MY ICT4D JOURNEY

 The D-day, Exams

It`s interesting how the things that we pay least attention to could just be the big things that we never foresaw. I had just finished doing this very bad exam paper, you know those exams that you finish and you don’t want to talk to anyone? The ones you finish and you don’t want to set your eyes on that lecturer who set the exams? Yeah it was that kind of paper (Network administration) that I had finished and I was secretly cursing that lecturer for being a sadist, all I wanted to do was to submit my paper and disappear from that examination room. But as fate would have it, just after submitting my paper, the alleged sadist lecturer insisted that I give him my full names and email address apparently to register me to some ICT4D program that he insisted I had to participate in, so grudgingly I gave him the details but dint think much about it.

ICT4D CONSORTIUM

 Days later, I got a mail that I had been registered as a member of the ICT4D consortium and that I was expected to be an active member. We had a one month ICT4D course which was coordinated virtually (through Skype), I had not used this social media platform before, we were given different topics to research on and discuss. My research topic was “how to use ICTs to curb insecurity: taking Kidnapping in Kenya as my case study” the course was a joint collaboration between my university- Maseno University and several other African and European Universities like University of Joensuu, Finland, Tumaini University, Iringa University college, Tanzania, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Senegal, Association of African Universities and Entertainment Robotics, Denmark.

 It was coordinated by some of the great heads in ICT4D field like Prof. Tim Unwin and Ugo Valauri of Royal Holloway University, Clint Rogers UEF, John K. Alwala of Maseno university, Jorrit Mulder from Amsterdam, Dr. Ibrahim Niang of Senegal among other high voltage personalities in the ICT4D arena. I must admit this course was a great eye opener to me, it opened my mind to what exactly this catchy abbreviation means, what it entails and the benefits and potential that can be accrued from it.

ICT4D exchange program in Finland

 I did give my best during the first round of our ICT4D discussions, I must admit I just dint see my future in ICT4D, or otherwise put, I just dint pay much attention to it to see the potential that it would hold for a rather ambitious soul like mine who dreamt and still dreams of nothing but to become a data or telecommunications engineer after Kenya`s JAB refused to register me to my childhood course and career dream-Electrical engineering so I had to alter my career path :)                                                                            

Mostly for supervised and assessed student attachments, students are not allowed to look for placement places outside the country unless otherwise (In Maseno) and this is one of the most stressing moments of a student’s life because failure to secure yourself a place tantamount to failure to graduation, besides your place of attachment greatly determines your place of first employment. I was undergoing this very predicament ( searching for an attachment place) when my sadist lecturer turned mentor, friend and dad informed me that arrangements were underway for me to go to Finland  for an ICT4D student exchange program that would as well double as my attachment in UEF Joensuu campus.

Three months stay in Finland

On 6^th of May 2010, I left Kenya to attend a three month ICT4D exchange program cum attachment in Finland at University of Eastern Finland. Exchange students came from all over the world (all the 5 continents were represented) and I proudly represented my country. Apparently the exchange students were suppose to be PHD students or at worse Masters Students, but here I was, an undergraduate student who had no wealth of expertise in this field save for an open mind to learn and give my best. My lecturer greatly encouraged me and supported me in all ways and convinced me that I could do it...

We were divided into three major groups:

•  Contextual ICT 
•   Multimedia for learning and
•  ICT curriculum development

I was in the latter group where we were mandated to develop a four year Bsc ICT curriculum for Maseno University, Kenya and a one year Teacher Training ICT curriculum for Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique.

Meeting with professors and high profile individuals in academia

The whole program exposed me to different high profile personalities in the academic arena including but not limited to Prof Marti Tedre from Iringa University, Tanzania, Prof Erkki Sutinen of UEF currently a consultant for a Mozambique government on ICT, Dr. Yaw Ameyaw from Ghana etc. I attended few thesis discussions and I must say ICT4D is a complicated and ambiguous topic than people think

ICTD LONDON 2010

While I was in Finland I made a scholarship application to attend a one week “ICTD LONDON 2010 “an ICT4D conference that was to be held at Royal Holloway University in London. My scholarship application to attend the conference was granted when I had come back to Kenya and was just preparing for my graduation which was to take place on 10^th of Dec 2010. The conference was to run from 12^th -16^th of Dec which means I had to leave the country earlier, like on 11^th latest a day after my graduation. Unfortunately I had issues with UK visa agency and time wasn’t on my side to appeal plus other complications that arose, therefore I dint make it to that conference.

ICT4D and Social Entrepreneurship course- Voices of Africa

During my three month stay in Finland, I enrolled for certificate level entrepreneurship course dubbed Innovation at North Karelia University of Applied Sciences (Finland). Actually I enrolled for this course not so much because I wanted to become an entrepreneur but because I saw some of the exchange students enroll for it and since I dint want to be left behind, I had to follow suit, not knowing how important it would prove to be in my line of work.

Being a member of ICT4D facebook group, I met this lovely Lady, founder and managing Director of an NGO called Voices of Africa who apparently wanted to roll out an ICT4D and social entrepreneurship course in Webuye (Western Kenya) and having experience in this field, she sort my help in restructuring the course so I joined her team as ICT4D coordinator and training facilitator. On 7^th of February this year, I left Nairobi to go and teach the course in Webuye, one of a kind in Kenya. The Webuye course was a pilot project, we had an overwhelming response and so we had to replicate the project. So to give it more weight, our organization (Voicesofafrica.org) partnered with Accent Kenya and African Nazarene University to enable us use their lecture halls and facilities and also to help in overseeing the quality of delivery and the academic rigor that goes into the training and to accredit the course.

The course was officially launched on 11^th of March of 2011. The  launch was attended by different key personalities in the ICT sector among  them Dr. Leah T. Marangu, Vice Chancellor, Africa Nazarene University, Kai Wulff, Chief Evangelist, Plexus Group (founder and former CEO KDN), Jerry Xie, Deputy Director, Huawei Kenya, Hanif Kassam, Director, Intersat, Ltd among others.

 Currently we offer a certificate level ICT4D and Social entrepreneurship course at African Nazarene University Ngong road campus in Nairobi, and I am the lead ICT4D training facilitator, we do hope to see the course grow into a diploma and a degree level course.

N/B I may not know clearly at the moment the path my career is going to take, but one thing that I know for sure is that ICT4D is going to be a major determining factor.

ICTs and THE MARGINALIZED

In one of my classes I visited the infamous Bill gates statement “medicines and not computers are of use to the world’s poorest people,” and also the controversial question ‘bread or computers for the poor?’ I asked my students those questions; most of them felt that the poor need the basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter more than they need the computers (ICTs) which they termed as a luxury.

To help us understand the importance of ICTs for development, let us have a brief look at the key dimensions of ICT4D that is Knowledge and Communication for development (K4D and C4D)

Most people are poor because they suffer from information impoverishment, Knowledge is power, power that can enable one to ascend to greater heights and lack thereof is detrimental to development. Access to information is vital, but mere access to information in a narrow approach will not automatically lead to poverty reduction. It has to be embedded in a broader context of knowledge. Access to relevant information and knowledge is thus crucial for empowerment and development and to be effective it has to be linked to the particular situation, needs and demands of the people concerned. Thus local knowledge is vital.

Internet is the greatest source of information that we have in the 21^st century, but whose importance has not been fully realized by the majority of the poor and the marginalized, most of them do not even know what it means. This reminds me of a scenario that I encountered not so long ago, I had just moved to this new house and found this wonderful lady (I gauze she was in her mid thirties) who was to orient me on my new surrounding, so I asked her whether there was internet connection in the house, surprisingly and not knowing what she was looking for, she searched the whole house only to come back and tell me that she did not find it but she suspected that the previous occupant had gone with it! This story is not so different from the one I witnessed with some of my students, I had asked them to find the MDGs from the internet, most of them couldn’t this is because they haven’t used internet before to search for information save for chatting on facebook, this is astonishing but it is the stark reality on the ground! The majority of the population (the poor) do not know how to use these tools to better their lives and this further increases social divides, widens the gap between rich and poor countries, regions, indi­viduals and even between men and women.

Other than knowledge, people-centered communication is also very important; under communication we have Voice which facilitates broad participation in democratic processes, good governance, cultural diversity and local content and Networking to facilitate effective communication and cooperation among people and organizations

Using, producing and sharing knowledge requires effective communication at all levels. Information and communication technology provides a broad range of powerful tools to enhance both the knowledge and communication dimensions of development

For the poor, the real issue is not whether ICT are desirable because the technology is already part of their broader con­text. The issue is whether we accept that the poor should, in addition to the existing deprivation of income, food and health service, etc., also be further deprived of new oppor­tunities to improve their livelihood. The strategic choice is whether to accept the rapidly growing gap caused by a very asymmetric architecture of opportunities or whether to use ICT in a creative manner to level the playing field in economic, social, cultural and political terms

Today we have the hindsight to ask questions like, how can internet be useful to people who cannot read or write? Does it make sense to provide computers to village schools where there are no teachers? Is access to technology financially sustainable? Even if villagers do learn how to use the computer and get a web browser open, where will they go? Which meaningful sites will they visit? Where is the content? Is it local?

A lot of funding has gone to many ICT4D projects, projects that were started with a view to help the poor leapfrog from poverty to wealth, some of them have in one way or the other achieved their objectives, but majority of the projects haven’t, which begs the question why?? Why has most ICT4D projects failed? And what lessons can we learn from the successful ones?

Many books have been written; many papers and articles published on ICT4D, but why are we not there yet? No doubt progress have been made on how to use ICT for development but the pace is a bit slow, maybe too slow.

This could be due to the fact that the marginalized and the poor are sidelined or are not fully incorporated in the implementation process and/or they are left out, or have no idea how to use these ICTs to empower themselves. And this is where the main challenge lies; this in my view is the missing part of the equation, the lost piece of the puzzle- grassroots’ education, the neglected base of the pyramid – most projects I feel engage those who already have the knowhow but leave out the targeted audience and for this to be reversed, most organizations should go down to the grassroots level and teach and educate these people on how to use these tools for development and to empower themselves, because it is at the grassroots level where empowerment ought to start, it is good for instance to develop an awesome software that can help farmers to access market prices but it would not achieve its intended objective if the farmers themselves are not taught how to use the said software, or to provide internet access to schools and not teach those students how to access information from the internet.

To make ICT work for poverty reduction and development, it needs both affordable, market-driven infra­structure and multi-stakeholder efforts at all levels to help poor, disadvantaged and marginalized people use the whole range of ICT according to their priorities and demands.

References:

·         1.Start up and change the world by S.Deve Appanah and Sunit Shrestha

·         2.  ICT4D – Connecting People for a Better World edited by Weigel, G., Waldburger, D.