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Africa: Wireless Internet in the Countryside
AfricaFocus Bulletin
Nov 7, 2008 (081107)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
Two case studies in Tanzania, discussed in a new report by wireless
internet expert Ian Howard for the Association for Progressive
Communications, show two very different models for building
sustainable telecentres to meet needs in rural areas. The Family
Alliance for Development and Cooperation is an initiative by
self-taught technician Joseph Sekiku, in Karagwe, who created a
telecentre on his property with the help of small grants. The
Sengerema telecentre, some 200 km away, is the result of several
donor and community initiatives engaging a range of stakeholders.
The study stresses the need for expanding full internet access,
using wireless networks, arguing against the common view that more
rapidly expanding mobile phone networks may be able to fill the
need for connectivity. There are different possible models for
sustainability, he argues, but all require long-term investment
in strengthening local technical capacity. Far more important than
formal training is identifying potential local "techies" and
fostering their skills for troubleshooting and innovation.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a summary and excerpts from the
report. The excerpts are from the overview and from the first case
study. The full report, including both case studies and appendices
with financial data, study is available on the site of the
Association of Progressive Communications
(http://www.apc.org/en/node/7237)
For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on information and
communications technology in Africa, and a customized search of
particularly valuable websites dealing with these issues, visit
http://www.africafocus.org/ictexp.php
For related background on telecentre support in
East Africa visit http://www.ugabytes.org
The blog by John Kibuuka (http://kjohnah.blogspot.com) has a number
of photographs and descriptions of setting up the FADECO telecentre
connections. See the blog posts from 2006 and 2007.
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Unbounded possibilities:
Observations on sustaining rural ICTs in Africa
By Ian Howard (APC)
Montevideo, October 2008
Association for Progressive Communications
http://www.apc.org/en/node/7237
This study commissioned by APC and written by wireless expert Ian
Howard explores sustainable ICT and the need for wireless internet
access for development (W4D). Intended to serve as a guide to
members of the W4D community involved in African initiatives,
Howard draws conclusions based on his observations of two
telecentres in Tanzania with very different business models.
Howard's work is intended to inspire others to share their
observations about viable sustainability models for rural
telecentres. Future plans include publishing it online in a
participative format that will allow others to contribute to it,
thus building a knowledge base on the topic.
These two communities featured in this study illustrate that the
need for internet access is strong, especially in countries where
WiMAX and similar wireless bands are available, challenging the
current hype that rural communities ICT needs are being met by
mobiles phones.
The study consists of five main sections. The author begins by
describing sustainable ICT in the preface, followed by a rationale
section, in which he questions whether or not the need for wireless
exists. A methodology section explains the data collection process
and how the two case studies were selected, followed by the two
case studies. Each case study is broken down into four sections:
Background, observations, financial analysis and conclusion. The
author then adds his final notes and appendices at the end of the
study.
The first case study, the Family Alliance for Development and
Cooperation, is an initiative by a self-taught technician, Joseph
Sekiku, who created a telecentre on his property with the help of
small grants. Due to the exorbitant dial-up prices and sluggish
connection speeds, Sekiku turned to wireless and began building a
network. Though he struggles financially to keep the centre
running, the centre is kept operational through the collaboration
and dedication of the community. Because of the ongoing need for
resourcefulness Sekiku has become a highly knowledgeable individual
who is now a leader and expert in computer technologies in his
community. Howard draws certain conclusions based on Sekiku's
experience, which can serve other newly emerging telecentres.
Through Sekiku's story, Howard demonstrates how a low-cost,
sole-proprietor telecentre can be built and flourish in rural
areas.
Some 200 km away, in the bigger but largely underdeveloped region
of Mwanza, the Sengerema telecentre, is the end result of several
initiatives carried out over the past four years. It boasts many
different services for its numerous clients including a cyber caf‚,
a conference room, an e-training lab and so on, which generate
revenue. However, the revenue does not cover all the maintenance
expenses of the centre and so it is dependant on grants and other
sources of financial assistance. The telecentre is a useful example
of a sustainable ICT initiative in rural Tanzania, as it serves as
a model for community engagement and is a symbol of hope for youth
within the community While it is not financially self-reliant, it
remains sustainable because it is embraced by all of its
stakeholders.
Unbounded Possibilities: Observations on sustaining rural
information and communication technology (ICT) in Africa
Written by Ian Douglas Howard
on behalf of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
October 2008
Contacts:
Association for Progressive Communications
http://www.apc.org * info@apc.org
Ian Howard, Frontier Markets and Sustainable Technologies Expert
http://www.integr8tif.com
Excerpts
Preface: What is Sustainable ICT?
In the late 1990s, the use of ICTs in international development
work expanded greatly. Reasons behind this expansion include the
commoditisation of ICT equipment, the simplification of use and
support of equipment, improved access to electricity, more
affordable internet connections through telephones and very small
aperture terminals (VSATs), and the growing use of ICTs by donors
and NGOs themselves. Also, a number of studies by the World Bank
and other organisations had affirmed the importance of information
for improved health and social wellbeing and the role of
communications in economic development. By 2004 almost all donors
and NGOs were involved in some sort of ICT4D (Information and
Communication Technology for Development) initiative.
Unfortunately, this interest has since subsided. In part this lapse
is due to the many ill-executed or misguided projects that failed
due to limited local buy-in, flawed economic models, inadequate
training, and/or the use of inappropriate equipment. From the
perspective of donors, the most obvious failure of ICT4D
initiatives was that few were able to persist without their
continued intervention and financial support, leading to an
impression that ICT4D projects are largely unsustainable.
In the field of ICT4D, the term "sustainable" refers to initiatives
that are able to transition to models that can be supported by
local and domestic resources. ...
Ironically this understanding of sustainability reflects what has
made so many ICT4D projects inherently unsustainable; sponsors
generally want to limit their involvement to short-term support in
order to incubate it, then have its continued operations handed
over to others. This practise, called "parachuting," is ill suited
to ICTs as few communities are able to continue to fund and
support this equipment. Consequently, when ICT4D projects reach
the end of their funding period and are cast off with hopes that
the local communities will take over support for them, most list
on the water and soon slip under the surface. Internet connections
are soon dropped, computers infected by viruses and hardware fails,
technical staff move to bigger communities and the projects often
disappear as quickly as they arrived.
While many rural ICT4D initiatives have failed, mobile phone towers
stand above shining brightly on the horizon. Particularly in
Africa these towers are now found in many places where economic
theory had previously predicted they never could. In 2006, the
fastest growing mobile phone network in the world was in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country still fighting a civil
war with virtually no infrastructure or legitimate economy. Mobile
phone networks have re-written these economic rules and have
provided unparalleled economic and social benefit, calling into
question whether there is still a need for other ICTs.
Support for this notion has grown, promulgated by The Economist and
no doubt many mobile phone company lobbyists. Donors too have
succumbed to this utopian remedy and have retreated en-masse from
rural ICT projects. This has left the development of ICTs in the
hands of large, highly centralised telecoms. While the decision to
focus on mobile phones can easily be supported by the performance
of past ICT projects, this decision is naive. The failures of
rural ICT4D projects were, as noted above, not because they lacked
utility to their beneficiaries. Rather, they failed because they
were poorly designed and implemented.
While there is truth in the notion that mobile phones will have the
greatest impact on rural people in least developed countries
(LDCs) in the near future, there is still a great need for
grassroots ICT development to fill the void that large mobile phone
companies cannot see and/or respond to quickly, adequately, or
economically. ...
These incumbent mobile phone companies have built high walls, using
high licensing fees to protect them from new technologies and using
reserved frequency allotments to keep new entrants at bay. These
barriers are oft cited by those who have been thwarted while
attempting to build ICT networks to serve local needs and although
prices for voice and short message service (SMS) services are
largely competitive and somewhat affordable, the great breadth of
services and unbounded possibilities offered by ICTs are hampered
within the highly centralised, closed and hierarchical mobile
phone infrastructure. ...
The myriad of issues posed by the bottom of the pyramid requires a
myriad of people with a myriad of ideas to address. Because of the
dominance of mobile carriers, who hold a disproportionate amount
of power, there is a great need for multilateral and bilateral
agencies, and NGOs, to intervene to help extend and democratise
ICTs so that people at the base of the pyramid markets have the
opportunity to create and invent what we could never imagine.
...
Case Study #1: Grassroots ICT Development in Tanzania - FADECO
8.1 Background
FADECO is located in the small town of Karagwe in northwestern
Tanzania near the Burundi and Ugandan borders. The town, marked by
a police outpost, a few schools and a concentration of mud and
some cinder block buildings, rests on a table-top plateau that
overlooks lush valleys where bananas, coffee, and staple foods are
grown. The road from Bukoba, the regional capital, is unpaved -
like most roads in the large east African country. The drive takes
several hours, weaving past farmers carrying their goods on their
heads, bicycles, scooters and the occasional car, all cloaked
inred clouds of dust along the winding and bumpy road.
Registered not-for-profit NGO founded in 1996 by a group led by
current director Mr. Sekiku Joseph Mtabazi, FADECO is a small and
very modest association. In addition to the director, its
principal staff consists of Mr. Itegereize Titus Tobias (chair),
Mrs. Elieth Kikaka, (office manager) and Mr. John Kibuuka
(information technology manager). The organisation works to
provide information resources that help families to improve their
living standards. It serves as a vehicle for promoting new
agricultural methods and other activities to heighten community
and economic development.
Where possible these efforts have been commercialised as separate
ventures. For example, Sekiku began a very small seasonal fruit
drying business, FADECO Trading Co. Ltd., based on techniques that
he promoted via FADECO. As well as acting as chair, Mr. Titus sells
agribusiness products that support the farming techniques taught by
FADECO, such as solar drying and composting. FADECO largely serves
as a brand name for initiatives promoted by the group, as it has
few resources.
The group has maintained an apolitical nature, partly to avoid any
confrontation. As noted by Sekiku, the organisation allows the
group to participate in not-for-profit initiatives where there is
funding and no commercial interest. The association is best
described as a manifestation of Sekiku's interests and a body that
legitimises his endeavours.
In 1997, Sekiku, a self-taught technologist, began work on a small
telecentre for the community under the FADECO umbrella. This
centre was based on his property in the building next to his home
that was previously used for the aforementioned fruit-drying
business. Sekiku purchased used computers for a few hundred dollars
each ... They were then connected to the internet via modems on a
fixed-line telephone network. To pay for some of this equipment,
Sekiku received small grants and donations from the Dutch NGO the
Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos), the
British Council and others.
In 2004, after a few years of operation, he was able to buy a VSAT
(a weighty purchase at more than USD 3,500) with the financial
support of an NGO called the Regional Agricultural Information
Network (RAIN). He purchased the VSAT so that he could avoid the
onerous charges for internet access. To access the internet, his
telecentre previously had to dial out to Dar Es Salaam, 1,500
kilometres away, with fees for these long-distance calls
calculated based on distance. ,,,
In late 2006, ... Sekiku began to build a wireless network. His
intent was to share the internet costs with other groups in
Karagwe. He started his network with a few off-the-shelf wireless
access points and at each site used directional antennas to point
back to his base station at FADECO. In August of 2007, his network
connected three clients: 1) a private secondary school; 2) the
local office for the electric company (Tanesco); and 3) a local
agricultural development NGO.
8.2 Observations
Sekiku explained the long process of discovery and frustration that
he experienced while connecting these customer sites to his
network. He toiled slowly, learning piece by piece how to install
equipment and debug problems with help from colleagues via email
and online chat, and using online references such as the WNDW
books and internet forums. Eventually, however, he did persevere.
...
This case study demonstrates that learning is critical to allow
such networks to be installed and supported. Sekiku was not
taught, but learned how to build the network by searching for
information and through trial-and-error. This learning process did
require access to good learning materials, some counsel and
reasonable access to equipment, but for the most part it was
accomplished through sweat and passion.
... The process of taking ICT graduates from local universities and
developing them into technologists can take considerable time. This
process can also be counter-cultural for many, where the norm for
young employees is for them to rarely be asked to make decisions
on their own. This resistance to self-learning must be broken.
Opportunities for self-learning are further hindered because few of
these capable minds have the opportunity to tinker with computers
or other gadgets, or break them as do many techies from richer
markets. Learning the troubleshooting process is central to
becoming technologically minded. This analytical process can take
considerable effort but can be done. The many ad-hoc roadside
bicycle, car and television repair shops across developing nations
are a testament that this ability exists everywhere but that it is
not well cultivated by most developing nation schools. ...
In most ways the development of this network defies conventional
best-practices, which recommend that ICT projects are planned,
people trained, and equipment selected based on design and
evaluation before commencing work. Sekiku's approach missed each of
these steps, working in a piecemeal fashion with few resources and
no formal training. ... and, yet, the network was built and still
persists. Thus, it has succeeded in becoming sustainable.
The slow process that Sekiku undertook allowed him to build the
needed skills at the same pace as the network's growth - not by
design but due to access to equipment and funds. This slow
development is contrary to standard practice. Generally,
telecentres are built rapidly so that they can be operational as
soon as possible. Building quickly is perhaps necessary where rent
and salaries are high, and technical competence and equipment
abundant. In this case growing slowly was not a problem and is the
norm. By building slowly the staff can learn how to support the
network as it grows in complexity. This contrasts with many other
sites that the author has visited, where local staff members have
not appropriated the skills required to support the systems or
services provided by the site, resulting in their degradation.
8.2.2 ICT sites that do have readily available technical support
should adopt new systems only at a pace at which their staff (or
their support network) can competently learn how to use and
support them.
In 2004, the author visited the University of Bamako at the behest
of USAID, which had sponsored a project to install a wireless
network there. Although the system was reasonably well installed
by local and foreign contractors, it fell into disrepair within a
few months. Funding for continued technical support had ended and
local staff had limited knowledge of how to support the system.
Thus, many of the sites were completely offline, while the network
at large was so overwhelmed by viruses that it was virtually
unusable. Staff had been provided training, but most had little
prior technical experience and very little experience with
networking.
Some believe that a techie can be made by sending someone to a
five-week training program. The author has found, however, that
the attributes required of techies (such as the ability to
persist, self-learn and troubleshoot and profound curiosity about
how things work) must already exist as they cannot easily be
taught, but generally only fostered. This site reinforced this
notion. Even after many weeks of comprehensive training by the
implementers, these former administrators were evidently not
transformed into technicians.
When the author's team arrived at the university, his team set
about a slow process of teaching a few of the staff how to repair
these problems themselves. They identified those staff members who
possessed techie attributes and gave them responsibilities.
Eventually, with a lot of guidance and on-the-job training, they
were able to repair the network themselves. A little more than a
year later, the university's staff independently and successfully
moved several nodes and installed some new sites.
...
8.2.3 The need to localise expertise and provision for local
repairs and within local means becomes more necessary with
increasing distance from major urban areas.
The ability of local staff to support their network increases in
importance as locations become more remote. In isolated places
like Karagwe there are great costs to bring in expertise or
equipment from commercial centres such as Dar Es Salaam, Nairobi,
or Kampala. ...
8.2.4 Commercial grade wireless systems are often cheaper once
training and long-term support is factored into total costs
because of the inaccessibility and lack of local resources in
rural developing communities.
There is also a paradox in the use of low-cost wireless/ICT systems
in the developing world. The factors that make this equipment
relatively cheap in the developed world are less relevant in rural
developing communities, where affordable equipment is generally of
poorer quality and very basic. Low-cost wireless routers are
designed to sit in the corner of a climate controlled office and
connect a couple of laptops nearby. When these low-cost routers
are subjected to the heat, humidity, and/or dust of many developing
countries, they quickly fail. ...
When there is a lack of competent technical staff in rural
developing communities, installing poorer grade equipment can
raise support and training costs and increase risks of failure.
This is often overlooked by western project proponents who see
low-cost tools as a way to overcome limited resources and do not
consider the costs of supporting such systems - costs which are
largely absent in developed world cities. ...
8.3 Financial Analysis
Money flows through in small amounts and seasonally nourishes this
business, not unlike the farms and other enterprises that surround
it. Appendix one shows the FADECO telecentre's income statement
for a typical month in 2007. As the bottom line of this table
indicates, this business loses money, but it continues to persist
because it is sustained by its operator, Sekiku.
The business model that has emerged for this site is one that
generates revenue by providing a variety of ICT services including
training, internet use, and wireless internet access to the three
customer sites. There is not a formal business plan, nor a business
per say, so this assertion is based on facts gathered on-site. The
telecentre has also begun a FM radio station which supports itself
through announcements, advertising and sponsored programs. Though
not an internet service, the radio is an inexpensive way for Sekiku
to extend the internet out to the poor, those who cannot read,
and/or are not computer literate by reading what they find on the
internet over the air.
Typically the telecentre earns about USD 370 per month. Costs can
be broken down into operating and staffing costs. Operating costs
are paid to service providers and amount to an average of USD 400
per month. Staffing costs amount to almost USD 340 per month.
However, this figure indicates only what is paid in ideal
circumstances, and staff members are typically only paid when
there is sufficient money. Most often, they only take home only a
fraction of this amount. Staff members are quasi-volunteers, with
no formal status. They could best be described as "casual wage
workers," meaning that their wage is not defined strictly, but
they are paid according to the resources available to the
telecentre.
While this arrangement allows FADECO to continue operating despite
little revenue, it means that staff members treat their work as a
hobby that they attend to after taking care of family and other
personal interests. It limits the professionalism of the business
... [nevertheless] This flexibility in staffing is perhaps why
FADECO and many, if not most, businesses can survive in such rural
economies with wild variability in incomes due to seasonality and
commodity price fluctuation.
Costs are also scaled in other areas, as with telephone use.
Because neither the telecentre nor Sekiku have immediate access to
credit, expenses are naturally scaled back when there is no cash
to buy phone credit. These scalable costs allow the centre to
adjust to fluctuations, though they make it quite difficult to
plan or keep consistent service levels.
Beyond the telecentre, Sekiku is able to do ICT consulting work
based on the expertise he developed through the telecentre. Mostly
derived through conferences, consulting is his greatest source of
revenue and nearly pure profit. In 2007, he earned about USD 6,000,
up from USD 4,000 in 2006. Through these revenues Sekiku
subsidises the telecentre, contributing approximately USD 200 per
month to pay its staff, buy equipment to expand its services, and
repay the three-year loan for the building. This, while the
telecentre is a loss-making venture, it does provide Sekiku the
opportunity to learn and gain income through consulting work.
...
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