Title: Making the Most of Mobiles in Africa
Source: Africa the Good News
Date (published): 13/09/2010
Date (accessed): 21/09/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"It is not often a technology guru will say, “Forget the internet!” but Ken Banks, founder of Kiwanja.net, advocates going back to basics – using mobile phones rather than the internet, and pretty basic phones at that.

While mobile phones are ubiquitous in Africa, the internet has nothing like the same penetration and is almost non-existent in rural areas. Says Banks: “For example, in Zimbabwe, there’s 2-3 percent internet penetration. If your amazing, whizzy mobile tool needs the internet, and you are looking to deploy it in Zimbabwe, you have lost 97 percent of people before you start.”

Dillon Dhanecha's company, The Change Studio, was trying to distribute management tools and training through the internet, and admits it fell into exactly the trap Banks was describing. “We were developing short YouTube clips and so on, but I was in Rwanda a few weeks ago and trying to access our site from my Smartphone, and it just wasn’t happening.”

But there are plenty of options with even a not-very-smart phone: one of the pioneers was M-Pesa, designed as a tool for repaying microfinance loans. But Kenyans found all kinds of other uses; for instance, people afraid to carry large sums of cash while travelling would send it to themselves for collection at their destination. It was also key to the recent Kenyans for Kenya drought aid funding drive."

Title: Rwanda: Schools' Laptop Project Gets Security Feature
Author: Frank Kanyesigye
Source: allAfrica.com
Date (published): 08/07/2011
Date (accessed): 22/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"The Ministry of Education, through the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project has installed a security feature to protect the laptops from theft.

Speaking to The New Times yesterday, the National OLPC Coordinator at the Ministry, Nkubito Bakuramutsa, said that all 65,000 laptops currently in circulation countrywide, will be fitted with a re-flash security software.

He stated that the security software will ensure that the laptops are used in a more effective manner, adding that the feature has triggered the current exercise of visiting schools, checking the laptops, recapturing serial numbers as well as repairing faulty ones.

Bakurumutsa disclosed that the activation of laptops began last week in the Southern Province and will continue until the entire country is covered.

So far, 124 schools and over 61,000 children use of laptops, countrywide."

Title: How Broadband will get to Somalia
Author: Jeffrey Swindle
Source: IT News Africa
Date (published): 16/07/2011
Date (accessed): 18/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Last week, I interviewed Mohamed Ahmed Jama, CEO of Dalkom Somalia and board member of Frontier Optical Networks Ltd (FON) in Kenya. Jama described four potential Broadband cables that could be a part of a terrestrial backbone throughout East Africa, including in Somalia. A fifth was announced yesterday in Somaliland.
Though all three of these proposed links are just that—proposals—they are indicative of the rapid growth of Broadband connectivity in the region. Most East African governments are actively engaged in rolling out backbone terrestrial networks, while four years ago the World Bank called East African connectivity the world’s only “missing link.”
South Sudan is working with the CTO to develop an ICT strategic plan; Burundi recently received funding from the World Bank; and Uganda has also invested as well. And private companies are facilitating the expansion of Broadband cables as well as they are working with the national governments to lay the cables and to fund the projects.
The East African Backhaul System was recently announced as a combined $400 million partnership between Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo governments and a variety of private telecoms. The unique partnerships between the public and private sector make the ICT space in East Africa distinct from other regions."

Title: A network for a new economy : Rwanda develops a network of telecentres to serve rural communities
Author: Paul Barera
Source: ICT Update, a current awareness bulletin for ACP agriculture
Publisher: CTA. Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU)
Date (published): 23/05/2011
Date (accessed): 17/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Rwanda’s investment in technology is not restricted to the country’s urban areas. Rural communities benefit too through the development of a telecentre network.

The Government of Rwanda’s document, ‘Vision 2020’, sets out plans that will transform the country’s economy from being largely dependent on agriculture to concentrating on providing knowledge and information services. The processes involved in this transformation are outlined in four national information and communication infrastructure (NICI) plans. Each plan covers a specific five-year period between 2000 and 2020, during which time the government hopes that Rwanda will have reached middle-income status.

The first NICI strategy from 2001–2005 set out to create conditions within the country that would favour a technology-based economy. The second plan enabled the development of the necessary infrastructure. This plan, NICI II, concluded at the end of 2010, and the country is currently in the process of implementing NICI III. This will shift the focus to the provision of technology-related service industries. A central goal for the 2011–2015 plan is to engage Rwanda’s population in the process, prepare them for the shift in the economic environment, and involve them in the creation of new jobs and businesses.

A significant component of the national strategy is its focus on developing skills and building opportunities in rural areas through the establishment of local ICT centres, also known as telecentres. Here, people can use computers, access the internet and other digital technologies to gather information, create, learn, and communicate. So far, twelve centres and two mobile ICT buses are in operation and another eighteen centres will soon be open. But because the goal is to have a telecentre in every Rwandan village, the current speed of deployment is too slow.

In an effort to increase the rate of telecentre development, the Rwandan Telecentre Network (RTN) is supporting government efforts and has set out to create a countrywide network of 1000 ICT centres by the end of 2015."

Title: Rwanda: Third Phase ICT Action Plan Unveiled
Author: Frank Kanyesigye
Source: allAfrica.com
Date (published): 18/01/2011
Date (accessed): 18/01/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"The implementation of the National ICT Plan (NICI 3), that runs from 2011-2105 is set to focus on service development in the country.

The plan, elaborates how Rwanda is going to move from being an agriculture-based economy to the knowledge based economy.

According to Ignace Gatare, the Minister in the Office of the President in charge of ICT, the plan will focus on the service delivery where all institutions will work together using the already existing infrastructure.

"We have several facilities in place such as the fibre optic cable, ICT buses, Telecentres, wireless broadband services, among others. Now let's make use of them," he challenged.

"We do believe that after enabling environment infrastructure development in our county, now we have to take advantage by focusing on the service sector development which will allow us to shift to the knowledge-based society."

Gatare added that, under NICI 3, the focus will be on service development through diversifying citizen-centric ICT applications and digital content for community development, promoting of an ICT culture and use of data for decision making in Local Government (through adequate training in ICT)."
See also:
The Rwanda ICT Strategy and Plan for 2010-2015 under development

Title: No Victim Voiceless: Africa Uses Tech to Shine a Light on Genocide
Author:Curt Hopkins
Source:ReadWriteWeb
Date (published):10/12/2010
Date (accessed):11/12/2010
Type of information:article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
„"Technology is the equalizer," Fareed Zein told Fast Company. Zein has built the Sudan Vote Monitor as a platform people can use to monitor and cover next month's independence vote in that northeastern African country.

To the south and east, another technological experiment has risen, that one to commemorate the fait accompli of the Rwandan genocide. The Genocide Archive of Rwanda, hosted by the Kigali Genocide Memorial, will document the 100 days and 800,000 lives lost in the brutality of 1994.”

Title: Futures of Technology in Africa
Author:Jasper Grosskurth
Pages: 83 pp.
ISBN:978-90-809613-7-1
Publisher:STT, The Hague, the Netherlands
Date (published):22/10/2010
Date (accessed):05/11/2010
Type of information:research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
„Technology holds many promises as a driver of positive changes, as a tool to address the problems and as an enabler to fulfil the potential. Economic development requires modern technology and technology plays an important role in most strate- gies for alleviating hunger and poverty. Technology can reduce transaction costs, save lives, facilitate education, strengthen entrepreneurship, provide access to markets and help to deliver basic ser- vices, ranging from water and sanitation to public administration. However, the same technology can also be destructive and a cause of problems. Some technological developments can be facilitated or managed, others happen and require an adequate response.
It is this manifold interrelation of technology with its environment that makes exploring the future of technology so interesting and valuable. There is a need to explore how technology in Africa will or might evolve; to discuss the drivers and the obsta- cles, the issues technology might resolve and the problems it might cause; to identify how technology changes society and how African societies might change global technology. These are big and com- plex questions and the STT foresight project, which ends with this publication, is a contribution to this discussion that is still in its infancy with respect to Africa.”
via http://twitter.com/#!/marcozennaro

Title: Will broadband internet establish a new development trajectory for East Africa?
Author:Mark Graham
Source:Poverty matters blog, guardian.co.uk
Publisher:Guardian News and Media Limited
Date (published):07/10/2010
Date (accessed):10/10/2010
Type of information:blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"East Africa is in the process of reinventing itself. The government of Rwanda has invested heavily in IT infrastructure to bring high speed internet connections to even the most remote parts of this small, resource-poor country. Kenya, similarly, has ambitious plans to become a highly wired nation and attract a share of the growing market in international business outsourcing.

Only a year ago, east Africa was the last major region on Earth without fibre-optic broadband internet connections. People were forced to rely on painfully slow and prohibitively expensive satellite connections. However, the recent arrival of three submarine fibre-optic cables into the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa has now fundamentally altered the connectivity of the region.
...
Nobody knows whether the East African gamble on IT and outsourcing will pay off. Vast resources have been invested, and there are high hopes among many in the public and private sectors that changes in connectivity offer opportunities for economic growth. But important questions remain. Will altered connectivity really allow firms in east Africa to become hubs in the global economy? Or will improved connections simply allow foreign firms to better exploit the demand in east Africa for IT services? Perhaps most importantly, who stands to benefit? And who will be left out of these transformations?

The answers to these questions are unclear. But it is likely that the sense of expectation and change in Kenya and Rwanda will be enough to bring about significant economic transformations, whatever they may be."

Title: The Innovative Use of Mobile Applications in East Africa
Author: Johan Hellström
Pages: 104 pp.
ISBN: 978-91-586-4129-7
Publisher: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida
Date (published): 03/06/2010
Date (accessed): 15/06/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This report gives an overview of the current state of mobile phone use and services in East Africa. It outlines major trends and main obstacles for increased use as well as key opportunities and potential for scaling-up mobile applications. The report draws on secondary data and statistics as well as field work carried out in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya during 2008 and 2009.
The report identifies relevant applications in an East African context for reaching and empowering the poor and contribute to social and economic development. The identified mobile applications, listed in Appendix 2, range from small pilots to scaled-up initiatives – from simple agricultural, market or health information services to fairly advanced financial and government transaction services.

Title: Tracking the Introduction of the Village Phone Product in Rwanda
Authors: Michael Douglas Futch, Craig Thomas McIntosh
Pages: 28 pp.
ISSN: 1544-7529
Source: Information Technologies & International Development, Volume 5, Number 3, Fall 2009, 54–81
Publisher: USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Date (published): 09/10/2009
Date (accessed): 07/112009
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML and pdf)
Abstract:
This paper presents the results from a quantitative impact study of the Grameen/MTN Village Phone in Rwanda, which was conducted between June 2006 and August 2007. We find that the introduction of a Village Phone had a substantial impact on reported access to telecommunications for local entrepreneurs. While the introduction of phones did not follow the intended randomized design, we compare the changes observed in 94 study communities that received the phones to the 284 that did not. We find that the placement of a Village Phone in a community was associated with both an increased use of phones to transmit news and a greater propensity for farmers to arrange their own transit. Despite this improvement in access to telephony, the actual prices received by farmers were not affected. Impacts at the household level were muted by the relatively small size of Village Phone businesses and airtime usage rates, implying that profits must be transferred from other sources to pay off the phone in six months. Reported labor time in household enterprise increased dramatically for Village Phone operators, but positive impacts on consumption or overall business profits were not found.