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ICT4D in Africa

The eLearning Africa News Portal disseminates information about rich learning opportunities in conjunction with technologies, such as computers, the Internet, mobile devices, radio and audiovisual media in Africa. It is a hub for sharing ideas and best practices in the field of Information and Communication Technology as a tool for development (ICT4D) and education (ICT4E) across Africa. The idea behind the platform is to enhance knowledge, expertise and skills while also serving as a catalyst for the vibrant multinational community of practice in this field.

The portal is structured around the annual eLearning Africa conference, the premier pan-African networking event designed to connect ICT4D and ICT4E experts from all sectors and levels throughout Africa and beyond. The conferences take place in a different country each year, travelling the African Continent. Through its conferences, web portal and news service, eLearning Africa aspires to promote ICT-enhanced learning in Africa – wherever technology tools are practicable and offer real benefits over other educational instruments. The ultimate aim is to facilitate and accelerate Education for All, the Millennium Goal of the United Nations.

Different Sectors Using ICT4D

• eGovernment

TIGA Awards

These awards recognise African governments’ effective use of ICTs for public services. One of the awards – in the category on Improved Educational Services Through the Use of ICTs – is organised jointly with the eLearning Africa Conference and Scholarship Trust. The aim of the TIGA awards is to raise awareness for the role of ICTs in public services and for the development process within the framework of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI).

Use of ICT4D for Political Campaign

New communications technology and social networking are about to influence the politics of the African continent once again. This time it is Nigeria, whose leaders are rapidly coming to terms with the political significance of new forms of communication and networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in the 2011 elections. According to UN Children's Fund only 49% of Nigeria’s population was aged over 18 as of 2008 survey, making the tactics of using technology such as mobile phones combined with the internet with a very high success rate. Technology is also playing an important role in making voters aware of the elections and encouraging transparency. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deployed 240,000 people and 132,000 data capture machines to help with registering voters in what has been described as “Africa’s single largest technology project ever.”, Nyimbi Odero, Head of Information Technology at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), quoted in The Africa Report, March 2011. And Reclaim Naija, a broad-based platform for promoting transparency, has launched a website using Ushahidi, the software developed in Kenya to monitor electoral violence.

• eAgriculture

Farmerline: An app on terra firma

Working with Emmanuel Owusu Addai, a fellow student at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Alloysius Attah cofounded Farmerline, a mobile and web-based system that provides farmers and investors with information to boost productivity and increase income. Since agriculture accounts for 30% of Ghana’s GDP and over 50% of formal and informal employment, it was natural for the young team to want to channel their creative energies into developing an application for farming. “Farmers in Ghana’s rural communities struggle to get information about best practice guidelines for agriculture due to an inadequate provision of extension officers and poor transport and communication channels,” says Attah. Farmerline will hopefully bridge the information gap through its toll-free helpline that will give farmers a direct line to agricultural extension officers who will then use a web interface to send voice sms responses to a range of farmers’ questions on best-practice for farming, a nifty plan since illiteracy is very much a reality in Ghana’s rural areas. One aspect of the app has already been launched: the sms alerts. These alerts provide information on tackling pests, the optimum times for planting different crops, farming subsidies on offer, weather forecasts, local produce fairs and crop prices.

Virtual farming is Bearing Fruits

How to optimally market honey, to cultivate a field or to avoid soil erosion is what small-holding farmers can learn – among many other topics – from innovative three-dimensional learning visualisations, which are now available in Zimbabwe. At eLearning Africa 2009, Justin Mupinda, Country Programme Coordinator at World Links Zimbabwe, explained how the so-called “interactive 3d learning objects” (i3dlos) tools make use of the power of virtual reality (VR) and a person’s visual strengths to “grow” the human mind. The initiators are the Naledi3D Factory, a South African company situated near Pretoria, which is a UNESCO partner, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, Eskom and regional initiatives such as World Links Zimbabwe.

• eEnvironment

eWaste management needed

“When piles of unwanted electronics materials are improperly disposed of, they can leach toxins into the soil, air and groundwater which later enter into crops, animals and human body systems causing contamination and pollution,” Nyakundi says. The trash from old computers, mobile phones or refrigerators contains dangerous substances, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and barium among others. He warns that exposure to these substances can cause damage to blood and nervous systems, DNA, immune systems, kidneys, can lead to respiratory and skin disorders and lung cancer as well as interfere with regulatory hormones and brain development.Page text.

RUSCEMP-Kenya was founded 14 years ago to promote ICT access in schools. But recently it created a special unit to actively work on sustainable eWaste management and recycling processes and help to get rid of the problem. It is based in Nakuru, some two hours drive west of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The unit stresses the strategic policy of reduction, reusing and recycling of electronic waste materials in an environmentally friendly process through innovative techniques. The unwanted parts are then disposed off in a manner that does not pollute the environment or endanger lives. Their eWaste project works in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Kenya ICT Federation, Nakuru Business Association, Digital Pipeline, Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology, KICTANET, Tracom College and Delta College in the USA.

• eHealth

Medicine and eLearning – reaching beyond borders

In Brussels, hands wearing surgical gloves make precise and skilful incisions into an abdomen while, in Senegal, attentive participants of the “Demonstrations of Telemedicine” pre-conference workshop at eLearning Africa watch simultaneously on a big screen: The transnational videosurgery, carried out by Professor Guy-Bernard Cadière in Brussels for Senegalese medical students, was a great start to three days packed with topics concerning healthcare. The variety on offer – video conferencing on surgical matters, serious gaming for “Combating Yellow Fever“, malaria documentation, HIV treatment and much more – showed the level of quality, as well as the urgency, of innovative medical workforce training. On the African continent, where about one million physicians, nurses and midwives are lacking and basic medical services cannot be guaranteed, eLearning is seen as an indispensable means to develop human resources. At eLearning Africa, experts from all over Africa and abroad had the chance to learn more about new learning technologies and systems, technical requirements, sustainable content development and implementation strategies.Page text.

WHO - Reproductive Health Library (RHL)

The RHL has over 15,000 subscribers worldwide and many more users, and the WHO distributes over 20,000 CD-ROMs annually in English and another 10,000 in Spanish in low-income countries. The first Chinese version was published in 2004.

Now in its ninth year, the WHO Reproductive Health Library (RHL) has established itself as the most important medium for the provision of life-saving facts about reproductive health and obstetrics to health care workers throughout the world. Free CD-ROMs are delivered to over 3,700 RHL subscribers in Africa annually and numerous others access the Internet version.

This highly regarded multimedia resource now contains not only the gold standard in evidence about what works and what doesn’t, but also five complete videos showing key science-based techniques in real-life settings as well as a huge range of other resources. The topics covered are Pregnancy and Childbirth, Neonatal disorders, RTDs/STDs, HIV/AIDS, Fertility Regulation, Gynaecological cancer, Infertility, Gynaecology and Organization and Delivery of Care.Page text.

• eInclusion

ICT buses delivering the Internet to rural Rwanda

A pioneering mobile ICT project launched in Rwanda barely two years ago is changing lives in the central African nation, now striving to become a leading ICT hub. Rwanda has made an almost miraculous recovery from the genocide of 1994 that claimed at least 800,000 lives and left millions displaced. The World Bank is funding a fleet of special ICT buses. The ICT Bus Project run by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) is using a fleet of buses assembled in Kenya to bring Internet technology to the people of the countryside in Rwanda. The buses act as mobile telecentres for the rural citizens to access ICT services, such as Internet and other modern communication platforms.They also provide additional services ranging from printing, scanning and photocopying documents to offering basic ICT training. They are fitted with a mobile computer lab for travelling commuters. The buses are fitted with electric power generators. Since the first buses arrived in Rwanda in 2009, 1,500 people, including many small farmers, local entrepreneurs, police officers, students and women traders have used their revolutionary facilities.Page text.

• Women & ICT

Business training for women by women using ICTs

Radio penetration is relatively high in Cameroon. With about eighty percent of the households having a radio, it is the most common communication technology in the east African country. Compared to computer penetration – which is quite low – radio can provide excellent educational opportunities. Protege QV, a Cameroonian organisation working for the betterment of the community through information sharing, trainings, and research, has developed radio-based training for women entrepreneurs to support them in setting up small businesses. Sylvie Siyam and Avis Momeni from PROTEGE QV, have sent us a report on a project they have recently carried out in Upper Nkam in Cameroon.

This Topic where addressed:

1. How to choose a business and how to start
2. Sources of funds for small business at the local and national level,
3. Business management,
4. Where to find production equipment,
5. Opportunities for trainings in production techniques,
6. The marketing of products,
7. The taxation system related to small business and how to deal with taxation departments,
8. The improvement of agricultural and animal production.

During these six months and within a programme entitled “Women and the Pride of their Being”, twelve radio programmes were recorded with the support of PROTEGE QV and broadcast on Saturdays, from 6.30 – 7.00 pm on Radio Fotouni. The following subjects were dealt with:

1. The role of women’s micro-enterprises in rural development
2. how to choose a business,
3. studying the market,
4. the pricing of products,
5. managing a business I and II (finances, administration, …),
6. the improvement of agricultural production,
7. the improvement of animal production,
8. the taxation applicable to small business
9. financing small business

To distribute information from PROTEGE QV to the communicators or among them, SMSs are now used, and the women involved greatly appreciate the difference in costs. The network that was created ensures the sustainability in the reinforcement of the capacities of women in small businesses. They are now able to communicate with each other, share best practices, and help each other. PROTEGE QV will continue to support the network through knowledge sharing, some material, and regular refreshing courses.

• eLearning

More Africans learn by mobile phone

The eLearning Africa 2011 conference highlighted the worldwide phenomenon of distance learning by mobile phone. There are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa now, up from 246 million in 2008, according to industry estimates. Gerald Henzinger, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Mozambique, said students are rushing to use mobile phone learning. “The only challenge is that logistics do not match the exponential growth of students’ demand.“

“Mobile learning at our Distance Learning Center (CED) focuses on SMS. Our students often are school teachers in very remote areas who have restricted or no access to electricity and the Internet. We use bulk SMS – short messages that can be sent to many students at the same time – as well as interactive SMS services. These help students communicate with our staff about the subject matter or on administrative issues.”

Dr Niall Winters of the London Knowledge Laboratory said the development of mobile phone learning in Africa is being encouraged by a huge demand for distance education.

ICTs are empowering street children in Kenya

A pioneering project aimed at training ICT skills is transforming the lives of children who live in the streets of Eldoret, an agriculturally rich town in Kenya’s lush Rift Valley region. Led by SNV, a Dutch development agency, in collaboration with the “Ex-Street Children Community Organisation” (ECCO), a group of formerly homeless young people, the initiative provides street children with basic computer skills, thereby enabling them to take part in society and giving them a voice. With help from SNV, ECCO has developed an eLearning programme here that provides street children with a platform that not only enables them to share ideas with each other but also to communicate with rest of the society. Using ten computers, mostly donated by well-wishers, the organisation has come up with ‘drop in’ centres where street children from the town gather to become familiar with ICT skills ranging from the basics of working on a computer to how to send e-mails. Realising the huge potential that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) offered to the world’s poor and underprivileged, SNV entered into a contract with the ECCO and provided them with training on basic skills in computers.