Zambia’s ICT policy

Zambia’s ICT Policy is aligned to the following vision statement:

"A Zambia transformed into an information and knowledge based society and economy supported by consistent development of, and pervasive access to ICT’s by all citizens by 2030".

The ICT based rural service model fits neatly with this vision and address one of the key challenges facing all developing countries, namely sustainable access to ICTs in rural areas.

"Furthermore Zambia has a policy goal, to improve the productivity as well as competitiveness of the agricultural sector through the use of ICTs in the planning, implementation, monitoring and the information delivery process"

The Africa’s rural service network will help facilitate agricultural service delivery in each of these processes.  Similar goals will be facilitated for education and health as well.

 The four areas that the Zambian government is focussing on in relation to ICTs are: telecommunications infrastructure, technology, content and access – with infrastructure being cardinal. 

A study tour by a high-level African delegation to India commenced on Monday 30 November in Kozhikode in the southern Indian province of Kerala. The team comprising ICT professionals from 15 countries was briefed by Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) Director Mr. Rathan U Kelkar about tremendous progress made by the province in reaching the benefits of ICT technologies to people through a concerted effort. Currently, Kerala, which is one of the smaller provinces in India, has more than 2,200 Common Service Centres (CSCs) and these centres, set up through public-private partnerships offer a variety of services in wide spectrum of areas such as agriculture, e-governance, education, and e-payment. He said the provincial state government plans to increase the total number of centres to 3,150.

Mr Koda Traore, Programme Coordinator ICT4D of CTA which has sponsored the study tour, said African countries can learn immensely from India’s experience in utilising ICT technologies for community development and empowerment. He hoped that the delegates will be able to get first-hand exposure to the ways how these CSCs are operating in India during the 10-day visit and adopt some of these practices as per their requirement back home. Apart from Kerala, the team will visit two other Indian provinces – Karnataka and West Bengal.

Arun Varma, vice-president, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited, who has organised the study tour, said ICT technologies are very important for accelerating economic and social
development of developing nations. Countries which use ICT technologies effectively can leapfrog and attain economic development and social empowerment in a shorter timeframe than that took developed countries to prosper in the past.

Later in the day, the delegation visited a CSC in the neighbouring district of Malappuram, which was the first district in the province to initiate an e-literacy programme about eight years ago. The
delegates also met with the district administrator of Malappuram and wrapped up the day with a visit to a regional data centre, which caters to five districts in the province.

WAGENINGEN, The Netherlands, November 29, 2009 - Twenty-four (24) representatives from fourteen (14) African countries are scheduled for a 10-day CTA-led study visit to India, one of the most powerful emerging economies, starting 29 November 2009.    
Supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the ground-breaking initiative, whose theme is “Social and Economic Development using Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs)”, is meant to enhance participants’ knowledge on how India has harnessed ICT to promote its overall growth. Collaborators for the study visit in India include Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) and SREI-Sahaj Corporate.

The delegation will visit Calicut (Kerala State), Bengaluru (Karnataka State), Kolkata (West Bengal State) and New Delhi to experience how India addresses the diversity of challenges and positively enhances its economic growth using ICTs.  

Senior officials in government, industry and civil society organizations from these African countries will maximize this opportunity to understand the success story and replicate in their respective regions.

Taking its advantage in IT skills, India has embarked upon some of the most ambitious plans for welfare and governance. For instance, the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which is currently being implemented, aims to set up more than 100,000 rural telecentres to deliver government services.   The African delegation will mostly be interested in ICT application in areas such as governance, agriculture, public health, education and rural empowerment. Moreover, the delegation will analyze the concept of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) that is being used as a key factor for long-term sustainability of the telecentre movement in India.

The participating countries in the study visit include Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

More about CTA
CTA, (Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural cooperation) is an ACP–EU ^[1] institution established in 1984, based in Wageningen, The Netherlands, working in the field of information for development.
CTA develops and provides services to improve access to information for agriculture and rural development and strengthens the capacity of ACP stakeholders to acquire, produce, exchange and utilise information in this area. CTA views ICTs as a major technological intervention for faster growth.
For more information about CTA, visit: www.cta.int

More about IL&FS
Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is one of the largest program management and consultancy institution that focuses on infrastructure development. The company is promoted by large financial institutions like the Life Insurance Corporation of India and HDFC Ltd. IL&FS, has been appointed by the Government of India as the program managers for setting up 100,000 Common Services Centres for the delivery of Government To Citizen (G2C) and Business-To-Customer (B2C) services in rural India. This project is considered to be the largest ICT-driven citizen-centric scheme in the world. IL&FS is implementing the scheme through its Education and Technology Services subsidiary. Till now, the company has facilitated setting up of over 55,000 centres under the Public Private Partnership.
For more information about IL&FS, visit: www.ilfsindia.com

More about Sahaj e Village
Sahaj e village Limited is a subsidiary of SREI Finance, mandated to set up Common Service Centres and bring government and business to rural India, within the Aegis of the National E-Governance Plan. Aimed at bridging the undemocratic urban-rural divide, Sahaj has delved into Infrastructural Development to set up, operate & manage as many as 30,000 CSCs across India under the Public Private Partnership framework. Already about 27 services G2C and B2C services have been rolled out through these CSCs,  including government form submission, agricultural soil testing, e-Learning, electric bill collection,  mobile top ups, railway reservation, insurance premium collection,  and rural job portal.
For more information about Saha e Village, visit: www.sahajcorporate.com


More about Kerala State IT
Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is the nodal agency for developing IT infrastructure in the state of Kerala. KSITM is credited with successfully creating a conducive eco-system for taking Information Technology to the common people. KSITM started the “e-Litaeracy for All” campaign through the Akshaya telecentres. Akshaya centres have grown in strength and have added more services later. There are over 2000 Akshaya Centres in the state today.  KSITM is set up by the Government of Kerala. For more information about Kerala State IT, visit: http://www.itmission.kerala.gov.in

Contacts

Mr A. Koda Traore
Programme Coordinator, ICT4D
Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), The Netherlands
Tel: +31317467138
Fax: +31317460067
Email: traore@cta.int
Website: www.cta.int

Dr Arun Varma
Vice President
IL&FS Educational Technology Services Ltd, India
Tel: +91-11-64519957
Fax:+91-11-24363552
Email: Arun.Varma@ilfsets.com
Website: http://ilfsets.com/

Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD),  in Revue Netsuds, n° 4, août 2009, p. 27-44

Depuis son accession à l’indépendance en 1960, le Sénégal est confronté à la lancinante question de l’accès universel au téléphone. En effet, historiquement introduite pour satisfaire les besoins de l’administration coloniale (Sagna 2001), géographiquement concentrée dans les villes [1] et socialement réservée à une minorité, la téléphonie fixe ne compte guère que 240 324 abonnés plus d’un siècle après son introduction, soit un taux de pénétration de 1,97 % (ARTP 2009 a). Au cours de ces vingt dernières années, des progrès considérables ont cependant été réalisés puisque la télédensité n’était que de 0,33 ligne pour 100 habitants en 1987. Pour ce faire, l’opérateur historique, s’appuyant sur le constat que le téléphone faisait souvent l’objet d’une utilisation collective, a encouragé la création de dispositifs d’accès collectif connus sous l’appellation de « télécentres ».

Constituant un modèle original, par rapport aux autres types de télécentres existant dans le monde, ils ont fortement contribué à la démocratisation de l’accès au téléphone, créant par ailleurs des dizaines de milliers d’emplois et générant d’importants revenus pour l’opérateur, les exploitants et l’État. Cependant, le développement de la téléphonie mobile a entraîné une baisse de leur chiffre d’affaires et une diminution de leur rentabilité qui les a plongés dans une crise profonde qui s’est traduite par la cessation d’activités de nombre d’entre eux. Outre les conséquences économiques et sociales qui en découlent, la disparition progressive des télécentres est un sujet de préoccupation pour les pouvoirs publics et les acteurs du développement local dans la mesure où pendant longtemps ils ont été considérés comme le socle sur lequel il était possible de se baser pour lutter contre la fracture numérique.

Lire l'article à:  http://www.osiris.sn/IMG/pdf/2-SAGNA.27-44.pdf

Fiji Daily Post - 21-May-2009 10:18 AM

CTA course director Dr John Wooden, said CTA as main extension summit co-sponsor is part and parcel of a binding agreement between the EU and ACP countries. It now operates under the Cotonou Agreement, which was signed in 2000. Part of CTA work focuses on providing information products and services such as publication production and dissemination, in addition to promoting the integrated use of communication tools to improve flow of information.

“Extension, particularly of the participatory and two-way type, is of crucial importance to agriculture, research and development. We as agriculturists can contribute to improving rural livelihoods and well-being of our people. The rapid emergence of improved pervasiveness of ICTs in agriculture we must seize and adapt to meet our needs,” said Dr Wooden.

CTA is also very interested in the establishment and use of telecentres in rural areas.

The centres would provide computers and related services to the poor and isolated, bringing with them the possibility of providing up-to-date information and even opportunities to sell their products through websites, for example. The initiative is currently being piloted in Africa, and will soon come to the Pacific. SPC Land Resources Director Mr ‘Aleki Sisifa said the role of the agricultural extension services has significantly expanded over time particularly with the increasing major challenges at the global, regional and national levels.