DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR AFRICA
COMMUNITY MULTIMEDIA CENTRES
Dakar 12 –15 June 2003
Final Workshop Report
Contents:
Opening Ceremony
1st Plenary : An Overview of the CMCs in Africa
2nd Plenary: Contents, Resources, Applications
3rd Plenary : Community Involvement
4th Plenary : Technical Challenges
5th Plenary : CMC Services & Sustainability
6th Plenary : Human Resource Issues, Training
7th Plenary: Case Studies of CMC Initiatives and Centres
Dakar Attendum
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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Opening Ceremony
The Minister of the Republic of Senegal for Communication and Information Mr.
Abdou Fall opened the symposium. In his speech the Minister underscored the
importance of developing countries taking advantage of the opportunities offered by
the New Information and Communication Technologies which will enable the less
affluent societies to leapfrog developmental problems and enable their citizens to live
better lives. The Minister was of the view that the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development (NEPAD) duly recognizes the importance of the New Communication
technologies in empowering African citizens and assured the participants of his
government’s support for the CMC concept.
Speaking also at the opening ceremony on behalf of UNESCO, Ms. Carrie Marias
stressed the institutional mandate of UNESCO in ensuring access for all to
information and knowledge. She underlined the fact that the New Communication
Technologies were basically a tool for the empowerment of the disadvantaged. ‘Man
cannot be developed but can develop himself’.
Mr Yaya Sangare, President of AMARC Africa (The World Association of Community
Radio Broadcasters), the co-organizers of the Symposium, emphasized the
importance of community radio stations in Africa a continent particularly affected by
the problem of illiteracy. He pointed out that integration of the new communication
technologies within a community media setting was important because it would
facilitate the empowerment of rural communities. He later on went to briefly present a
synopsis of an ongoing study on the use of the new communication technologies by
African community radio stations.
The Seminar brought together 57 participants from Benin, Burkina Faso, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, India, Mali,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
Representatives from both UNESCO and AMARC also participated in the
Symposium.
The Symposium was structured around a mix of plenary sessions and working
groups. In the Plenary Sessions the participants sought to generally share
experiences and to find common solutions to recurrent problems. Here more
experienced rural communicators as well as UNESCO and AMARC experts assisted
them.
In the working groups the participants had possibilities of discussing in-depth the
issues facing community radio as well multimedia centres. Emphasis was placed on
networking and the cross-fertilization of ideas. The working groups also helped the
participants to study the Kothmale declaration and to draft elements for their own
addendum.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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Part One
1st Plenary :
Introduction to workshop and overview of ICTs and
community broadcasting in Africa
Ms. Michelle Ntab, AMARC Africa
Mr. Birama Diallo, Mali
Mr. Hezekiel Dlamini, UNESCO
The first session primarily provided an overview of the concept of the CMC and its
expansion on the African continent.
By combining community radio and access to the internet as well as other information
and communication technology resources the CMC seeks to overcome linguistic,
literacy-level and other barriers which prevent the most disadvantaged from engaging
in and benefiting from the acquisition and exchange of information and knowledge
using the new communication and information technologies.
Participants were also provided on information on the ground-breaking International
Seminar on Integrating Modern and Traditional Information and Communication
Technologies for Development: Kotmale, Mawatura, Sri Lanka 22-27 January 2001.
Panelists underlined the importance of locally relevant communication media that
were seen as the most effective means of empowering the marginalized and the
poor. The following are also some of the salient points raised by the panelists:
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A multimedia approach is suitable in locally initiated communication initiatives
since this engages the community in different ways to create meaning. Radio
is useful for addressing problems because it is immediate, available to a wide
audience and can employ an oral, ordinary style. The Internet can provide indepth information allowing for further analysis of issues in private time.
Local content creation both online and/or offline material was considered
pivotal for the success of CMCs and often this also influences the content of
radio programming;
High hardware and software prices’ high telecommunication charges as well
as unfavorable taxation measures by African government were adversely
affecting the acquisition of new communication and information technologies
by MCTs;
The self-sustainability of CMCs and their local ownership were mentioned as
critical for their survival. Mention was made of the need to ensure that CMC
equipment need not be unnecessarily sophisticated to compromise their selfsustainability.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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Contributing from the floor participants mentioned the need to:
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Ensure that CMC should be seen to support existing local media facilities
rather than competing and also that donors may wish to adopt the same
approach;
Guarantee that internet access is not limited to specific sites but that
pornographic sites should not be allowed to offend the sensibilities of other
users;
Facilitate the availability of local technicians to guarantee basic maintenance
of electronic equipment;
Lobby governments to ensure that taxes are lowered or abolished on
computer hardware and software. Here participants stressed the need for
tripartite action whereby by local communicators were supported by nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations;
Avoid confusing the availability of equipment with the relevance of
information. Normally the new communication technologies should respond to
the needs of the communities.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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2nd Plenary
Contents, resources, applications
Chair :
Moderator :
Panelists :
Mr. Mabalani Mfundisi, Oneworld / AMARC Africa
Mr. Hezekiel Dlamini, UNESCO
Ms. Polly Gaster, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique
Ms. Rama Hariharan, NIC India (ENRICh Software)
Ms. Imelda Kashaija, Uganda
Mr. Nignan Kirasse, Burkina Faso
As an introduction to this theme the moderator underlined the fact that content is the
most important issue as far as CMCs were concerned. It was also mentioned that
information was not useful unless it was necessary and relevant to communities’
needs.
Panelists mentioned the importance of involving the local communities in content
creation and in needs assessment surveys. Emphasis was placed on the need for
participatory communication in communities. It was also underlined that information
was a public good and that CMCs should ensure its widest availability. Different
formats for producing, receiving and redistributing information were outlined,
comparing advantages, disadvantages, costs, ease of use and other factors. It was
stressed that Internet is not necessarily the primary source of information for instance
CD-ROMs are cheap, flexible and durable.
Languages were a critical element to be taken into consideration in content creation
because even in widespread rural communities not all sub-communities spoke the
same languages or dialects.
Directly following from the above participants were introduced to the eNRICh
software that has been developed by the National Informatics Centre of India in close
collaboration with UNESCO to facilitate local knowledge creation. The software
according to the panelist ensures one stop information search and delivery
mechanism; it is easily customizable for local content creation; facilitates active
community participation in knowledge creation since it is the communities themselves
that define information categories and sub-categories.
Speaking from the floor the participants mentioned the following issues:
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The need to ensure that those undertaking CMCs information needs
assessment surveys do not end up imposing solutions;
The importance of ensuring that information provided to local communities is
‘validated’ by experts and specialists;
Although ‘censorship’ was condemned and deemed not necessary participants
agreed that there might be the need to filter information for different users
particularly children.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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Part II
3rd Plenary
Community Involvement:
Chair:
Moderator:
Panelists:
Mr. Mathew Takumdgeni Haikali, Namibia
Mr. Yaya Sangare, Mali
Mr. Birama Diallo, Mali
Mr. Pascal Wanou, Benin
Mr. Fily Keita, Mali
Mr. Evans Hunter, Ghana
As an introduction to the above theme, the moderator underlined the fact that if we
talk of community multimedia centers then we are talking of community involvement
and participation. No one can establish a community multimedia centers without
community involvement.
The panelists also contributing on the same theme mentioned the following points:
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Community empowerment was the raison d’être of CMCs and that all
communication actors should ensure that this is the ultimate goal and that the
communities realize that the CMCs is a means of their taking into their hands
their own destinies;
The need to ensure that the community gets involved in the early planning
stages of projects through their traditional or acceptable leaders; and also in
all the project implementation phases even including equipment selection
since they will be the end-users;
Any administrative structures set up to facilitate project implementation should
guarantee that the CMC is not paralyzed by excessive bureaucratic
procedures; the appointment of life board members should be avoided; and
most importantly women’s participation in decision-making should be
guaranteed;
There was general agreement that the CMC should be seen to be serving the
whole (geographical community) without favoring any tribe or ‘race’. Mention
was also made of ensuring that information resources were available in all
‘community’ languages. For instance when creating software in one local
script, users of another script may feel neglected.
Speaking from the floor the participants concurred with the panelists and added the
following:
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The need for the CMC to be seen as capable of delivering on its programme
activities. One participant mentioned that African communities are somehow
skeptical of well-intentioned programmes espoused by politicians during
elections’ time but that are never implemented. Consequently it was important
that communities feel at the outset that CMC is their own and thus need to get
involved in everything that concerns their CMC;
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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4th Plenary Session: Technical Challenges
Chair :
Moderator:
Mr. Kwesi Ghartey-Tagoe, Ghana
Mr. George Christensen, AMARC
Mr. Habby Bugalama, Tanzania – Technical problems and
solutions
Mr. Mohamed Alidou, Benin – Technical problems
and solutions
Ms. Imelda Kashaija, Uganda – Technical
trouble shooting
Mr. Ken Lohento, Benin – Technical trouble-shooting
Introducing the discussion on this theme the moderator requested the participants to
be honest about the technical problems they encounter so that the session should
end up as ‘frequently encountered problems’ discussion.
He quickly mentioned such issues as: the ordering of equipment the key words
should be adaptability; manageability; serviceability; scalability and usability. Often,
equipment unsuitable for tropical conditions is ordered; usually with wrong voltages
and necessitating expensive spare parts that ‘poor’ communities can ill-afford.
The panelists and participants contributing to the debate mentioned the following:
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The need for CMCs to adopt preventive maintenance measures and routines:
purchase of Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) units; Power and Voltage
surges control units; basic care of equipment such as dusting and/or oiling of
equipment. Participants were also encouraged to construct and/or plant dustarresting fences;
Installation of lightning arrestors are important since other CMCs had their
equipment destroyed;
The use of alternative energies was recommended for all the participants to
avoid the constant loss of voltage and current from national electricity grids but
high electricity bills;
The need to study other telecommunications links such as Vsat or microwave
connections to avoid constant loss of connections which often affect
community interest in CMC activities. (Mention was made of villagers traveling
long distances only to find that CMCs had lost their telecommunication
connections).
Another problem mentioned was poor technical support obtained from
telecommunication companies who often try to guesswork solutions for
telecommunication problems
Although there was no adversarial role between CMCs and political party
leaders, it was mentioned that it was better to avoid political leadership,
association and/or control of CMC in order not to bring in partisan divisions
that could affect the use of the Centres.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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The participants agreed that CMCs should strive to be beacons for
democratization efforts and that experts although involved in initial planning
phases should be able to allow community democratic structures to manage
CMC projects;
(One example was given of a telecommunication company that recommended
that trees surrounding a CMC should be felled since these were interfering
with microwave links but this did not remedy the situation and then the
company recommended the acquisition of a higher antenna but this also did
not solve the problem);
Participants also mentioned the need for CMCs to obtain software updates
since this could affect the optimal performance of both hardware and software.
But here the participants were also aware that upgrades need higher disk
space as well as computer memory;
High telephone bills were also mentioned as another hindrance because in
spite of poor connectivity ISP’s and national telecommunication companies still
insist that the bills should be paid and often disconnect services abusively;
The non-availability of adequate staff to supervise learners who damage
computers by unnecessary over-experimentation was mentioned as a problem
that often affect CMCs.
Members agreed that adequate management measures should be instituted to
keep CMC operating costs very low. Such as advising members to scan their
diskettes to avoid computer viruses; to print only when it is necessary in order
to keep toner costs low; to use emails instead of faxing or photocopying;
saving documents on CD-ROMs in order not to saturate computer hard disk
space.
As a general conclusion on this topic the participants agreed to request both
UNESCO and AMARC to lobby African countries to consider lowering
telephone charges and taxes for telecommunication bills; initiatives should
also be supported to encourage African countries to develop appropriate
software for CMCs as well as the digitalization of African languages.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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5th Plenary: CMC services & sustainability
Chair:
Moderator:
Ms. Imelda Kashaija, Uganda
Mr. Ken Lohento, Benin
Mr. Mohamed Alidou, Benin – Income Generating
Services
Mr. Daouda Coulibaly, Mali – Adding Telecentre to
Radio: Assessment after months
Mr. Birama Diallo, Mali – The Transition to Sustainability
The moderator introducing the above theme underlined the fact that selfsustainability, although community beneficiaries of CMCs project do not want to raise
the issue, was one of the most important goals of CMCs. The issue that the plenary
had to discuss was: “Once the donor has left then what happens?”
The panelists contributing to the theme were of the view that it had to be recognized
that CMCs often are established in poor and marginalized communities where most
citizens do not have adequate resources to even make a symbolic contribution to the
CMCs operations. It was thus important at the outset to involve the community in the
establishment of centers so that the ownership of the centre is inculcated in their
minds. Once this message gets across the community members would make
contributions even in kind to support the operations of the centre.
Sustainability is not only an issue of economic viability but also of social, technical
and organisational viability. Technical viability demands qualified staff, good
connectivity, reliable power supply and preventive maintenance. Socio-economic
viability is achieved through an effective correlation between services and the needs
of the community, between revenue-generating services and services delivered with
no charge or minimal charge, an ability to cover the cost of equipment replacement
and regular control of accounts. Organisational viability based on a participative
approach, a competent and representative management committee and well
integrated telecentre and radio components.
Participants contributing from the floor were of the following views:
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The CMC has a different mission than a classical cybercafé in the sense that it
was a public service point aiming at assisting the poorest of the community to
access information. As such the objective of the CMC was not to make profits
but to recover its operating costs thus only modest fees should be charged.
Mention was made of the renting of premises; provision of typing,
photocopying; scanning services as some of the means of generating income
for CMCs;
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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6th Plenary:
Human resource issues, training
Chair :
Moderator:
Ms. Fatou Bintou Mbaye, AMARC Senegal
Ms. Birgitte Jallov, CTA Mozambique
Ms. Branislava Milosevic, Radio Projects Manager, OneWorld
– the Multimedia Training Kit
Ms. Polly Gaster, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique –
training & human resource issues in Mozambican environment
Mr. Nignan Kirasse, Dassasgo, Burkina Faso – training and
human resource issues in an urban environment
Ms. Rama Hariharan, NIC India – ICT training at village level,
multilingualism
Introducing the above theme the moderator underlined that ‘human resources’ are
the key to the success of any CMC and invited the panelists and participants to share
experiences in the manner they recruit, manage and possibly retain their staff.
Generally there were divergent views on this subject. Other participants were of the
view that CMC staff should be on the centres’ payrolls whilst other thought that this
would defeat the raison d’etre of the CMC that should be seen as a community
undertaking. When one speaks of the community one thinks of ownership and selfhelp thus volunteers should be the backbone of the CMCs staff.
Other points mentioned on this subject include the following:
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CMCs are often established in rural areas thus it is often difficult to find highly
qualified and motivated personnel to run the centres;
The users of CMCs are often illiterate and poor; less exposed and aware of
technological innovations thus very difficult to train. Meaning that the staff
needs to have patience and good diplomatic skills. It was also pointed out that
software developers need to ensure that most of the programmes are in the
languages used and easily understood by the members of the concerned
communities;
The participants stressed the fact that volunteers were what they were i.e.
volunteers, and should no be seen as cheap labourers by CMC directors.
They need recognition and respect from the community;
An interesting point raised concerned the use of expatriate volunteers in rural
areas whereby the latter end up getting US$300-$400 as out-of-pocket
allowances in rural communities whereby local civil service salaries rarely
exceed US$10 per month.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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7th Plenary: Case studies of CMC initiatives and Centres.
Chair :
Moderator:
Ms. Fatou Bintou Mbaye, AMARC Senegal
Ms. Birgitte Jallov, CTA Mozambique
Presentation by: Mr. Habby Bugalama, Sengerema telecentre,
Tanzania
Ms. Mamokhati Molotsi, Journalist Radio Qwaqwa, South
Africa
Mr. Abibacar Selemagny Bacar, Mozambique
Ms. Mireille Awene, Presenter Radio Fraternité Yopougon,
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – ICTs in Telecentres and Radio.
Ms. Aziza Bangwene, Radio Maendeleo, Congo
The aim of the above plenary session was to enable participants to share
experiences and share best-practices models on the African continent. The words
that underlined the discussion were replicability and self-sustainability.
The participants want to study possibilities of having several media within the CMC
the radio; rural newspaper and an Internet facility.
The participants were of the view that although CMCs share the same objective – of
empowering the poor and the marginalised - each country has produced its own
model depending on the laws of the country.
It transpired that there were different laws governing community radio broadcasting in
different countries and that in other states it was still not possible to broadcast even
for community radios.
The participants concluded by underlining the importance of networking amongst
CMCs and also lauded the very difficult work being undertaken by Radio Maendeleo
by broadcasting in conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Concluding their deliberation the participants agreed to adopt the following text as an
addendum to the Kothmale Declaration.
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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Dakar Addendum
We the participants in the workshop “Digital Opportunities for Africa – Community
Multimedia Centres” that took place in Dakar, Senegal from 12-15 June 2003, came
together in order to forge a strategy for larger-scale CMC development in Africa. As
an outcome of the Dakar Workshop and taking into account the Recommendations of
the Kothmale Seminar and NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development,
we wish to emphasize the following issues:
1
MOBILIZATION, INTEGRATION AND SENSITIZATION OF COMMUNITIES
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TECHNICAL CHALLENGES
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People with disabilities should be considered as a priority group, both as
users and as staff and activists in Community Multimedia Centres
The Community Multimedia Centre should to contribute to placing
greater value on local cultures
There should be recognition of the public usefulness of the Community
Multimedia Centre
The Community Multimedia Centre must not serve as an instrument of
propaganda
Preventive maintenance is a key factor for Community Multimedia Centre
development
A particular effort should be made to find or develop technology suited
to the tropical environment and local infrastructures
African Community Multimedia Centres should seek to vary their
sources of energy and to use alternative energies
African telecommunications infrastructures should be developed and
strengthened to better serve rural communities
Technical training for Community Multimedia Centre staff should be
further developed
CONTENTS AND APPLICATIONS
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In order to enhance access to public information, administrative
information such as forms, the texts of laws and calls for tender should
be put on-line
Local knowledge should be promoted by favoring the collection,
broadcasting and other distribution of local contents
African scripts must be digitized to enable development of contents and
software in local languages
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003
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4
SUSTAINABILITY
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Appropriate price scales should be fixed by Community Multimedia
Centres to take into account the socioeconomic circumstances and the
needs of the community
The Community Multimedia Centres should maintain a complementary
relationship with similar initiatives especially private sector ones
Community Multimedia Centres should benefit from fiscal advantages
and/or exemptions
African governments and telecommunications companies should
implement preferential tariffs for CMCs
UNESCO, Dakar 16-17 June 2003