While still reflecting on AfrikaCamp Vienna and the interesting talks and experiences we had there, we stumbled upon the next promising event which perfectly fits to our approach of ICT4D.
A day for thinkers, supporters, sponsors, doers, geeks, dreamers - and everybody else to come and share, promote, highlight, progress and evolve issues related to ICT, social networking and technology in Africa.
Business driven Philantropy - Business development platform
Big problem: poverty - can it be eliminated?
Businesses have to help
philantropy is not the same as charity
Solution:
social entrepreneurship
philantro-capitalism - business driven philosophy
microfinancing - really works
Example: Maya One
network of partners
spending 3% of profit to an NGO
school projects for child laborers
reward: partners help each other
cyclic
I have to admit that I didn’t really get the concept of this business driven philantropy - how is it different than just donating a certain percentage of the profit for a good cause just for marketing reasons? Maybe somebody can comment on that?
After attending AfrikaCamp Vienna yesterday, I want to share my notes on some of the sessions. As there were parallel sessions and we had two presentations, I couldn’t attend all of them. There is also the AfrikaCamp wiki on barcamp.at where the sessions are listed.
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HIV AIDS und Human Rights Advocacy - Florian Schirg
Florian talked about his experiences when doing his civil service in Cameroon at a hospital.
Although the work there was quite rewarding and interesting for him, generally it is hard to motivate local people want to work there, as the connectivity in the area is quite bad and it is hard to get access to a mobile phone network or the internet. The only doctor working there right now is Austrian. The next internet connection is a one day travel away.
Now an Northern American church organization wants to install an ERP system there, to make processes more efficient.
Florian raised the question if this project would make any sense taking into account that
there are not enough employees
there are no local people capable of maintaining the system
electricity is not constantly available
and asked for input from the audience.
The subsequent comments from the audience were mainly critical towards the lacking communication between the Northern American sponsors and the local church and hospital. Most people agreed that the project was bound to fail and the approach not to involve local people was ignorant and antiquated.
Another remark was that enhanced connectivity would motivate more people to go there. With mobile network coverage and internet connection people wouldn’t feel as far away any more.
Peak oil: the climax in oil production followed by a constant decline and a sharp raise of the oil price - what are the effects on Africa?
Energy is the most important resource in the world, especially oil can cover the worldwide consumption. The production of oil will have its peak some time between 2010 and 2030 which will cause a sudden scarceness and result in a price explosion. This will definitely change the world, how will it affect different societies?
Consequences in Austria:
everything will become more expensive, especially energy-intense products and food
standard family:
about 3000€ additional costs for heating per year
700€ more for fuel per year
How will it affect Africa?
Comments from the audience:
Agriculture in Africa is not that energy-intensive, it’s more labour-intensive. That’s why maybe the peak-oil will affect Africa less than other regions of the world.
Most of the African countries would have enough production to sustain themselves without imports. If the countries manage to organize the work efficiently and build up an active market, they would not be dependent on foreign countries so much any more. Inner-African trade is also important.
Right now the agricultural market in many countries of Africa is destroayed through subsidized imports from Western countries. Raising costs for industrial agriculture could correct this imbalance.
In many African countries the Western lifestyle serves as an ideal for a lot of people. So people here have the obligation to change their behaviour before demanding changes from others.
It is substantial to foster education, but on the other hand also production in these countries. NGOs often don’t invest, but donate. This does not help to develop a healthy economy.
New donation-platforms such as Betterplace or Kiva offer their users a very personal connection to development assistance projects. For big NGOs this project-based approach is not practical as projects are organized at different levels of the organization. So the existing platforms are not used by big NGOs. How can they overcome this dilemma?
Björn suggested a cetral approach for a donations-platform, where all the organizations can upload their projects. To offer an enhanced persoalization, the project desctiptions could be accessed through an API and made visible depending on where they are integrated.
Comments from the audience:
Do NGOs even want that? Is there a demand for this type of platform?
It is important to identify oneself with the NGO and the project as donator. There is no sense for NGOs to compete with 1000 others for donators, if they cannot offer a personal connection to the projects.
Decentralization is vital, every NGO can create their own network with the tools which are already there (e.g. Facebook, …).
NGOs do not have the interest to create a network, when it comes to surviving, the aims are put behind.
-> This is not true, there are a lot of networks such as Globale Verantwortung or Ökobüro. Networking takes place in the exchange of experience, when it comes to donations every NGO works on its own.
Frederico Dava represents Centro Terra Viva (Living Land Center), a NGO based in Moçambique. He is coordinating an ICT program which works for making information available to areas in his country where there is no distribution or access to TV, radio or newspapers. He explains that mobile technology is being used today for collecting basic information in the health- and cultural sectors, but that the technology needs to be distributed on a larger scale in the society, so that the benefits of communication and information technologies becomes widely accessible for the people. He continues to say that this is an issue that needs more attention and promotion, especially in a developing country like Moçambique, but that they are open to sustainable solutions and that there is great potential for the uses of mobile technology in the future.
This is the 10th interview from our MobileActive08 podcast series, shot at the conference in Johannesburg (organized by MobileActive and sangonet).
In the interview below Francis Mijiga shares his perspective on the potentials of mobile phones for rural areas in Africa. He explains how government regulations have contributed to the penetration of mobile phones into rural areas. In his opinion mobile access to information will help to improve the economy and social issues in those areas. Francis Mijiga works as a communication technology consultant for TCCL in Malawi.
This is the 8th interview from our MobileActive08 video podcast series, shot at the conference in Johannesburg (organized by MobileActive and sangonet).
Jennifer Sly from YouthAssets investigates how mobile phones can support young people who are living in rural areas and supporting their families at home. She has done some interesting studies in Swaziland (Southern Africa) to collect insights how mobile phones are currently used in this context. One of the things she found out is that the mobile phone is an important networking tool for young men, who lost their parents and are taking care of their family. During her field studies she met orphans, who used the phone to ask people in the neighborhood for jobs, food, and clothes, but also to receive emotional support.
This is the 7th interview from our MobileActive08 video podcast series, shot at the conference in Johannesburg (organized by MobileActive and sangonet).
Again I would like to introduce some papers that I found interesting and insightful during writing my thesis.
This time I will introduce the paper “Transforming Recent Gains In The Digital Divide Into Digital Opportunities: Africa And The Boom In Mobile Phone Subscription” from 2006. Based on recent developments it sums up the potential impact of the mobile phone on African society and economy. It was written by Peter A. Kwaku Kyem and Peter Kweku LeMaire (Central Connecticut State University, USA) for an issue of the online available journal “The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries” (EJISDC).
In the following a short summary of the paper:
In the past years mobile phone subscriptions, fixed lines and internet access have increased in Africa quicker than in any other region on earth. The questions are now if this technological boost can be used for socioeconomic improvements and if, without accompanying measures, it is enough to raise the living standard.
Digital divide:
“The gap results from socio-economic differences in the world that in turn affect their access to digital information. The digital divide thus reflects existing economic divisions in the world.“- from Dzidonu, C.K. (2001) - The Socio-Economic Development Implications of the Digital Divide within the context of African Countries
The digital divide was until 2004 decreased and the access to ICTs in developing countries is now catching up with the western world. A substantial task is now, not to focus just on the physical presence of the ICTs, but to have a clear vision of their use.
The mobile phone is unique in Africa, as it serves as the main communication device now and can take many hurdles, which conventional ICTs did not. Therefore it is the main ICT nowadays available (= becoming ubiquitous) and has a high economic potential.
Direct economic benefits:
microenterprises
outsourcing from developed countries is through ICTs possible
market information for rural and poor areas
organization and information - substitute for travels and person-to-person communication
improved banking services through M-banking
Socio-cultural impacts of mobile phones:
belonging to a communication network rahter than to a place
strengthen democracy (protests, elections)
status symbol
mixing of private and public life
increased sense of security
Other potential uses and impacts of mobile phones in Africa
improved health services
improved education
e-government
But overall, adoptions of the technology must come with improvements in other infrastructure areas, otherwise there will be no impact. Furthermore governments need to adapt appropriate ICT policies.
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Although the paper doesn’t come up with the most surprising answers, it gives a good overview of the potentials of mobile phones in Africa. I think the main conclusions are still valid though a lot has happened in those two years since the paper was written. For the whole paper I may refer to EJISDC.
In this interview Ugo Vallauri from the Royal Holloway University of London (Department of Geography) talks about the role of ICT4D for grassroots rural community development. In his research he also looks at previously available technologies, like radios, and their value for grassroots development. He points out the importance of bridging the divide between the old and the new, stating that people often get excited about new technologies and forget the value of already existing technologies.
Ugo also briefly introduces some other projects, which sound interesting and promising, like low-power computing for rural areas and an open source software project for blind and visually impaired people. (Ugo, can you provide links?)
This is the 6th interview from our MobileActive08 video podcast series, shot at the conference in Johannesburg (organized by MobileActive and sangonet).
This is the fourth interview from the video podcasts that we shot at MobileActive08 in Johannesburg last month (organized by MobileActive and sangonet).
In this interview Erik Hersman talks about Ushahidi, an online platform that was developed as a response to post-election violence in Kenya. (See also this and this blog post.) He further says that there is no lack of innovation in Africa, but rather a lack of capital, or lack of willingness to take risks by people who have that capital.
Erik Hersman also writes a great blog about high-tech mobile and web technology change in Africa (White African) and also contributes to another blog, which is about low-tech ingenuity and microentrepreneurs in Africa (AfriGadget).
Due to the load of field work we have been busy with, and the lack of decent internet connection, we have not been able to post as frequently as we would have liked. So we give you here a wrap-up of the recent weeks activities so you get a glimpse of the many stories we have documented so far. Next week we will have free wi-fi in our apartment so we can also post some good shots.
We want to mention that the output of our misson is to shoot a movie and we will publish all the raw material of the Nikon D90 HD-ready video and H2 Zoom WAV audio as Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike and provide download or mail delivery service. (You should attribute “ICT4D.at” and link to http://ict4d.at)
The champion
We had a very interesting meeting with a guy called Juma Lukondya. We met him in Jambiani while we were staying at a local kitchen and he introduced himself to us as the bicycle champion of Zanzibar. It turned out that he is sponsored by the Austrian bike team Cyclopia. He is using his mobile phone to keep in contact with his family in a remote part of the mainland. He also get updates in his phone from upcoming bike competitions, it also keeps him in touch with the Austrian team. We have footage of him training on the beach, riding his bike and using his phone.
Massais at Paje Ndame
We had a very successful day meeting traditional Massais working in Paje. We interviewed Faraja who shared his experiences with mobile phones. He introduced us to his friends who were very cheerful and avid mobile users. We have lots of film material with them chatting and telling their stories and opinions of network operators. One guy was all the time dancing to his favourite mobile tune on his Nokia. Later they all gathered to play a traditional game called Bao, and all the time the phones are ringing while they are playing.
Fishermen
As the tide was good we decided to go out fishing with captain Mohamed and his crew on a traditional sailing boat. The weather was stable but as we left Jambiani there was heavy rain all time we were on the boat. Everything got wet and everybody jumped into the water to have a swim. So no mobile phone acitvity on the boat. The fishermen left the phones at home charging. As we got back to their house on the beach they started using the phones and we did some interviews while they were repairing the fish traps and the nets and peeling the fish.
Local wedding
We were invited to a local wedding ceremony. It was a very nice experience and we were allowed to catch everything on film. It started outside and there was a big gathering of families and friends of the couple. There was a lot of people taking pictures with their cellphones and also DV cameras around. We brought a gift for the bride therefore we were invited in to their house where they had already set up a scene with lightning gear and filming equipment. Afterwards we were offered traditional spicy Pilau rice dish outside. All people were sitting on the ground between the village houses together with goats and chicken and eating the food with the hands from big plates.
Sound recording
We met a cool guy in Stone Town, Akhran Mohammed. He makes his living in town as a shopkeeper but his real passion is recording songs with his friends. He showed us to the basic studio they have and we filmed them while they recorded a new song. The sound producer provides a cool beat on his Macbook while Akhran is rehearsing a catchy lovesong. When they are finished recording the producer converts the new song into a mp3 file and transfers it via bluetooth to Akhrans mobile phone. Later Akhran plays the song for his impressed friends on the phone in town.
What else do we have?
We cover the school in Jambiani where we are having Swahili lessons. Our teacher Mr. Faridi is holding a special class about mobile phones in his secondary school class. We interviewed the teachers and got a lot of opinions about mobiles. We have a lot of night life shots here and there. most of them in local bars and people having party.
We cover Zanzibits, a Dutch project, which is a multimedia school where they teach programming and handling complex software for editing media. We have a local band called Dwumbaki. They are playing Ngoma, traditional Zanzibarian music. We cover a local kitchen where potatoes are fried and we see randomly shots of customers coming in and out. We have the Jambiani town councellor and we follow him around in his duties. We feature the seaweed women harvesting and drying seaweed.
We follow the student Muhammed when he is playing football and taking photos with his phone. We film a fundi in town repairing and hacking phones. We join an engineer which is building up a new lodge. AND we went to another wedding (!).
We want to mention that we are using a 3 year old Nokia Communicator 9300i and we share it (2 people). It is very useful to write SMS on the keyboard and manage contents in folders. it is also a great notebook where you just enter rich text, format it with RTF editor and then bluetooth it to the Macbook, transfer it to a USB stick and then post this blog Also, people we meet love to play with it and pretend doing phonecalls with it.
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Also, people we meet love to play with it and pretend doing phonecalls with it.
