Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Africa
From SOUL BEAT AFRICA - where communication and media are central to AFRICA's social and economic development
In this issue of The Soul Beat:
* OVERVIEWproviding global ICT development information
* Projects and research on ICTS IN EDUCATION
* Spotlight on ICT OPEN SOURCE RESOURCE for writers, journalists, and bloggers
* Projects and reports on ICTS AND HEALTH CARE
* Link for more information on DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES on the Soul Beat Africa website
* Projects and documentary on ICTS and AGRICULTURE
* Previous ICT-related issues of THE SOUL BEAT NEWSLETTER
* Projects and papers on EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GIRLS THROUGH ICTS
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Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) refer to communication devices or applications which include digital radio and television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. In this edition of The Soul Beat we look mainly at the use of computers and the internet and the role these technologies play in supporting development in Africa. (We are planning future issues of The Soul Beat which will focus on digital radio and mobile phones). This newsletter offers a selection of programme experiences, strategic thinking documents, and materials related to the use of new technologies in education, health, agriculture, and the empowerment of women.
If you would like your organisation's communication work or research and resource documents to be featured on the Soul Beat Africa website and in The Soul Beat newsletters, please contact soulbeat@comminit.com
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1. Measuring the Information Society: The ICT Development Index
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has released its ICT Development Index (IDI), which compares developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in 154 countries over a five-year period from 2002 to 2007, including some 2008 data. The Index combines 11 indicators into a single measure that can be used as a benchmarking tool globally, regionally, and at the country level. These are related to ICT access, use, and skills, such as households with a computer, the number of internet users, and literacy levels. The report shows that many of the economically poorer countries, in particular from Africa, rank further down in the ICT Development Index with little change in ranking since 2002.
2. ICT and Changing Mindsets in Education
Edited by Kathryn Toure, Therese Mungah Shalo Tchombe, and Thierry Karsenti
According to this report, the debate is no longer whether to use ICTs in education in Africa but how to do so, and how to ensure equitable access for teachers and learners, whether in urban or rural settings. This publication looks at how Africans adopt and adapt ICTs and how ICTs are shaping African schools and classrooms. It seeks to answer some of the following questions: Why ICTs are being used, or why not? Do girls and boys use them in the same way? How are teachers and students in primary and secondary schools in Africa using ICTs in teaching and learning? How does the process transform relations among learners, educators and knowledge construction?
3. Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) - Bolivia, Ghana, India, Namibia, Global
Established in 2004 as a result of the United Nations (UN) Information and Communication Technology Task Force's report that "identified education as an area in critical need of development, and one where ICTs have the potential to make positive impacts." According to the project website, GeSCI focuses on providing advice to Ministries of Education on what ICTs in education can and cannot do; on how to develop a sustainable framework for integrating ICTs into educational systems; on how to conceptualise structures, procedures, and processes for ICT deployment and use in education initiatives; and on how to bring together stakeholder partnerships for implementation and support.
Contact Niamh Brannigan niamh.brannigan@gesci.org OR info@gesci.org
4. EduSud: ICT in Education in Africa Portal
The EduSud portal, created specifically for teachers by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office in Dakar (better known under its French acronym BREDA), is designed to help teachers discover the world of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and to provide tools, advice, references, educational resources, and other materials, to help integrate technologies into training and teaching contexts.
5. Survey of ICT and Education in Africa, Volume 2: 53 Country Reports
By Amr Hamdy, Babacar Fall, Harry Hare, Josué Tetang Tchinda, Kofi Mangesi, Osei Tutu Agyenman-Duah, Shafika Isaacs, and Glen Farrell
This report synthesises the findings from a survey that was initiated by the Information for Development Program (infoDev), a multi-donor partnership housed at the World Bank which investigates issues related to the effective and appropriate use of ICTs in education in individual African countries. The publication includes short reports which provide a general overview of current activities and developments related to ICT use in education in 53 African countries.
6. Study Criticises Laptops for Children Scheme
By Naomi Antony
This article, posted on the SciDev Net website, looks at how researchers have criticised the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) scheme, which has sent over a million US$100 laptops to children in the developing world. David Hollow of the United Kingdom-based ICT4D Collective at Royal Holloway, University of London, and his team evaluated the OLPC initiative in Ethiopia. According to their findings, unless the laptops are introduced with care, they can become little more than distracting toys in the classroom. The Ethiopian experience also revealed that students wanted more content on the laptops and that teachers were not adequately trained on how to make use of them.
7. Pan-African Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of ICTs - Africa
Launched in 2007, the Pan African Research Agenda on the Pedagogical Integration of ICTs (PanAf), a joint initiative of the Educational Research Network for West and Central Africa (ERNWACA) and the University of Montreal (Canada), is a five-year project seeking to better understand how the pedagogical integration of ICTs can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in Africa. It seeks to achieve its goals by collecting new school-scale data, creating opportunities for knowledge sharing, and by providing learning opportunities for those involved.
Contact panaf@rocare.org OR ddarave@rocare.org
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Open Source Tools for Writers, Journalists, and Bloggers
Designed for bloggers, journalists, and writers, this resource on open source tools includes links to word processors, content management systems, and organising tools. Click here to accesss this resource.
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8. The Impact of ICTs on Health Care
By Henry Lucas
This article examines the nature of the technological impact on health systems and the shifting balances of power resulting from advances in mobile telephony and internet services which convey medical information. One example cited includes the use of ICTs to update the skills of medical staff through internet-based advice and training initiatives such as the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London which provides an internet-based consultancy service for ophthalmology patients in a number of African countries.
9. Investigation of a Yellow Fever Epidemic Game - Africa
This game is part of a range of training tools developed by World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with Agence de Médecine Préventive (AMP) for health professionals facing yellow fever epidemics across Africa. The serious game, based on video game principles, is designed to convey educational and operational WHO recommendations and messages, by presenting them in a form that is entertaining and engaging, imitating real-life situations.
Contact Cécile Duperray amp@aamp.org
10. Track the West Africa Polio Campaign - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Togo
In early 2009, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) created an initiative to enable tracking of the West Africa polio campaign via Google maps. This ongoing communication initiative is designed to raise awareness about polio by sharing updated information through ICTs.
Contact Gaëlle Bausson gbausson@unicef.org
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FURTHER SOUL BEAT AFRICA CONTENT ON DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
Click here for more information on the use of digital technologies for development on the Soul Beat Africa website.
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11. The ARRIN Project - Uganda
The Agriculture Research and Rural Information Network (ARRIN) project is an initiative to bring farmers’ information to rural communities in Uganda through combining dance and dramatic plays with ICTs. Supported by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), the project is implemented by a theatre company, Ndere Troupe, which performs all over Uganda and has its main office in Kampala. Organisers believe that this project will help improve empowerment of rural populations and communities by promoting and supporting income-generating capacity, awareness of public policy and health and environment related issues through effective dissemination of information.
Contact ARRIN Project information@iicd.org
12. ALIN’s Community Knowledge or Maarifa Centres - Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda
The Maarifa Centres (Maarifa is the Swahili word for knowledge) are part of a project by Arid Land Information Network (ALIN) which involves the establishment of Community Knowledge Centres (CKC) in the rural areas of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. In partnership with other agencies, the centres seek to bring ICTs to rural communities to enable the documentation and sharing of local knowledge, in particular knowledge relating to farming and natural resource management. Each centre is equipped with basic ICT tools (computers and internet access) to enable information generation, access, and dissemination.
Contact Noah Lusaka info@alin.or.ke
13. Web 2.0 in Africa - Agriculture and New Technologies
Web 2.0 in Africa is an eight-minute video produced by Business Africa and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) documenting actual cases on the use of Web 2.0 applications in the development sector, specifically among farmers in Africa. The documentary highlights the experiences of how farmers, like Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative (BROSDI) in Uganda, are using Web 2.0 such as blogs, forums and wiki-style encyclopaedias to make their work more effective.
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To view ICT-related previous issues of The Soul Beat newsletter see:
The Soul Beat 103 - Telecentres
The Soul Beat 84 - Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Education
The Soul Beat 69 - ICTs for Development in Africa
The Soul Beat 31 - ICTs and Agriculture
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EMPOWERING WOMEN AND GIRLS THROUGH ICTS
14. African Women and ICTs: Investigating Technology, Gender and Empowerment
African Women and ICTs explores the ways in which women in Africa utilise information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate their empowerment, whether through the mobile village phone business, through internet use, or through new career and ICT employment opportunities. Based on the outcome of an extensive research project, this book features chapters based on original primary field research undertaken by academics and activists who have investigated situations within their own communities and countries. The discussion includes such issues as the notion of ICTs for empowerment and as agents of change, ICTs in the fight against gender-based violence, and how ICTs can be used to re-conceptualise public and private spaces.
15. Keep Your Chats Exactly That!
Launched in May 2009, this is a campaign by Girl'sNet, a daughter project of Women'sNet, designed to empower young people to prevent them from becoming victims of harassment, bullying, and violence when using the internet and cell phones. It also works to encourage strategies for using ICTs in affirmative ways to advocate for change on issues that concern young people.
Contact Women'sNet women@womensnet.org.za
16. Knowledge for Women in Southern Africa (EKOWISA) - Zimbabwe
EKOWISA is a regional non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Zimbabwe, which aims to generate, analyse, translate, repackage, and disseminate locally relevant information and knowledge for better livelihoods. By promoting the effective and efficient use of ICTs, the organisation seeks to promote gender equality through knowledge creation, supporting women entrepreneurs, advocating for inclusive policy-making, and building ICT skills.
For the online contact form go to http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=029743e994359d42de48826141354b37
17. It’s Hot for Girls! ICTs as an Instrument in Advancing Girls’ and Women’s Capabilities in School Education in Africa
By Shafika Isaacs
This paper contends that a clear conceptual framework in problematising the education crisis from a developmental, gendered, and ICT perspective is lacking and is critical in providing conceptual clarity on appropriate strategies for using ICTs as a tool for women’s empowerment, particularly in Africa. Among other recommendations, the report suggests that there be greater investment in research and development in the arena of ICTs, education, and women’s empowerment as well as a systematic research agenda which addresses issues of women’s needs, interests, perceptions of ICTs, key issues relating to gender differences and the context within which they occur in education, and policy options for empowering women through the use of ICTs in education.
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