Highway Africa information summit upbeat about future

Africa's information technology promoters from private industry, the media and academia are finding evidence that the continent is overcoming price and infrastructure problems to exploit the Internet as a tool for poverty alleviation, democratisation and development. "Investment in computers with Internet access is expensive, but it is essential. With information comes opportunities," Nigerian communications consultant Mkpe Abang told delegates at the seventh annual Highway Africa information summit at Rhodes University, which ended on Wednesday. Alain Modoux, an official with the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation and a coordinator of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva in December, told IRIN: "ICT (information and communication technologies) provide immense opportunities to promote and foster social, economic, cultural and political development." "They can be a powerful tool for leapfrogging the existing development divide and accelerate efforts to stop environmental degradation and promote gender empowerment," Modoux said. In his capacity as a negotiator with governments worldwide, in preparation for the WSIS declaration that will bind signatories to a uniform global information policy, Modoux commented: "Some national governments are much more interested in restricting Internet usage, and what can be communicated, than in helping their people to learn and use ICT." For every story of progress in the spread of computer usage and Internet communication in Africa, promoters of ICT related obstacles that still deny Africans the use of technology taken for granted in the developed world. "There are technical problems, like the lack of telephone lines. There are financial hurdles that prevent the poor from participating in the information age, so they are denied the directions needed to find their way out of poverty. But there are also social and governmental matters that stand in the way," said Amanda Singleton, Group Executive with the South African phone company Telkom. Singleton noted that technological development could not exist in isolation from advancements in education, which would overcome illiteracy and provide basic computer training to the mass of Africans. There was also a need for gender empowerment, so that information gained by women about family planning, business or community development initiatives would not go to waste because they were kept at home and denied the power to put their knowledge into action. "We have wonderful tools for instant communication," Abang said. "The tragedy is that so few Africans can afford these. The good news is that those tools now in use have shown how important the Internet can be in Africa." Non-governmental organisations reported that they are able to communicate and raise funds with unprecedented ease via e-mail, while illustrating their work through pictures and text on web sites. Newspaper editors spoke of the growing influence of their publications in a world where the web page version of a daily newspaper is available electronically to any reader anywhere. "It is harder for governments to hide their mistakes - a scandal now has a worldwide audience. This can be good for keeping African leaders in line, but it puts a new responsibility on editors to ensure an accurate and balanced story," said Kenyan journalist Okoth F. Mudhai. Bringing the poor of Africa "on line" is being achieved through such innovations as community Internet centres, where villagers can get information on the weather, and cropping and marketing for agricultural projects. "Farmers can see what market prices are for themselves, instead of relying just on the information given to them by the produce buyers they deal with," said Phakamile Pongwana, senior General Manager of Telecoms for the South African Department of Communications. Conference presentations noted that crises in Africa, from governance in Zimbabwe to war in Liberia, are highlighted increasingly by Africans via web news information channels, rather than exclusively by developed world news organisations, as in the past. "Using the Worldwide Web, African students find scholarships, women's empowerment groups find funding, co-operative ventures find sponsors, workers' federations fighting for democratic rights and against government corruption can find support from labour comrades elsewhere ... and conservationists and environmentalists can rally support for a cause or avert a crisis, also using electronic mail to canvas for support," a conference paper noted. Given this evidence, and bolstered by stories of Internet successes during the past year, promoters of an African information society said investment in new technology is not a "zero sum" game where computers are purchased at the cost of basic survival needs. What is required is initial capitalisation to expand the network of computers with Internet access throughout the continent, and an education system that teaches their value.