TECHNOLOGY-AFRICA: Limitations Of IT As A Quick-Fix Solution

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Anthony Stoppard

JOHANNESBURG, Mar 8 2001 (IPS) - “The digital divide is the result of a social and economic gap,” says African Progressive Communications (APC) Executive Director, Anriette Esterhuysen, pointing to the limitations of trying to use Information Communications Technology (ICT) as a quick-fix for the problems of the developing world.

“There is a tendency to come-up with a number of trendy projects that promise a quick-fix ICT solution – and then to implement them in a way that is not sustainable over the long term. Projects will not survive if people lack the resources to sustain the work and the technologies over the long term and if there are no local institutions to provide ongoing support,” she says.

APC is an international network of civil society organisations who have been using ICT to promote social justice and economic growth in the developing world, for over a decade.

South Africa is betting heavily on ICT as a way of kick- starting economic growth in the country over the next few years. ICT also has a prominent place in the Millennium Africa Programme (Map) – a plan for the economic and political renewal of the continent.

South African President, Thabo Mbeki – one of the main architects of Map – has set-up a national and an international advisory council to try and ensure that the country gets onto the information super-highway – and stays on the track.

The Presidential International Task Force on Information Society and Development is made-up of Chief Executive Officers from major international corporations and experts active in the field of information and communication technology. They include representatives of Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Alcatel, Psion and Siemens – all major international information technology (IT) companies – among others.

The local advisory council, that will include representatives from local businesses, community organisations and government, is yet to be appointed.

Last week, the Digital Opportunities Task (Dot) Force – set up by the Group of Eight (G-8) major economic powers — Italy, Japan, Canada, the United States, Britain, Russia, France and Germany — after their last summit – met in the South African coastal city of Cape Town.

Key issues covered at the meeting included using education to bridge the digital divide and ensuring that the use of information technology becomes part of the way of life of people living in developing nations, said delegates at a report-back briefing.

The Dot Force is next scheduled to meet in Italy in May, where its report and recommendations will be finalised.

On its part, the African Telecoms Union is set to meet in South Africa at the end of this week to look at how Africa can best become part of the global information and telecommunications environment.

According to figures released at the Dot Force meeting, internet connections in Africa has increased by 136 per cent over the past year, although off a low base.

Shortly after the African Telecoms Union gathering, a Commonwealth telecommunications meeting is also scheduled, according to the South African Department of Communications.

“I’m reserving judgement on these initiatives,” says Esterhuysen. “There is genuine interest on the part of government and IT corporations to get project activity going, but they need to deliver concrete projects that are integrated – with a focus on people’s general social and economic needs.”

Esterhuysen has called for mechanisms to be put in place to make venture capital available to IT companies in developing countries. “Most developing countries do not have strong indigenous IT sectors – South Africa is a noticeable exception in Africa. One of the challenges of IT is that it ages so quickly. Often ICT development projects are obsolete before they are fully off the ground,” she explains.

She also calls for research into IT systems specifically designed for use in the developing world. “There is a need for local innovation, we cannot just be creating new markets for the international IT companies,” she points out.

“Cellular phones have taken-off in developing countries, but they were not designed with them in mind. With finance and investment, countries can design technology that can be marketed profitably in the developing world,” she says.

Lastly, Esterhuysen would like to see money going to support existing initiatives. “There are organisations that have been involved in ICT for development for years and who know a lot about how it works. There is a tendency to focus on pilot projects and when the results are not fantastic, the financing is withdrawn. While that may work in the private sector, it does not when doing development work,” she says.

In the meantime, South Africa, has asked the World Internet Property Organisation to adopt a policy that prevents the registration of sovereign nations except by those nations themselves, and to return to developing countries any registered dotcom addresses that refer to them, say reports in the local financial media.

A parliamentary officer for the Department of Communications, Envir Fraser, says the government wanted to use its site to market the country. “It is a sovereignty issue and we want to focus on developing countries who are more vulnerable to cyber pirates,” he says.

The New York Times’ online edition says such a policy, if adopted, would place a number of developing nations – who were late to grasp the significance of the Internet and of registering their country names – against Western companies who had registered the dotcom versions of the country names several years ago. Of 46 African nations, only three had ownership of their countries’ dotcom Internet domain names, it says.