7 November 2008
(Page 2 of 3)
While many rural ICT4D initiatives have failed, mobile phone towers stand above shining brightly on the horizon. Particularly in Africa these towers are now found in many places where economic theory had previously predicted they never could. In 2006, the fastest growing mobile phone network in the world was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country still fighting a civil war with virtually no infrastructure or legitimate economy. Mobile phone networks have re-written these economic rules and have provided unparalleled economic and social benefit, calling into question whether there is still a need for other ICTs.
Support for this notion has grown, promulgated by The Economist and no doubt many mobile phone company lobbyists. Donors too have succumbed to this utopian remedy and have retreated en-masse from rural ICT projects. This has left the development of ICTs in the hands of large, highly centralised telecoms. While the decision to focus on mobile phones can easily be supported by the performance of past ICT projects, this decision is naive. The failures of rural ICT4D projects were, as noted above, not because they lacked utility to their beneficiaries. Rather, they failed because they were poorly designed and implemented.
While there is truth in the notion that mobile phones will have the greatest impact on rural people in least developed countries (LDCs) in the near future, there is still a great need for grassroots ICT development to fill the void that large mobile phone companies cannot see and/or respond to quickly, adequately, or economically. ...
These incumbent mobile phone companies have built high walls, using high licensing fees to protect them from new technologies and using reserved frequency allotments to keep new entrants at bay. These barriers are oft cited by those who have been thwarted while attempting to build ICT networks to serve local needs and although prices for voice and short message service (SMS) services are largely competitive and somewhat affordable, the great breadth of services and unbounded possibilities offered by ICTs are hampered within the highly centralised, closed and hierarchical mobile phone infrastructure. ...
The myriad of issues posed by the bottom of the pyramid requires a myriad of people with a myriad of ideas to address. Because of the dominance of mobile carriers, who hold a disproportionate amount of power, there is a great need for multilateral and bilateral agencies, and NGOs, to intervene to help extend and democratise ICTs so that people at the base of the pyramid markets have the opportunity to create and invent what we could never imagine.
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Case Study #1: Grassroots ICT Development in Tanzania - FADECO
8.1 Background
FADECO is located in the small town of Karagwe in northwestern Tanzania near the Burundi and Ugandan borders. The town, marked by a police outpost, a few schools and a concentration of mud and some cinder block buildings, rests on a table-top plateau that overlooks lush valleys where bananas, coffee, and staple foods are grown. The road from Bukoba, the regional capital, is unpaved - like most roads in the large east African country. The drive takes several hours, weaving past farmers carrying their goods on their heads, bicycles, scooters and the occasional car, all cloaked inred clouds of dust along the winding and bumpy road.
Registered not-for-profit NGO founded in 1996 by a group led by current director Mr. Sekiku Joseph Mtabazi, FADECO is a small and very modest association. In addition to the director, its principal staff consists of Mr. Itegereize Titus Tobias (chair), Mrs. Elieth Kikaka, (office manager) and Mr. John Kibuuka (information technology manager). The organisation works to provide information resources that help families to improve their living standards. It serves as a vehicle for promoting new agricultural methods and other activities to heighten community and economic development.
Where possible these efforts have been commercialised as separate ventures. For example, Sekiku began a very small seasonal fruit drying business, FADECO Trading Co. Ltd., based on techniques that he promoted via FADECO. As well as acting as chair, Mr. Titus sells agribusiness products that support the farming techniques taught by FADECO, such as solar drying and composting. FADECO largely serves as a brand name for initiatives promoted by the group, as it has few resources.
The group has maintained an apolitical nature, partly to avoid any confrontation. As noted by Sekiku, the organisation allows the group to participate in not-for-profit initiatives where there is funding and no commercial interest. The association is best described as a manifestation of Sekiku's interests and a body that legitimises his endeavours.
In 1997, Sekiku, a self-taught technologist, began work on a small telecentre for the community under the FADECO umbrella. This centre was based on his property in the building next to his home that was previously used for the aforementioned fruit-drying business. Sekiku purchased used computers for a few hundred dollars each ... They were then connected to the internet via modems on a fixed-line telephone network. To pay for some of this equipment, Sekiku received small grants and donations from the Dutch NGO the Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos), the British Council and others.
In 2004, after a few years of operation, he was able to buy a VSAT (a weighty purchase at more than USD 3,500) with the financial support of an NGO called the Regional Agricultural Information Network (RAIN). He purchased the VSAT so that he could avoid the onerous charges for internet access. To access the internet, his telecentre previously had to dial out to Dar Es Salaam, 1,500 kilometres away, with fees for these long-distance calls calculated based on distance. ,,,
In late 2006, ... Sekiku began to build a wireless network. His intent was to share the internet costs with other groups in Karagwe. He started his network with a few off-the-shelf wireless access points and at each site used directional antennas to point back to his base station at FADECO. In August of 2007, his network connected three clients: 1) a private secondary school; 2) the local office for the electric company (Tanesco); and 3) a local agricultural development NGO.
8.2 Observations
Sekiku explained the long process of discovery and frustration that he experienced while connecting these customer sites to his network. He toiled slowly, learning piece by piece how to install equipment and debug problems with help from colleagues via email and online chat, and using online references such as the WNDW books and internet forums. Eventually, however, he did persevere.
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This case study demonstrates that learning is critical to allow such networks to be installed and supported. Sekiku was not taught, but learned how to build the network by searching for information and through trial-and-error. This learning process did require access to good learning materials, some counsel and reasonable access to equipment, but for the most part it was accomplished through sweat and passion.
... The process of taking ICT graduates from local universities and developing them into technologists can take considerable time. This process can also be counter-cultural for many, where the norm for young employees is for them to rarely be asked to make decisions on their own. This resistance to self-learning must be broken.
Opportunities for self-learning are further hindered because few of these capable minds have the opportunity to tinker with computers or other gadgets, or break them as do many techies from richer markets. Learning the troubleshooting process is central to becoming technologically minded. This analytical process can take considerable effort but can be done. The many ad-hoc roadside bicycle, car and television repair shops across developing nations are a testament that this ability exists everywhere but that it is not well cultivated by most developing nation schools. ...
In most ways the development of this network defies conventional best-practices, which recommend that ICT projects are planned, people trained, and equipment selected based on design and evaluation before commencing work. Sekiku's approach missed each of these steps, working in a piecemeal fashion with few resources and no formal training. ... and, yet, the network was built and still persists. Thus, it has succeeded in becoming sustainable.
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