The Mundeku Digital Village is the brainchild of Gibson Shiraku. "With this facility, the children of this area will become skilled in ICT [information and communication technology] and will not have to travel to Nairobi or other towns and cities to acquire such skills," says Shiraku.
All across Kenya and in the rural parts of Africa, where the majority of the population resides, digital villages such as this one spell a new dawn for people by opening up a whole new world that is rich in formation and faster communication channels that will most definitely empower them to become better students, better citizens, better farmers, and skilled workers.
Today, Africa is adopting and quickly harnessing and benefiting from the opportunities that ICT affords faster than any other new technology in its history. ICT is helping African nations and governments better provide services and information to their citizenry, while African businesses have found new wings that have propelled their businesses far and wide by breaking down physical boundaries. Communication is now easier, faster, and cheaper, thanks to an improved technology. With the development of ICT comes a new method through which information, knowledge, and skills can be shared across geographical boundaries at the touch of a button.
This presents a great opportunity for information dissemination and the subsequent education and empowerment of the African people. Africa boasts a wealth of cultural and historical information that mostly lies in physical libraries in Africa, Europe, and North America, while an incredible knowledge and information is still held by the people themselves, especially the older folks within the community.
ICT as a Development Pillar
This notwithstanding, Africa is on the verge of transformation thanks to the limitless possibilities that come with the development of digital villages and libraries. As telecommunications technologies continue to be widely embraced, even in the most oppressed nations on the continent where dictatorial regimes have an iron fist on the press and control all information meant for public consumption, it spells a new dawn for the continent. Fiber-optic cables are progressively being laid across the continent to connect these nations to the information superhighway through broadband internet connection. Mobile telephony, on the other hand, has spread like a bush fire, opening new communications channels that include voice and data and thereby enabling people even in the most remote parts of the continent to gain instant access to the internet.
"Even though the penetration of telecommunications in Kenya and in other parts of the continent has been progressively rising, information literacy among the general public has been extremely low," notes Professor Constantine Nyamboga, an associate professor and dean on the faculty of Information Science and Technology at the Kisii University College, an affiliate of the Egerton University in Nakuru. Nyamboga is also the national chairperson of the Kenya Library Association.
Says Nyamboga, "Educating the people and equipping them with ICT skills is by far the most important step that national governments need to place an emphasis on so that the people can get to reap the benefits that come with the development of digital villages and libraries. The application of these skills on a day-to-day setting is crucial and we laud the Kenyan government for its highly ambitious digital villages program."
"In spite of having the highest internet penetration rates in the region and one of the highest in Africa, Kenya still has a long way to go because only 10% of the population is ICT literate," notes Dr. Joseph Kavulya, the deputy librarian at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa.
The Kenyan government has identified ICT as an integral pillar in its new policy that aims to put resources, which include cash injections and human capital, into the digital villages with the objective of creating an enabling environment that will catalyze economic expansion and empowerment of its population both intellectually and materially. The new policy by the Kenyan government plays in symphony with the vision to transform Kenya into a middle-income economy in about 20 years' time.
Digital Villages
Under the ambitious program that is mainly targeted at enhancing and harnessing the power of the digital age, the Kenyan government, through the Ministry of Youth, is working in collaboration with software giant Microsoft Corp. to set up digital villages in all of Kenya's eight provinces. As the program expands, it is expected to trickle down further to the remote village outposts through the Constituency Development Program that the Kenyan government has successfully implemented to devolve funds from the central government to the grass-roots projects. Through the digital villages, Kenyan youth in the rural areas will benefit from free ICT training.
Through a public-private initiative, the Kenyan government has already pumped millions of dollars toward the development of ICT skills in Kenya. This was initiated by the laying of a fiber-optic cable in the country; this cable is currently being laid across major urban centers and divisional headquarters, which are closer to the rural communities. The government has consequently set up incentives for the private sector to lay the fiber-optic cable and provide broadband internet connectivity via WiMax so as to reach even the most remote parts of the country, especially in the marginalized northern and northeastern parts of the country.
Local telecommunications provider Kenya Data Networks (KDN) is currently developing the Digital Village Constituency Cluster at an estimated cost of Kenya Shillings (Kes.) 210 million (U.S. $2.8 million). This is aimed at establishing a digital village in every constituency in Kenya. There are 210 constituencies in the country, with each being allocated Kes. 1 million (U.S. $13,000) for the development of a digital village.
"Each cluster will consist of at least eight digital units within a radius of 15km in rural Kenya, serving commercial, educational, and developmental purposes," says Kai Wulff, the KDN CEO.
According to KDN COO David Owino, the digital villages are also aimed at enhancing development through elearning as well as employment creation. KDN uses a special mast that is hoisted high above the villages to broadcast the internet frequencies at a radius of 60 km. A digital village takes various forms, from a converted 20- or 40-foot cargo container to an office block where technology is made available to residents who do not have access to electricity or broadband internet connection. Apart from the rural communities of Kenya, the program is also being spread to the sprawling slums close to the major towns and cities in Kenya.
While the laying of the fiber-optic cable might take longer before it reaches the remote parts of the country, owing to huge capital investments, the government will be setting up very small aperture terminal (VSAT) base stations in these regions that will be powered by wind and solar power to run the computers and printers. Local telecommunications providers such as Safaricom, Zain, and Telkom Kenya have chipped in with relatively cheaper and faster internet connection solutions that use GSM, CDMA, and WiMax technologies. This is in concert with the rural electrification program that the government has initiated over the past 3 years that is attempting to light up more than 10 million households in the next 10 years at an estimated cost of Kes. 4 billion (U.S. $53 million).
Digital libraries as information hubs
To push the agenda, the Kenyan government has transformed into an egovernment by computerizing all its operations. The government has made it easier for Kenyans to apply for services from the government through the internet. Today, Kenyans needing to apply for various services such as the provision of passports, driving licenses, birth certificates, and national identity cards need not make a trip to the provincial headquarters, they only need to download the documents and forms from various government websites.
"However, more needs to be done in the quest to develop local content that can be consumed by the general public for immediate benefit to them," notes George Gitau, a librarian at Strathmore University, one of the few universities in Kenya that has developed a digital library. "We have a wealth of information that is gathering dust in various private and public universities and at research institutions. This information could be applied by the village coffee farmer who would want to access information on the best coffee variety to plant in his region, the tomato farmer in another part of the country would need information on the best pesticide to use in his farm while the maize farmer in another part of the country would like to access an up-to-date market information so that he can sell his maize at the best price possible," he adds.
Strathmore University operates an advanced library management system that has been fully digitized. It is an open source program that was developed by the university to help students gain access to publications produced by the institution. Dubbed the SU-Portal, it can only be accessed within the precincts of the university.
"Such a system can be expanded to include other portals from other leading institutions of higher learning as well as local research organizations such as the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The system can be an integrated portal that inter-links with these institutions where content such as research materials and papers can be posted for consumption both by the institutions as well as the general public," notes Gitau.
According to experts, such systems are critical in helping drive the ICT agenda in the country. How they are implemented and their relevance to the people are the keys to success. One such program is a Kes. 8 billion (U.S. $106 million) program being implemented by the Kenya Transparency and Communication Infrastructure Project (KTCIP) and is being funded by the World Bank. The KTCIP has developed a digitized program that will allow Kenyan farmers to get up-to-the-minute market information for their farm produce. This in essence eliminates middlemen who have been known to exploit farmers and reap higher profits while the farmers make a skimpy income from their hard work.
Developing Local Content
The challenge, according to Dr. Kavulya, is not only to have a digitized catalog system installed at the libraries but also to make a full transformation where existing and new material can be added continuously while placing an emphasis on locally produced material.
According to the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the landing of the fiber-optic cable in Kenya and the conducive business environment created by the government to enhance the development of ICT ought to be taken advantage of by both the Kenyan public as well as local and foreign organizations keen on developing locally-developed content. He says that "information from the government is not enough and we need people to develop high quality, locally-produced content that will be of much benefit to our people."
"The focus ought to be on the development of local content, because we have so much local content in Kenya and Africa that can be digitized for the benefit of our people. We have so much in terms of information on culture, literature, environment, history, anthropology, et al. that can be made available in such online databases as digital libraries for use by our people to advance their knowledge." Ndemo says that "currently, there is a huge demand for African-generated material, which is not readily available online and that is why we need to work together with the government and other institutions to develop the digital libraries around the digital villages concept so as to make these materials available not only to our people, but also to the rest of the world."
However, while this is a noble idea, issues to do with copyright abound with many local publishers and authors not keen on jumping onto the digital libraries bandwagon. "It is only a matter of enlightening the publishers and authors on how the system can work through regular subscriptions," according to Gitau.
Digital Curriculum to Enhance ICT Skills
The dream to realize the digital library may not be far away as the Kenyan government through the Kenya Institute of Education has in the last 2 years called for a review of the current school curriculum with a view to introducing an ICT element to it. This has resulted in the development of a digital school curriculum that is currently being rolled out in phases.
The Kenyan government, through the Ministry of Education, provides free primary school education in all public schools and has lamented the high cost of learning materials, especially textbooks, on which the government spends billions annually. To cut its expenses, the government has turned to the digital format so as to enhance learning in schools through ICT and in turn invest the savings on new equipment such as computers for public schools.
According to a Ministry of Education official, the beauty of the digital curriculum is that it does not require a steady internet connection to function. Subjects such as mathematics, English, Swahili, and history will, starting this year, be taught under the new digital format in both primary schools and high schools. This phase covers some 6,000 high schools and 21, 000 primary schools across the country.
To ensure that the new format is successful, the government is working in close collaboration with development partners, such as Intel Corp., Cisco, Microsoft East Africa, and Computers for Schools among other foreign governments and local corporations, to supply recycled desktop and laptop computers to the schools. The government is also offering interest-free loans to teachers to enable them to purchase laptop computers.
According to Ndemo, there is still a lot that needs to be done and the government is inviting other organizations and corporations to chip in with grants and equipment donations to make the program successful. "There are many opportunities out there that have not been exploited and we are only scratching the surface. Anyone with new ideas on how we can enhance the development of such programs is welcome to Kenya," he adds.
So far, the Kenyan government has spent in excess of Kes. 8 billion (U.S. $106 million) toward the development of the digital villages program. Microsoft East Africa has channeled about U.S. $10 million to the cause.
While Kenya has been vigorously pushing for the development of digital libraries and has rolled out a new digital curriculum in its schools, other African countries are also keen on jumping on the digital bandwagon so as to empower their citizens. South Africa, the continent's largest economy, was the first to develop a digital village in the expansive Soweto Township outside Johannesburg in 2003. The southern African nation has, with the help of local and international corporations such as Telkom South Africa and Microsoft South Africa, been able to spread the digital village concept to other remote locations across South Africa.
Across the continent into West Africa, Africa's largest democracy, Nigeria, has also identified the development of ICT as a cornerstone to alleviating poverty by creating employment for its youthful population of about 140 million and fast-tracking development in the country. In the southern state of Lagos, the state government has championed the development of digital villages that are powered by renewable sources of energy such as solar power.
For most of these African governments, and others that have jumped onto the digital villages bandwagon, there are endless opportunities as Africa seeks to move more quickly toward development and integration. It is now an open secret that Africa needs to adopt such technologies so as to empower its people. The digital villages and libraries are the first steps to a new era.
- Catholic University of East Africa: www.cuea.edu
- Egerton University: www.egerton.ac.ke
- Kenya Agricultural Institute: www.kari.org
- Kenya Data Networks: www.kdn.co.ke
- Kenya Digital Village Network: www.ictvillage.com
- Microsoft East Africa: www.microsoft.com
- Africa Ministry of Education: www.education.go.ke
- Ministry of Information and Communications: www.communication.go.ke
- Safaricom: www.safaricom.co.ke
- Strathmore University: www.strathmore.edu
- Telkom Kenya: www.orange.co.ke
- World Bank web.worldbank.org
- Zain: www.ke.zain.com
---
Quelle/Source: EContent, 03.05.2010
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
