Challenges
In this section identified challenges for sustainable telecentres in rural areas in Africa and solutions for these challenges will be described and discussed. The preliminary list of challenges has been identified during the Lusaka 2008 workshop on sutainable telecentres in Africa.
A longlist of topics was prepared for the Lusaka Workshop based on a literature scan.
The so far identified challenges have been divided over seven themes. Users are invited to add other challenges to the lists of the different themes.
In the Socio-economic Context Theme (1) the development of a conducive environment for telecentres will be discussed dealing with socio-economic and policy factors that will have impact on telecentre development ad performance. Institutional Context Theme (2) deals with aspects such as ownership, partnership, institutional development and human resources management. Financial Context Theme (3) deals with the issues related to how to run a telecentre as a social enterprise or one of the other business models feasible for the own situation. Facilities Theme (4) and Technology Theme (5) deal with the hardware of the telecentres, from the building and its location up to furniture, and low-cost and easy-to-implement ICT hardware and software including connectivity hardware and suitable energy solutions. Services Theme (6) and Content Development Theme (7) deal with all issues related to the services provided by the telecentres to the clients of the local communities they serve, such as needs assessments, monitoring of user satisfaction, well-packaged easy-to-replicate community services and well-packaged information focusing on needs of local population.
Go to Theme Socio-economic Context
Discussion