Document(s) 7 of 12

For the purposes of this chapter, gender does not refer to women; rather, it refers to the socially or culturally established roles of women, men, and children, which means they can share roles and complement one another. Understanding the roles of both men and women gives a complete picture of the agricultural production system.

Background

Agriculture is the mainstay of most African economies and occupies a pivotal position in the development of the continent. Despite the importance of agriculture, improvements in this sector have been uneven and on the whole disappointing, with a current development growth rate of 1.7% (Diom 1996). This slow rate of development has been compounded in the recent past by recurrent crop failures, a high human population (expected to reach 300 million by 2000 [Diom 1996]) economic recession, and escalating external debt. These factors — coupled with agricultural mismanagement, escalating costs of production, and difficulties with the structural-adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — have led to food scarcity and insecurity. All this implies an urgent need to address the issues retarding agricultural production in Africa, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This requires an understanding of how the farming systems work in practice.

In any farming system, it is important to recognize the various roles of men, women, youth, and children. In Africa, women constitute 70% of the agricultural workforce and produce 80% of the region’s food (Gellen 1994a; Blumberg 1994). Their important contribution to local and national economies is not, however, reflected in the resources allocated to the peri-urban and rural female food producers.

Female and male farmers in Africa face similar problems, but they affect the female farmer more adversely. The major problems include weak extension services; nonadoption of technologies; low status (and therefore noninvolvement) in decision- and policy-making; varied and heavy workloads; poor access to credit; and lack of access to education, training, agricultural inputs, supportive policies, or (as emphasized in this chapter) information to improve farming.

Information is essential for facilitating agricultural and rural development and bringing about social and economic change. Unfortunately, most African countries have not devoted adequate attention to providing their citizens with access to information, especially in rural areas, where 70–80% of the African population lives (Youdeowei et al. 1996). Information initiatives should, therefore, be geared to strengthening the grass roots, with special emphasis on women, and be developed in places without public libraries or other information resources. This may be achieved by setting up functional, integrated information systems in rural and peri-urban communities, which would bring in new and diverse resources to enable women to access information.

Traditional and modern ICTs can be used concurrently to speed up the circulation of information. In many African countries, ICTs are used to greater and lesser degrees in drama, dance, folklore, group discussions, meetings, exhibitions, demonstrations, visits, farmers’ field schools, agricultural shows, radio, television, video, and print. Solar, satellite, and fibre-optic technologies are now in use for computers, telephones, and facsimile. Telecentres have been established in villages. Where appropriate, rural female farmers can tap these resources and access information using the new ICTs, such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, electronic networks, teleconferencing, and distance-learning tools. Information can empower rural female farmers to participate in decision-making, exchange ideas with others in developed and developing countries, and improve the quality of life of the people of Africa.

ICTs have changed education, training, service delivery, and people’s lives in the more wealthy nations and in the research sectors of some developing nations, which pioneered the use of ICTs in less wealthy nations. In South Africa, ICTs have also been used in rural communities. In South Africa, Senegal, Uganda, and other countries, ICTs have created employment, helped to develop telecommunication and networking opportunities in rural areas, and acted as delivery vehicles for distance training and education.

Key problems facing women in the agricultural sector and possible solutions

Africa’s food producers, who are mainly rural women, have been “invisible” and resource starved for a long time. They have been described as “the lifeline of society” and have employed a number of strategies to ensure household food security (Oniang’o 1996). Most of these women, especially in SSA, face such problems as lack of supportive policies, weak extension services, constraints in land tenure and ownership, limited access to credit, restricted access to training and education, heavy workloads, and nonadoption of new agricultural technologies.

Lack of supportive policies

The rural woman farmer is often depicted as an exploitable “tool” or “instrument” and as “weak” and “ignorant.” Traditions, customs, cultures, and religions in Africa have also rendered women second-class citizens. Ruth Meena, as quoted by Matsebula (1997, p. 5), pointed out that

although the statutory laws of Swaziland as in most African countries prima facie permit women to hold public office, their impact can be, and frequently is, reduced by customary and religious practices which continue to define the role and place of women in society.

A person does not walk very far or very fast on one leg. How can we expect half the people to be able to develop a nation? Yet the reality is that women are usually left aside when development needs are discussed.

IFAD (1989, p. 3)

• Women in many African countries are organizing themselves into groups and movements to press for their causes at all levels.

• Governments are beginning to appreciate the plight of marginalized women and to consider gender issues. Emphasis is now on women’s issues, which are deliberately included in development plans.

• The Advocates for African Food Security (a coalition of nongovernmental organizations [NGOs], United Nations agencies, and governments) is empowering women to participate in policy-making and policy implementation (Engo-Tjega 1994).

• The World Bank has pressed for more women to work in high-profile and decision-making positions (World Bank 1996). These women, along with other women in decision-making positions at all levels in the agricultural and development sectors, are expected to influence policies and incorporate gender considerations into agricultural policies. When women gain more autonomy and take responsibility, they will be more critical of the structures that discriminate against them and suppress development. They will begin to ask questions. Sustainable agricultural production requires the full participation of rural female farmers. Women therefore need the enabling processes to allow them to access the relevant information.

• African Women Leaders in Agriculture and the Environment is addressing the lack of women’s representation in policy arenas and playing a catalytic role by training professional women and supporting professional women’s efforts to reach female farmers (Blumberg 1992; Winrock International 1997).

In most African countries, agricultural extension services, which are central to economic-development programs, are nonexistent, weak, or unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, even where extension services are available, the content and mode of service delivery are often insensitive to the needs of female farmers (Dunn 1995). As pointed out at the 1985 Women’s Conference in Nairobi, new technologies are usually introduced to help men (IFAD 1989). The basic assumption is that women carry out only menial tasks, such as weeding, thinning, and transplanting, and that the traditional tools they use, such as hoes, are sufficient to enable them to step up and sustain productivity. Such generalizations are, however, ill-conceived. Men and women have different perspectives and experiences, and they must work together to realize the maximum benefit.

Blumberg (1994) observed that only 7% of extension time and resources is devoted to African female farmers and that only 7% of extension agents are female. This gender inequity, coupled with poor extension packages, inadequate delivery approaches, and cultural and religious barriers, is further compounded by transportation and communication problems. Female extensionists work more effectively with female farmers (Dunn 1995). This is particularly true in Muslim communities. Hence, extension services need to train and recruit more women. Consequently,

• Some countries, such as Nigeria, have adopted affirmative-action initiatives — hiring more female extension agents to work with rural female farmers and retraining male extension agents to work with women (Pena et al. 1996); and

• The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has worked to increase the number of female extension workers and female trainers and trainees throughout the projects it finances in Africa (IFAD 1989).

Although a generalization would be unwarranted, in most East and southern African countries, men own or control the land. In Kenya, a girl can use her father’s land, but she cannot own it. In Zimbabwe, women cannot own land in community or resettlement areas. In Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda, women have the right to use national land but cannot own it (Martin 1993). Thus, in most land-tenure systems, a woman has no right to introduce appropriate, affordable agricultural technologies without her husband’s or family’s approval. The men, who are often employed in the nonagricultural sector, may not be aware of new or improved farming methods or crop diversification and be in no position to offer advice. As a result of this situation, unsustainable farming methods persist, despite declining production and increasing postharvest losses.

Obsolete customary marriage and inheritance laws, traditions, and cultures need to be reviewed to redress this problem and moderate the current discrimination against women. Whereas African traditionalists may view the act of changing traditional practices as a failure to adhere to cultural norms, women need equal rights to land and support and an opportunity to manage farms (Harrison 1996).

Women’s ownership of land may not be in itself the panacea for the low agricultural productivity observed in central and most of southern Malawi, where a matrilineal family system operates. In that society, women have more rights over the land, and they work and distribute it at their discretion. But the same problems prevail in Malawi as elsewhere — in agricultural production, postharvest storage, and marketing. Most of the men migrate from the land to find employment in other sectors, as this system does not encourage them to invest in agriculture (Phiri, personal communication, 1997¹). Examples of what some countries have done are summarized below:

• The Kenya government has attempted to redress the inequitable situation by advocating joint family decision-making on land use and disposal through the state-controlled land boards. To ensure that women are consulted during decision-making, the government insists that wives participate in deliberations to decide which local community leaders or elders will be seconded to the land boards.

• In Mozambique, the movement to redress the imbalance was spearheaded by the new National Farmers Union (NFU). This is an association of about 430 local cooperatives and farmers’ groups, led by a woman grass-roots leader. NFU lobbies for farmers and provides them with training in leadership, management, and marketing. The main objective of NFU, however, is to press the government to issue land-ownership deeds to rural women. Despite the expected resistance from the male-dominated bureaucracy, the union has assisted about 95% of its members to secure deeds of ownership (Lima 1994).

Limited access to credit

As a result of the land-tenure laws in place in various African countries, deeds of ownership are often issued to men, which leaves women without the most common collateral — land. Therefore, credit facilities for women are needed, not only to foster their independence, improve their lives, and give them a sense of ownership (Creevey 1996), but also to enable them to buy basic agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers and seeds and introduce new agricultural technologies.

The situation is changing in a number of African countries. Women are organizing themselves in groups to obtain credit from institutions such as IFAD, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), self-help women’s groups, and credit cooperatives. For example,

• In the Gambia, the Women in Service Development Organisation Management was founded by some 30 female leaders and now has 60000 active members, who are eligible for training, in addition to being able to obtain loans from a revolving fund (Senghore and Bojang-Sissoho 1994).

• The Kenya Women’s Finance Trust, founded in 1981, has been giving credit to rural women. To date, it “has not had a single defaulter” (Gellen 1994a, p. 6). Experience has also shown that measures to increase women’s income enhance the welfare and status of entire families. In addition, enabling women to contribute directly to the upkeep of the family instils in them a sense of independence and enhances their confidence and self-esteem.

• In South Africa, the recently restructured Land Bank provides new financial services to the agricultural community. According to GCIS (1998), rural women can borrow as little as 250 ZAR (in 1999, 6.105 South African rand [ZAR] = 1 United States dollar [USD]).

Most rural women, who are often poor, lack both the means and the opportunity to obtain a formal education. When training opportunities for rural agricultural producers arise, they mostly go to the men, who usually already have some formal education, although it is more important to expand and enhance the production knowledge of the principal workers — the women. Some women also opt out of training programs because of cultural, religious, or family pressures (Blumberg 1992). It is critical that African countries create a pool of female trainers of trainers, well versed in participatory training methods. These women would then be able to prepare training packages and programs appropriate and accessible to rural women. Such trainers would, of necessity, consolidate their knowledge and skills to share their experiences with other female farmers.

Girls at primary and secondary schools and colleges need career guidance to sensitize them to the crucial role of women in agricultural development and thereby encourage them to enrol in agricultural programs. This would ensure a steady rise in the number of women managing the various agricultural sectors. Schools, colleges, and universities must therefore offer gender training.

The following are some of the many groups offering agricultural and literacy training in Africa:

• Winrock International trains African women in leadership, with programs aimed to equip rural women to understand and cope with the changes wrought by economic liberalization and the new technologies (Winrock International 1997).

• The All-African Council of Churches has launched projects similar to those of Winrock International in several countries, including Kenya and Zimbabwe. These are projects to teach rural women about economic issues and agricultural policies and equip them with practical skills in management and accounting (Gellen 1994b).

• Some African governments have also participated in projects to empower women. The Nigerian government, for example, initiated a program to offer gender-issues retraining for home economists, who are themselves farmers. This program started in Imo state but has since spread to all the other states of Nigeria (Blumberg 1994).

Heavy workloads

Apart from being agricultural producers, women are also responsible for domestic chores; the family’s education, nutrition, and health; parenting; and meeting the household requirements for fuelwood and water. UNIFEM has worked to reducing this workload, recommending labour-saving devices such as water tanks, which would reduce the time women spend fetching water and free up some time to become involved in development initiatives or engage in recreational activities. In the Gambia, for example, women have received credit to buy small, diesel-powered grinding mills. These reduce the time the women spend processing food from 4 hours to 5 minutes (Gellen 1994a). Where tradition and culture allow, women and men should share household and community chores to give women more time for agricultural issues.

The questions that beg to be addressed are the following: How many rural women know about these time-saving technologies? Are such technologies appropriate, affordable, sustainable, and useful to other rural African women? Can such information be made available to a wider audience in the peri-urban or rural African environment? If these conditions are met, then ICTs can play a major role in creating awareness, enhancing information exchange, and ultimately enabling women to adopt technologies with the potential to bring positive change.

Nonadoption of new agricultural technologies

As already mentioned, the general picture of growth in African agriculture is grim. Despite the technological advances in irrigation, crop varieties, agroforestry, and fertilizers, most technologies do not reach female farmers, as they receive no information about them. Most rural farmers are illiterate and poor and do not adopt new technologies because they lack knowledge and cash. Future growth must come from yield increases, achieved through the use of improved seeds and other planting materials and better agronomic practices and harvesting and processing techniques. Although there is no general rule about it, in some situations where a man leads the household, the wife can say little about the decision to adopt a new agricultural technology, and men make most such decisions.

These men have higher levels of education and more time, and they control the income generated by the farm. Female farmers will have to be empowered to take more control and manage the farm. Women will need access to credit and training on new and appropriate technologies. Also, agricultural researchers should do more adaptive research to ensure that the new technologies are suitable for the female farmers’ agroecological zones and management constraints.

Information needs of women

Women in rural areas have very little access to information. They are mostly poor, illiterate, and unable to afford even the very most basic forms of ICTs, such as radios and telephones. Nevertheless, rural women actively seek and disseminate information. So ICTs must be appropriate to enable women to gain access to information efficiently and cost-effectively. Gender considerations have, however, not received the attention they deserve in the design and use of information services or in the application of ICTs. We must identify the types of information required to meet the needs women express, to determine the information gaps, and to select the ICTs and services to best close these gaps.

Meeting the information needs of rural female farmers

The lack of reliable and comprehensive information for rural female farmers is a major hindrance to agricultural development. They require information on agricultural inputs; market prices; transportation systems; product potential; new environmentally sound production techniques and practices; new agricultural technologies; new markets; food processing and preservation; decision-making processes; the resource base; trade laws; and trends in food production, demand, and processing. Women also need to exchange indigenous knowledge. However, most available local information is packaged in a raw form and therefore difficult to access or use (Paquot and Berque 1996). The situation is compounded because women do not know where to find this information. Moreover, current mass media and communication systems have not been used to maximum effect in development. Information should be accessible to female farmers at selected sites, with various ICTs to facilitate easy access to relevant information and information exchange.

Available data on women’s contribution to agriculture are unreliable and out of date. We need to systematically identify the information needs of the rural and peri-urban women in various communities, countries, and regions, as their needs are varied and diverse. Very few studies have assessed the information needs of women in agriculture, but most of these studies show that a great demand for information remains unmet. The following are some of the few needs-assessment surveys conducted in this area:

• In Nigeria, a study was conducted (using questionnaires) in Oyo state to determine the information needs of women in agriculture. The response rate of the study was 80% (Oladokun 1994). The study showed that women were eager to express their views and that their information needs were similar to those of the male farmers. The study further revealed that the female farmers were more likely to employ modern farming methods and that their information needs were far from satisfied. The respondents wanted information on all farming activities, including loan schemes, local market prices, export prices, price of raw materials, credit, cooperation, and the technical, social, and commercial aspects of farming. According to this study, the prominent communication channels used to disseminate this information were informal. The major sources of information were personal contacts and cooperative society. Documentary sources were mostly unavailable, and Oladokun consulted personal correspondence, followed by technical reports from the extension unit and newspaper articles.

• The Environmental Liaison Centre International (ELCI) held a workshop in 1997 to assess the information and communication needs of Kenyan NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) (ELCI 1997). ELCI invited the coordinators of the information and communication exchange network from Tanzania and Uganda to share the experiences of these countries, which had already held similar workshops. Other such workshops were organized in Zambia and Zimbabwe. A good number of these organizations work with rural women.

Some African countries, such as Ghana, Mozambique, and Uganda, have to a certain extent come to recognize the importance of a reliable telecommunications infrastructure and its role in empowering rural communities to participation in social and economic growth. It is therefore necessary to identify suitable ICTs to best serve their needs.

The target communities and beneficiaries

The main beneficiaries of better access to information in the agricultural sector would include the following:

• Rural female farmers — Women are the ultimate targets and need information to empower them to be more productive and to escape marginalization.

• Women’s groups and their leaders — Women’s groups have helped one another in cultivation, thatching, and other activities. Their leaders need training and information to be better representatives. Once empowered with information, they can determine how best to “sow the seed” among female farmers.

• Farmers’ organizations and unions — Farmers’ organizations and unions (including trade unions) work closely with people at the grass roots and need information to more effectively represent farmers.

• School girls and youth groups — Young men and women, who will be the future leaders, decision-makers, and farmers, need to learn about ICTs early in life to be aware of their potential to enhance development and improve job prospects in the future.

• Media women — Women working in the media should be aware of the agricultural-information needs of women generally so that the media can repackage and target the relevant information. Media women themselves need ICTs to tap into other media networks, such as Womenet: this is a fax network for media women that disseminates news around the world.

• Extension and research services — We need to bridge the researcher- extensionist-farmer gap to ensure that feedback from farmers goes to researchers and that new technologies are appropriate and meet the most important needs of farmers.

• Religious, national, and international organizations with agricultural-development programs — NGOs and CBOs play a valuable role supplementing government development efforts by working directly with rural communities and must have comprehensive, up-to-date information to enable them to capture, document, and disseminate indigenous knowledge in simple terms.

• Government and national, regional, and international institutions — Governments and institutions need to be aware of the activities of the other players and the needs and priorities of each other’s countries and regions to know what types of collective action to take for the benefit of all. Knowledge can help them to develop more pragmatic programs and projects.

The potential of ICTs to meet the information needs of women

The number of ICT workshops and conferences taking place all over Africa and the world indicates how important these technologies are to development. They have transformed information processes everywhere, and technological advances have reduced the world to a “global village,” unbounded by language, distance, or culture. The emerging electronic-communication networks will no doubt offer several new channels for the exchange of information and numerous opportunities for the rural woman farmer. The value of information is increasing, and many African countries, such as Mozambique, South Africa, and Uganda, are gaining a much greater appreciation of the “information culture.”

Information is of limited use, however, unless we package and communicate it appropriately. Appropriate, fast, diverse, comprehensive, and low-cost ICTs can accelerate food production in the continent and bring the “invisible African woman” into the limelight. Zijp (1994) presented a table with an overview of information technologies and their representative applications, requirements, advantages, disadvantages, and costs. The choice of technology and communication medium largely depends, however, on telecommunications infrastructure available and the user’s background.

The choice of ICTs should be driven by needs, not technology, and feedback should be obtained on an ongoing basis to assess the users’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction and the technology’s impacts. Female farmers need to become sensitive to differences in ICTs to appreciate their potential to increase agricultural productivity. As Giovanetti and Bellamy (1996) pointed out, illiterate farmers also require repackaged and audiovisual information products. An information officer may have to guide users to the appropriate sources and medium of information. The essential features of various ICTs are examined below.

Traditional and modern ICTs

Radio

In Africa, the radio plays a major role in delivering agricultural messages. Along with the newspaper, radio is one of the main sources of information for rural women. The media can do more to circulate information to rural female farmers and should include time for debate and feedback. The findings of a study on rural radio listening in the Meru, Nithi, and Tharaka districts of Kenya indicated a penetration of 69% among rural households. But men owned 80% of the radios. Listenership patterns indicated that women preferred programs containing easily understood, interesting, and relevant information (Morgan 1993). The following are examples of organizations involved in the production of radio and audiovisual programs for farmers in Africa:

• The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA) has a program to support rural radio and development of audiovisual aids. CTA works with many individuals and institutions circulating information to farmers in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

• The Farm Radio Network (FRN), based in Harare, Zimbabwe, and its partner, the Developing Countries Farm Radio Network, in Toronto, Canada, have had great success in Africa. This service broadcasts programs developed by ministries of agriculture and agricultural institutions for women, youth, and extension agents on training and education in health, nutrition, and agriculture. FRN pays particular attention to the needs of rural farmers in East and southern Africa and provides up-to-date practical information on agriculture and health. The network also relies on “rural communicators,” who translate current research findings into local languages and disseminate and broadcast them in response to the listeners’ expressed needs.

• The Union of National Radio and Television Broadcasting of Africa, a continental organization, is dedicated to developing all aspects of broadcasting and plans to pool together relevant programs for female farmers and redistribute them to local radio and television stations (Youdeowei et al. 1996).

Television would be a good communication medium for African female farmers. Owing to language barriers, shortage of electricity, and the high costs of television, however, it has had little success in disseminating information to these farmers. According to Alfaro (personal communication, 1997²), who is the coordinator of the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) in Mozambique, television in that country is broadcast mostly in Portuguese. But not all Mozambicans, especially not those in the rural areas, understand Portuguese. Scheduling is also very important if television and radio programs targeted to female farmers are to have an impact. Listenership patterns of the target group must be considered in establishing an appropriate schedule of transmission.

Audiovisual media

Audiovisual media are popular with illiterate rural women, and these media give rural farmers an opportunity to see and discuss complex agricultural techniques before using them. Audiovisual technology also improves mental retention, and for this reason educators are making increasing use of videos, television programs, films, slides, and pictures, particularly in training sessions.

Print technology

The print medium holds great potential for the women who can read. Urban and rural newspapers, posters, pamphlets, and booklets have all been used successfully in the past. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) supports a very successful rural-newspaper program in Kenya. In many African countries where there are national agricultural information centres, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia, relevant information has been appropriately repackaged in pamphlets, posters, booklets, handbooks, videos, films, cassettes, and radio programs. Such packages have proven very popular in rural farming communities. They are in some cases translated into appropriate local languages, based on user demand. However, most countries need to strengthen these centres and run them sustainably. Some of these centres, such as the Agricultural Information Centre in Kenya, used to be run using project funds, and these centres collapsed after their projects wound up. Some of their equipment needs replacement or repair, and their government budgets fall far short of their requirements.

Facsimile technology

Communicating agricultural information will remain a problem in geographically isolated rural areas or low-population rural areas without the “critical numbers” to warrant heavy investment in electronic communications such as e-mail and the Internet. In some of these situations, fax technology can help. Telecentres can carry relevant information and repackage it to meet the information needs of specific women’s groups. Women need, for example, market information or information on how to grow a specific crop or control particular pests. This information can be further distributed by fax, postal service, or other ICT.

E-mail

Most rural areas have no information resources. An e-mail system would enable many women and intermediary agencies working with rural farmers to exchange ideas, transmit data, access information, and communicate it to a wider audience. E-mail would ensure the rapid transfer of farming technologies from research station to farming community and feedback from farming community to research station. As well, e-mail would make mail delivery faster and help to contact farmers in remote rural areas. In addition, it would make responses to queries more spontaneous and timely and provide cost-effective dissemination of new information and multiple copies of reports or other documents. Information about daily market prices might be transmitted to farmers through e-mail, provided at a central location, and perhaps disseminated more widely by NGOs, CBOs, extension workers, etc., with the radio or other media. However, e-mail technology requires a good power supply, a reliable and affordable telecommunications system, and a well-trained staff to assist end-users and maintain equipment.

Discussion lists (listservs)

African female farmers’ groups and other individual farmers and youth groups in developing or developed countries should have discussion lists, or listservs, for discussion of the female farmers’ common interests. With this technology, messages arrive at a mail server, which distributes them to all members on the list. Listservs can function to disseminate information on commodity market prices, new agricultural technologies, and the means to control new disease outbreaks. This technology can benefit both buyers and sellers — whether individuals, groups, or cooperatives — and indicate what products are available, where they can be found, and their costs. This would provide farmers with a competitive edge over brokers or dealers. Discussion lists can facilitate feedback from farmers. Female farmers visiting another country or farm can discuss their experiences, opinions, problems, or progress in putting what they have learned into practice. This can stimulate regular discussion and debate and provide a forum for rural female farmers to express their views. Listservs can also help decision- and policymakers to better appreciate the needs of rural female farmers. A listserv can act as a question-and-answer service for farmers or enable them to inject their own point of view.

Local field staff and farmers harbour a lot of useful information, which can be tapped and disseminated using e-mail or a listserv. Diverse stakeholders who have otherwise worked independently on similar issues can work as a multidisciplinary team and build on their complementary strengths.

Newsgroups

Subscribers to e-mail newsgroups can select types of news to meet their interests. This service, offered free of charge by news servers, can give farmers a forum for discussing a wide range of subjects. Nyirenda (personal communication³) noted that Malawi currently has many loan schemes but that some borrowers have no information on feasible investments. Newsgroups can also provide a forum for disseminating ideas on constructive small-business projects, and rural telecentres can also act as information source points. This service can help to disseminate information on specific topics of interest to female farmers, such as new technologies, agronomic practices, soil-conservation techniques, pest outbreaks and methods for combatting them, and market prices. A newsgroup might be designed to work in the same way as the “Try It Yourself” section in the Kenya Institute of Organic Farming’s Foes of Famine Newsletter. In this section, farmers describe their indigenous agricultural techniques. Other farmers from all over Africa are then encouraged to try out the technique and give their feedback through the newsletter. Researchers eventually visit the farms to validate the technique, carry out on-station trials, and disseminate their findings through the same newsletter. With a newsgroup, such information might also be disseminated to many more farmers and feedback might be conveyed from farmers, not only in Africa, but also in Asia and Latin America.

File-transfer protocol

File-transfer protocol is a service designed to send and receive data files and programs across a network. Using this service, intermediary centres in the rural areas would be able to access and transmit text files, images, documents, and pictures relevant to agricultural-development programs.

The Internet

The Internet has grown to be the world’s most important communication medium. It is a reasonably inexpensive, fast, two-way medium and a powerful tool for storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information. It is also good for publishing. The Internet can introduce new information resources and open new communication channels for rural farmers (Richardson 1996).

The Internet can increase literacy and agricultural productivity. We might develop products such as an African virtual farmers’ field school and make it accessible to female farmers with no formal training in agriculture. A traditional farmers’ field school requires a group of farmers to assemble on a farm and meet with their facilitators, but a virtual farmers’ field school would permit meetings on the Internet, in “cyberspace.” Farmers would receive their training at telecentres or wherever the facilities were made available, with materials and tutoring supplied through the World Wide Web.

Admittedly, not all learning can take place at a distance; however, this technology would permit highly qualified facilitators to simultaneously meet farmers from various developing countries. Courses would be transmitted by satellite from the developing regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America or from the developed regions, using a programed timetable. This service might also link community telecentres in Africa and provide for South-South dissemination of indigenous knowledge, resources, ideas, experiences, and success stories. Web pages of agricultural stakeholders might be published to help avoid duplication of effort and to enhance cooperation.

According to Jensen (1998a), an Internet consultant, 16 countries in Africa had full access to the Internet in 1996, but in only 5 of these countries was this service available outside the capital city. Today, most African capitals (about 49) are connected, and more than 11 African countries have Internet service in rural areas. Almost all the remaining African capitals plan to have full Internet facilities before the end of the year. Communities need the Internet. Internet strategies should be “developed in conjunction with intended beneficiaries and stakeholders” (Richardson 1996, p. i). NGOs, CBOs, extension departments, associations, and unions serving rural farmers can take advantage of the technology, even where the farmers are unable to directly harness it. These organizations can carry out “web mining” and repackage and disseminate critical information for their rural stakeholders, using other appropriate technologies.

Electronic conferencing or teleconferencing

Teleconferencing can enable rural and peri-urban women’s groups and leaders to participate in conferences and have virtual discussions with experts, without having to travel to cities or go abroad. This technology can also enable women’s representatives to express their informed opinions and participate in decision-making and policy formulation.

Networking

Networking is an informal system. It enables people with common interests or concerns to exchange information with one another or develop professional contacts. It involves establishing contacts and encouraging reciprocal exchange of information and voluntary collaboration (Starkey 1997).

Networking has the potential to improve the quality of life and has become crucial to enhancing access to information. Networking enables pooling and sharing of resources and has the potential to disseminate information around the community, country, region, or abroad. Local networks, such as the Farm Information Network-East and Southern Africa (FINESA), have been successfully established to access vital information, and more such networks would be desirable. Some members of FINESA in Zimbabwe have requested scripts in local languages to ensure a wider readership (Vogtle 1997). Much more has been done in networking in the research sector in Africa. Abegaz and Levey (1996) described a research network that links five universities. Rural female farmers or their intermediaries can tap into such networks and have access to critical agricultural information to enhance agricultural development.

CD-ROM technology

CD-ROM technology has a high storage capacity, and it is fast, robust, and user friendly. Hence, it is an excellent medium for storing and disseminating full-text documents and training materials for rural areas without telecommunications infrastructure.

Several agricultural databases are available on CD-ROM. The main ones are CAB Abstracts from CAB International (CABI), Agris from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Agricola from the National Agricultural Library in the United States, Sesame from the Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (centre for international cooperation on agronomic research for development), and Tropag and Rural from the Royal Tropical Institute. Case studies at universities in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have demonstrated widespread recognition of CD-ROM technology as a cost-effective, locally feasible medium for accessing databases (Levey 1994).

The American Association for the Advancement of Science has undertaken a 3-year program to promote access to information in SSA, with a special focus on CD-ROM technology. The pilot project has been successful, and it is clear that

bibliographic databases on compact disc, coupled with reliable document delivery services, can satisfy the needs of many users. Although it took longer than anyone envisaged to build up demand, utilisation went up almost everywhere, and the project is considered to be a success story.

Abegaz and Levey (1996, p. 3)

Another example is The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library (TEEAL), which the Albert R. Mann Library (Cornell University), in association with the Rockefeller Foundation and cooperating publishers, launched in February 1999. This product contains, on 100 compact disks, the full-text images of 130 important scholarly journals (1993–96). TEEAL also includes the FAO’s monograph series. Annual updates of the journals are to be released 1 year after publication (Cornell University 1998).

Products like these can be accessed anywhere and can be excellent tools for extension workers and farmers. Farmers can access CD-ROMs to find information on rearing animals, growing crops, or identifying pests or to look up prices of inputs and farm products.

Telecentres — a way forward

Telecentres, with ICTs and telecommunications facilities, were introduced in Scandinavia in the 1980s to address some of the problems of smaller and isolated communities. Users receive technical support and training, and community committees manage the centres. The concept has now spread to rural areas in Australia, Brazil, Canada, some European countries, South Africa, and the United States. Many of these centres are now self-sustaining (see Annex 8).

In Africa, rural telecentres are growing rapidly. They could provide all the above services, as well as collecting information from farmers and cooperatives on available products, local market prices, new crops, new technologies, and indigenous knowledge. This information could then be repackaged and disseminated more widely, using other communication technologies. Government information could be accessed at these centres via ICTs, such as e-mail and the Internet. This would promptly update farmers on prevailing government policies and new skills, techniques, and services. Via e-mail or other media, the farmers could then send their own views or requests for details or clarification to the appropriate department.

ICTs can provide farmers with guidance on where and when to sow, harvest, process, and market their produce to avoid having to off-load their goods at throw-away prices in the local markets, and buyers can use ICTs to determine prevailing market prices. ICTs will pave the way for dialogue among researchers, extensionists, and farmers in rural communities, enable female farmers to contribute to decision-making and policy formulation, and forge bridges between people in urban and rural communities. Other communication methods, such as meetings, conferences, and social gatherings, can be expected to complement the new services offered at telecentres, which may also become centres of business and community activity.

Planned and ongoing activities

In Africa, numerous current or planned initiatives rely on modern ICTs in social, economic, health, agricultural, and cultural development. Some of the organizations and countries involved in these initiatives and their activities are briefly described below.

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has taken the lead in helping African countries overcome their information and technological problems and launched the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) for this purpose. AISI is an action framework to build Africa’s ICT infrastructure. It outlines the development of Internet nodes and services in Africa. Annexes 1 and 9 contain details of ECA’s activities.

International Development Research Centre

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) launched the Acacia Initiative (see Annex 2) in 1997, with the aim of empowering communities in SSA through the use of ICTs to facilitate access to information and thereby unblock economic and social development. The program covers policies, issues, ICTs, their application, and telecommunications infrastructure. Acacia has pilot projects in Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda. In Uganda, the initiative has set up three telecentres in rural areas. These pilot projects focus on the community and ensures a process of continuous learning. IDRC has also funded several other activities on electronic communications in Africa.

United Nations Development Programme

The SDNP of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (see Annex 3) is an intersectoral network for exchanging vital information on and expertise in sustainable human development (SHD). The program has linked government organizations, NGOs, the private sector, universities, and individuals in about 40 developing countries (with 10 operational in Africa) through electronic and other networking links. SDNP is using ICTs (such as e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, fax, and phones) and posters and supports decision-makers and other stakeholders on SHD issues. It lays heavy emphasis on national capacity-building. At the joint regional workshop of SDNP and the Internet Initiative for Africa (IIA), in Maputo, Mozambique, in December 1997, these two organizations were challenged to pay greater attention to grass-roots communities and find ways to make their projects more sustainable after their project funding is complete.

IIA (see Annex 4) is a participatory initiative operating in 12 countries in SSA: Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, the Gambia, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Principe, Swaziland, Togo, and Zaire. It is working to improve access to reliable and up-to-date information for sound decision-making. The initiative aims to establish information and decision-support systems to enhance policy formulation throughout the SHD policy process, with use of the Internet to provide efficient and reliable service.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FAO has developed partnerships with other organizations and local people, and through these partnerships it has helped local people develop indigenous communication processes through the use of traditional ICTs, such as radio and video. The organization is in the process of developing an Internet approach for rural agricultural communities. In collaboration with the Department of Rural Extension Studies at the University of Guelph, in Canada, it supported the Electronic Communication and Information Systems fact-finding mission (see Annex 5 for details) (Richardson 1996).

World Bank

The World Bank has launched its global Information for Development Programme (InfoDev). InfoDev has given rural dwellers a chance to access “tailor-made new technology.” In rural Kenya, for example, InfoDev funds low-cost wireless telephone systems. In South Africa, it funds a computer network, giving the country’s poorest townships access to basic information. As a result of InfoDev, cocoa and coffee growers in Côte d’Ivoire can dial London for commodity prices, and, in Cameroon, small businesses can use the Internet to sell their products abroad. InfoDev is funded by international financial institutions, governments, NGOs, and the private sector. Illiterate adults access the system with the help of their literate children (Lanfranco, personal communication, 1997⁴).

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO has established pilot multipurpose community telecentres in some countries, including Benin, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda. The goal of these centres is to take the Internet beyond the capital cities. Centres of excellence have also been established in Gabon, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe, with the aim of providing a network for cooperative development, training programs, and support for building national centres of excellence. UNESCO started experimental rural centres in some Central and West African countries to advance knowledge, fight illiteracy, and ensure the circulation of ideas at all levels in rural areas. In addition, UNESCO established the Regional Informatics Network for Africa (see Annex 6).

United States Agency for International Development

The Leland Initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) targets 21 African countries, and its primary purpose is to disseminate the benefits of the Internet. In Uganda, USAID supports a project called Investment in Developing Export Agriculture, with the goal of improving rural people’s income by expanding the production and marketing of selected crops and products (Cochrane 1997⁵). The project established the Agribusiness Development Centre, a resource centre providing information to agribusiness firms and associations. It offers information on current market conditions, supply and demand, new product developments, future markets, and political events. The staff repackage information, tailor it to the needs of Uganda’s agricultural export and investment sector, and disseminate it to subscribers by courier, fax, and postal service.

Environmental Liaison Centre International

ELCI’s network is working to create a more sustainable world through a global process of sharing ideas, information, and experience with development in the environmental sector. The centre is planning electronic post offices to enable CBOs to use electronic communications (see Annex 7).

African agencies

In 1998, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Ghana was considering the development of electronic-commerce applications for small and medium-sized producers and exporters, in collaboration with national associations for nontraditional exports (handcrafts, peanuts, bananas, pineapples, etc.). A website would be developed to enable exporter-producers to publish information on their companies, production capacities, products, and prices. The website would allow exporters to promote their businesses and enhance their competitiveness (IICD 1998).

In Tanzania, Telecom Systems Ltd and the Computer Centre of the University of Dar es Salaam are planning a community telecentre project to use appropriate ICTs to develop networks for education, agriculture, health, and other development activities in remote urban and rural areas, where 85% of the population live. Five community telecentres were to be established in phase 1 of the project (IICD 1998).

Participating and implementing agencies

The many potential leaders and players among participating and implementing agencies range from donors, to regional and national organizations, to grass-roots organizations and leaders:

The female leaders of the rapidly expanding number of women’s groups, associations, unions, donor and development agencies, NGOs, and CBOs could accelerate women’s and girls’ use of ICTs in agriculture. Female leaders could receive training or employment at telecentres and then serve as role models for other women and girls in their communities. These leaders could act as cost-effective vehicles for the dissemination of relevant information to many more rural female farmers.

Donor and development organizations can participate in policy dialogue, provide skills in their areas of competence, and sponsor information-exchange forums for women, such as field days, workshops, exhibitions, and publications. Organizations such as CARE, which have been working with rural communities to improve their productivity and welfare, would also be good partners. Such organizations could share their experiences and the lessons learned. Similarly, organizations that have been working closely with female farmers or others in the agricultural sector would provide good links because of their experiences with their own projects. IFAD, for example, has supported many rural women’s economic activities in Africa and has given full recognition to female farmers. The British Council is also actively involved in building information communities in Africa (see Annex 10).

International bodies could complement the work of ongoing and planned initiatives, as these bodies have been involved in various activities that need to be systematically implemented for greater impact. These bodies include the FAO, which supports the improvement of agriculture and the betterment of the lives of rural people and has a historical and major role to play in helping rural communities realize the benefits of ICTs. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and its agricultural research centres should participate, as they were pioneers in the adoption of modern ICTs in Africa and have useful lessons to impart. The Special Programme on African Agricultural Research collaborates with regional and national organizations to develop regional frameworks for action and would be useful in the role of a participating agency. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA), whose mission is to provide African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries with better access to information for their agricultural and rural development, initiated the Committees for Regional Agricultural Information Programmes and Strategies. These could contribute their wealth of information and experience in delivering information to rural communities, to avoid repeating past mistakes.

• Some of the regional bodies capable of playing a major role are the following:
• Intergovernmental Authority on Development;
• Institut du Sahel (institute of Sahel);
• Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA);
• Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), which developed a proposal for an integrated information program for agricultural and rural development in eastern Africa, with the support of CTA;
• Southern African Centre for Cooperation in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Training (SACCAR), which developed a proposal for the Integrated Agricultural Information Programme for Southern Africa, with support from CTA; and
• Conférence des responsables de recherche agricole en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre (conference of agricultural researchers in West and Central Africa), which has been working on a proposal like those of SACCAR, ASARECA, and IOC.
•   Professional associations with potential in this area include the following:
•  International Association of Agricultural Information Specialists;
•  Association for Farming Systems Research Extension, which held its 1998 international symposium in South Africa; and
• Other international, regional, and national associations.
• Professional associations like these can bring together the various players, including those engaged in the production and dissemination of agricultural information.
• National agricultural research and extension systems and the private sector will also be key players in ensuring increased agricultural productivity.

Implications of policy for the broader use of ICTs

In a paper on policy constraints, Jensen (1997, p. 13) noted that the poor level of telecommunications facilities in Africa is due largely to policy factors and is “the most critical inhibiting element” in agricultural development. The prerequisites for female farmers to have access to, and benefit from, available information are the formulation of appropriate supportive policies and regulations to empower women, adequate resource allocations, telecommunications infrastructures, and the awareness of the potentials of ICTs. However, change cannot happen without political will and good governance.

African governments need to understand the importance of a communication infrastructure that reaches remote parts of every country. Progress is being made, and African leaders are committed to journeying into the information age. African ministers of communications met in Cape Town in February 1998 and mapped out programs to develop a rural telecommunications policy, a regulatory framework, and human resources (Naidoo 1998). However, women should have greater representation in policy-making bodies so they can press for the use of gender-inclusive language in agricultural, information, and telecommunications policies.

Governments will have to formulate appropriate policies and be committed to bringing policy discussions to the forefront, with the participation of all the stakeholders. At present, the regulations are rigid; telecommunication tariffs and import duties on information-technology equipment are high; and the economic planners fail to fully appreciate the role of information in transforming the economy. Also lacking in most African countries is a competitive environment to stimulate the provision of affordable services using modern ICTs. The need to liberalize markets to encourage competition cannot be overemphasized.

• Technology standards also need to be harmonized to ensure compatibility and cooperation all over Africa and beyond. Policies must be formulated to

•  Encourage adoption of ICTs;

• Reduce telecommunications costs;

• Ensure an adequately qualified and skilled workforce (including women) to operate and maintain the new technologies; and

• Give priority to the relevance and added value of the content.

Discussion, conclusion, and recommendations

Africa needs to use every available method to maximize the use of technologies to step up food production. In addition, governments in Africa need to agree on a general ICT strategy and help to implement it. Modern ICTs can promote agricultural development on a much greater scale than traditional ICTs can. E-mail and CD-ROMs have brought many benefits to urban communities in Africa, and recipients of services, including female farmers, cannot help but enter the information age. Telecentres in urban communities may serve as one-stop shops, where the rural population can use telephone, fax, and e-mail services and have access to resources from other locations, such as libraries and centres for distance learning, telemedicine, and agricultural and government information. However, conducive policies and the harmonious development of a reliable telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas are crucial to the realization of positive effects. The implementing agencies’ approach to introducing telecentres must stimulate local participation, build awareness of the potential benefits of ICTs, support needs assessments, and help build a user base. To ensure that ICTs address women’s needs and constraints, women must participate in the decision-making process used to set up the system.

Women carry out most of the work in rural areas. They therefore need to learn more technical and organizational skills and be at the centre of decision-making. This is why it is so important to keep rural women informed and provide avenues for them to reach consensus. Sustainable agricultural production requires the full participation of rural female farmers, and therefore mechanisms need to be in place to facilitate the communication process and allow the voices of rural female farmers to be heard. The challenges in rural areas will be to improve the accessibility of information and to increase the quality and quantity of information to be exchanged.

To ensure the relevance of African extension research, information on new agricultural technologies and market information should be repackaged in a format and language appropriate for rural women. Information must also be affordable. Undertaking this could create a number of jobs, reduce rural–urban migration, and reverse the brain drain in some African countries. Building skills to identify, write, and produce such repackaged information should be a priority for every African country.

Institution-strengthening and capacity-building are also important. Information officers who staff the community telecentres (preferably women) should have the skills to handle the available technologies. They should therefore receive adequate and relevant training to assist people visiting the telecentres. It is also important to note that a critical mass of staff is needed to make an impact and that the telecentres will require aggressive promotion.

The rural population, particularly women, will need exposure to new ICTs and training, if these technologies are to be used to enhance development. The elite rural women and some female leaders will require training in computers, information technology, and communication and management skills. It may initially take time to build up demand for modern ICTs, but this can be speeded up by creating awareness and instituting promotion campaigns, along with training. The retention of trained personnel needs to be addressed, and a monitoring and evaluation system is also needed.

To be sustainable, the use of modern ICTs as development tools must be introduced in response to the needs of rural female farmers and under the guidance of an ICT policy. All stakeholders will have to support this process and collaborate in it. All stakeholders should bear the operating and maintenance costs to ensure that the projects do not end up as “white elephants” when donor funding ceases.

Changing the land-tenure systems, adopting ICTs, providing training facilities, feasible financial services, information sources, and supportive policies, and allocating resources cannot individually solve all the problems of the rural female farmer. All the various approaches of the stakeholders must be integrated. This should be directed not only to empowering the agricultural producer but also to ensuring that increased productivity is sustainable. Rural female farmers need to be determined to solve their own problems, proactive in seeking solutions, and keen to adopt appropriate ICTs, rather than shying away from them.

The challenge to heads of state and government leaders will be to establish the political will and good governance to formulate policies to make ICTs more accessible. H. Norton, FAO Representative in Kenya, said that “only heads of state and government leaders are in a position to set policy for all sectors of their national economies. Only they have the clout” (Were 1996, p. 7). Fraser and Villet (1994, p. 7) stated that “the use of communication no longer depends on the availability of technology: it depends on the will and decisions of policy makers to exploit its potential.”

Development agencies, governments, and the private sector therefore need to work harmoniously to design projects for ICTs or incorporate ICT components into agricultural-development programs and projects in the rural areas. When deciding which communication medium or ICT to use, the program or project planner needs to consider the specific requirements of a given community.

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Annex 1: United Nations Economic Commission
for Africa

ECA has taken the lead in assisting African countries to overcome the information and technology gap and launched AISI to this end. This is an action framework to build Africa’s information and communication infrastructure. The framework outlines the development of Internet nodes and services in Africa. The ECA Conference of African Ministers responsible for economic and social development and planning adopted this initiative in 1996. ECA is also working closely with UNESCO, IDRC, the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union, and other agencies and partners. AISI helps African countries develop action plans to establish information systems and services and national ICT infrastructure plans and projects.

ECA is also trying to coordinate donor groups and give them guidance to avoid duplication of effort. IDRC, USAID, and the Government of the Netherlands have supported ECA’s efforts to promote connectivity in Africa since 1989. With Dutch funding, the commission has been setting up low-cost nodes in eight African countries, and with funding from IDRC, it has been supporting connectivity work in the greater Horn of Africa.

Annex 2: International Development Research Centre

IDRC launched the Acacia Initiative in 1997 to empower communities in SSA through the use od ICTs to facilitate access to information and thereby enhance economic and social development. The program was piloted in Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda, and its issues include policies, ICTs and their application, and telecommunications infrastructure. Acacia focuses on the community and ensures a process of continuous learning.

Acacia will also look at the content issue and use appropriate ICTs to assist in building and disseminating critical and relevant information for African communities. Acacia has been setting up multipurpose telecentres in rural and disadvantaged communities in Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Uganda and is particularly interested in involving women and youth groups. It has been working with the Telecommunications Foundation for Africa, other partners, such as ECA and CABI, donor and technical agencies, international organizations, NGOs, CBOs, public and private bodies, and institutional groups in local communities. Its aims are to connect rural communities, establish telecentres, and explore the capability of telecentre models to meet the needs of the users and generate income.

The Acacia Initiative also supports research on the introduction of ICTs in SSA. Research topics include youth, gender, and technology research and development; social and political impacts; and human-resource development. IDRC continuously monitors and evaluates the initiative for feedback and correction. The reports of the various studies commissioned by Acacia have focused on rural development, agriculture, education, health, youth, and gender (IDRC 1999).

The IDRC-funded Capacity Building for Electronic Communication in Africa project has established the first public-access nodes and strengthened others in more than 30 countries in SSA.

Annex 3: UNDP’s Sustainable Development
Networking Programme

SDNP focuses on creating SHD. SDNP resulted from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Environmental and economic leaders at the summit agreed that a key component of a sustainable future would be early access to and deliberate sharing of information and expertise among all nations. SDNP is an intersectoral network and has linked government organizations, NGOs, the private sector, universities, and individuals in about 40 developing countries (10 of these in Africa). SDNP enables the exchange of vital information and expertise through electronic and other networking links.

SDNP uses ICTs (such as e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, fax, phone) and posters and supports decision-makers and other stakeholders on SHD issues. SDNP has built up awareness of the Internet in several African countries and has been instrumental in developing the demand and market for the Internet. The program has also identified national and global sources of information, created national directories, and provided access to reliable information on a regular basis through electronic networks.

SDNP lays heavy emphasis on national capacity-building, particularly training of trainers, and has helped create the African Internet Forum (AIF). This forum aims to ensure the strategic collaboration of independent donors in the development of sustainable Internet communication infrastructures. This is to be achieved through sharing of information, focused project implementation, and support to existing efforts of indigenous Internet service providers (ISPs). AIF works on Internet-policy issues through national and regional meetings, encouraging grass-roots support for access to the Internet. It works with the private and public sectors to increase the demand for and supply of Internet services. AIF also facilitates Internetworking in Africa.

Each member country has a node, and SDNP provides seed money for 2 or 3 years to enable the node to build its user community and to shift from external to local financing. Each SDNP is country owned and has a national coordinator and steering committee. The country office of UNDP provides guidance in the formation of the steering committee. At the Joint Sustainable Development Networking Programme and Internet Initiative for Africa Regional Workshop, held on 15–19 December 1997, in Maputo, Mozambique, SDNP and IIA were challenged to pay more attention to grass-roots communities and find ways for the projects to sustain themselves after the project period.

Annex 4: UNDP’s Internet Initiative for Africa

IIA is a UNDP participatory initiative operating in Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, the Gambia, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Principe, Swaziland, Togo, and Zaire — 12 countries in SSA. The implementing agencies are mostly private-sector and national institutions that have established Internet services and enhanced current Internet services to strengthen economic and social development. IIA is working to ensure access to reliable and up-to-date information for sound decision-making and aims to establish information and decision-support systems to enhance SHD-policy formulation, using the Internet. IIA has established links with African governments, ECA’s AISI, SDNP, the United Nation’s Special Initiative on Africa (a program to harness information technology for development by building the infrastructure needed to construct the Africa information society), and UNDP country offices. The hope is that these organizations and programs will become full partners in building and facilitating the capacity of the present and future generations of Africans to use ICTs.

IIA is using UNDP country offices as focal points for activities; communicating with and coordinating governments, NGOs, academics, and private-sector organizations to establish Internet services; and using SDNP coordinators wherever they can help and complement each other’s efforts. The project will run for 3 years from 1997, and half of the funds are expected to come from governments and UNDP country offices.

Annex 5: Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations

FAO has pilot projects using communication-for-development methodologies in Chile and Mexico. It has developed partnerships with other organizations and local people, and together they have used traditional ICTs like radio and video to assist local people in developing indigenous communication processes.

FAO is developing a rural Internet approach for rural agricultural communities. It has worked in collaboration with the Department of Rural Extension Studies, University of Guelph, Canada, to support an Electronic Communication and Information Systems fact-finding mission. The mission interviewed many Internet supporters and pioneers. FAO is collaborating with partners to implement Internet pilot projects for rural development. The strategy is to promote policies for rural development and establish Internet pilot projects to develop indigenous applications for youth and women. The pilot projects also support the rural and agricultural education sector, local ISPs, and local Internet entrepreneurs; help develop Internet capability; create Internet awareness in the rural agricultural community; and build local capacity.

Annex 6: United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization

The Regional Informatics Network for Africa is a UNESCO initiative funded by Italy and North Korea. It was launched in 1992. The network is active in 30 UNESCO member countries, with focal points in universities and research centres. The participating countries obtain support in the form of equipment, training, and building connectivity.

UNESCO has established pilot multipurpose community telecentres in various countries, including Benin, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda, with the goal of taking Internet connectivity beyond their capital cities. The project came to an end in 1997, but some countries, such as Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, received extensions. The network links with SDNP, Leland, and other similar initiatives in Africa.

UNESCO has established centres of excellence in Gabon, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe to create a network for cooperative development of training programs and support the creation of national centres of excellence. UNESCO also runs the Intergovernmental Informatics Programme, a global informatics program with regional and continental programs for Africa.

In 1994, UNESCO, in cooperation with African specialists, started experimental rural centres in some Central and West African countries to advance knowledge, reduce illiteracy, and ensure the circulation of ideas among people in rural areas, no matter what their level of education. These centres have blended into local networks and use both traditional and modern ICTs. The program covers all sectors and gives particular attention to self-sufficiency, reliability of food supplies, health, education, democracy, and women in society.

Annex 7: Environmental Liaison Centre International

ELCI is a network of more than 900 NGOs and CBOs in more than 100 countries. ELCI is working for a more sustainable world through a global process of sharing ideas, information, and experience with development in the environmental sector. Many of ELCI’s NGOs and CBOs are in Africa, where ELCI has been operating a node at its headquarters, using Fido software, which is designed to work where phone lines are not very reliable. This technology is good for the rural areas; unfortunately, it does not provide access to the Internet. The centre is planning to establish electronic post offices to assist CBOs in using electronic communications, with some 10–20 CBOs sharing one post office. One organization in Loitoktok, Kenya, has been identified to serve as an electronic post office, and ELCI is currently looking for appropriate software.

Annex 8: Telecentres

Telecentres were introduced in Scandinavia in the 1980s to use information technology and telecommunications facilities to address some of the problems experienced in small, isolated communities. Users receive technical support and training, and community committees manage the centres. The concept has spread to rural areas in Australia, Brazil, Canada, some European countries, South Africa, and the United States. Many of these centres are now self-sustaining.

In Australia, the government established its telecentres program in 1992. The community manages the telecentres, and various organizations work together and build on what is available through self-help, with a view to developing various sectors of the community through access to information. The focus is on improving farm and business management and increasing local employment. These centres provide information on efficient marketing, improved production, sustainably increased yields, health, and other relevant and appropriate topics, and the centres are linked to many other information services and telecentres. They have helped to curb illiteracy and have proven very popular as learning centres. Many rural people with little education have started to study again at these centres.

In South Africa, multipurpose community centres have appeared in rural, isolated, and remote areas to serve as shared information and communication facilities. In addition to information technology and telecommunications facilities, these centres also provide user support and training for community members who cannot afford to install their own facilities and for individuals who lack the skills to use the tools. Specialized personnel who operate the centres also work as facilitators for distance-learning programs, as managers and operators of the services, and as technicians who maintain the equipment. These centres have been widely accepted. Their numbers are increasing at all levels of the public and private sectors.

In the rest of Africa, rural telecentres might also collect from farmers and cooperatives information on available products, local market prices, new crops and technologies, and indigenous knowledge. This information could then be repackaged and disseminated more widely. Governments could use ICTs such as e-mail and the Internet to promptly update farmers on prevailing government policies and services and new skills and techniques, and farmers could then use e-mail or other ICTs to send queries to government departments for details or clarification. Farmers could obtain advice on sowing, harvesting, processing, and marketing their produce, rather than off-loading their goods at throw-away prices in the local markets. Buyers could also use ICTs for prices information.

ICTs will pave the way for dialogue between researchers and rural communities; for teleconferences to enable female farmers to participate in decision-making and policy formulation; and for bridges between urban and rural dwellers. Other communication methods, such as meetings, conferences, and social gatherings, can still be expected to complement the new services offered at telecentres, and the telecentres themselves might become centres of business and community activity.

Annex 9: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria hosts a project to facilitate information exchange in support of AISI. The Centre for Information Society Development in Africa established CSIR in 1997. It serves as the Secretariat for the Global Collaboratory for Information Society Development in Africa. Its objectives include assisting with the implementation of AISI, Internet connectivity, and democratization of access to information. In conjunction with the University of Witwatersrand, CSIR is developing the Building a Telecentre Network for Africa to facilitate information exchange between various African telecentre projects (CSIR 1999).

Annex 10: British Council

The British Council held a 3-day conference on Building the Information Community in Africa in Pretoria, on 22–25 February 1999. Supported by IDRC, the British Council, and other development agencies, the conference focused on the use of ICTs at the community level in Africa. The event was to provide a forum for African ICT practitioners to exchange information with each other and with the development community (Jensen 1998b).

¹ G. Phiri, Malawian scientist, CAB International, Nairobi, Kenya, personal communication, Dec 1997. Return

² T. Alfaro, National Coordinator, SDNP, Maputo, Mozambique, personal communication, Dec 1997. Return

³ P. Nyirenda, Head, Department of Physics and Electronics, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, and National Coordinator, SDNP, Malawi, personal communication, Dec 1997. Return

⁴ S. Lanfranco, IDRC, Ottawa, ON, Canada, personal communication, 1997. Return

⁵ Cochrane, J.A. 1997. Case study for the Integrated Pest Management Information Communications Workshop. AfricaLink, Arlington, VA, USA. Draft. 2 Return

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