[GKD] Unearthing ICT4D Potentials
Dear GKD Members, Community Radios in Uganda witnessed progress at building impact at the grassroots on Friday 8th June 05 last week, when they dominated the UNICEF's International children's Broadcasting Day awards. The competition which assessed the best dramatic program and participatory programming, was carried out on 12th December 2004 under the auspices of UNICEF and attracted the participation of a number of both commercial and community radios. The one day's 4-hour program was entirely a children's show, built on specific thematic issues, under the directorship of the radio managers. After all the results were analyzed, Nabweru Community Radio had lifted the first position trophy for Dramatic program and second position trophy for Participatory Programming with a cash prize of one million three hundred and forty thousand shillings (1,340,000/= equivalent to $ 755). On the other hand Apac Community Radio took the alternate position trophies for the competition with the same cash prize, leaving nothing for the commercial radios which participated. The Manager of Nabweru believes this was a milestone for community radio, more especially as the issues of sustainability and relevancy of ICTs in community development dominate current chat rooms of development agencies. The questions that remain for us to ponder, is whether such competitions can be copied? How? How often? At what levels? In your opinion do you think it is worthwhile for ICT4D? We will be glad to share your opinion on the List. Thanks, Sarah For -- Secretariat UgaBYTES Initiative Plot 30 Kampala Road 5th Floor - GreenLand Tower opposite Bank of Uganda P.O.Box 6081 Kampala-Uganda [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check our website: http://www.ugabytes.org ***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/
[GKD] ICT Use Has Improved in Uganda
UGANDA'S ICT USE HAS IMPROVED, ACCORDING TO THE WORLD BANK REPORT According to the 2004/2005 Global Information Technology report released of recent, Uganda improved it's position by three places from 80th in the year 2003/2004 report to 77th now. However, Kenya emerged as the most improved East African country moving from position 84th to 75th and Tanzania moving backwards from it's hither-to leading position 71st to 83rd. Uganda's embrace of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has improved over the last one year but the country still occupies a distant place in the world ranking. It's widely seen that in the next couple of years, Uganda would be moving closer in the world rankings considering more funding by the donors in the ICT projects. With a total coverage of 104 economies covered worldwide, the report ranks Singapore as the top economy in exploiting global ICT developments, replacing the US for the first time in three years. -- Secretariat UgaBYTES Initiative P.O.Box 6081 Kampala-Uganda [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check our website: www.ugabytes.org ___ Ugabytes mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_ugabytes.org ***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/
[GKD] Community Radio Window Launched (Africa)
COMMUNITY RADIO WINDOW LAUNCHED! Looking for information from and for Community Radio? Soul Beat Africa has launched a new feature on the website - a Community Radio Window - focusing on experiences, strategic thinking, materials, evaluations and other information related to community radio in Africa! Once you have entered the Window, identified by the blue coloured left navigation bar, everything you view will be related to community radio. You can browse each of the sections, and find information from the Soul Beat Africa network about community radio. http://www.comminit.com/africa/community-radio/ Our easy to use search function in the upper left hand corner, or within each section can help you to further find the information that you are looking for. In this window you can find programme experiences such as descriptions of community radio stations, or programmes that have engaged with community stations. You will also find strategic thinking documents, and materials such as handbooks, reports and guides. The home page of the window can be customised to reflect your interests. To do this visit the following link, and follow the instructions provided: http://www.comminit.com/africa/community-radio/setkeys.cgi This is the second issue-oriented window launched by Soul Beat Africa to help users navigate the site and quickly find the information relevant to their interests (the first was our Edutainment Window). We invite everyone to contribute your own community radio information. We are happy to receive background documents or web links, our editors will create a write-up from this and check back with you for accuracy. Please contact Deborah Walter [EMAIL PROTECTED] Community radio information from and for Africa - visit the Community Radio Window http://www.comminit.com/africa/community-radio/ -- Secretariat UgaBYTES Initiative P.O.Box 6081 Kampala-Uganda [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check our website: www.ugabytes.org ___ Ugabytes mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_ugabytes.org ***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/
[GKD] ITU to Launch 100 Telecenters in Africa
The United Nations International Communications Union (ITU) is to establish a network of at least 100 MCTs (Multipurpose Community Telecenters), to provide communities with access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The project aims to enable the African communities to obtain the social and economic benefits that accrue from participation in the information society. Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are among 20 African countries that are to benefit from dozens of these female-directed community telephone and computer centers setup by the UN. These MCTs are to be managed by women which will enable them to actively participate in the development and decision-making process. This initiative is in partial fulfillment of the commitment made by 175 countries to a Plan of Action at the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to extend the benefits of ICTs to everyone in the world. ITU has already established four MCTs in Tanzania and Guinea Bissau that are now providing basic training in the use of computers and will soon supply other services such as public telephone, fax, Internet connectivity and basic information. Several African countries, including Benin, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia, requested help in fulfilling the first phase of the December 2003 Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society According to the director International Telecommunication Union Development (ITU), Hamadoun Toure, Multipurpose Community Telecenters (MCTs) are one of the most innovative and practical ways to bring the benefits of the information society to the people of Africa. Not only do they create employment and provide basic information services, they establish community focal points for e-education, e-health and e-governance initiatives through web-based multimedia contents. They also stimulate the development and growth of local businesses, as well as ICT skills among the local population, he said. The second stage of the World Summit on the Information Society will be held in November in Accra, Ghana. The three-day African preparatory meeting is to negotiate an action plan on achieving continent-wide distribution of communication technologies. -- Secretariat UgaBYTES Initiative P.O.Box 6081 Kampala-Uganda [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check our website: www.ugabytes.org ___ Ugabytes mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://ugabytes.org/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_ugabytes.org ***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/
[GKD] The African Youth Foundation Scholarship Award for ICT and Agriculture
The AYF Youth Award is a new annual educational scholarship award which will be awarded to an African Youth starting 2004/2005 academic year. This year's award ceremony will take place in Accra on the 22nd October 2004. To win this award, a Youth Project writing Contest on ICT and Agriculture is set in place to elicit and disseminate the views of African young people on the needs and benefits of ICT and Agriculture in Africa. If you are an African between the ages of 18 and 30, with a vision on how ICTs could help your generation and nation to create jobs and eradicate poverty, then participate in AYF's writing contest and get a reward for your efforts. The best project submitted on this topic will be the winner. The contributions of all contest winners will be published in a booklet by the AYF. The deadline for submitting papers is: 20th September 2004. Project papers could be submitted via email to the secretariat at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- AYF-News is hosted on Kabissa - Space for change in Africa To post, write to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/ayf-news -- Secretariat UgaBYTES Initiative P.O.Box 6081 Kampala-Uganda [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Check our website: www.ugabytes.org ___ Ugabytes mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://chiron.lunarpages.com/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_ugabytes.org ***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/
[GKD] Completing the Revolution: The Challenge of Rural Telephony in Africa
Dear GKD Members, In the midst of the current enthusiasm for ICTs for Development, it is often forgotten that most rural Africans do not yet even have access to telephones. Initiatives such as the World Summit on the Information Society aspire to bridge the digital divide in order to reduce poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, but this aim risks being undermined if basic telephone connectivity is not first made available. In most of rural Africa, there is only one telephone for every thousand people. It is true that the number of phones in Africa has risen enormously in the past decade, especially since liberalisation, but most of the new telephones are mobiles, and they are mostly in cities. For rural people, buying and using a mobile phone is very expensive -- a single call can cost as much as half the daily wage of an agricultural worker. This report, based on case studies from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia (click to download), argues that policy-makers should pay more attention to the challenge of providing telephones to rural people in Africa. If they do not, the development benefits of the information revolution will by-pass many of the world's poorest people. To read more or download the report, follow the link: http://www.panos.org.uk/resources/reportdetails.asp?id=1069 -- Secretariat UgaBYTES Initiative P.O.Box 6081 Kampala-Uganda [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] website:http://www.ugabytes.org ___ Ugabytes mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://chiron.lunarpages.com/mailman/listinfo/ugabytes_ugabytes.org ***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/
[GKD] Ugabytes: African ICT4D Newsletter
The African Quarterly Newsletter ** This is a quarterly newsletter http://www.ugabytes.org/newsletter.html Articles are part of the broad communication strategy of the UgaBYTES Initiative. The Quartely newletter is a peer support mechanism for the ICT for community development in Africa. To subscribe/unsubscribe send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Newsletter is managed by the UgaBYTES Initiative http://www.ugabytes.org ** In this First Issue: Engendering ICT in development For those involved in program development and implementation, this article profiling challenges and opportunities for inclusion of women in ICT programming at all levels in a must read. Probably until women play an active role in ICT shall we be able to cause meaningful ICT-driven development. ** Village Phone for Rural Folks In a bid to bring telecommunication facilities closer to the people in rural areas, MTN Uganda and Grameen Foundation of USA have introduced a new concept: The Village Phone. These Village Phone businesses can be established in areas where electricity is unavailable and in areas where the MTN network can only be accessed with a booster antenna. Users of the Village Phones enjoy a special tariff as compared to the rest of MTN subscribers. The Village Phone is both a business and a vital communication infrastructure especially that use of communication systems has grown several folds in urban centers of Uganda. This is a perfect opportunity to rural communities to use ICTs and make available affordable infrastructure for the same purpose. For more information http://www.mtnvillagephone.co.ug ** Tax Waiver on Computers Pays Off The Uganda national policy to develop ICT by waiving tax on computers appears to be paying off. A survey by BusinessWeek revealed that computer prices have since fallen by almost half while at the same time demand for the same products has shot up significantly. Schools, hitherto left out of the ICT bandwagon due to the high unit cost of computers have come on board as computers become more affordable. It is important that Uganda should not be left out of the development of information technology. I am therefore removing VAT [Value Added Tax] on computers and accessories to promote development of information technology, Finance Minister Gerald Ssendaula said while presenting the 2002/2003 budget to Parliament. For example, the price of used computers that ranged from Shs 350,000 to Shs 900,000 before the VAT waiver has fallen to between 250,000 to 700,000. New clones [locally assembled computers] that previously sold at between Shs 1.2 million and Shs 1.8million now go for as low as Shs 800,000. ìThis was a good move for the industry. It will surely increase the usage. The prices are going down every other day and this should surely increase the rate of computer literacy in the country,î said Mr Rahim Dhanani, managing director of Computer Empire. Nakubulwa Aidah, spokesperson for Dehezi International, dealers in computers and Internet Service Providers (ISP) says that the benefit of the tax waiver is trickling to all Ugandans albeit slowly. According to her, computers were still expensive for the average Ugandan. She however believes that with time, the country will reap the full benefit of the government policy. ìOn average, a person who used to save for about five months to buy a computer now only needs to save for only three months,î she says. She also says Internet traffic has increased owing to increased ownership of computers by companies and individuals. ** Minister launches ICT-Based Curriculum CD ROM The Uganda Minister of Education and Sports launched CD ROM based materials aimed at improving traditional teaching methods at the Uganda National Curriculum Development Center www.ncdc.go.ug on Friday March 26, 2004. The CD ROM developed under the CurriculumNet project presents educational content in a multi-media format support with video, audio and text. The CD ROM is useful for student-center learning approach. CurriculumNet was supported by IDRC under the Acacia program. ** Zimbabwe Telecenter holds training for teachers Lundi Park, the only World Links primary school telecenter in Zimbabwe is holding Phase1 training for primary school teachers reports Justin Mupinda [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lundi Park is situated in Gweru, a city known as the City of Progress. Indeed the teachers in this town are always going beyond expectations. There has been a lot of local capacity building as well as most of the schools acquiring their personal
