by Dean Mulozi

Telecenter, a tool at the service of community development Telecentres are facilities offering public access to the telephone, the internet or to a wide range of other Information and Communication Technology tools and services. They have various names, including “Community Access Points” (CAP), cybercentres, cybercafés, multimedia centers. They can include fixed and mobile facilities. Telecentres targeted in this activity are those that offer access to community development information or services, apart from the classic email and web communication, especially in rural areas.In developing countries like Zambia where citizens and organizations still face important challenges to access new information technologies, telecentres have been recognized as effective tools supporting universal access to ICTs and as key vehicles of development information, particularly in rural areas. Indeed, through its various models, telecentres have the potential to promote access to low cost communication through the telephone, the internet, and other traditional tools of communication.

Even though ICTs are more and more developed and available at individual level in Africa (SADC Region), in many countries of this region, the relevance of telecentres especially in rural areas seems undisputed. Community telecentres in particular, basically understood as non profit facilities put in place usually by government authorities or associations, NGOs and installed mostly in rural or sub-urban areas, have been playing a key role to ensure access to ICT for local communities. More than private cybercafés, they are facing sustainability and connectivity problems. Many community telecentres are closing doors because of the development of individual access to internet or voice communication, via landline or mobile phones (which is positive technological and social transformation). Where the need still exists, strategies to strengthen them have to be identified. They include networking at national and regional level for experience sharing, mutualisation of resources, etc.

As you are aware, Energy is a major concern for rural connectivity in Zambia, only 3 percent of rural households have access to electricity energy and only 22 percent of urban households have access to the National Grid Electricity energy. Currently the urban electricity consumers are subjected to relentless load shedding due to the nationwide electric power generation shortage.

It is in this context, that the idea of a phased approach to Energy Poverty Reduction for Zambia was deemed critical, with projects representing a phased approach to Energy Poverty Reduction for Zambia, consequently being established. The crucial role of this approach can be seen in the fact that, had this phased approach been implemented at independence back in 1964, Zambia would be experiencing an energy surplus today (2011).

This is how the idea of the Chamulimba Community Digital Divide Telecentre (CCDDT) is derived. The proposed Chamulimba Community Digital Divide Telecentre has a total of about 28 villages with an estimated population of 16,000 people in the Chiefdom of His Royal Highness Chief Bunda Bunda. Chamulimba is a vibrant organic farming community. The centre will be strategically located along the Great East Road within close proximity of vital basic economic and social amenities such as Basic school, health centre, agricultural storage shed, grocery shops and the surrounding organic crop farming areas. Provision of Solar power to this Area will be seen as principal to the prosperity of Chamulimba as the area is off the main electrical grid of Zambia. It is 30km east of Chongwe, the nearest township providing electricity and communications facilities.Chamulimba Community Digital Divide Telecentre (CCDDT) will be a viable pilot for Community-Public Partnership, with various partners consolidating their resources to ensure its establishment is possible.

The benefits of the Chamulimba Community Digital Divide Telecentre to the local community will be immense. The purpose of this centre is to contribute to economic empowerment through providing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the rural community and thereby advancing the interests of member groups and the living standards of the surrounding communities. Besides economic empowerment, this initiative is equally geared at promoting environmental sustainability, a concern that impinges directly on the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

The task is to ascertain the market potential and hence, long-term sustainability of the proposed renewably powered ICT centres within Zambia’ rural environment. It will also be useful to evaluate and design effective activities aimed at eradicating barriers to the effective utilization of different renewable energy sources for commercial rural community-based ICT applications.

The anticipated results are:

• A self-sustaining enterprise to ensure continuity and growth;
• Easy up agriculture Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) Dissemination
• A growing community of Internet and computer users, who will be willing to use the telecentres services and pay for them.
• A one-stop shop for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based products

Among services that will be offered at the Chamulimba Pilot Telecentre are: Telephony; Internet Access; Database Management; Organic Crop storage, Order Consolidation, and Marketing; ICT services; Entertainment: Both film (including educational); Solar Powered Battery and Cell Phone Charging; Student ICT classes; Dedicated printing services to the Surrounding schools; Adult ICT education classes and HIV and AIDS Programmes Presentations; and Distance Learning Support. Provision of these facilities to the community is seen as vital to the success of Zambia’ poverty eradication efforts, particularly in as far as they relate to the empowerment of Women and Young men, who play a central role in advancing economic prosperity at national level. When women and young men are fully empowered and engaged, all of society benefits.

 

by Dean Mulozi

The ICT Media Forum (The role of ICTs and Telecentre in Agricultural Development) wrapped up in Lusaka amid enthusiasm among journalists. The facilitators and delegates interacted to provide knowledge and insights on practical issues related to roles of the media in ICTs and agricultural making the event a huge success.

The forum was officially opened by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Works, Supply and Communications Dominic Sichinga and was attended by representatives of various media organizations including the BBC, all of who are practicing journalists. The forum sought to raise public awareness on the importance and role of ICTs and telecentres in agricultural development in southern Africa, to provide an overview on the challenges and options for increased and sustained use of ICTs in agricultural development with a focus on rural telecentres and to increase ICT/agricultural reportage in the media.

Read more: www.satnetwork.org 

by Simon Wandila

“In this new environment, the danger of the gap between the rich and poor in Africa is growing wider and more seriously than ever and threatens the economic prosperity, social stability, and very survival of democracy. Measures are needed to give all citizens the opportunity to acquire knowledge, frequently update that knowledge, and become fully engaged members of society.

Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET) recognises that internet communication is central to the transforming of the way people interact all over the world. However, access to it is largely dependent on its governance. It is through various ICT tools such as the computer and mobile phone that citizens access internet services. However, access to and interaction through internet among citizens in Africa still remains an obstacle.

We believe that universal access to ICTs and internet is the key to the above challenge. We have a choice in our quest to achieve universal access. From our experiences and feedback from stakeholders in the Southern African region, we feel more should be done to address critical issues regarding internet access particularly from governments. It is important too, to recognise the importance of local actors, local entrepreneurs, farmers, small-scale business community and community led organisations in rural and peri-urban areas. When you allow and provide opportunities to citizens to interact through fastest means, you stimulate action from them to participate and innovate.

Read more...

THE EVENT - The Role of ICTs in Agriculture Development (Regional Media Forum)

Special focus on community telecentres (Southern Africa), takes place on 13th October, 2011, at Cresta View Hotel, Lusaka Zambia. The event will be hosted by SATNET and PANOS. Below is a detailed description of the event.

BACKGROUND: Agriculture plays an important role to the economies of Southern African countries. Agriculture contributes significantly to about 35% of the gross domestic product (GDP) of most SADC member states. In addition, agricultural exports are a major foreign exchange earner, contributing on average 13 percent to total export earnings and constituting about 66 percent of the value of intra- regional trade. Therefore, good performance of this sector is vital for food security, employment, eradicating hunger, alleviating poverty, controlling inflation, promoting economic growth and stabilizing economies. Agriculture-led development is fundamental to cutting hunger and reducing poverty, thereby achieving some of the important millennium development goals (MDGs). For economies such as Zambia, agriculture accounts for about 20 percent of the GDP, while for others, such as South Africa, it contributes less than five percent. Despite the importance of agriculture in the Southern African region's economy, this sector has been in constant decline during the last decades. The agricultural sector is confronted with major challenges related to production and marketing in order to harness its growing and increasingly prosperous population and availability of natural resources. With an estimated annual growth of only 1.5 percent, agriculture is lagging behind demographic growth. However, guaranteed growth in agriculture means offering opportunities for improved livelihoods for the rural communities. Realizing that these opportunities require compliance with more stringent policy framework, strategies and regulations, there is an increasing need for the private and public sector to get more involved with emphasis on policy and innovations. In the above circumstances, new approaches, technical innovations as well as policy implementation commitments are required to cope with these challenges and to enhance the livelihoods of the rural population.

ICTs IN AGRICULTURE: It is clear that ICTs have brought to the fore, new ways of doing things. There is realization that ICTs should be integrated to be effectively used in agriculture development as facilitating tools to boost its impact to the lives of farmers. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have shown evidence for easier access to markets and information resources. The role of ICTs to stimulate agriculture, enhance food security and support rural livelihoods is increasingly recognized and was officially endorsed at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2003-2005. The computers, internet, geographical information systems, mobile phones, as well as traditional media such as radio or TV stimulates participation enhances value to productivity. Evidence of the contribution of ICT to agricultural development and poverty alleviation is becoming increasingly available. In the past two decades, a number of international agencies including CTA and its partners have been involved in projects and policy support programmes and consistently monitor the progress and impact of the use of ICTs in agriculture. Due to opportunities and unique services community telecentres and local multimedia centres do provide to the rural communities in Africa, the role of these local entities should be embraced in order to achieve much talked about universal access and stimulate regional economic development. Telecentres provide facilitating roles to agriculture development such as market information access, issues of climate change, and centres for knowledge and information exchange. They also provide a huge potential for knowledge centres and e- governance services as well as avenues for ICT awareness and literacy for the local communities. As such telecentres should be adopted as main catalyst role for agriculture in urban and rural areas of Southern Africa.

CHALLENGING ISSUES:

i.Policy implementation challenges

One of the key challenges in many countries in southern Africa is making things happen as regards to ICT policy processes. Past experiences suggest that governments are often slow in ensuring that policies are implemented once they have been launched. According a SADC protocol on Information and Technologies of August, 2001 signed in Blantyre – Malawi, SADC member states undertook to ensure that ICTs do not increase the disparity between men and women, rural and urban. Moreover the challenge of policy implementation is characterized by lack of effective strategies to embrace ICTs as a cross cutting issue. Regulations in some of the member countries favor commercial objectives other than development.

ii.Stakeholder engagement

Lack of involvement of stakeholders at a level of ICT policy processes particularly at implementation has often paused challenges in ensuring achievement of policy objectives and goals. Stakeholder involvement such as civil society and private sector makes policy implementation and monitoring more impact. This is an area that needs to be addressed by governments. There is thus need to involve both the private sector and civil society organizations to play a role or part in the implementation of the policy through:

• Consultations and working closely with the Ministry of Communications and Transport and other respective Ministries on the development of implementation plans and strategies for private sector and civil society participation in the policy implementation process;

•Active participation by private and civil society organizations in policy implementation and review process on an on- going basis.” There is high demand for Public –Private sector Partnerships (PPP) to enable both the private sector and civil society organizations to get more involved in implementation of ICT policies. This means that there should be policy framework implementation acceleration; favorable universal access environment where various roles of the civil society should be recognized.

iii.Capacity Building and development

It is evident that service delivery in telecentres is dependent on their capacities to operate effectively. Many rural telecentres lack capacity development. Most of telecentres are established without a capacity development component. Some of the key challenges facing telecentres and respective networks are:

a. Lack of adequate financial and human resources within telecentres

b. Lack of managerial and technical skills for telecentre managers

c. Lack of adequate or poor ICT equipment within telecentres

d. Absence of institutional and extension support services from resource providers Though governments have shown indications of establishment of telecentres, observations have shown that there has been minimal support to develop capacities of telecentres in terms of the above indicated challenges. Further many governments have also shown little or no interest in working with exiting civil society organizations in the area of ICTs to resolve the challenges.

Further lack of adequate funding to telecentres has negated the development and up- scaling of telecentres in the region. These challenges have made agriculture and other sector service delivery through ICTs in most rural areas difficult.

iv.Infrastructure

Poor infrastructure has often paused greater challenges to operations of telecentres since the advent of ICTs. Infrastructure difficulties evolve around internet, fixed and mobile communications infrastructure. Where Internet services are still developing, many telecentre services depend on it. The potential for rapid growth in internet coverage is undermined by inadequate telecommunications infrastructure, poor telephone accessibility and high access costs. Moreover lack of access to energy pauses greater more difficulties for telecentres to deliver services.

Thus infrastructure challenges include:

• Poor infrastructure connectivity services

• Lack of access to energy sources such as hydro-power and alternative energy sources

• Limited km radius coverage by mobile infrastructure Deliberate projects on ICTs in agriculture should be encouraged and adopted. In order to contribute to the resolution of the above challenges, Southern Africa Telecentre Network and its partners have planned to implement the regional ICT Media Forum.

 

The Media FORUM OBECTIVES

Forum is expected to contribute to the creation of awareness, bringing key issues to discussion and facilitate acceleration towards integrating ICTs and resolve some of the challenges in agriculture development in Southern Africa.

The forum will be attended by a number of media organizations and related institutions in the agriculture.

The Forum will have an opportunity to learn from innovative telecentres cases from the Republic of Tanzania.

The media forum is being carried out as part of the process to raise awareness and stimulate action from within public and private sector for increased awareness, investments and innovation practices in ICTs for rural development particularly how telecentres can effectively support agriculture in Southern Africa The main objectives of the ICT agriculture media Forum are:

i.To raise public awareness on the importance and role of ICTs and telecentres in agricultural development in Southern Africa.

ii.To stimulate public policy responses from the government and its agencies on the status of policy implementation and strategies on ICTs and agriculture

iii.To provide an overview on the challenges and options for increased and sustained use of ICTs in agricultural development with a focus to rural telecentres.

iv.To showcase presentations on existing ICT innovations and interventions in the agriculture sector.

 

Main outputs:

i.Initiated public debate on policy issues affecting ICTs and agriculture development

ii.Commitments from public sector agencies on ICT policy

iii.Accelerated interventions and innovations on ICTs and agriculture

iv.Increased public awareness and recognized role of community telecentres in agricultural marketing and development

v.Wider news coverage and reported pieces of information on the status of ICTs, agriculture and community telecentres in major media houses and website.

 

The main target groups include:

• Selected media houses; print and electronic media agencies

• Freelance Journalists and students

• Government ministries

• Invited senior NGO and staff

• Private sector agencies involved in the provision of agricultural services.

About SATNET

Southern Africa Telecentre Network is a regional ICT civil society organization whose main objective is to improve livelihoods of local communities in southern Africa through the use of ICTs and telecentres respectively. SATNET facilitates knowledge sharing and information exchange among telecentres and networks in southern Africa. SATNET has a mandate to provide capacity development to community based telecentres and respective national telecentre networks in countries of Southern Africa. SATNET was established in 2007 and later registered in 2009 as a regional international organization.
Website: www.satnetwork.org

Despite its potential, the agricultural sector in Zambia has performed below expectations.  One of the factors that have been repeatedly mentioned as responsible for this dismal performance has been weak research-extension-farmer linkages. However, this will be a thing of the past as Zambian farmers will soon start using their mobile phones to send questions on the problems they face in carrying out their farming activities and receive answers within shortest time possible.

With financial and technical support from the International Institute of Communication for Development (IICD), the department of National Agricultural Information Services (NAIS) has finally developed an Internet based platform where farmers will be able to use mobile phones and send questions on the most pressing problems they are faced with in their farming activities to NAIS and receive appropriate answers within the shortest time possible.

The SMsize platform allows farmers to send their questions on mobile phones in form of SMS to the platform and receive answers to their questions. The platform will be accessed by NAIS agriculture information officers and agricultural specialists and other identified stakeholders so as to give appropriate answers to the farmers’ questions. The system will also help improve the feedback system between farmers, agriculture information officers and the agricultural specialists in the Ministries of Agriculture and Cooperatives and Livestock and Fisheries Development and other relevant agricultural institutions in the country.

Each SMS on the system will cost 900 Zambian Kwacha (US$ 0.18) and this will reduce the current expenses farmers are incurring to post or send their discussion report forms for possible solutions to their farming problems. The platform has been tried with farmer groups in Kasama district of Northern Province of Zambia (which is a pilot area) located about 900 Km from Lusaka. Farmers were happy with the new platform as they see it as a tool that will help them bridge the existing information gap between farmers and agricultural experts.

“The system is very good. It will help us cut down on the costs of posting our radio discussion report forms and it will also help us get answers to our questions on the spot unlike in the past when we used to wait for months to get replies to our questions.” Kennedy Kanyanta, one farmer who tested the system in Kasama.

Based on the experiences in the piloted district, NAIS will now upgrade the platform and upscale the system to cover all the nine (9) provinces and allow all smallholder farmers access the platform. The SMsize platform was recently introduced and demonstrated to the Permanent Secretary and all the Directors in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO). The idea behind this demonstration was to create awareness and allow policy makers in the ministry see how it works so as to have management buy-in. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Abedanigo Banda said, “The system has been developed at the right time when the ministry is faced with a serious challenge of shortage of frontline extension officers. I promise to support the project by lobbing for cheaper rates for farmers to send SMSs which are currently a little bit higher.”  The Permanent Secretary further pledged to negotiate with his counterpart at the Ministry of Communication and Transport and management at the Zambia Information and Communication Technology Authority to allow the platform to be hosted by the ministerial website so as to reduce costs of hosting the system.

Currently, the platform is hosted by SMsize through Airtel, one of the mobile service providers in Zambia.

In the quest to create linkages with regional economic organizations and promote the importance of ICTs and telecentres, it is important for regional civil society organizations to support increased policy implementation processes both at national and regional level. SATNET has initiated the telecentre capacity development programme where telecentre networks and focal points are expected to develop their institutional growth mechanisms and provide required services. read more: www.satnetwork.org

Introduction: The blog is a collection in a series which are part of the Study Tour which Zambia Telecentre Network selected team of Four undertook to Botswana in August,2011,with support from Southern Africa Telecentre Network to learn and exchange the use of ICTs in the country and its connection to livestock and agriculture.

Written by : Wandila Simon Kamukwape - Zambia Telecentre Network

Nteletsa is a Tseswana word that means ‘call me’. The Telecentres are deployed as a public private partnership project between the Ministry of Technology and Communication and Mobile phone network operators in Botswana. This initiative is part of the government’s effort to achieve rural access to information as part of the universal access agenda.

Under the department of Telecommunication and Postal services , the government of Botswana have developed an innovative approach to respond to the high need of information for survival and development among the rural population of the country who are mainly livestock farmers. The information centres are deployed in different villages around the country under two models. The Kitsong Centres and Nteletsa 2 telecentres respectively. Kitsong centres are operated by the Botswana Post where as the Nteletsa 3 telecentres are deployed by a partnership of mobile phone network operators Mascom, Orange and Bemobile.

After deployment , the Nteletsa 2 Telecentres are managed by the local village community through the Village Development Committee. This gives the local community a sense of ownership as they work towards the succesful operation of these telecentres.

The Sikwane Nteletsa 2 Telecentre, located in Sikwane village a low populated village of Kgatleng District, manifest how these centres are truly achieving access to information for rural people in Botswana. Housed in a 20 fit specially designed container and connected to electricity, the telecentre has four desktop computers, a printer, fax machine, photocopying machine, and connects to the internet through a 3G router. Three local people works in the telecentre of which two of them are youths.

The telecentre provides services such as document processing which includes typing, printing and photocopying, fax, mobile phone air time recharge cards and SIM cards,phone charging, and internet services. During working days and saturdays, the telecentre is open for about 8 hours a day, giving more hours of access to the local people.

Like other Nteletsa 2 Telecentres in the country, Sikwane Nteletsa 2 Telecentre is facing a number of challenges especially sustainability as very few people walks into the telecentre to access services. The major economic activity in the village is livestock farming. Villagers have herds of cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys. Upon entering the village one would not doubt that this is yet another home of livestock farmers. The majority of the population are elderly people as youths have migrated to the cities to seek employment and work from there.

It is clearly noted that Nteletsta 2 telecentres need to diversify in the delivery of services and products with a focus on the information needs of the villagers if more users have to be attained and to increase revenue as well as fully utilise the infrastructure.

Considering the fact that the majority of the village dwellers are livestock farmers, agricultural research practitioners and extension support officers need to work together with the Village Development Committee and supporting partners to develop content and information services relevant to the economic activities of the villagers, in particular livestock. These partners can meaningfully engage in providing information services which would supplement the other modes of support which vet nary extension officers as well as research practitioners could have already been offering.

Nteletsa, truly on the right track to achieve rural access to information for survival and development.

Written by Simon Wandila and Dean Mulozi.

Over the years community based telecentres, rural service centres, ICT resource centres and others that share similar synonyms, have been yearning for technical and management support to enable their organizations to provide required services and operate sustainably. Equally many of the southern African countries need collaborative efforts to ensure that telecentres share and inform each other on key issues that affect respective development agenda.  

The advent of Southern Africa Telecentre Network and emerging telecentre networks in countries of the region is proving to give hope to a number of national telecentre practitioners to mobilize themselves into formidable service delivery national organizations.        
Strong and viable regional and national organisations will provide opportunities for fostering information sharing and capacity development for the work of community telecentres and generally integration of ICTs in areas of agriculture, health, education and other social and economic sectors.

In order to support these initiatives, the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has positively responded to requests for development of telecentres in southern Africa. And thus CTA and SATNET agreed to sign an agreement to support Telecentres capacity building in Southern Africa. The event happened in July 2011 within the framework of the TelecentresAfrica initiative.

This partnership is part of the three year programme of a contract signed between CTA and ZAA-ICT/SATNET to support capacity development of telecentres. The Capacity building and telecentre network development project is an initiative that is focused on facilitating increased participation by local communities in development through the work of telecentres in Southern Africa. The project addresses the challenge of unifying and sharing information resources among telecentres in the region. The project will pay special attention to elements that will strengthen the capacity of SATNET to contribute to raising awareness on policy implication at local level especially for improved value chain. 

The activities planned include:

• the organization of multi-stakeholder Media, ICT and agriculture forum to  seek for the engagement of agricultural and ICT policy makers, media and ICT4D professionals in support to ICT based service delivery (telecentre) in rural areas;
• the establishment of collaboration and partnership between existing telecentre networks through exchange visits and telecentre fora at national level;
• The organization of knowledge management training in Malawi to reinforce the capacity of telecentres managers in using and adopting the appropriate methods and tools to share agricultural content and knowledge within their communities
• The reinforcement of national networks capacities through the procurement basic digital equipments to capture and share local agricultural practices within and across countries.

The development means that each country and respective telecentres and service centres will have adequate capacity to provide sustainable services to local populations. This will result in a strong foundation that will enable national networks for improved capacity to explore and improve their collaboration with international agencies in the area of ICT4 development.  It is anticipated that national and regional networks will have been strengthened through better Knowledge sharing in ARD policies implications at local level and improved value chain.

It is evident that ICT penetration still lags behind in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region comparative to other regions in Africa. The current analysis demonstrates that Information and Communication Technologies has some significant desparities between levels of access in urban, peri urban and rural areas. The tragedy is that many of the rural population have limited or no access to internet and other forms of ICT tools such as personal computers. The scenario seriously impedes socio-economic development and reduces effective participation of the rural population in their economies.

Over the last decade telecentres and community multimedia centres have proved to be effective rural ICT infrastructures that could effectively facilitate rural development including agriculture. Although international agencies such as the Technical Centre for Agricultural Cooperation (CTA), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Telecentre.org Foundation and UNESCO have supported the centres, more have to be done to ensure that they continue to benefit many rural areas. The quest to upscale telecentres and CMCs have been constrained by a number of factors including lack of capacity development and public policy support. 

Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET) and Panos Institute Southern Africa (PSAf) have agreed to form a pact to support telecentres and CMCs through an Memorandum of Understanding that will see the two organisations pursue a deliberate capacity development programme  in southern Africa. The signing ceremony took place at PANOS Secretariat in Lusaka on 8th July, 2011.   

The MOU focuses on two key aspects: 

1. To foster collaboration and strengthen working relationship between SATNET and PSAf to accellerate Southern Africa's quest to alleviate poverty, hunger and malnutrition, to improve the general well being of its people by aiding effective utilisation of useful ICT- based information and communication platforms and access points such as telecentres and community multimedia Centres (CMCs).

2. To work together towards promotion of adoption and use of appropriate ICTs for development through policy and regulatory reforms advocacy, networking and knowledge sharing, establishment and capacity building of telecentres and/or multimedia centres and other such community ICT access points that includes training, institutional strengthening, projects related to ICTs and livelihoods etc, 

The collaboration will help the two organisations jointly contribute to the existing challenges narrowing the digital divide and contributing to improved livelihoods among the rural popuation of southern Africa.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTS) have been making considerable impact on the society due to their universal spread in terms of various ICT applications implemented across the world. The urban communities have seen the positive contribution of ICTs in several dimensions like increases in efficiencies, communications and information on anytime, anywhere basis. However, significant and mass impact is yet to be felt among vast majority of the rural communities. In the case of Southern Africa and Zambia in particular, challenges in access and cost among others still exist. Indeed, telecentres have also proved to important avenues to bridge the digital divide and provision of services to un-serviced areas through ICTs due to their strategic locations and relevance.   

It is in this direction that Southern Africa Telecentre Network (SATNET) undertook a trip to India, the third event during the last two years; after the Technical Centre for Agricultural Cooperation (CTA) supported African study tour to India in 2009. The main purpose was to have face to face meetings with technology providers, private sector and relevant NGOs to learn from their experiences and innovations for partnership development with related organizations in Southern Africa.      

SATNET consultative visit to ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India made important observations on the existing national ICT projects supported by individual states and partnership with Federal government of India.

Hydrabad is a headquarters of Andhra Pradesh state. The state is composed of population approximately 85,007,430 people as by June 2011 according current national statistics. 

Among organizations visited included the Centre for Development and Advanced Computing runs the India Development Gateway(InDG), an initiative supported by the government of India focuses on reaching the unreached rural communities with six sectors through the use of ICTs. The programme focuses on sectors for rural development namely Agriculture, Health, Primary education, social welfare, rural energy and e-governance. The rural landscape in india is set to take advantage of the flourishing ICT initiatives pioneered by various institutions. This is specifically more through the use of Common Service Centers (telecentres).

Our recent visit was greeted with a presentation from Ms B. Vijayalakahmi, the Vertical Head, InDG, narrated how the programme operates and benefits the rural communities. The initiative is dedicated to rural empowerment, provides credible information, and facilitates provision of information on products and services in local languages mainly through telecentres. Telecentres are promoted in India as Common Service Centers, a term used to describe the entities.

InDG catalyses the use of Information and Communication Technology for collaboration and knowledge sharing among stakeholder representations from government, NGOs and private sector. This model is termed as the PPP signifying common approaches for partnership among development actors to add value and efficiency in the delivery of services to the population. The major functions comprise of:

• Multilingual portal hosting information and services related to six focused areas
• Value added services and products both online and offline mode
• Training and capacity building of first level service providers and common service centers

The initiative also facilitates agriculture development by use of mobile technologies through Common Service centres such as:

• Post your items you want to buy or sell; this is an online service provides population to get good market for products and services. Service providers are encouraged to post services related to agriculture.
•  Ask an expert; Expert solution just a click away
• Dynamic market information; daily market pricing services (wholesale and retail) for 159 perishable commodities, access to information through mobile (via SMS and website, Value added services like market profiles, market trends, database etc
• Weather Forecast and climate change)
• IT literacy
• Other services including Knowledge sharing platform for rural entrepreneurs and publications

When asked on sustainability of common service centres; telecentres, Ms Vijayalakahmi made it clear that most of the services have to be paid for by users as telecentres are run by entrepreneurs who have invested their resources and have to ensure that services they provide have value to the rural communities and hence they are paid for. Therefore the question of un-sustainability does not arise. Telecentre operators are used by both the private and public sector to deliver services to local communities.

It is hoped that some African countries such as Zambia can benefit from the Indian ICT models to ensure effective and efficient delivery of private and public resources and services to the un-serviced populations.