The Drum Beat 155: ICTs in Africa - Part 2

This is the 2nd in a planned double issue collaboration focusing on Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa. The 1st installment included just some of the all-embracing, bilateral and multilateral Africa initiatives, and some of the policy frameworks developed on a country level. Click here for the 1st issue from May 2002.

This issue focuses on some of the regional, community, issue-specific and "on-the-ground" ICT initiatives and resources in Africa.

We have found such a wealth of resources, we will be publishing a 3rd installment later in the fall as well. It will focus on youth/child initiatives, radio/internet initiatives and information, bulletins and journals, prizes and additional resources and portals. Please send us any information that you may have - dheimann@comminit.com

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MICRO-ENTERPRISE

1. Nakaseke Women Development Association (NAWODA) - Uganda - trains women in the use of ICTs and helps them integrate these skills into their daily income-generating activities. Contact Henry Serunkuma hmelainin@yahoo.com

2. ASAFE (Association pour le Soutien et L'Appui a La Femme Entrepreneur) - Cameroon - focuses on enterprises and initiatives owned or managed by women. Activities fall into 4 categories: Microfinancing; New information and communication technologies; Counselling and the provision of information to members; Training workshops; and Research and consultations. Contact asafe@camnet.cm

3. African Artisan Village - an example of African micro-entrepreneurs gaining access to international markets through the Internet.

4. Microcredit Programme - Nigeria - trains rural women in film/video production. The project involves making films in local languages with village theatre groups on topics of community interest. These films will be shown on a TV screen powered by car batteries that is placed on top of the programme's Mobile Community Telecentre (MCT) van on market days. The films will be followed by meetings to discuss issues arising from the films. Contact info@fantsuam.org

WOMEN

5. Zimbabwe Women's Resource and Network (ZWRN) - offers a programme called Information Services, which includes a documentation centre, an internet café, lectures on gender and development, and publications. Publications aim to encourage communication and information exchange between grassroots women and other women's organisations and parliamentarians. Contact zwrcn@zwrcn.org.zw

6. Enda Synfev: Synergy Gender and Development - West Africa - focuses on women's health and rights in Francophone Africa and the world. The list serve, Femmes-Afrique (in French), circulates news about and for women's health and rights, originating from francophone African groups and the African continent. Further activites include advocacy, lobbying, research, training, and field actions. Contact synfev@enda.sn

HEALTH

7. ATCnet - Africa - main focus is the building of the ICT infrastructure in Africa through affordable access to computers and the Internet, as well as local communications. Also has an electronic database for the African Health & HIV-AIDS Crisis (HHA). This aims to bring knowledge about HIV/AIDS from the south to the north, as well as from other countries, to facilitate advocacy, policy making, and support. Contact profitinafrica@aol.com / hivaidsstories@aol.com

8. Keneya-Blown - Mali - a pilot telemedicine project to network all hospitals and health districts. The site invites users to search for information in categories such as: pharmacies, traditional medicine, current medical events, public health, HIV/AIDS, telemedicine, and tropical medicine. Although physicians are currently the sole users of the site, other health care workers are invited to consult the site and to contribute content. Contact Ousmane Ly oussouly@keneya.org.ml

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Participate in a Stakeholder Consultation: UNESCO is producing a 'how-to' book for Community Multimedia Centres

Please suggest -

• what themes and issues this book would most usefully include
• the form and style of the publication - eg, illustrations, difficulty level and tone, additional resources that should be included
• existing practical "how to" materials.

Deadline: July 30, 2002.
Contact Don Slater d.slater@lse.ac.uk

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EDUCATION

9. Education and Health Promotion Programme - Nigeria - includes distribution of copies of reproductive health newsletters written by youth in Kampala, Uganda, to secondary school libraries. The project also organises health screening sessions that include group discussions, individual counseling, and treatments. A Mobile Rural Library & ICT Service (MRLIS) works with rural communities to help provide textbooks for their schools and access to information from national, regional, and international sources. Contact Fantsuamfoundation@fantsuam.com

10. Schoolnet Africa (SNA) - includes centers of technology networked throughout Africa that provide the tools to improve African children's access to technology. They also work to advocate for inexpensive Internet access for schools in Africa. Contact Ms Shafika Isaacs shafika@schoolnetafrica.org.za

11. Knowledge Exchange and Learning Partnerships (KELP) - Africa - working to improve institutions through the integration of instructional technologies into the research, teaching, and learning process and networking centers of learning in Africa and the United States. Contact Dr. Maria Beebe beebe@mail.wsu.edu

ACCESS

12. Nakaseke Multipurpose Community Telecentre - Uganda - includes: a library and community information centers; computer applications training programmmes for the community; telephone, fax, e-mail, and internet; educational videos taken to schools and communities, and computers taken to outlying villages; secretarial services; and, indigenous knowledge collection - involving the documentation, storage, packaging and dissemination of local knowledge. Contact Richard Bugembe nakaseke@africaonline.co.ug OR rbugembe@hotmail.com

13. Internet Access for Distance Learning Programme - Nigeria - provides affordable Internet access to the Mobile Community Telecentre (MCT). Based in Kunyai, Nigeria, the MCT is a van carrying up to 4 computers to rural communities that lack electricity and phone lines. The programme targets women, girls, secondary school students and teachers, and rural healthcare workers. Contact Fantsuamfoundation@fantsuam.com

NETWORKING

14. Kabissa - uses technology to strengthen organisations working to improve the lives of people in Africa. Provides internet access, services and training to African non-profits.

15. FEMNET (The African Women's Development & Communication Network) - works to promote networking and enhance women's empowerment through communication and information dissemination.

16. Women's Net - designed to enable South African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources and tools needed for women's social action.

17. Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) - Eastern Africa - a network of Community Development Workers (CDWs) who are involved in drylands development. ALIN offers field-based trainings focused on basic computer and internet skills and how to operate WorldSpace receivers to access development information.

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We will be extending the closing date of our most current poll. This poll will remain open throughout the month of August. If you have not voted yet, please do so now. We are very interested in your comments.
Look for results thus far and a selection of comments in a special issue published on July 31st.

...taking the PULSE of international development...

Programmes that foster open discussion and debate on HIV/AIDS are as important as programmes that distribute condoms.
Do you agree or disagree?

Please note: These polls are not scientific. They are a way of informally seeking your ideas and opinions on issues and potential trends. We find that the comments generated are often intriguing, unexpected, and from varying perspectives.

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RESOURCES & PORTALS

18. The South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) - working to increase access to knowledge, skills and learning through the adoption of open learning principles and distance education strategies.

19. Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET) - promotes the use of ICTs by women organisations and individuals and circulates an e-newsletter to promote information exchange.

20. African Bushmail Network - a web site from which to contact people in the bush who do not have access to telephone.

21. ABANTU for Development - established in 1991 by African women based in Europe to enhance the capacity of African women.

22. OneWorld Africa - aims to use the internet and other ICTs to bring the voices of African people to a global audience and make visible their contributions to sustainable development and human rights promotion and protection.

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The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

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