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1. Overview Southern Africa

2. Telecentres, Realities and Challenges

3. Opportunities for telecentres to rural

development

4. Need for Telecentre networks

5. The role of SATNET, Current activities &

challenges

6. Regional Capacity Development Programme

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Poverty is one of the major development challenges facing the SADC region.

80% average live in rural areas Available info. indicate; 70% of the

population lives below the international poverty line, US$2 per day, 40 percent of the region's population or 76 million people live below the intentional poverty line of US$1 per day.

80% of the population in some Member States is estimated to be living in extreme poverty.

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Lack of adequate capital assets, the rates of return on the physical, human and social capital of the poor are generally low due to low physical productivity and low prices for their goods and services,

Limited economic opportunities Challenges in agriculture sector Climate change and desertification, soil erosion and degradation,

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Public services not reaching the people; information on agriculture, health, education etc,

Poor access to Markets Traditional knowledge and information exist

but rarely shared Information exchanges

are not adequate Information and

Communication Technology barriers

•Challenges

ICTs can play a tremendous role in mitigating poverty

levels Defining new roles of ICTs, Civil society community can

take advantage to explore new avenues of using ICTs to

resolve the challenges

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‘Telecentres – are public places where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable people to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential 21st-century digital skills’’ (CTA study on telecentres in Mozambique)

‘‘Telecentres can become knowledge service centres that add tremendous value to local economies, act as catalysts for the creation of a micro-knowledge sector, and provide higher value work for educated workers who can be retained in the rural community.’’ Ian Howard from APC study on Observations on sustaining rural ICT in Africa- 2008)

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No- longer merely communication centres Centre for Knowledge- indigenous and

international; Stimulating and generation of indigenous knowledge within local communities

Market place Services and resources Education: Offering opportunities for access to

Education resources; online education to millions of people

Centre for governance giving a ‘voice’ and promoting decision making process

Promoting local economic development Opportunity for access to finance Expanding cultural and social opportunities Promoting public service delivery; E-governance

Lack of coordination Duplication of efforts, Activities and

resources Policy framework and advocacy Resource mobilization Value and scope for replication of projects Recognition from international agencies Promoting new ideas, new thinking Helps to create and expand knowledge

frontiers Ability to speak with one voice

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Building knowledge networks Increased collaboration among telecentres Strengthening institutional partnerships Collaboration on knowledge products Building knowledge production skills base Joint capacity building initiatives Scope and scale on research

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Formation based on the 2006 All Africa Telecentre Conference; Port Novo, Benin, Microsoft, Telecentre.org, SDC and UNESCO

Formalized at the 2008 Sustainable Telecentre Africa Lusaka Conference

Registered as a non profit in 2009. Pioneers: Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe

and south Africa, Tanzania and Botswana Joined by Malawi, Lesotho, Congo DR

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- Indigenous Southern African Network- Working with civil society organisations - Promotion & facilitating network development

- Telecentres, ICT service centres, schoolnets, - Multi-community centres, networking NGOs

- Policy dialogue and ICT governance issues - Extension of socio-economic disparities and ‘bridging the divide’

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Knowledge sharing and information exchange Support Institutional development Tels. and

national networks Policy advocacy Capacity development of ICTs and telecentres Promotion of ICT innovations Undertake ICT Projects in conjunction with

partners Facilitate social and economic development

through application and demonstration of ICTs

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Held a 2 regional development forums to plan the way ahead

Established management & governance structure Completed a constitution for the network Trained two national network groups Facilitating telecentre network development with

partners & other NGOs in SA UNESCO ICT youth awareness project Backstopping UNECA knowledge centre project

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Developing literature on how to manage networks Developing an information management system Database for telecentres and info-hubs in SA First Newsletter for telecentres in southern Africa Drawing a regional telecentre model guides and

framework (SADC/COMESA/ITU) Completing SATNET.ST 2012-2014, Completed localization resource training

materials Involved in resource mobilization to support

activities of the organization

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Opened dialogue with ITU and SADC on issues on Policy framework

APC Governments of Botswana, Zambia and Malawi on

issues of PPP

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Budget support – human resource Geographical area of SADC Many NGOs work in isolation Variance on government policies Agencies work in isolation Inadequate ICT Policy implementation

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Reference to SATNET Strategic Plan Promote telecentres & Build their capabilities Mobile technologies and telecentres Telecentre database Transforming telecentres into knowledge

centers (UNECA) Provide capacities to development of national

networks ST period Work with governments to speed up Policy

ICT implementation modalities Telecentre sustainability models Regional framework on telecentres

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Local ownership is critical Leadership is key – champions make the

difference Technologies work in stable

infrastructural environments Support and maintenance is critical Capacity to use, maintain, support,

upgrade is required Content is ‘king’ Policy is important in provision of enabling

environment

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Link between communities and large scale diffusion

Shifting limited innovative pilots towards large-scale impactful interventions

Learning from other on-scaled interventions

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“…make the 21st Century a truly African Century…”

Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa

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Thank you for your attention

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