Document(s) 5 of 18

It is incontestable that the information and knowledge age is here, and has been with humankind since the last decades of the second millennium. This age is characterised by economic globalization and the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). ICTs are regarded as the engines of the new economy driving a new information and economic world order in which information-rich countries have the heaviest and most sophisticated ICT use. Most of the continent of Africa is not faring too well on either indicator – i.e., availability or use. Momentum has been gathering in the last half-decade on a global scale to support the development, diffusion, use and appropriation of ICTs in knowledge-poor countries and regions in Africa and Asia in particular. One of the ways this is being done is through the establishment of community telecentres also known as public access points.

The telecentre movement on the continent is young. The earliest community telecentres are reputed to have opened their doors in 1998. The nature and functions of African telecentres vary slightly from country to country, so too do the names and labels by which they are known. The primary goal of a telecentre, is the public provision of tools and skills to enhance communication and the sharing of information. A number of administrative and operational arrangements are possible, and although community telecentres can be organizationally differentiated from franchises and cybercafés they are all functionally of the same genre. Whatever the management model, there is general consensus that the telecentre concept is a valid development tool.

All the significant indicators of development in a knowledge-based digital world, i.e., levels of general literacy, scientific and technical literacy, number of computers, newspapers, radios, television sets, telephones etc. show that Africa is not doing well at this moment in history. The patterns of availability of the instruments and tools for knowledge creation, and information sharing are also unfortunately not evenly distributed among the populations. Rural areas and their inhabitants are usually disadvantaged in

their access to information and communication technologies. Following the rise in the rhetoric on human rights, of equality and equity accompanied by the growing activism within civil society in defence of these rights, governments (national and international) have had to respond to the disparity in access between the rich and the poor, educated and illiterate, urban and rural dwellers, to information and communication tools, which are so important for contemporary existence.

The telecentre is one answer to the prevailing condition of uneven and unequal access to information and communication technologies in rural and or remote areas. The telecentre has economic and social justification. Owing to the levels of poverty of both governments and individuals, prospects for private individual purchase of information and communication tools are particularly bleak. It therefore makes economic sense to provide equipment on a multi-user, multi-service basis as a means of spreading costs while simultaneously expanding access and benefits. Governments customarily have the duty to provide for and support the development of all citizens, and although rural areas have long suffered neglect with respect to telecommunications networks, in a global climate of growing militancy for equality, this disadvantage and bias are creating growing irritation in need of attention.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the International and Development Research Centre among like-minded organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union and UNESCO to mention a few, invested time, effort and money to investigate this phenomenon of potential importance. In the earlier part of this engagement, because of the paucity of projects, much of the effort was spent in intervention-type projects in a handful of African countries, establishing telecentre-type facilities and structures in schools, in rural settings, hospitals etc. This was geared towards spreading knowledge and familiarity of the new information and communication tools. Although by historical accounts, the telecentre is a relatively new institution in Africa, and indeed the world and still surrounded by many unknowns, it is believed that as a delivery model for ICTs, telecentres have the potential to transform the lives and livelihoods of many in the developing world and especially those in remote rural locations in developing countries.

Background

The diffusion of new ICTs on the African continent is not extensive because of the recency of their introduction. The continent’s entry and participation in the information society and revolution can be said to have commenced in the mid-1990s with the call for an African Information Society. In 1996, African ministers and governments endorsed the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) as the framework within which to build Africa’s information and communications infrastructure. Acacia, initiated in 1997, was Canada’s response to and support for that call.

The Acacia Initiative was designed as an integrated programme of research and development that used demonstration projects to address issues of information and communications technology, infrastructure, policy, and applications.

The original objectives of Acacia included:

• A demonstration of how information and communication technologies can enable communities to solve development problems in ways that build upon local goals, cultures, strengths, and processes; and
• The construction of a validated body of knowledge and a networked dissemination process around effective approaches, policies, technologies, and methodologies.

Acacia’s original vision was to target disadvantaged and mainly rural communities, which were isolated from information and communication networks, and the marginalized groups within these communities, in particular, youth and women. A key element of this vision was to use information and communication technologies in the search for solutions to local development problems. Acacia’s initial implementation strategy of working in a select group of countries was informed by the limited funding available to guarantee focused learning in a short time period. Between 1997 and 2000, Acacia concentrated its work in four sub-Saharan African countries; namely, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda although a few projects were implemented in others, e.g., Mali, Benin, and Tanzania. Acacia has since been involved with a total of 35 telecentres in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa, five of which have been jointly funded with other international partners such as UNESCO and ITU among others.

This volume “The Experience with Community Telecentres” presents the results of a series of studies that examined the setting, operations and effects of community telecentres. The studies reported in this book were planned and conducted as evaluative research to make a contribution towards illuminating the relationship of ICTs and development in the continent. The rationale for the studies was the consolidation of learning from telecentre and telecentre-type projects in Africa, in order to share this learning widely and contribute to an understanding of the issues and prospects for telecentre development on the continent. At the time of the launch of the Acacia initiative in 1997, the general opinion concerning investments in ICTs in Africa was very unsupportive and hostile and very different from the contemporary picture of global endorsement and acceptance that ICTs are critical for fast and future development.

Method

The studies were conducted in Mali, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda using a similar methodology. In keeping with the spirit of learning and stakeholder participation as key elements, the studies commenced with an interactive and participatory research-design workshop held in August 2000. This was meant to meet two goals. Firstly, it ensured that the principal stakeholders shared their understanding and expectations of the evaluation research process, and secondly, it helped guarantee buy-in for the research results. Ownership and buy-in were considered important because the results were to be ploughed back into the management and practices of the telecentre projects.

National research teams in each of the countries adapted centrally developed instruments for local use. Research findings were discussed at dissemination workshops to validate the research results as well as enrich the interpretation of findings.

The studies addressed four major issues:

• Access
• Relevance
• Sustainability (ownership, management, etc)
• Environments (technological, social, economic, and political).

The following research questions formed the basis of the investigations:

• What is the nature of access to ICTs within the telecentres?
• How relevant, useful and appropriate are the services, content and applications offered or available at the telecentres to community members and how well do the services, content and applications meet community needs?
• What are the ownership and management models and how have these contributed to the sustainability of community telecentres? What other factors affect sustainability?
• What is the nature of the social, economic, political, and technological context within which the telecentres operate?

The studies used a robust methodology that included both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect data from actual and potential telecentre users in the communities. These methods included focus group discussions, naturalistic or realistic observations, in-depth case histories and key-informant interviews, user interviews, document analysis, and photo documentation.

The primary sample consisted of the telecentres themselves. A total of thirty-six telecentres and cybercafés were sampled; five in Uganda, three in Mali, two in Mozambique, six in South Africa, and twenty in Senegal. The survey samples included users and potential users around the telecentres. The criteria used for selecting the telecentres included: their location (rural or urban), ownership type (private, franchise or donor-funded), services offered, and telecentre maturity. Telecentres that had been operating for less than 12 months were not investigated. The total number of individuals who provided information in all the countries was 3,586. The studies were conducted between mid 2000 and late 2001.

Key findings

Access

Use

Undoubtedly, the telecentres have brought a large number of people in disadvantaged and under-served – often rural communities – into direct contact with modern ICTs. This familiarization would not have been possi-

ble had the telecentre projects not been embarked upon in the first place. However only a still small percentage of the total population was using the telecentre facilities. The numbers of daily visitors ranged from about 8 to 20 for each TC and some visitors made more than one trip to the facilities.

It was found that age, sex, education and literacy levels, and socioeconomic status influenced telecentre use. A striking observation was the absence of old and disabled people at the telecentres.

Fewer women than men use telecentre services in practically all of the countries and facilities. This finding confirms the poor standing of African women in science and technology, a consistent and now familiar reality. In Mali, 77% of the users were men, and at Manhiça in Mozambique, 63% of the users were men. The trend in Senegal and Uganda was similar. In Senegal 70% of users were men.

Education appeared to be a key determinant of telecentre use. A popular belief expressed by respondents was that telecentre services were for the elite or educated. In Mozambique, at least 50% of the users had secondary level education, and 63% of all users were students. In Uganda, university undergraduates, teachers and students made up the largest percentage of users. In Mali, speakers of Arabic were disadvantaged.

Telecentre benefits spread to a wider section of the population than simply to direct users, as it was common practice to share information with others.

Location greatly affected accessibility and the use of facilities in some telecentres. Additional costs for transportation to get to the telecentre, and perceived threats and security of users associated with the location, reduced use.

Services

The telecentres in all five countries offered similar services: photocopying, telephony, and training in computer hardware, software, Internet access, and word processing. Facsimile transmission; document design, processing, and printing; and email services were also available. The huge popularity of the telephone is undisputed. The range of services offered in the multipurpose community telecentres was wider than in the private telecentres or cybercafés. However, the level of use made of this wider array of services was lower. Low or non-use of some services was reported, for example, Internet and email in the more rural TCs in Uganda, Mozambique, and Mali.

Most of the telecentres experienced management problems, ranging from poor attitudes, to weak management, and technical skills.

Impediments to use

Cost of services. Users expressed concern about fees charged for services. The high cost of services in relation to user incomes and earnings was identified as a serious barrier for women, the unemployed, students and poor community members.

Cost of equipment, maintenance and supplies. The high cost of equipment, supplies and maintenance, e.g., cost of computers, software licenses and cartridges for inkjet printers, electricity, telephones (and the charges) and the common practice of getting technicians from far away places for either routine maintenance or repairs was a constant heavy burden to carry which affected use. These costs are usually reflected in service charges.

Inadequate physical facilities. Usually the available space was either too small or poorly managed with little privacy for users of the telephones or other equipment. Most TCs were operating from premises that had been converted from other uses.

Poor management. Most of the telecentres experienced some management problems, ranging from poor attitudes, to weak management, technical and even social skills. The quality and number of staff was inadequate and marked by the use of poorly trained staff and volunteers with weak remuneration.

Hours of operation. The telecentres keep formal government working hours, which limit the time during which the facilities are open to the public. Facilities were usually not open late, at night, on Sundays, or during public holidays.

Inappropriate location. Location greatly affected accessibility and the use of facilities in some of the telecentres. Additional costs, such as for transportation to get to the telecentre, and perceived threats to the users (i.e. safety/security), or discomfort associated with the location, reduced use.

Poor publicity. Not enough seems to have been done to create awareness about either the locations of the telecentres or the services offered by them.

Literacy and language. The telecentres are perceived as places providing services for the educated on account of the language of the content, most of which is in English.

Relevance

The main reason for using the telecentres was to obtain or send information and for the most part the purpose of this information was social: for contacting friends and family, for preparing documents for social events (e.g., weddings and funerals), and for personal entertainment, such as watching television and videos, listening to radio, or reading newspapers. Professional and economic motives, such as seeking economic and agricultural information, came a distant second on the list of reasons for telecentre use. Telecentres facilitated business or commercial transactions for a small percentage of users in Uganda (10–20%). In some instances TCs were used as meeting places, as places of shelter/safety as well as for training groups of women etc.

Users expressed satisfaction with the services offered pointing out that the telecentres had opened them and their communities to wider audiences, facilitated external communication, and promoted knowledge of computer technology among local community members.

Ownership, management, and sustainability

Three ownership models were evident: private (individual) ownership, private NGO or CBO ownership and trusteeship. No public facility was represented in the sample. The franchise model seen in South Africa with the Universal Service Agency (USA) is regarded as a variant of private ownership. Most of the community TCs investigated were in the category of trusteeship. This is an arrangement where the project is being held in trust by the executing agency for a specified period of time during the lifetime of the project until the final owner – i.e., the community – is ready to take it over at which point it might become a public facility if taken over by a government department or institution. There were indications of movement in this direction with some of the older projects in Uganda.

Management was usually the responsibility of project staff, local management committees and the project implementation agency. The extent of involvement of the local committees usually represented on the management committees was not always clear and their level of responsibility often did not extend beyond supporting fund-raising and mobilization for the TCs. Most of the control was vested in the project-executing agencies, whether these were universities, ministries or governmental agencies.

Sustainability

Whereas conceptual validity has given meaning and a measure of institutional relevance and validity to the telecentre idea, financial sustainability for community telecentres remains elusive. Only two examples of sustainable community TCs were found in Phalala (South Africa) and Guédiawaye (Senegal).

The financial sustainability of TCs was under constant threat not only from weak management but also from recurrent technical and infrastructure problems in all countries. These problems included: power failures or interruptions; poor connectivity; computer failures; printer breakdowns; nonfunctioning software; obsolete or unusable equipment; complex management arrangements, security failure and policy failures, e.g., import duties or taxes on equipment. Some telecentres in Uganda and Senegal, for example, had to go through considerable bureaucratic hurdles simply to have imported equipment released to projects or simply repaired.

Technological environment

The greatest threat to TC sustainability was technical and technological. In addition to the generally poor telecommunications infrastructure, the overall state of infrastructure continues to be a source of great concern, particularly with regard to unreliable or non-existent electricity supply.

Although privatisation has proceeded apace, state-owned or state-controlled telecommunications service providers still enjoy relative monopolies and exclusivity privileges. Little real competition exists for the provision of fixed-line services. As a direct consequence, tariffs remain high and infrastructure development in rural areas stultified. Competition exits in cellular and wireless telephony and this creates other types of problems for telecentres, e.g., urban bias, higher costs etc.

Existing social and political institutions and policies are young and therefore weak to support the development, spread and widespread adoption of ICTs. The fragile economic situation of much of the continent is well documented.

Recommendations

General

On account of the huge unmet demand (need) for information and communication, the nature and extent of poverty, the slow and uneven pace of development of delivery tools and mechanisms, especially to rural areas where the majority of Africans still reside, the telecentre has a certain and definite role and place in contemporary development.

The telecentre is to information what the school is to education and the hospital or clinic to health and well-being.

• Support should therefore be given to start, maintain and run telecentres because they perform a primary development function for information and education, which is considered a basic and important human right.
• International development agencies and multilateral, bilateral and national agencies should support the development and growth of telecentres. This means, for example, extending the project lifespan; since shorter project cycles are insufficient to adequately support the optimal development of telecentres.

Optimising the development of telecentres will ensure that the telecentre movement can grow, spread and have the expected or desired effects. For this to happen, however, the following issues, for which support is critical, must be seriously addressed: connectivity, content, capacity, costs and conceptual framework. A conceptual framework to underpin the expansion and roll-out of services is often undervalued and therefore underdeveloped or ignored, yet it is of supreme importance and ought to be the point of entry. The spread of ICTs should be based on a theory of social change, which treats exogenous and endogenous information as having equal potential value for instigating transformation and the new technologies should be used for spreading the most useful ones widely. Social change that threatens the very existence of any society or community is unwelcome. Therefore, the underlying assumption in a useful theory of social change as a framework ought to be one based on the value of information to the extent that it advances the cause of society. To build and use a framework for ICT dispersal that does not take cognizance of the geography, ethno-linguistic diversity, the economic strength and the predominant occupational pattern

of the majority of inhabitants of the continent is akin to navigating with a flawed compass or worse with none. A useful strategy would be a framework that proceeds from the identified information and development needs of common folk as the base point from which to chart a path of transformation in whose service ICTs are applied. This will ensure that the starting point of deployment is grounded human need not merely technological or commercial adventurism.

• Governments and their agents must therefore invest in the articulation and development of a clear theory of inclusiveness and effectiveness to guide the development and deployment of ICTs on a large scale.
• Project designers should also have a similarly clear framework for the empowerment of users as well as non-users.

Connectivity is crucial for without it the benefits of the new information and network age cannot be harnessed. But connectivity is often beyond the direct control of telecentre operators, managers or project implementers. Connectivity relies on the telecommunications infrastructure, which is provided or controlled by nation states, their agencies, or licensed private operators.

• Telecommunications infrastructure should be seen and treated by governments as a growth area in which public and private investments ought to be encouraged.
• National governments should create enabling environments through policies and policy instruments for the growth of telecentres. Laws should be supportive not prohibitive of developments in appropriate and practical technologies. For instance, import duties and taxes on information and communication equipment, e.g., computers as well as licenses to operate equipment (VSAT), the spectrum and premises devoted to the development and delivery of information should be reasonable, realistic, easy to get and difficult to revoke.

Content and applications can be viewed as the blood that runs through the veins of connectivity or the electronic impulses travelling through a computer network. Local content is particularly valued and a monumental effort aimed at collecting, creating, collating, transforming, and uploading relevant content and applications should be supported and embarked upon

without delay. The greatest difficulty with the creation or transformation of locally relevant and available content is human capacity. This expertise and skill base need to be created, expanded and deepened across all social and occupational strata as a matter of urgency to improve the use, service delivery and applications available at telecentres.

• Governments and development agencies should design projects to train a growing number of people and equip them with the skills required for content development and the transformation of content into multi-media formats.
• Investments should also be encouraged into experiments in applications and piloted in TCs in the areas of health, education, governance etc.

All the investments in connectivity, content, and capacity development would ultimately be meaningless if the cost of services is such that they remain unpopular, unreachable, or unusable by the majority of rural Africans. For this reason the costs associated with establishing and running telecentres ought to be reduced in order for the services to be provided at affordable rates to users.

• Government policies that influence costs and service pricing need to be implemented, e.g., import duties, taxes, broadcast operating licenses of for instance VSAT, software and hardware prices and services that cost less to deliver, e.g., Voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP) should be researched.
• Private sector IT and communications companies should consider forming creative partnerships with each other and with national governments on one hand and international development agencies and civil society organizations on the other to create cheaper products which would respond to the needs, assets and conditions of the communities served by and through telecentres. For example, a number of different service providers for say telephony, training, email, photocopying etc could band together to set up and run TCs.

Specific

Expanding access, reaching the under-served. Project developers and project managers need to design telecentres projects with current non-users in mind. This requires taking practical and strategic needs as well as realities into consideration. For example, women, older and or handicapped persons may have inhibitions about using telecentres on account of their locations, schedules services, content or physical layout, which are insensitive or perceived inappropriate.

Assuring quality, enhancing relevance, expanding choices. Telecentre services desperately need improvement; the fact that sometimes users have no viable alternative not withstanding. Areas of action include the following:

• Location. Careful choice of location taking into consideration a large number of factors that affect the use, accessibility, safety etc., of public spaces.
• Poor publicity. Awareness and sensitisation should be increased through the use of handbills, radio broadcasts of services and interactive services/product design and delivery.
• Poor management. Financial and management training should be given to staff and committee members on a regular basis as a feature of projects.

Simpler management models and, if not, clearly articulated and supportive roles for each management group or of actors should be instituted. The nature of significant relationships and responsibilities in a trustee model are still unclear and in dire need of refinement and understanding through further research.

The range of management and ownership models should be expanded. Experiments in public, private and multiple ownership arrangements could be attempted for rural and remote populations as one way of improving financial sustainability.

Better service hours and arrangements should be developed, e.g., 24-hour pre-paid services could be arranged and public sensitive working hours should be adopted. Sensitivity to public needs is a necessity for improved use e.g., time and space could be allocated for different user groups say women and younger users.

• Physical facilities. Attention should be paid to public needs e.g., booths for privacy in addition to sensitivity to human functions and functioning, e.g., availability of toilets, fans etc.
• Equipment purchase and maintenance. The cost of purchasing and maintaining equipment should be reduced through a number of schemes, e.g., tax exemption or breaks, reclassification of communications equipment, technical training for telecentre staff, volunteers and the institutionalisation or development of village technical corps in a scheme for/of technicians on foot/bicycles. The cost of equipment maintenance and management should be a subject of serious study and innovation.
• Cost of Services. Efforts should be made to develop subsidised services, group rates, e.g., for women, students, or members. Time banding where cheaper rates can be given for off-peak periods and differential pricing, e.g., for council/government offices who take services on credit or long to pay. It should also be possible to arrange for cheaper collective rates for electricity, telephone, etc., so that TC services can be correspondingly subsidised. Open source options and arrangements should be explored, researched and utilised. The current discussions and explorations in open source and free software are a welcome development even though the future impacts are unclear.
• Cost of equipment. Cheaper hardware and software should be developed, e.g., thin client solutions and TCs should be used to pilot them.
• Literacy and language. Both local and official languages should be used for operations at TCs and content in local language sourced, or translations into local languages be encouraged and supported.

Document(s) 5 of 18