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YOUNG ADVOCATES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ICT-RELATED
DEVELOPMENT (Y.A.AICT-D).
GENERAL OPERATING PROPOSAL.
1. PROJECT TITLE: ICTs AT YOUR DOORSTEP.
2. PROPONENTS INFORMATION:
THE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
YOUNG ADVOCATES FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ICT-RELATED
DEVELOPMENT (Y.A.A.ICT-D),
C/O P.O BOX 658,
MZUZU,
MALAWI.
ATT: KENNETH MSISKA
E-MAIL: kennethmsiska@yahoo.com or
PROJECT URL/ALIAS: http://projects.takingitglobal.org/1982
3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.
Young Advocates for the Advancement of ICT-related Development (Y.A.A.ICT-D)
requests a $71,000 grant for its general operating costs under the “ICTs at your
doorstep”. The project targets disadvantaged Malawians the country over. The
project intends to set up educational centers in some strategic parts of Malawi where
apart from providing training on the use of ICTs, they would also offer Internet
services at relatively lower rates. The café’s would also provide a means for
sustainability.
4.
ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION.
Young advocates for the Advancement of ICT-related Development (Y.A.A.ICT-D)
was founded in August 2003. It was founded by Kenneth Msiska a
Telecommunications student at the Malawi Polytechnic, a constituent college of the
University of Malawi. Msiska participated successfully online in the World Summit
on the Information Society (WSIS) parallel forum the Role of Science in the
Information Society (RSIS). He received an expenses paid up invitation to attend the
RSIS conference, a summit event of WSIS.
The invitation was in recognition of his continuing influence and effective use of the
tools of the Information society. Although Msiska failed to attend the summit due to
other reasons his campaign for a better information society has culminated into
Y.A.A.ICT-D.
Y.A.A.ICT-D draws most of its volunteers from the Malawi Polytechnic a constituent
college of the University of Malawi.
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Y.A.AICT-D shall, resources permitting and in keeping with some of the declarations
of the World Summit on the Information Society, strive to help narrow the digital
divide existing in Malawi, a least developed country (L.D.C.).
The organization is not currently registered with the relevant authorities because of
lack of resources, but it has many activities on the surface to implement.
“ICTs at your doorstep” is the only project in Malawi aimed developing the Internet
infrastructure. The ICTs at your doorstep project would run alongside the School Net
project. Under UNESCO’s auspices, the School Net donates computers to secondary
schools so that pupils get acquainted with computer use at an early stage.
Although School Net is doing well on its part the situation is not satisfactory, hence
the need for various players.
5. PROBLEM/NEED/SITUATION.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are proving quite therapeutic to
the national development in various countries, but the infrastructure and use in Malawi
is far from impressive. Worse still the Internet services and bureaus are confined to the
metropolitan cities. A situation that widens the gap between the haves and the havenots in their access to technologies.
Some of the major hurdles contributing to the current state of affairs that the project
would like to address include:
1. Lack of fair knowledge about the importance of ICTs;
2. Lack of capacity to install, maintain/manage/operate a reliable Internet network
due to high tariffs of fixed telephone lines and high computer prices;
3. Lack of conducive policies at national level to accelerate ICT related development;
and
4. Low levels of entrepreneurship in the sector.
ICTs at your doorstep project would therefore act as a model in its own right since it
would help bring the use and importance of ICTs to the fore so that they benefit a good
number of people in Malawi the common man in the country inclusive.
Y.A.A.ICT-D would, funds permitting, open educational centers in some parts of the
country where among other things the people would access training on the
manipulation of ICT-tools. Internet services would also be offered at relatively lower
rates.
The project would relentlessly campaign for the spread of telecommunications systems
to the rural areas so that the rural masses are part and parcel of the Information Society.
At the moment the rural masses remain progressively excluded in the information
society and therefore lack core information resources.
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6. GOALS AND SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES.
“The goals of this project are to increase the use of the Internet and encourage
enterpreneurship in the sector of ICTs and Digital Opportunities.”
To achieve the project goals the organization’s personnel shall provide the education
and training necessary for accessing and using ICT-tools and information. Competent
IT professionals would be entrusted with the jobs of trainers.
6.1 PROJECT PLANNING.
At the meantime many youths have expressed their interest and commitment to work
as volunteers, many of whom are students of the Malawi Polytechnic. We have
already written other organizations dealing with the same issues for technical
assistance.
To ensure that the Project is run efficiently a competent Project Director would be
employed to oversee the running of the project. The post would be advertised and the
suitable candidate with the necessary credentials, preferably those that have tertiary
qualifications would be employed full time /part time depending on the availability of
funds.
The project is intended to run for two years, however the start and end dates will be
decided by the availability of resources.
ICTs at your doorstep project is a national project and its catchment area therefore is
the whole Malawi, but since resources are proving hard to come by it would start
operating in selected parts of the country. The selected areas would be decided by
among other things; the ICTs services and knowledge available among the people and
existence of telecommunications infrastructure as well as related projects. Should
funds become available the project is expected to cover many other places in Malawi.
6.2
SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES.
At the educational centers people are expected to access education and training on
the use of computers. The training would attract a fee so that we meet some of the
costs incurred in the course of our operation. The centers would also house a
commercial/business center where the Internet services at relatively lower rates so
that many people patronize the bureaus and that they benefit from their netsurfing.
6.3 IMPACT OF ACTIVITIES
It is expected that at the end of the project Malawi would witness a tremendous
increase in the use of the Internet as the organization also plans to conduct a
national campaign on the information society. It is also expected that
entrepreneurship in the sector would rise thereby impacting on the rates for
netsurfing.
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6.3
BUDGET
ITEM
Equipment
COST
$30,000
Space rental
Leased Line (s) for a year
$24,000
$ 2,000
Stationery & unforeseen
$ 5,000
Personnel
$10 ,000
Grand Total
$71,000
We also expect to supplement our budget by some income that would be earned through
the cyber café’s that we are planning to set up.
7. EVALUATION.
A team of experts would be meeting at an agreed period of time probably a month to
assess the success of the project basing on the reports made available by the Project
Director. The evaluation team shall comprise the Project team members and the Board of
Trustees. The evaluation process would be continuos process since it the only reliable
measure of the project’s impact.