ICT in Africa: Plan’s Approach to Using Information and Communication Technologies in Eastern and Southern African Communities

Executive summary

"The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for Plan’s operations in the Region of Eastern and Southern Africa (RESA) to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Plan communities.
We propose that schools in Plan areas become the entry points for RESA efforts to introduce ICTs into Plan communities."

This planning document first identifies key issues in ICT in Africa including their strategic significance, then reviews key learning from previously established ICT projects relevant to the RESA approach, and finally cites both programmatic and technological recommendations and next steps for the implementation of ICT in schools.

Plan RESA prioritises the access of school children and youth to ICTs in order to increase their desire to attend and complete their schooling; improve their abilities to seek information, communicate and earn a livelihood in the 21st century; and ensure that the ICT will not be monopolised by adults. It hopes to address the need of out-of-school children, youth, and also women to access ICT. It seeks to provide information and communication services to local communities through ICT in schools.

At this juncture in ICT planning, according to this document, Plan has already helped over 70 schools in RESA to gain access to ICTs and is evaluating the potential to reach over 4,000 primary and secondary schools. Based on brief descriptions of relevant ICT projects, within and outside Plan, and identified key learnings from them, these recommendations and next steps are its guide.

Programme recommendations

"The main issue is to focus on community information and communication needs and capacities, develop solutions appropriate to their capabilities, build sustainability, and scale up successful solutions. It is crucial that modern ICTs are demystified for Plan communities as part of this process... A participatory, community led approach is necessary if ICT based interventions are to be sustainable, as such an approach ensures that communities value, use, and maintain the ICTs. Plan needs to identify ways of ensuring ICT services are provided in an equitable and sustainable way to children and adults. In particular we need to understand how to safeguard the rights of girls, women and marginalised groups to access and benefit from the new opportunities that ICTs bring.

Thinking about what should be achievable we would suggest the following steps:

1. Build capacity for community engagement with ICTs - by training Plan frontline staff, teachers, village development workers and youth on how to identify the information and communication requirements of girls, boys, women, men and community groups; and the capabilities and limitations of ICTs.
2. Use a community informatics approach to enable students, teachers and community groups to explore their learning and communications needs, paying particular attention to gender issues and the needs of marginalised or vulnerable groups. From this, appropriate ICTs and a map local infrastructure and expertise can be identified. This approach will enable Plan to complement NEPAD’s [The New Partnership for Africa’s Development] technology intensive approach.
3. Introduce appropriate ICT into Plan E-Schools together with plans of how it will be used, by whom, and how it will be maintained and paid for. Schools are the most appropriate location to ensure that ICT for community development remains child focused and used by children.
4. Measure the cost effectiveness of Plan E-Schools and their success in achieving objectives set by the children and communities. This will enable Plan and donors to identify what approaches and technologies to scale up.
5. Explore different models for sustainability. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of ICTs is generally very high. In addition to the initial cost of equipment – which is usually less than a third of the TCO – other costs include training; physical, power, and communication infrastructures; running costs; maintenance and repair; and replacement costs. Donors usually just contribute the equipment, but if the other costs are not met, the equipment usually ends up unused, and the investment in ICT is wasted. We need to identify a level of ICT that can be sustained by the community. NEPAD also acknowledges this and has commissioned research to define a workable economic model for operating ICT infrastructure in rural areas.
6. Encourage Plan programs to include, pay for, and use community ICT facilities in their implementation plans. E.g. village health workers using the ICT in the local school to get the latest health information. This is likely to make these programs more efficient, and contribute to an integrated programme approach.

Technology recommendations

Power deficiencies in Plan communities will probably best be addressed using solar panels... Costs of supplying power to remote communities should be regarded representing value as a power supply will benefit the community in many ways, allowing evening use of facilities and so on. An alternative is biosphere power which requires livestock. Equally we should be seeking to use power efficient hardware where possible.

The skills gap will be a huge issue when we start to try and scale up the availability of new technologies. We need to work to build capacity with teachers, youth and Plan volunteers. We will also need more skilled engineers and administrators if solutions are to be maintained and sustainable. Training local people, particularly youth, in these areas will help stimulate local the economy.

Connectivity is of course a huge issue [...new fibre optic networks being laid for Africa]. In the meantime VSAT can be installed for ...a local area network, and, particularly where there is a WiMax capability, can be utilised to share content downloaded from a hub location. When connectivity is provided, cheap telephony services will be an added benefit for the community."