way”. This meant the computers were gathering dust, barely used beyond basic information retrieval and simple word processing.
This example speaks to the larger debate within ICTs and development: development needs to happen on a multitude of different levels. It makes no sense to think you are aiding development by donating free technology like computers to those who lack the skills to utilise this technology effectively.
In this particular case, Ntlemo underwent the Intel Teach Program, a professional development program designed to help teachers integrate technology effectively in the classroom with the objective of helping students build 21st century skills. Ntlemo felt she really benefited from the training and following her success, many other teachers did the program, to help “conquer their technophobia”.
This training program exposed the teachers to new approaches for creating assessment tools and aligning lessons with educational learning goals and standards. Additionally, they discover new ways to incorporate the use of the Internet, Web page design, and student projects as vehicles for powerful learning.
As a result of the Intel Teach Program, Ntlemo says that technology is now an integral part of the curriculum at DZJ Mthebula High School, and project based learning is the norm. The training program revolutionised the way the teachers used the computers – a wonderful resource which until then were being completely underused. Ntlemo says the program “has revolutionised the way we teach.”
So what does a story such as this one teach us? It teaches us that we need to have a wholistic approach to development, and that development occurs within a particular context – such as lack of digital literacy. We need to understand the contexts of the communities needing developments in ICTs so that development does not become a worthless endeavour but rather a meaningful process of change.
To find out more on some of the interesting ICT development projects in Africa, visit the following links:
1. Un Economic Commissions for Africa
2. Acacia: Communities and the Information Society in Africa Program
3. APC Women’s networking support program
4. World Bank: Africa and the knowledge economy
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