One of Africa’s largest ICT gatherings got underway in Ethiopia today with the kick-off of the Innovation Africa Digital Summit in the capital Addis Ababa.

Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-In-Charge of UNECA speaking at a podium

Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-In-Charge of UNECA (image: Charlie Fripp)

Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-In-Charge of UNECA (image: Charlie Fripp)

Now in its tenth year, the summit aims to promote digital connectivity across all spectrums to the benefit of Africa as a whole. The event will also provide for a platform for Ethiopia to share more details on the country’s plans to for develope one of Africa’s largest and most ambitious ICT parks.

“This is an opportunity for us to share our best ideas, to learn about the latest developments and to form powerful partnerships. The theme of creating sustainable national and international ICT ecosystems is indeed a powerful concept which will transform the global socio-economic environment,” conference chair Madanmohan Rao said.

Aida Opoku-Mensah, Officer-In-Charge of UNECA (United Nations Economic Conditions for Africa) added to the welcome address by saying, “it gives me great pleasure to be addressing the tenth Innovation Africa Digital Summit, which comes at a moment when the African continent is experiencing tumultuous advances in the growth and development of the telecoms and ICT sector.  We are of the view that in order to unleash Africa’s potential, special attention needs to be paid to innovation, particularly in ICT innovation”.

MTN CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said growth in the sector has been enormous over the years. “Africa has more mobile phones than fixed lines and is still growing. Mobile phones have become the defacto standard for telecommunications on our continent. The growth has had an enormous impact on commerce, connectivity and all other streams of life. The enormity of the socio-economic impact of the mobile sector in Africa cannot be over emphasized.”

IT News Africa is currently in Ethiopia covering and participating in the summit which runs until Thursday 29 March 2012.

Charlie Fripp – Online editor

photo of a tourist spot

Last Friday, QED Group, LLC hosted “Tourism as a Sustainable Development Strategy: A Systemic Value Chain Approach,” a breakfast seminar. Discussions focused on best practices in tourism management and how these tools can be implemented in projects to maximize positive impacts.

Amanda MacArthur, Director of Operations at CDC Development Solutions (CDS) and speaker at the seminar, offered an overview of the Tourism Employment and Opportunity (TEMPO), a USAID funded program implemented in Nigeria’s Cross River State.

Tourism e-Marketing and promotion strategy

MacArthur highlighted the Ambassador Promotion Program as a successful tourism e-marketing and promotion strategy.

Essentially, CDS staff work with local stakeholders to develop a program over a specific period of time where they provide resources, deep discounts, activities, packaged promotions to people who are willing to be first adopters of the location.

“Facebook integration wristbands”

Ushuaia Beach Hotel in Ibiza launched in July their Facebook sharing initiative—a first in the hotel industry. Hotel guests are given the option of wearing a slim wristband synchronized to their Facebook profile.

Guests can swipe their wristbands across a sensor at designated kiosk, checking in to various places in the resort, updating their status and tagging themselves in as many pictures as they like to post online.

Last year, Coca-Cola pioneered a similar technology in Israel. In the summer, the Coca-Cola Village invites 600 to 800 teenagers for a three-day stay in a multimedia village to enjoy fun activities such as sports, swimming and horse-riding.

Through the Like Machine, conceptualized by Enon Landenberg, joint-CEO of Publicis E-dologic, the inhabitants of the village were able to use their wristbands to register that they “liked” a certain activity, and a Facebook message would automatically appear on his or her wall stating that he or she “liked” the pool at the village, for instance.

The event was so popular that according to E-dologic joint-CEO Doron Tal, 250, 000 people claimed to have been there—even though only 8,000 had the opportunity to experience it in real life.

“They felt that they had been there because they could enjoy it through their friends by following their fun on Facebook,” Mr. Tal Said.

Background on TEMPO

TEMPO’s ultimate goal is to build a destination tourism sector—leading to jobs creation and economic growth for local and regional communities.  To accomplish this goal, CDS established (or provided) capacity building to private sector led public-private Destination Management Organizations (DMOs).

In particular, CDS built DMO’s ability to use technology to promote and sell tourism in the destination by creating a web-portal that provides information about Cross River State tourist spots, training in content development and collection to enable tourism operators to market their services based on customer needs, and making booking and payments available online.

Why Tourism for Development?

Presenter Kristin Lamoureux, Director of International Institute of Tourism Studies at George Washington University representing the Save Travel Alliance a member of the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) at the seminar, stressed the importance of the tourism sector in developing countries.

Tourism is the top five export category for 83% of developing countries—and for 38% of those it is the most relevant economic activity, said Lamoureux.

Also, the benefit of tourism is that resources—cultural and natural—are already available in developing counties. Most importantly, many tourists’ activities are found in rural areas and this creates opportunities for sustainable economic growth in remote locations.

Though sustainable tourism requires various conditions to thrive, the visitor’s experience should be the center-piece of a tourism promotion strategy with an emphasis on connecting travelers to destinations.

These innovative approaches—Facebook integration wristbands and Ambassador Promotion Program—connects travelers to destination and tie online and offline worlds neatly and painlessly together.

It is a great bit of user-generated marketing for the resort or destination, and has the added benefit of letting guests share their experiences with their friends, colleagues and family members through social media. This will in turn bring more visitors to the location.

Photo: Zelalem Dagne

Zelalem Dagne had spent the past twenty-five years in the United States, but the thought of returning to Ethiopia continually intrigued him.  Eventually, with some prodding from friends and co-workers, he returned.  What he saw surprised him; the country was ripe for development and for new businesses, Dagne explains.  Despite his initial urge to “do everything,” he focused on one problem in Ethiopia—delays in product transportation—and started a new business.

Dagne applied for and received a matching grant from USAID and Western Union’s African Diaspora Marketplace, allowing him to officially start Global Technology & Investment PLC.  His company provides affordable GPS trackers to businesses that transport their goods in Ethiopia.  The GPS trackers are attached to trucks, allowing business owners to monitor the efficiency of their truck drivers and the ensure prompt deliver of goods.  Additionally, drivers can monitor traffic with the devices, allowing them to avoid traffic jams, check-in consistently with headquarters, and report back when goods are delivered.  Dagne’s Fleet Management System is planned to be used in over 60,000 trucks.

In addition to strengthening business productivity in Ethiopia, Dagne’s company facilitates more national trade and makes Ethiopian businesses more attractive to foreign investors and international businesses.  His company, then, contributes to Ethiopian development, allowing Dagne to give back to his home country through his business practices.

Dagne spoke ten days ago at a USAID-sponsored Microlinks seminar.  Leaders of the African Diaspora Marketplace accompanied Dagne; representatives from USAID and Western Union also spoke on the program.  The marketplace funded 14 projects last year, 5 of which are in the ICT sector.  This year, in phase 2 of the marketplace program, there is a particular focus on ICT businesses.

Logically, immigrants and refugees would be ideal entrepreneurs in their own nations.  They understand the business practices and technological developments present in the United States, and understand the needs of a particular country in the developing world.  Their experience in both nations gives them unique vision.  They see the differences between the places and what holes in one area can be filled by a solution from another country.

Additionally, ICT projects are particularly powerful in developing countries.  The United States invests more than any other nation in research and development of ICTs.  And as demonstrated by the rapid expansion of the mobile phone around the globe, “appropriate technologies” are quickly adopted by the developing world.  Though the likelihood of the African Diaspora Marketplace funding the next mobile phone is highly unlikely, it is probable that the entrepreneurs funded by the marketplace will bring technologies already common in the United States, and integrate them into societies in their home countries.

 

Photo: UN Foundation flickr

This morning leaders from the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and Vodafone Foundation gathered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. to discuss their projects and key lessons learned after nine years of working together in partnership.  The discussion focused on the broader implications for other public-private-partnerships (PPPs) hoping to contribute to global development.

Drawing on the “Mobilizing Development” report of the partnerships efforts, UNF CEO Kathy Calvin stressed that the partnership slowed down project implementation, at least initially, but made for greater efficiency and long-term impact.  Discussions about how to orchestrate the partnership lasted two years, and it took another two years to decide on the actual projects that the partnership would complete, she stated.

Photo: UN Foundation flickr

William Kennedy, a senior official from the United Nations Office for Partnerships in New York, discussed the “cultural divide” between business and development.  “I don’t think you can underestimate the effort it takes to bridge the cultural divide between a big company and a foundation.”  One example is the business mindset to immediately scale projects as large as possible, as opposed to the development mentality of respecting local culture and adapting solutions for particular communities.  He added that what makes this partnership different from other less successful development PPPs are the relationships between the leaders on each side.  Also, they had consistent evaluations of the development projects, which was important in business culture.  Leaders were willing to address the UNF’s needs and shortcomings, and to make extra efforts to complete the work.

Members of the audience voiced questions about the “shared value” and motivations for each organization to partner with the other.  Vodafone had recently bought other telecommunications companies, becoming a global brand right before its partnership with the UN.  Before partnering with the UN on this philanthropic initiative, Vodafone was able to attach its own brand to the UN’s global appeal.  Other UNF leaders, however, voiced their concerns with this opinion, stating that Vodafone officials took particular care to separate business and philanthropic motivations, citing their willingness to allow service providers to run mHealth initiatives set up by the program as evidence of their philanthropic motivations in their efforts with the UNF.

As for the future of PPPs hoping to meet global development goals, Calvin expressed her opinion that the age of partnerships between one private company and one public organization is coming to an end.  Instead, she said that what the UNF is learning is that alliances, made up of a variety of government, private, and non-governmental organizations, are the future of philanthropy.  She pointed to the formation of the mHealth alliance, which stemmed from the original UNF-Vodafone partnership, but currently is able to increase scale and efficiency as an alliance with other organizations contributing to different aspects of the program.


 

 

Photo: AfriBiz

Recently, the ESRC-DFID awarded funding to the East Africa research group at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) , led by Dr. Mark Graham. The proposed study, titled “The Promises of Fibre-Optic Broadband: A Pipeline for Economic Development for East Africa,” promises important results about the impact on small-medium enterprises (SMEs) when they adopt and utilize a broadband Internet connection.  Thus far, their preliminary research indicates that nearly all businesses in Kenya and Rwanda are investing in Internet connections.

Throughout East Africa, many SMEs struggle with record-keeping, processing large requests, and consequently, attracting foreign investment.  OII’s study aims to measure the economic consequences for SMEs when they pay for and regularly use Broadband Internet.

In an interview, Dr. Graham explained the study questions to me in more detail.  First, is paying for broadband Internet connections worth the cost for SMEs?  Second, how do Internet connections change companies’ business practices?  Dr. Graham and his research team have observed SMEs in both the tourism and business processing operations (BPO) sectors.  They found that nearly all businesses have some sort of Internet connection, since, as Dr. Graham explained, “it would be difficult to compete with your rivals, who would all have connections, if you aren’t connected yourself.”   Furthermore, “almost every type of business seems to be investing in connectivity, from one-person entrepreneurs to large companies.”

Whether these investments lead businesses to increase profits and to what degree, however, is still unknown.  The results are highly anticipated, as many have speculated regarding the impact of broadband connectivity, but few studies have shown its impact, and none have focused specifically on SMEs.

Photo: Benjamin Cole

In an applied effort to help SMEs utilize the Internet for their advantage, USAID funded the West Africa Trade Hub.  The Trade Hub operates under the mission statement and ideal that “with appropriate software and hardware solutions, companies can track their operations and activity much more effectively.”  In their own research and experience assisting SMEs in West Africa (see a case study video from Ghana here), the Trade Hub finds that foreign business owners investing in the West African BPO sector want to be able to monitor where their product is and when it will be finished.  They need updates—are the materials in the sewing process, packaging, or shipping processes?  Chinese factories, on the other hand, historically have Internet access and the human capacity to keep the online systems updated, so many investors turn to China and not Africa.

Without high-speed Internet connections, many African businesses are unable to process large orders from foreign investors, leading to “lost” products.  And western businesses prefer to make agreements with BPO agencies that have their own domain name; they are less likely to trust anyone using a gmail or yahoo account, for example.

These findings are explained and applied in the SME Toolkit Africa, produced by the West Africa Trade Hub.  The toolkit is available as open-source advice for Africa businesses, and contains guides such as the how-to set up online websites, email accounts, computer accounting programs, and other business-oriented items.

Both the efforts of West African Trade Hub and the Oxford Internet Institute are important to evaluate the level of impact broadband connectivity has on SMEs in East Africa.  As fiber optic cable networks expand and nations push for increased connectivity, Internet connections will be progressively more influential for economic growth throughout the region.

 

The ICT sector is one of the most dynamic in Moldova’s economy.  Recording a vibrant growth over the past years, today it represents nearly 10% of the national GDP, on par with agriculture production.

There are about 40,000 people employed directly and indirectly in ICT, making the ICT sector one of the major employers in Moldova.  It is also one of the highest paying industries, as jobs in ICT pay on par with those in the financial sector, historically the best paying jobs in the country.  Most importantly, the ICT industry employs the young generation, offering an exciting, fast-growing and rewarding career for the next generation.

Moldova has already chosen the pathway of ICT.  All players – the Government, the business community, the citizens and the ICT industry itself – have acknowledged the importance of information technology as a catalyst for growth, and as a tool of growth enhancement in all other economic sectors.

Technical assistance from USAID Moldova through the Competitiveness Enhancement and Enterprise Development (CEED) project over the past five and a half years has enhanced the competitiveness of the ICT sector through initiatives meant to consolidate the quality of companies, to strengthen ICT education so that it meets the needs of business, and to align the industry towards common goals.

Just last month, USAID Moldova sponsored the Moldova ICT Summit 2011, featuring the Association of Private ICT Companies in Moldova, as well as the recently launched national E- Government Center.  The event focused on the e-transformation of the Moldovan economy, and the importance of e-transparency, among other topics.

Since the initiation of the first phase of the CEED project, USAID Moldova has been involved in numerous efforts.  They facilitated the formation of the Association of Private ICT Companies in Moldova, established relationships between the national government and the private companies in the ICT sector, helped private firms to become IT-Mark certified ICT companies under CMMI methodology (encouraging foreign investment and trade), and set up talks respecting the formation of a “Cloud-Moldova” e-government system.

Additionally, a need for more trained and educated IT professionals in Moldova has arisen.  To meet this need, USAID Moldova connected the Moldovan Minister of Education with large ICT firms.  The ministry signed memorandums with Microsoft, Cisco, and i-Carnegie (Carnegie Mellon University).  New IT focused courses and degrees are being offered in the Moldovan education system, providing the ICT industry with the professional staff it requires.

A man and a woman watch as a man repairs a computer.

Photo: Sergiu Botezatu

Despite these advancements, a few large boulders block continued development of the ICT sector in Moldova.  The national government’s telecommunications company, Moldtelecom, still controls the majority of the market.  Additionally, Moldova is unknown in the region as a destination of IT, this holding back investment.  Thankfully, however, steps are in place to remove these barriers.  The national government is beginning to investigate selling Moldtelecom and a strategy for ICT sector positioning and promotion is underway, which is intended to put Moldova on the regional and global ICT map.

USAID’s Mission in Malawi has evidence that mobile phones can and do have an impact on local farmers’ profits, according to Vince Langdon-Morris, an agricultural specialist with the Agency. Langdon-Morris explained that USAID Malawi’s is helping small-medium agricultural enterprises monitor and sell their products using an innovative mobile phone platform, similar to Esoko from Ghana.

In very simple terms, the commodity chain of agricultural production in Malawi is being modified in the following way by this project:

  • Farmers harvest grains and communicate with buyers via phone.
  • Small-medium business owners purchase farmers’ grains and monitor their product inventory and sales at their aggregation centers by phone.
  • The owners sell the grains in bulk to larger agri-businesses, checking market prices on their phones to ensure a quality sales price.

The phone helps the farmer to know where he should sell his grains at the best price and when the owner is willing to buy.  The phone helps the small-medium enterprise owner because he can monitor the collections at the 20-30 aggregation centers that he usually operates, allowing him to sell in bulk at the right times and limiting his travel costs, among other benefits.

Mobile phones are tools to promote economic growth and other forms of development.  Certainly, mobile phones are not the cure to all problems, but they can facilitate programs that do directly reduce poverty, such as this agricultural project by USAID Malawi.  Other missions would do well to mimic their efforts and incorporate technology into their current projects in order to enhance effectiveness.

Given the success of M-PESA and other revolutionary applications like MXit and Ushahidi, mobiles4development (hastag #m4d on twitter) is gaining political clout within many development spheres, seemingly replacing microfinance as the solution to end poverty.  Champions of m4d do not fail to mention World Bank studies that describe the connections between mobile phone usage and economic growth, improved healthcare, better agriculture, etc.

Unfortunately, such claims are overstated, as mobile phones cannot solve poverty.  They can, however, be tools for improving development projects, as seen in Malawi.  The test for USAID missions, then, will be to utilize mobiles phones as tools for development projects, but maintain a critical eye about their effectiveness.

 

Ghana, West Africa’s emerging ICT hub, inaugurated two more Rural Technology Facilities (RTFs) last week. RTFs form part of Ghana’s thrust “to enhance and build a strong and vibrant rural economy to reduce unemployment, poverty and ruraL-urban migration.”

The new RTFs at Goaso and Bechem, which cost US$637, 636, brings the complement to 15; and Hanna Tetteh, Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry, says seven more are in the pipeline.

Tetteh says Ghana will continue to establish RTFs country-wide to support the transfer of technologies to farmers, agroprocessors, artisans, unemployed youth and micro and small enterprises.

According to government estimates, the existing RTFs have enabled the establishment of over 21, 000 businesses and 52, 000 jobs across Ghana’s 10 geopolitical regions.

The RTF drive, which is funded by Ghana, in collaboration with, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the African Development Bank (ADB), house technical workshops with modern equipment and trained technical personnel. RTFs are capable of providing technical training, promotion and dissemination of technology to boost the capacity of micro and small-scale enterprises.

To find out more about Ghana’s efforts to cement its position as a West African hub for ICTs, go here.

 

picture of morroco

Morocco has launched three new projects, including a $US 65 million research fund, to encourage partnerships between researchers and businesses and boost investments on cutting edge innovations.

 

The project includes building four new ‘innovation cities’—science and technology hubs that will host research centers, specialized companies and business incubators—will establish the Moroccan Center for Innovation (MCI), and three research funds worth $US 65 million.

 

Moroccan education minister Ahmed Akhchichine said that three innovation cities will be built this year in Fez, Marrakech and Rabat, and the preparations for a fourth center in Casablanca are underway and will be ready next year.

 

The goal of the Moroccan Centre for Innovation, who leads the strategy, is to track down potential inventors at the country’s universities and provide them with the financial backing to implement their innovations.

 

The funds will support grants for young researchers, and the research and development divisions of certain companies according to Ahmed Reda Chami, Morocco’s minister of industry, commerce and new technologies.

 

Youssef Ait Ali, an inventor, said that these grants could help in removing the financial blockades that have continuously obstruct the rolling out of new inventions.

 

“The government is prepared to raise the amounts that are budgeted for encouraging innovation and creativity to keep up with the demand,” Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said.

We’re waiting for your proposals, ideas and projects, and we will provide the necessary means to realise them on the ground

 

These government-backed initiatives have the financial and regulatory framework to heighten and sustain innovation throughout the country. Akhchichine is hopeful at this projects prospects, “Last year, Moroccan universities managed to produce 40 patents, compared with less than 10 patents in the previous year”, he said, giving credit to the government incentives.

 

Moroccan inventors and innovations unions welcomed the new projects but emphasized that there is still a long way to go for the country to maintain a threshold of innovation,

 

Abderrahim Boumediane, president of the Moroccan Inventors and Innovators Association, said most of the government’s reforms in the innovation field could turn out to be ineffective as, “Morocco still doesn’t have a ministry for scientific research”, which hampers the sustainability of such projects.

 

However, according to Akhchichine, the government is currently working to reform this measure and is in the process of creating a legal and regulatory framework for scientific research.

 

 

 

By now we’ve all heard of the telecenters of the 1990s – providing access to hardware and the internet, and shaping the face of ICT4D for a while. And while Internet Cafes are still prevalent, they no longer dominate the ICT4D discussion.

Photograph of the outside of the Bwacha Women's Club Building

Photo Credit: WomenICTEnterprise.org

But there are still lessons that can be learned from past projects. The Kalomo Bwacha Women’s Club looks on the surface like any other telecenter, but in fact, it provided so much more than just access.

The enterprise provides email and telephone services; secretarial services; basic Internet training and browsing; and desktop publishing services such as the creation of calendars, brochures and cards using digital photography for government, public and private institutions, members of women’s clubs and individuals.  The center engages women in using ICTs as part of an effort to transform the face of the district, socially and economically. Participants work to improve other women’s money making activities by using the internet to market their produce. The hope is that this approach will help foster economic growth in a place which is mainly dependent on farming and which has very few companies offering jobs to indigenous people.

There are ten core women members, only one of whom is paid, the rest working on a voluntary, part-time basis.  The full-time employee works from 8.00am to 5.00pm, sees to the daily running of the club, types for the clients, operates the Internet, answers queries and so on.

The other members look for income-generating projects and recruit new members.  They visit Kalomo villages, teaching and sensitising villagers, particularly women, on issues that affect them such as HIV/AIDS and poverty alleviation.  They take digital photos, upload these onto their computers and make prints which they then use to distribute to other communities, sometimes in the form of a poster or a calendar with an educational message.  They particularly promote women’s initiatives and highlight the plight of women in various communities.  These visits help others to realise that they too can advertise their goods and services and learn from each other.

The club also generates income from affiliated clubs, which contribute a small annual fee.  They distribute seed to their affiliated clubs who, once they have harvested it, pay them a fee.  The seed may be maize seed, beans or any other that is expected to do well during that particular season.  All this is at a concessional rate for the affiliated members.  The club also holds community events to raise awareness and funds.  The end of March will see an open market and a beauty competition, both organised by the club.  ICTs play a major part in that participants will be encouraged to keep in touch via email and goods will be advertised on a web site, using digital photos.  The club also hopes to create a database.

By sending women out, this “telecenter” reaches out into the community and makes changes in the lives of the women there. Rather than waiting for them to come to the center, the center brings its services and support to the community.

This is just one of several Women’s ICT-based enterprises described on the Women’s ICT Enterprise website. Although the site has not been updated in some time, the cases are still interesting and provide a good background for similar projects today.

Source: Comminit and WomenICTEnterprise

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