You moved me to get out of my lurk. it was only yesterday that I wrote the subject line above down as an action point in the Moree International Conference on Human Security - more information on this appended below. The next phase of this process is on June 24, 2005. An international workshop on the theme "Community Informatics and Poverty Reduction: Linking Local Development and Macro Policy". I would supply more information on this conference soon.
Amos. Amos Anyimadu Lead Paper by DCE, Abura, Asebu, Kwamankese District, Ghana Thu Jun 3, 2004 13:38 62.56.152.195 SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE DISTRICT CHIEF EXECUTIVE FOR ABURA-ASEBU-KWAMANKESE DISTRICT, HON. ANDREW K. MENSAH, AT THE ACCRA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTER ON 3RD JUNE, 2004 Mr. Chairman, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, to a gathering like this, I need not emphasize the contribution that the new Information and Communication Technology can make to wealth creation. Poverty is the unfortunate situation in which over 40% of Ghanaians live. In my district, the poverty rate is above 60%. The Government, in its Information and Communication Technology for Advanced Development [ICT4AD] policy, has set a stage for the creative application of ICT to varied aspects of development in Ghana today. In my district, Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese [AAK], our Medium-Term Development Plan, 2002 � 2004, in the context with the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy, puts significant emphasis on information and telecommunication. The assembly has a policy to extend information and communication facilities to all nooks and cranny of the district. This is in recognition of the immense global contribution ICT can make to wealth creation. 1. Mr. Chairman, all these processes point to the potential of ICTs as wealth generating engines. What do we have to do to make this potential real? This is the challenge that the Assembly, my office and the people in the Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese District now face on a day-to-day basis. SEAMLESS INTEGRATION In Abura-Asebu-Asamankese District, we have been thinking hard about translating ICT potentials into dividends. We are investing significant sums in VSAT technology and connectivity. We are preparing ourselves now to ensure that these high technologies put money in our pockets from day one and for the power of computing to pay even when not on line. Dr. Amos Anyimadu, a son of the District, has suggested that we call this approach seamless integration. We accept. However, he is responsible for any difficult academic queries ensuing. We want to harness the power of the computing revolution in real, rural conditions. We intend to deploy the full advantage of multimedia computing whether we are on line or not. We shall be online as well as on site. We intend to deal in clicks and bits as well as brick and mortar. In practical terms, we intend to approach the networked computer as a re-diffusion box. We are digitalizing audio and video information from our district to be made available for selected communication centers, which operate public WLL phones in our towns and villages, which we shall designate as AAKINFO points. From my own office we have begun steps toward the paperless office through the modest use of scanning technology and common-sense filing systems. We seek a seamless integration of high and low technology, online and offline, within our condition. POTENTIAL OF AAK DISTRICT My district is richly endowed. It has over 90,093 able-bodied persons brimming with lots of intelligence. It has very rich arable land with rivulets watering them. My District is the leading cultivator of citrus in Ghana, with an emerging, important international trade. We cultivate oil palm, cocoa and much of the foodstuff produced in the Central Region. In spite of all these, my district is very poor, that is, the people are very poor. We intend to make the adoption of ICT turn the fortunes of the district around. Currently many people view my district as a poor coastal district with inadequate resources. This is not the case. We span from the coast through the low savanna, to the forest area. We can market ourselves through ICT and entice strategic investors. With ICT, we can demonstrate, in true multimedia, to the global consumers of our citrus products - and we are already global, we are going to become even more so with an investment of over two million dollars in processing capacity by our private sector � that our oranges are well and truly organic, an important consideration in our global, niche market. My district assembly has confidence in ICT as a poverty reduction intervention. We also view it as a modern technology for Information dissemination desirable by all and sundry. We have, therefore, made it a policy to be a pacesetter in ICT among the 12 districts in the Central Region, and since the region is clearly the leader in rural telematics in Ghana, in Ghana as a whole. In addition to our significant investment in ICT, we are building a telecentre at Abura Dunkwa. The housing for this is estimated at around �300m and has been contracted out. On completion, the telecentre shall provide all the equipment that will make it a fully-fledged ICT Center. I wish to canvas for support from all ICT lovers, NGOs, traditional as well as new development partners to come to the aid of the AAK District Assembly to make this dream come true. We must recognize investment in ICT as a crucial investment in poverty alleviation, as His Excellency the Vice President stated in Bolgatanga a few days ago, according to today�s Ghanaweb.com. Our donor partners must move beyond considering ICT as a special, experimental case to mainstreaming ICT development investment. Besides establishing the telecentre at Abura Dunkwa, the district capital, we intend, to begin with, establishing another subsidiary centre at Moree. The town has a population of over 17,000. It is one of the prominent fishing centers along the coast of Ghana. This center, when established, will be serviced from Aggrey Memorial Zion Secondary School, which we consider the university of the district, which has a dependable V-Sat facility, and which is less than three kilometers from Moree. The telecentre will serve as ICT learning point for the youth in the district in particular, and in the region in general. With the youth gaining insight into ICT, I believe they can find themselves employment through the various facets of the new technologies. By extending these services across the district, knowledge will spread to those areas. Our district will then become closer to other parts of the world. The opportunities offered will, we firmly believe, generate wealth for all. Learning Society. In effect, Mr. Chairman, we seek to build a learning, knowledge society in AAK. We are preparing for the net in a self-aware manner. The Assembly and my office are determined to deploy the advantages of the new technologies within a full view of the development challenges we face. This is why I am happy to announce here now the beginning in earnest of the Moree International Conference on Human Development (MICHD). Moree is the largest town in our district, the origin of fishing in Ghana and the largest artisanal fishing base in Ghana today. MICHD 2004 would be held in the last quarter of 2004 and would focus on the complex relationships that must exist between local development and macro policy. I look forward to welcoming all of you to Moree to see what the Millennium Development Goals, for example, look like from a real, local perspective. The MICHD process has already become a key part of our ongoing attempts to make the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy a live, including annual, document. We intend to use advantages from the MICHD in our strategic response to the purposeful collaboration of public, private and non government sectors initiated by the United Nations Development Programme and Institute of Democratic Governance in the last few months. In all this, we are grateful to have the support in technology foresight and social analysis of the Technology Assessment Project of the University of Ghana. Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, AAK is confidently approaching the net. By the time we deploy our own VSAT in the next few months it would be no more than an insertion into an already alive process of using the micro electronics and networking revolution at the heart of modern telematics to aggressively transform the sweet oranges of Nyanfeku Ekroful, lets say, into gold in the pockets of Kojo Mensah in the tro tro going to Abakrampa. Mr Chairman, I thank you. On Tue, 10 May 2005 11:52:55 +0100, "Ross Gardler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Pamela McLean wrote: > > Ross Gardler wrote: > > > >> Remember that bandwidth need not be a live Internet connection. I > >> recently passed a Compact Flash containing a number of key > >> presentations from IT Conversations to a colleague in rural Guyana. > >> > >> In his village he doesn't even have a computer, let alone an Internet > >> connection. Yet that lack of bandwidth does not limit him with > >> podcasting, he'll be using an MP3 player to listen to the podcasts and > >> will be using what he learns from them to convince the village > >> community that they need an IT Centre. > > > > > > > > Ross > > > > Would this information be appropriate to share with the community in > > Ago-Are - to give them a clearer vision of the potential of their > > InfoCentre? > > The particular info I was mentioning is all IT related stuff. So I doubt > that it will be applicabe to the Ago-Are community. However, as I > mention in a subsequent mail there should be other items that are more > applicabe to the community in Ago-Are. > > > They do have computers (not very high spec but some do include sound). > > Could the info go to them on a CD?. > > Yes > > > What are the accents like? How fast do the contributors speak? i.e. How > > well must my Ago-Are people understand English to make sense of it? (The > > people I have in mind to listen can understand my English - but not if I > > speak too fast - i.e my usual rate...). > > This is not an issue for Guyana (English speaking). For something like > the BBC West Way series it is designed for non-english speakers. > > It would be great if someone with a media bent could create a set of > dramatisations on key subjects (such as HIV/AIDS) in an accessible form. > Something along the lines of the BBC World Serice WestWay series > (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/features/westway/index.shtml ) > > They get around the problem of being understandable by having lots of > characters that are not native English speakers. Hence they speak in > understandable ways. > > DOes anyone know a drama or media student looking for a final year > project to do? > > > By the way does this renewed activity mean that the floods have gone > > down and life is getting a little easier there in Guyana now - I hope > > so...... > > To an extent. The floods have gone, but the damage is still being > repaired. > > Ross > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Amos Anyimadu [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
