Holistic ICT for EcoLiving

Sustainability means many things to many people, often relating to purely economic considerations. For example the Journal of Informatics titled Rethinking Telecentre Sustainability: How to Implement a Social Enterprise Approach – Lessons from India and Africa by Mayanja Meddie (Senior Program Officer for telecentre.org at IDRC) – considers the economic sustainability of telecenters.

Yet the impacts of ICT4D need to be considered in terms of environmental impact as well. Especially, in terms of encouraging people to use these resource intensive tools (computers) in as effective a way as possible to justify their huge ecofootprint. The more that telecenters can often promote research leading to the dissemination of sustainable technologies within its respective service area, the more that ecological footprint of the ICT is compensated by dissemination of more sustainable and appropriate technology development in the field. Interestingly enough, a specific example of such application is cited in the paper: Songhai Center in Benin (a project which we have been inspired by).

The Foundation for Telecenter Sustainability: the Consideration of Ecological, Social and Economic Opportunities and Barriers to Long Term Success
The Yoruba idea of Asuwada in many ways is the foundation of OVF’s work and is relevant to understand the rationale for a more holistic approach to development. It was OVF co-founder and board member Dr Akinsola Akiwowo who helped to popularize the concept of Asuwada within the sociology community:

Explanatory principles in the social sciences may be derived from diverse sources. Here, from West Africa, a Yoruba oral poetry, Ayajo Asuwada, usually recited at the consecration of a new human settlement, is interpreted as saying that the universal principle of asuwa is the source of all things, which continue in being as communities. From community stems goodness and aisuwa, self-alienation, occurs when the common good is ignored. Nine related propositions are derived from these interpretations which are statements of relationship between basic elements in human society and may be applied to understanding people and society in Africa, past and present.

Beyond a purely academic exercise the idea of Asuwada is an important concept that helps us to consider the need for a different approach to development that is more rooted in indigenous understandings of life, but also considers a more holistic view of systems needed to sustain all life.

How does this relate to Telcenter Sustainability?
In reading the paper in the Journal of Informatics titled Rethinking Telecentre Sustainability: How to Implement a Social Enterprise Approach – Lessons from India and Africa by Mayanja Meddie (Senior Program Officer for telecentre.org at IDRC), it becomes obvious – if it is not already – that the needs of the community must be considered in order to make the investment in the infrastructure truly sustainable. When we consider sustainability, we need to look at how to improve current practices and the role of Telecenters in disseminating these practices.

The digital divide is more than just about technology, but the way in which barriers are created though technology and access that color how we see each other and create impressions and perceptions based on how we see those divides as altering what it means to be human.

ICT4D may well lead to the dissemination of many ideas and innovations being evolved in emerging markets that will eventually be seen as applicable for consideration as best practices in affluent societies as well. The idea that the Western World has all the solutions to humanity’s problems is no longer a viable concept.

Telecenters if developed as part of a multi-sector approach to sustainable development have the potential to reverse flawed practices that lead to misunderstandings and resulted in outcomes that were the opposite of the desired or stated intent.

So therefore it is important to identify some areas from the misunderstandings sprang:

1. Advise from top level institutions which includes the dissemination of Western technologies for a non-western society – a residual impact of colonialism – that we not ideal for local conditions;
2. Corruption at all levels – Opportunistic thinking in which underlying intentions for power and control within the existing power structure are masked by the veil of public relations and the lack of real transparency;
3. Development practitioners and models based on linear models of thinking and solving problems that does not suit the long terms interests of any community or humanity for that matter;
4. Lack of innovation and leadership at the community level stemming from low morale and self-esteem.

What is a Telecenter?
Meddie provides a nice definition of what a telecenter is and what the telecenter movement is a compelling for many people in the development community:

Telecentres present a huge opportunity for extending ICT access to rural communities in a flexible manner. They are meeting places where people access appropriate technologies, services, exchange ideas and connect to social networks. They have a huge potential to influence a development vision of a rural community by rallying civil society and government towards addressing pressing community needs.

Getting the Methodology Right
Without getting too much into the sociological dynamics of poverty and development, the fact is Telecenter Sustainability must address this core issue of how to create and promote/disseminate a development model that is driven by the needs of the community’s where the centers are located, rather than the needs of the development community and their donors. This is not to say that this is an either or question; as I would argue that such an extreme view is similar to this idea that media or academics can actually be impartial. We are partial by our very nature as humans, but the idea is to be thoughtful enough to induce real discussion about ideas and development and how ICT can be used to help address the genuine needs and aspirations of the communities where these systems are deployed. The key question is how do the middle class trained experts overcome their preconceived notions about being poor and bring the people in the under-served communities they focus on into a discussion about not only their future but humanity’s future.

We need to get beyond the “we need to help them” model and embrace and fully acknowledge our role and needs in the process – as we are learning and seek to be inspired as well. Already we see terms like stakeholders being used which imply that the idea of those serving and those being served is becoming blurred. Through this process, we begin to feel empowered to actively participate at both an intellectual and a practical level towards our mutual growth rather than seeing ourselves as they and the people we are trying to help as them.

ICT can provide underserved communities with the same communications and knowledge sharing resources that we now take for granted. OVF by putting forward oneVillage Initiative is promoting an approach that seeks to do more than just provide capacity building or technology transfer but instead seeks to create inspiration by bringing people together. Thus in this process we consider the role of ICT as an enabler towards the community empowering itself to take an active role in the creation of its future. Resulting this empowerment process is the development of a complete feedback loop where the community’s themselves begin to offer solutions (instead of just seeking assistance and relying on a Western based development NGO to offer solutions) that can be shared with others in an inspirational way by way of the Internet.

Defining and Explaining Different Approaches to Telecenter Sustainability
As the report illustrates, there are three main approaches to Telecenter Development:

1. Social Development – which focused on community development and the value creation that comes from that process – seeing that direct measures of economic sustainability are not always the most long lasting at beneficial to the economic empowerment of the community. However the key question is how to sustain the project economically. One example of this is M.S Swaminathan has a number of telecentres (Village Knowledge Centres) (read more here at the Communication Initiative Network’s site) in south India rooted in the community development – knowledge creation and sharing program.
2. Enterprise – In the enterprise model the emphasis is on services for sale. According to Meddie, “While such services may bring a community development value, the choice of a particular service is made against its selling value more than its community development potential.” There are several dilemmas here. One is that the distinction between cybercafe and telecenter is not just the distinction between NGO and biz but also between urban and rural/last mile. Again Medie says, that “This approach is not ideal for pre-market communities, which explains why most times it locates on high streets and urban areas,” because the cash flow required is more than more rural communities can sustain. Examples of this include Busy Internet in Ghana, Motoman Kiosks as developed the MIT incubated venture United Villages and Drishtree Info Kiosks in Dehli India. Apparently Drishtree would have done more if they had better connectivity and stable power supply a common – which AMD’s 50×15 seeks to address through its more integrated Digital Inclusion Partnership.
3. Social Enterprise – The idea of a social enterprise is that it blends for profit and NGO activities under one roof. For communities that have urgent needs this is just common sense. If you are collecting revenues for any array of digital services that you would want a significant portion of those revenues going back into the community to address social development and capacity building. I want to point out that pure profit cybercafes are much more likely to be hotspots for 409 scammers than at Telecenters, where access is more carefully regulated. In relation to the point about the limited viability of pure ICT biz models in rural areas, this is where the Songhai Farm model really shines, by offering the ICT as part of comprehensive development model that includes the incubation of businesses to promote community self-reliance. Similarly, Fantsuam is another example where the profit is not so much in the ICT itself but in the related multi-sector services that develop and benefit from those connectivity investments. The resulting profits are then plowed back in the community with the goal of promoting sustainable ventures that eventually eliminate the need for any development aid by improving lives and employing community members.

Explaining ICT’s Role and Potential to Transform Lives in Simple Terms
As we speak so often of complex words and understandings in a sophisticated age and seek to pull them together, we many times loose sight of what we are really actually talking about and its impact in practical terms. The role of Internet, computers and mass communications (ICT4D) is really very simple: to provide underserved communities with the same communications and knowledge sharing resources that we now take for granted. OVF is seeking an approach that goes beyond just capacity building and technology transfer, but also considers a complete feedback loop where the community’s themselves begin to offer solutions that can be shared with others in an inspirational way through the Internet as well as by person to person contact. This is the heart of what we term oneVillage Initiative.

Preparing for Telecenter Roll Out
Many seeing the potential of ICT deployed via the telecenter model have high hopes and are quite optimistic of the potential to address the digital divide and on a larger level the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs). Meddie notes that “In June 2005 the government of Ghana launched the first of its two hundred thirty telecentres to be established across the country,” and also that about 1 million dollars has been earmarked to develop a network of telecenters in Rwanda. Yet a cohesive strategy is needed that matches the many high minded efforts in terms of effective and sustainable implementation plans and strategies to match the vision of ICT4D.

The challenge is to transform these kinds of efforts into sustainable models so that ICT4D can be an increasing source of income through:

1. Increasing community and local productivity through the effective use of ICT to improve local business efficiencies and profitability;
2. Cultivating emerging IT sectors to compete in the global economy through business process outsourcing;
3. Identifying local needs and developing systems of analysis to find innovative solutions to challenging problems.

In relation to Rural Development, a key aspect of this is the role of ICT in promoting Sustainable Development and agriculture. Therefore I thought it interesting that the model featured in IRDC’s report is a integrated or multi-sector approach developed by an organization whose work – was not only ICT4D oriented, but also based partially on the very agriculture model OVF has been touting – Integrated Farming. So the link here is that ICT can enable the mass dissemination of agricultural models that can not only as the case of Integrated Farming increase farmer livelihoods, but also reduce the adverse impacts of those activities on the surrounding ecology.

Looking Forward
What is emerging is an expanded view of development that transcends technology or even best practices, and encompasses a process of giving people the power to believe in themselves. Through this process they can then begin to feel empowered to actively participate at both an intellectual and a practical level.

A new development model is emerging where people are taking things into their own hands and finding solutions for their communities, regardless of where they live. Included in this shift is a redefinition of the role of the development community; moving away from the dissemination of one size fits all western approaches and towards a more thoughtful model that highlights a greater diversity of best practices and innovations and creates online portals that act as clearinghouse to foster innovation and collaboration about the emerging networks participating in this experiment. The telecenter can play a key role by helping those in marginalized regions of the world to get access to the net and participate in this global movement.