Dear Meddie: I noted your recent comments concerning the CMCs. It seems to me that if some African universities could be "reinvented", they could make a significant contribution to the CMCs. Working with a colleague at the World Bank, we've laid out the approach described in the attachment. Apparently NEPAD may soon endorse this idea. We would like very much to see Telecenters.com support this initiative. It could be a model for other African countries and put universities more firmly into the ICT4D movement.
Best wishes, Roy Colle *********************************************************** USING ICTs FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT Overview This 3-5 year University ICT for Development (U-ICT4D) project is aimed at building a university-based, rural-oriented communication, information and knowledge-sharing system in four countries, tentatively identified as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. In the system, universities and other higher education institutions will incubate local community-operated telecenters and, through them, reach out to support the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) and the Millennium Development Goals. The intent of the project is to institutionalize the system and to make its subsystems sustainable within their various national contexts. The basic design In each of the selected nations, the U-ICT4D project will mobilize a network of universities. Each university will associate with a group of community telecenters (the subsystem) which may pre-exist or be incubated by the university. The telecenters will serve as mechanisms for extending localized knowledge, information, and training especially to the agricultural and rural populations. The telecenters will be places where people can obtain various kinds of training, get "on-line", and use a variety of ICT services ranging from telephones to computers. Under some circumstances it might be a meeting place for farmers and extension agents. The universities¹ role in the system will be to help in providing localized, relevant content and supporting telecenters staffing through the involvement of students as interns and volunteers. The university will also support telecenters with relevant research studies such as community information needs analysis and evaluation. The challenge for African universities Harvard's Professor Calestous Juma recently asserted that "[Africa] needs a new generation of universities that can serve as engines of both community development and social renewal. The task ahead is not simply one of raising more funds. It will require deliberate efforts by governments, academia, business and civil society to reinvent higher education and put it to the service of the African people. To achieve this, a qualitative change in the goals, functions and structure of the university is needed." [Emphasis added.] With the exception of technical connectivity issues, computer training, and distance learning courses for college level students, the record of higher education in using information and communication technologies for development is dismal. The record of university involvement with ICTs and the Millennium Development Goals also is virtually invisible. In regard to supporting and helping sustain community telecenters, universities are widely perceived as irrelevant -- if they are even considered at all. A recent two year study commissioned by the World Bank and UNESCO concluded that the contribution of higher education to social and economic development in developing countries has been "disappointing to date" including a failure to advance the public interest. One of the major obstacles is that "the social and economic importance of higher education systems is insufficiently appreciated (p.93). Communication and African development U-ICT4D cuts across the four pillars of the CAADP, which frequently addresses communication-related issues such as promoting awareness, training, technology transfer, and adoption. However CAADP does not significantly address the issue of reaching the end-user. Thus U-ICT4D is an appropriate complement to CAADP. The employment of telecenters to provide agricultural communities with access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) links those communities to local and world wide science and research-based expertise that can support initiatives such as the Multi-country Agricultural Productivity Programme (MAPP), the Pan African Cassava Initiative, the Pan African NERICA (rice) Initiative and the Fish Sector Development Programme. This project will provide an important link between the agricultural research network in Africa and a significant group of end-users -- the farmer and fishing communities. ICTs provide a unique complement to agricultural extension. Farmers can search for specific information when it is most appropriate to the farmer's needs and often in a user-friendly form. Experience in other countries demonstrate that ICTs can be instrumental in * motivating and training farmers * farmers' awareness of best values and locations for obtaining inputs * farmers' awareness of the best markets and locations for selling their goods * farmers' awareness of market trends and government policies * technology transfer * countering corruption in the marketplace * providing information related to rural families' welfare (education, health, social programs) One of the roles of universities in UICT4D will be to tailor information and training aspects of the CAADP initiatives to the needs, opportunities and culture of each participating country. The project will cooperate with existing agricultural extension systems by extending their reach through partnerships with the community-based telecenters. The objectives The specific objective of U-ICT4D is to build ICT-for-development capacity in a group of African universities so that they can contribute to agricultural productivity and farmer welfare. As a by-product, the project will provide a model for reinventing universities in other African nations. The sub-components of the objective are: * demonstrate innovative information and communication technology systems for rural development; * develop mechanisms to enable free flow of information and knowledge within and between universities using cost effective communication technologies; * develop locally relevant multi-disciplinary content for rural population suitable for multi-media dissemination * develop a range of ICT applications which strengthen the participating universities' outreach and extension programs aimed at male and female rural populations; and to * pilot successful models from other countries to use universities as incubators for community telecenters Expected outputs/results Following are the expected outputs: * Creation of Centers of Excellence in the participating African countries to support ICT for development activities -- including production of educational and training materials, collaborative research, and exchange of information, knowledge and experience; * A model curriculum and learning materials for ICT-for-agriculture and rural development academic and training programs; * A cadre of trained ICT for rural development "champions" on the staffs of the participating universities; * An explicit policy and program at each participating university for recruiting degree students and in-service training candidates in ICT-for-rural development courses and workshops. * A consortium of African agricultural/technology universities to collaborate with a North American university consortium in ICT-for-development programs. * A sustainable group of community-based telecenters to serve as a complement to conventional extension operations. * An inventory of CAADP-related multi-media materials Action plan Following are the actions that will lead to the targeted results: Planning 1. Planning consultations in Africa involving World Bank and Cornell University representatives, leaders representing CAADP and national Millennium Development Goals officials, university officials, and appropriate government representatives. 2. Research on information needs of population groups (with special attention to the needs of women) and plan for periodic evaluations. University capacity building 3. Create a Center of Excellence at a lead university in each country to serve as a support unit for other participating universities, and develop an inter-university networking system. 4. Training and orientation programs for university "ICT champions". 5. Creation of appropriate ICT4D facilities in each university. 6. Design of a "master" ICT4D curriculum, and adaptation by partner universities in each country. 7. Design of internships and other "beyond the university" telecenter experiences for students. 8. Design and develop multi-year ICT4D and agricultural development research programs with attendant competitive funding. 9. Production of a basic inventory of outreach materials (in collaboration with the Centers of Excellence) for rural populations. Telecenters network 10. Build partnerships with existing telecenters or incubate new ones. 11. Train telecenter staffs in entrepreneurial and information management skills. 12. Establish standards of performance. Indicative budget USD 4 million Implementation period The announcement of U-ICT4D should be timed to coincide with the World Summit on the Information Society (Part 2) in Tunis, November 2005. U-ICT4D will be implemented over a three year period by a joint partnership between ARD in collaboration with Sustainable Agriculture, Knowledge and Institutions (SASKI), e-Development thematic groups in the World Bank and Cornell University's Institute for African Development. Depending on results, the U-ICT4D may be extended to five years. PLANNING -- FIRST STEPS The following steps need to be taken to move into project implementation: 1. Identify candidate countries and lead universities in those countries through consultation within the Bank and with African programs at US universities. 2. Organize 2-day workshops with appropriate preparation and in-country follow-up in each of the countries, with invitations to such stakeholders as other universities, government leaders, representatives of agricultural research centers, and other indigenous organizations with interests in community and rural development. This step should yield a roster of participating universities and other supportive stakeholders, including potential hosts for telecenters. 3. Contract with the African lead universities to organize and conduct information needs analysis studies in representative regions of their countries. 4. Conduct ICT and human resources analyses at each participating university to determine ICT resources and facilities needs as well as training needs for staff. This step will yield an inventory of needs and plan to meet the needs. 5. Organize a multi-national conference of relevant academic people to develop curriculum and outreach plans, and assess needs for implementing the educational component of the program, including the training of telecenter staffs. 6. Build time-table for implementation, including expected outcomes through the 3-year project. Contact persons S. Janakiram Champion, ICT for Rural Development SASKI thematic group The World Bank Washington, DC 20433 Telephone: (202) 473 6855 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] R. D. Colle Institute for African Development Cornell University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Telephone 607-255-2113 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
