S. African govt awards radio station for empowering women

S. African govt awards radio station for empowering womenIn 2002, Cape Town, south Africa’s Radio 786 got awarded with a certificate of excellence for incorporating practices in women’s empowerment, which is helping the city in developing mechanisms to further advance it understanding of gender equity. The initiatives of Radio 178 to promote gender equality was decided at the gender conference in . Women’s rights are slowly being recognized globally and are especially being incorporate in the daily livelihoods of women and men in developing countries. One of the biggest issues for women is the feminism of poverty and how that is impacting there equality. South Africa’s Western Cape Department of Social Services awarded Cape Town’s Radio 786 with a Certificate of Excellence for “developing a best practice intervention for women’s empowerment and gender equality” in its programmers (panapress.com, 2002). According to the article ” The latest award adds to a number of accolades this thriving radio station, with a listenership of 134,000, has already received (panapress.com, 2002).

It is very impressive to have a radio station that is invested in women’s empowerment. Radio use for developing countries is a very impertinent topic in class because it further empowers women to access resources inside and outside their community. Additionally, it allows them to have a voice, and articulate their interests in topics that they may not have been allowed to converse about. Radio use for women also allows them to be better equipped with the use of radio technology, enhancing their education and technology.

Role of Laptops in Poverty Alleviation

After learning about OLPC and seeing their promotional videos I began to do a little more research upon the topic and found a great article from 2009 in the UK Guardian by Cory Doctorow that brought up many valid and positive points regarding OLPC and innovation of educational laptop use.

While there have been many set backs to OLPC like scale backs and product design failure, it does not mean this project should fail or not be taken seriously. The innovation of being able to connect people all over the world with each other, not just through mobile phones, but also through laptops is priceless. Mobile phones are wonderful and have had great (positive) effects on many communities (rural included) bringing in education, food, health, and democracy though are not useful in disastrous times and can have great long term costs. While lap tops are more costly they only have initial costs and almost no operating costs although similarly to mobile phones connectivity can be an issue. This is an issue that is only going to be fixed in time, but that does not mean OLPC is set up for failure. IT is in all social groups and a crucial part of many people’s lives. The OLPC project is straying from the old school approach of aid that enables more poverty by creating dependency, and instead focusing on creating capital and skills through education. By connecting the younger generation together and teaching them about technology OLPC is creating a first step to break the cycle of poverty. Many great things have had glitches before they turn into masterpieces and OLPC has great potential to become one.

Measuring ICT: The Global Status of ICT Indicators

After the 2003 World Summit on Information Society in Geneva the world saw a need to make the tools for measuring and monitoring progress using ICT indicators.  The UN sent out a questionnaire that explored the “official information society” statistics to 179 developing countries, of which 86 answered completely. The results are organized in a report in the following seven sections: ICT household indicators, ICT indicators in the business sector, status of ICT indicators in Africa, status of ICT indicators in Central Asia and Central and Eastern European countries, status of ICT indicators in Western Asia, status of ICT indicators in Asia-Pacific, status of ICT indicators in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ICT household indicators section has information on the sources of information, the survey vehicles, availability of the 20 indictors, as well as the differences in social classifications for the ICT statistics. The business sector uses different methods of surveying and other information techniques to see how ICT indicators are in the business sector. While all the other sections above did not get as much as a response and further research and information is needed before more analysis.  The actual questionnaire was divided in four main parts and mainly focused on the “institutional and technical systems established” for monitoring ICT statistics, ignoring details on key metadata on the indicator level. After all the different reports were presented regionally in different formats they were standardized and made into a common framework. The report is trying to help understand the ICT situation for different regions depending on their income and GDP levels. One of the goals was to get a consensus for a universal set of core ICT indictors, make a better statistical capacity in developing nations, and make a global database for core ICT indictors. These reports help as they make it easier for one it see progress in ICT use and availability as well as make inferences on poverty. It also allows nations to see where they are lacking and how they compare to others. A universal set of core indicators would also make it easier in general to monitor and evaluate the information society (and other things) and ICT capability. For instance Africa had a low response rate with only 19 out of 52 nations answering, a total of 42% of the regional population. South Africa is shown to have a lower middle income and medium access, which is higher than many of the other African nations, but still failed to answer much of the questionnaire. This shows that South Africa and the African region need to improve on answering such questionnaires so that universal core indicators can be set and monitored. Although not fully successful the report was very factual and is a good base for future research.

South Africa Uses ICTs to Create a Knowledge Network Among Indigenous Communities

As the world is rapidly globalizing and developing, there is a common trend of cultural convergence. It seems the more advanced or modernized the society is the more other wish to emulate it. The research published in those countries becomes sacred knowledge that is more common than not valued more than traditional knowledge in the less so-called “developed” countries.

This week in class, we talked about the different trends in development. One I found highly-intriguing was the Postdevelopmentism approach.  It seeks to pursue an alternative road to development in which indigenous values and knowledge systems are preserved, and rather than being destroyed, are built upon. This is also what Unwin refers to as the people-centered model of development.

Annie just posted about ICTs being used in India to preserve knowledge on traditional medicine. This is not an isolated incident. There are many archival projects like these emerging all across the globe, and I hope to illustrate the expansive scope of this approach by presenting another notable example taking place in South Africa.

In this project, public libraries around the Durban area are pursuing an ambitious initiative to digitalize all the indigenous knowledge from agricultural methods and medicine to traditional clothing and Zulu culture, so that all the communities that depend on this knowledge can have access to it. It is trying to ensure that this valuable knowledge does not get lost in word-of-mouth. By sharing this information, different communities are also learning to use ICT tools.

The process of collecting this information, along with more specifics is explained in this article (http://goo.gl/NElDm)

Indigenous knowledge is collected from local communities through community journalists, members of the public who can register an account and submit a story on a more ad-hoc basis, and through direct engagement with local residents often through community groups.  The community journalists collect stories through personal interviews, in the form of audio recordings and video interviews. As such, this ground-level approach generates a much richer quality of content than external researchers could collect as they already have a relationship of trust with members of the community

There does seems to be issues with the process, however:

While the decision to embrace a multilingual approach towards content has been successful, this has also created the need for selective translations. Content management takes time and requires a certain set of skills and relevant experience. Training and development of volunteers and community journalists has proven to be time-consuming, as the development of ICT skills is generally slow among rural communities in the municipality.

This just serves to show the important role ICTs play in not just diffusing information from central developed areas to remote regions but also the other way around. While some see ICTs as potentially interfering with the traditional way of life for some communities, it seems that it might also enhance these traditional communities, as Annie alluded to in her blogpost. Also, should we prioritize the use of ICTs in developing countries to introduce new skills or enhance the skills and knowledge already in place (or both as is arguably the case in this example)? What do you all think?

Case Study: Conceptualizing the Digital Divide in Cape Town, SA

I spent the entirety of my winter break working in Langa Township in Cape Town, South Africa. Though our main focus of the trip was the implementation of a sustainable garden and agribusiness with a cooperative, we spent some time introducing the aspect of technology (mainly the Internet and Gmail) to the women and men we were working with. If this experience taught me anything, it’s that the concept of the digital divide is real and evident even in a semi developed African country such as South Africa.

The idea of conceptualizing the digital divide into four categories: access, skill, policy and motivation allowed me to better reflect on the difficulties we faced while teaching. I specifically worked with a woman in her late twenties named Nosissa and a man in his seventies named Waterson. Both faced significant barriers to access living in a poor, old apartheid township. The physical barriers were obvious. Of course they did not own a computer, nor have internet access at home. Their options were either walking to the nearest Internet cafe and paying for usage (with money they did not have) or using the Internet at the local library. One problem with the library is that they’re open from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (if anyone has a day job, these hours are a barrier themselves). A physical barrier specific to Waterson is that he has cataracts in his right eye. Additionally, language is an issue as most people in the townships only speak Xhosa (a clicking language) and the dominant language online is English. Oh and did I mention Waterson’s illiterate?

Motivation is another aspect not on our side. As language and reading is an issue, the fact that Internet has never been a necessity in their lives prior to our introduction, means it is also not a priority. Looking at all of the barriers to access, one would question why we bothered introducing technology to them in the first place.

This digital divide, the inequity in access to tools and resources through technology, is unfair. Having access to these resources could help them with questions about the garden, their new agribusiness and compost we instituted. It would allow them to learn, to communicate and to entertain themselves just as we in America get to do. This is why we bothered overcoming the barriers to access the people of Langa have. To hopefully bridge the digital divide that separates us from them.

The picture above is of myself and Peter (another person on my trip) teaching Albert how to use the Internet and sign up for an email address in an Internet cafe.

South Africa National ICT Resources

The following two sources were the documents from which I attained most of the information about South Africa’s ICT policies for my assignment.

Guide to ICT Policy in IST-Africa Partner Countries. Rep. Vol. 2.2: IST-Africa Consortium, 2010.

• Published by the IST-Africa Consortium
• Last updated April 2012
• Language: English
• http://www.ist-africa.org/home/files/IST-Africa_ICTPolicy_200412.pdf

Information and Communication Technology Research & Development and Innovation Strategy. Working paper. 4A ed. Vol. 71204: Republic of South Africa Department of Science and Technology, 2007. <RSA_ICTResearchDevelopmentInnovationStrategy_Final.doc>.

• Published by the Republic of South Africa Dept. of Science and Technology
• Last updated 2007
• Language: English
• http://www.ist-africa.org/home/files/RSA_ICTResearchDevelopmentInnovationStrategy_Final.pdf

 

It was fairly easy for me to find information about the National ICT Policies in South Africa. There is no language barrier and since it is a rapidly developing country there is a lot of information to be had about the country and its recent progress. While I could find a lot of information in many informal publications like articles and blog posts, the two sources posted above were great sources of more credible information.

The Cloud in Africa

Cloud computing technology is becoming increasingly important in ICT. This technology provides hardware and software services over a network. “The Cloud and Africa: Indicators for Growth of Cloud Computing” discusses predictors of cloud computing success in Africa.

The paper first discusses the potential benefits of the cloud in Africa– economic growth, greater data storage, increased communication and collaboration, and lower overhead costs. In addition, cloud computing can specifically be used in different ICT4D projects like e-education, e-health, and e-commerce.

The article describes the idea of “cloud readiness,” focusing on five indicators of cloud readiness: ICT, infrastructure, business, investment, and socioeconomic factors. These indicators help to determine which nations are most ready to employ cloud technology. In order to conduct this study, the author chose the 10 largest internet using nations in Africa: Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Zambia. Finally, Rwanda was added to the study because of its government’s focus on ICT4D.

The author then created a Cloud Readiness Index (which is described in much greater detail in the paper). The top five countries for cloud readiness were, in order: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Sudan, and Kenya. A visual representation of the Index can be seen below:

In his conclusion, the author reemphasize the importance of the cloud as one tool in the ICT4D toolkit, but also reminds us that each country will need its own individualized path to cloud readiness and this should be a focus in coming years.

Exploring Mobile-Internet Technology in Rural South Africa

I would like to use this post to discuss cell phone usage among young people in Cape Town, South Africa and respond to an article regarding the introduction of mobile-only internet in rural South Africa. While I studied at The University of Cape Town in 2011 I was surprised by the exclusiveness of those students who possessed blackberries. In Cape Town, I used a little Nokia”esque” brick-like phone and bought airtime for it at local supermarkets or convenience stores which were very close to my house. My South African friends laughed at me for this, as they all were attached to their blackberries, with MMS instead of SMS, and unlimited data for a very low cost.

There are, as we have seen in class, many articles and studies pertaining to mobile phone use. One specific article that struck me was this one, titled “Exploring Mobile-only Internet Use: Results of a Training Study in Urban South Africa” and appeared in the International Journal of Communication. As I mentioned, many young people I associated with in Cape Town used the internet on their handheld, mobile phones. In the case study in the article, using an ethnographic research approach, the studies explored the challenges and practices of using the internet on mobile phones in any area that does not usually have many accesses to many resources. The study gave 8 women (who did not already have personal computers) access to their own mobile phones with internet and exclaimed that, 6 months afterwards, the women stil actively used the mobile phones.

The article explains how mobiles “offer a confluence of portability, personal control, and flexibility that make them appealing, disruptive, and ubiquitous. Many hope that the mobile Internet, if widely used in the Global South, will combine the ubiquity of the handset with data access and will increase the productivity and agency of individuals and organizations. However, concrete evidence remains scarce.” Is this an appropriate technology?

This in-depth article seems to leave out the lens that we have grown to acquire in classes regarding development. Do the individuals the authors are talking of have access to recources for these intricate phones? Is it too complex? Is it sustainable, once the “project” is complete and other individuals wish to adopt these technologies?

Text4Health Global Problems

This PBS article discusses the challenges involved with text messaging programs designed to spread health information in developing countries. Many of the problems discussed are issues that we have brought up in class.

Some of the problems include:

• The difficulty of charging cell phones in isolated areas.
• Is the information provided relavent and useful?
• Will people follow the advice given in text messages?
• How will cultural differences across countries affect how people respond to the text messages?
• Early data did not look at whether or not text messages actually cause behavior change.
• Governments need to be on board for large scale projects.

This article discusses several ways mhealth can be utilized in the developing world. In India and South Africa, text messages are being used to give pregnant women advice during each stage of pregnancy. In Bangladesh, text messages are being used to inform parents about when to vaccinate their children. Even in the United States mhealth is being used for smoking cesation programs.

We discussed other issues in class that the article did not include. For example, would text messages be too expensive for some people? Does everyone with a phone know how to send texts? How can you encourage people to sign up for the text messages? How can you make sure information is clear and relevant and that people will actually read the texts? These are all problems that future mhealth programs must address.

OLPC: South Africa

In researching One Laptop Per Child in South Africa I came across a video documentary about one OLPC initiative in Soweto, South Africa. The video, entitled “My School, My Community, My Laptop”, focuses on the Kliptown Youth Program in Soweto. The program was established in 2007 as an effort to address the social challenges of the community including unemployment, teen pregnancy and HIV. The program works to create opportunities and activities for community members like tutoring, sports and performing arts. The community leader states in the video that the program wanted to focus efforts toward education in order to help address the communities problems.

In order to foster education within the program, they received XO laptops through One Laptop Per Child. As we see in the video, both the students, teacher and community leader spoke highly of laptops. The teacher liked that students were able to research information online while in class and also able to chat with other XO users about sensitive topics like puberty that the students didn’t like talking to her about. The video also mentions that the laptops have brought the community together in that they have gotten parents and other family members interested in the laptops. Additionally, they had access to a “IT Geek” who came to the school and community center where tutoring took place so that they could be taught how to use the laptop and get tech-related questions answered. This “IT Geek” was also a community member so he was known by the community and accessible to students. This aspect was good because it addressed one of the major problems we see in other OLPC initiatives where technological assistance is not available.

While the video mentioned many benefits of the laptops, there is potential for some problems. Firstly, it seemed as though the interviewed students were very focused on the chatting and gaming aspects, and maybe not necessarily the educational aspects. Also, the community in the video was very rural and does not necessarily suggest electricity or internet access. It seemed as though the location where tutoring was taking place had internet connection, but that does not mean the students homes did, so they may not have constant access. Additionally, the community they are in, Soweto, is very close the Johannesburg, so the technological capacity there may be more than other parts of South Africa. Therefore, we cannot take the OLPC success here and say it will work for other parts of South Africa as a whole. Finally, this video has potential for bias, because the program could be trying to put themselves in a good light, and they may be overplaying the success of the OLPC initiative.

Overall I think the OLPC initiative can do a lot of good for the objectives of the Kliptown Youth Program (KYP). I think OLPC could have more success here because it was being introduced to a preexisting community building program. Since the KYP was already dedicated to improving education for children, the introduction of the laptops was welcomed by the program rather than OLPC just throwing computers at a community or district which has been a problem in other places. The drive of the KYP coupled with the technology of OLPC could create a lot of educational progression for the Soweto community.