AIN REPORT The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies 74550 in Africa eTransform AFRICA AFRICAN UNION eTransform Africa was formally launched on 28 May 2012 at the Open Innovation Africa Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Six sector and two thematic reports are already available online at www.eTransformAfrica.org, including more than 20 detailed case studies of ICT transformation in action in Africa. This overview presents the main messages arising from this body of research. It was prepared for consideration by the African Union Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies at their 2012 Summit in Khartoum, Sudan, 2–6 September. The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa The World Bank and the African Development Bank, with the support of the African Union Edited by Enock Yonazi, Tim Kelly, Naomi Halewood and Colin Blackman eTransform AFRICA AFRICAN UNION Table of contents �  Foreword ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6 �  Acknowledgements ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8 �  Abbreviations ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 �  Executive summary ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 12 Part I Overview • Chapter 1   �  How ICTs are Transforming Africa �������������������������������������������������������������������� 19 1.1 Context  20 1.2 The transformational power of ICTs  22 1.3 From access to apps  24 1.4 The role of governments  29 1.5 Stakeholder collaboration  31 Part II Sector Studies • Chapter 2   �  Agriculture ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 38 2.1 Introduction  40 2.2 Landscape analysis  42 2.3 Africa scan  44 2.4 Case studies  45 2.5 Recommendations  48 Chapter 3   �  Climate Change Adaptation ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 54 3.1 Introduction  56 3.2 Landscape analysis  60 3.3 Opportunities and challenges  61 3.4 Case studies  63 3.5 Recommendations  66 Chapter 4   �  Education ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 70 4.1 Introduction  72 4.2 Landscape analysis  72 4.3 Opportunities and challenges  73 4.4 Case studies  79 4.5 Recommendations  80 2 Chapter 5   �  Financial Services ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 86 5.1 Introduction  88 5.2 Landscape analysis  88 5.3 Case studies  91 5.4 Recommendations  94 Chapter 6   �  Health �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 98 6.1 Introduction  100 6.2 Landscape analysis  102 6.3 Case studies  105 6.4 Recommendations  108 Chapter 7   �  Modernizing Government ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114 7.1 Introduction  116 7.2 Landscape analysis  118 7.3 Case studies  122 7.4 Recommendations  125 Part III Cross-cutting issues • Chapter 8   �  Regional Trade and Integration ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 130 8.1 Introduction  132 8.2 Landscape analysis  134 8.3 Opportunities and challenges  138 8.4 Regional and national experiences  140 8.5 Recommendations  141 Chapter 9   �  ICT Competitiveness ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 146 9.1 Introduction  148 9.2 Landscape analysis  148 9.3 Opportunities and challenges  150 9.4 Case studies  151 9.5 Recommendations  156 �  Statistical annex ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 160 �  About the authors �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 162 3 Table of Figures Figure 1.1 Growth effects of various ICTs on GDP, worldwide  21 Figure 1.2 Africa’s mobile revolution  22 Figure 1.3 ICT driving Africa’s renaissance  23 Figure 1.4 ICT putting Africa on the map  25 Figure 1.5 Unequal broadband  27 Figure 1.6 Reconnecting Africa  30 Figure 2.1 Information and service needs differ through the crop lifecycle  41 Figure 3.1 A framework to assess ICT tools for climate change adaptation  59 Figure 4.1 Illustrative model of national framework for ICT professional development  81 Figure 5.1 Challenges to greater ICT use in financial services  90 Figure 7.1 The vicious cycle of ineffective service delivery  117 Figure 8.1 Supply chain model between producers and consumers  133 Figure 8.2 The impact of ICTs on trade facilitation  134 Figure 8.3 Stakeholders in cross-border trade  135 Figure 8.4 Single window variants  137 Figure 8.5 ICTs and trade – the supporting environment  142 Figure 9.1 Projected ICT expenditures in Africa to 2016  149 Figure 9.2 ICT Development Index indicators  149 Table of Tables Table 3.1 ICTs and climate change adaptation framework 65 Table 5.1 Major initiatives to address challenges in financial services 90 Table 5.2 Senegal’s challenges and opportunities for ICT and financial services 91 Table 5.3 Kenya’s challenges and opportunities for ICT and financial services 93 Table 6.1 Summary of opportunities and challenges for ICT to improve health systems 105 4 Table 7.1 ICT-enabled public service delivery framework 116 Table 9.1 Kenya roadblocks and pathways to success 152 Table 9.2 Morocco roadblocks and pathways to success 154 Table 9.3 Nigeria roadblocks and pathways to success 155 Table of Boxes Box 1.1 Esoko, a mobile platform to support farmers 24 Box 1.2 It’s not just M-PESA: A selection of award-winning Africa-developed ICT applications 26 Box 1.3 Local ICT development clusters 31 Box 1.4 African Virtual University 33 Box 1.5 MXit, home-grown African social networking 34 Box 2.1 Namibia: Livestock traceability systems unlock wealth along the value chain 46 Box 2.2 Egypt: ICT use increases irrigation efficiency 47 Box 3.1 Climate change adaptation in agriculture – the role of Community Knowledge Workers in Uganda 63 Box 3.2 Adaptation and knowledge sharing for decision making 64 Box 3.3 Adaptation and water management: Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) in Malawi 64 Box 4.1 Establishing an enabling policy environment 74 Box 4.2 Widening access to ICT infrastructure and connectivity 75 Box 4.3 Harnessing ICT to improve management and administration 76 Box 4.4 Harnessing digital learning resources 77 Box 4.5 Building human capacity 77 Box 6.1 Lessons from Ethiopia 106 Box 6.2 Lessons from Mali 107 Box 6.3 The mHealth Alliance’s Enterprise Architecture Initiative 109 Box 7.1 Malawi’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) 122 Box 7.2 The South African Revenue Service (SARS) eFiling System 123 5 Foreword While the world’s economy is struggling to recover from the global financial crisis, the African economy is in the midst of a long boom. Over the past decade GDP has been increasing on average at 5% a year, and over the next five years, Africa’s economy will grow faster than any other continent. One contributory factor has been the take- up of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and, in particular, the spectacular growth in mobile communications. The number of mobile subscriptions in use in Africa increased from fewer than 25 million in 2001 to almost 650 million by 2012. Two-thirds of African adults now have access to ICTs. The power of ICTs is more than just putting mobile phones in the hands of poor people. By allowing people to access health information, agricultural price data or educational games, ICTs can strengthen other sectors, and possibly the whole economy. ICTs are now helping Africa to overcome its traditional market failures – such as communicable diseases, the public-goods aspects of having a literate and numerate population, and clean water and sanitation – as well as government failures – absentee teachers and doctors, patronage-ridden water and electric utilities, etc. Avoiding the excesses of the past, most African governments inter­ vened by providing the regulatory framework and public goods such as the backbone for broadband services. The rest is being provided by the private sector, which has every interest to capture the profits from this private good. In short, they balanced the interventions to correct market failures with the avoidance of government failure. 7% ICT’s contribution to Africa’s GDP US$56 from the private b i l l i o n sector in telecom + 615,000 km of national backbone networks eTransform Africa: The Transformational Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa captures the existing use of ICT in six sectors (agriculture, climate change, education, health, financial services, government) and two cross-cutting themes (regional trade and integration, ICT competitiveness). It further examines the immediate potential that could be realized with further attention by both the private and public sectors and makes recommendations for policy makers and development practitioners. The detailed studies carried out for this report (available at www.eTransformAfrica.org) in- clude twenty country case studies spanning the continent and an ICT data table that showcases country data for mobile and broadband indicators. The case studies show how ICTs can help overcome government failures in different sectors. This publication is the result of a collaboration between the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the African Union, and various authoring teams and their interactions with African entrepreneurs, farmers, health workers, and civil servants – all using ICT to make better decisions in their economic and social lives. This publication not only sheds light on the path Africa is already on, but also encou­ rages continued creative thinking in how to utilize ICTs to benefit more Africans. Shantayanan Devarajan Gilbert Mbesherubusa Chief Economist, Africa Region, Ag. Vice President, Operations, World Bank African Development Bank x 20 648.4 million of mobile US$150 Projected ICT Growth of internet subscriptions in 2011 billion market by 2016 bandwidth in 2008–2012 Acknowledgements This report was prepared jointly by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank (WB), with support from the African Union (AU). The report was edited by a project team led by Enock Yonazi (AfDB) and Colin Blackman (Camford Associates), Tim Kelly and Naomi Halewood (WB) assisted by Jack Salieu (AfDB) and Elena Gasol Ramos (WB). Tunde Fafunwa (Kitskoo) coordinated the work of the consultant teams and Christian Kreutz (WB) created the project website (www.eTransformAfrica.org). Overall guidance for the work of the project team was provided by Gilbert Mbesherubusa (AfDB), Laurent Besancon, Shanta Devarajan and Philippe Dongier (WB) and Moctar Yedaly (AU). The eTransform Africa study grew out of the African Union Summit of ICT Ministers, held in Addis Ababa in January 2010. The eight sectoral and cross-cutting reports were commissioned following an international tendering process that attracted some of the best firms and individuals. The work programme kicked off with a launch meeting in Nairobi, in February 2011, and continued with a review meeting in Johannesburg in June 2011. As the reports and case studies have been elaborated, they have been subjected to expert scrutiny both by the project team and by the wider public, through the www.eTransformAfrica.org website and other blogs. This philosophy of “early exposure� of results has undoubtedly strengthened the final outputs through a rigorous process of review and ground-truthing. Individual chapters of the report Chapter 5 (Financial Services) by a team from Vital Wave Consulting led by Scott Stefanski and supported were written as follows: by Muhammad Muhammad, Andrea Bohnstedt and Brendan Smith. The Executive Summary and Overview of the report by Tim Kelly and Naomi Halewood (WB), and Colin Chapter 6 (Health) by Meera Shekar (World Bank) and Blackman (Camford Associates). Kate Otto (consultant). The full sector study was carried out by a team from Vital Wave Consulting led by Nam Chapter 2 (Agriculture) by a team from Deloitte, led Mokwunye and supported by Bethany Murphy, Rick by Omri Van Zyl and comprising Trish Alexander, Liezl Doerr and Brendan Smith. De Graaf and Kamal Mukherjee with assistance from Vikash Kumar. Chapter 7 (Modernizing Government) by a team from Deloitte, led by Kamal Mukherjee and comprising Trish Chapter 3 (Climate Change Adaptation) by a team Alexander, Liezl De Graaf and Omri Van Zyl with assistance from the International Institute for Development led from Hugo Lotriet, Kirsten Krauss and Debashis Nag. by Heather Creech, and comprising Ben Akoh and Jo-Ellen Parry, with assistance from Livia Bizikova, Chapter 8 (Regional Trade and Integration) by a team from Daniella Echeverria, Philip Gass, Ann Hammille and ict Development Associates led by David Souter and com- Julie Karami. prising Lishan Adam, Abiodun Jagun and Tusu Tusubira. Chapter 4 (Education) by a team from ict Develop- Chapter 9 (ICT Competitiveness) by a team from ment Associates led by David Souter and comprising TNO/Excelsior led by Javier Ewing and comprising Lishan Adam, Neil Butcher, Claire Sibthorpe and Tusu Nicholas Chevrolier, Matthijs Leenderste, Maryanna Tusubira. Quigless and Thomas Verghese. 8 THE REVIEW PROCESS INVOLVED MANY Gillwald (Research ICT Africa, ICT competitiveness), Anders Engvall (Scanbi Invest, Regional Trade and SECTOR EXPERTS FROM INSIDE AND Integration), Louis Fourie (UWC, modernizing govern- OUTSIDE THE TWO BANKS: ment), Egbe Osifo-Dawoudu (Anadach, Health), Morel Fourman (Gaiasoft), Nadine Berezak (BMP) and Philippe Parmentier (BMP; overall report). Inputs, comments, guidance, and review at various stages of the report’s preparation were provided by sector experts from the African Development Bank ICT Data Tables were contributed by Kaoru Kimura, and the World Bank. Buyant Erdene Khaltarkhuu, and William Prince of the World Bank. AfDB sector experts included: Agriculture: Jean-Guy Afrika; Funding for the publication came from the AfDB Korean Climate Change Adaptation: Ignacio Tourino-Soto, Trust Fund, the WB Pfizer Trust Fund and the WB Africa Kisa Ilava Mfalila; regional department. Education: Sunita Pitamber; Financial Services: Salieu Jack; Colin Blackman (Camford Associates) and Marie-Anne Health: Youssouf Mohamed; Chambonnier (AfDB) provided overall editing, design ICT Competitiveness in Africa: Augusto Maquengo; direction and layout while Christian Kreutz, Meghana Modernizing Government: Ali Yahiaoui, Ali Kokou Bheda and Beatrice Berman (WB) directed the website Hmawoo; development. Regional Integration and Trade: Cristina Lozano and Kennedy Mbekeani. Photography credits: All photographs are drawn from the World Bank's Photo World Bank sector experts included: Collection on Flickr. Agriculture: Cory Belden, Eija Pehu; Arne Hoel: pages 12, 19, 85, 86, 98, 112, 146 Climate Change Adaptation: Jonathan Coony, John Hogg: pages 38, 70, 144 Nagaraja Harshdeep; Jonathan Ernst: pages 53, 54, 114, 130 Education: Anuhba Verma, Michael Trucano, Peter Materu, Robert Hawkins; Financial Services: Kevin Donovan, Zaid Safdar, Ismail Radwan; Health: Elizabeth J. Ashbourne, Feng Zhao, Katherine Otto, Meera Shekar; ICT Competitiveness in Africa: Ismail Radwan, Tugba Gurcanlar, Vincent Palmade; Modernizing Government: Waleed Malik; Regional Trade and Integration: Charles Kunaka, Tugba Gurcanlar, Vincent Palmade. Peer reviewers for the report representing international and regional organisations included Moses Bayingana (AUC), Dr. Abu Sufian Dafalla (COMESA), Robert Achieng (EAC), Makane Faye (ECA), Alice Koech (ATU), George Patric Ahthew (SADC) and Abosse Akue-Kpakpo (UMOA). Sector expert external peer reviewers included Jones Govereh (ACTESA/COMESA, reviewing agriculture), Anahi Iacucci Ayala (Crisis Mappers; climate change adaptation), Bakary Diallo (African Virtual University; education), Alex Twinomugisha (GESCI, education); Laura Recuerovirto (OECD; financial services), Alison 9 Abbreviations 3G Third Generation mobile A ADEA Association for Education Development in Africa AfDB African Development Bank ATM Automated teller machine AUC African Union Commission B BPO Business process outsourcing C CCS Cargo Community System CDMA Code division multiple access CFIS Community Flood Information System CGAP Consultative Group to Assist the Poor CHF Community-based health financing CIC Community Information Centre CIQS Customs, Immigration, Quarantine and Security CKW Community Knowledge Worker D DFID UK Department for International Development E EMIS Education Management Information Systems F FARA Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa FDI Foreign direct investment G GDP Gross domestic product GOe Global Observatory for eHealth GPRS General Packet Radio Service GSM Global System for Mobile Communications GSMA GSM Association Gbps Gigabits per second H HEP Health extension programme HIS Health Information System HMIS Health Management Information System I ICT Information and communication technologies ICT4D ICT for Development ID Identification IFC International Finance Corporation, member of the World Bank Group IFF Illicit financial flow IFI International financial institutions IP Intellectual property IT Information technology ITES Information Technology Enabled Service ITN Insecticide treated net ITU International Telecommunication Union 10 IXP Internet eXchange Point L LID Local ICT development cluster M Mbps Megabits per second MDG Millennium Development Goal MFI Microfinance institution MNC Multinational corporation MNO Mobile network operator N NAPAs National Adaptation Programmes of Action NEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development NESIS National Education Statistical Information System NGO Non-governmental organization NRA National regulatory authority NREN National Research and Education Network O OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OER Open education resources P PCS Port Community System PDA Personal digital assistant PPP Public-private partnership R R&D Research and development REC Regional Economic Communities RFID Radio frequency identification RHEW Rural Health Extension Worker S SaaS Software as a Service SARS South African Revenue Service SEACOM South East Asian Commonwealth (submarine cable) SEND Social Enterprise Foundation of West Africa SIM Subscriber Identity Module SMEs Small and medium enterprises SMS Short Message Service T TCO Total cost of ownership TEAMS The East African Marine System (submarine cable) U UK United Kingdom UNDP United Nation Development Program UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change US United States USA United States of America USAID United States Agency for International Development USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data W WB World Bank WHO World Health Organization WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access WTO World Trade Organization 11 Executive summary Context Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have ICTs in enhancing African regional trade and integration the potential to transform business and government in as well as the need to build a competitive ICT industry to Africa, driving entrepreneurship, innovation and eco- promote innovation, job creation and the export poten- nomic growth. This new flagship report – eTransform tial of African companies. Africa – produced by The World Bank and the African Develop­ ment Bank, with the support of the African eTransform Africa was formally launched on 28th May Union, identifies best practice in the use of ICTs in key 2012 at the Open Innovation Africa Summit in Nairobi, sectors of the African economy. Under the theme “Trans- Kenya. Six sector and two thematic reports are available formation-Ready�, the growing contribution of ICTs to online at www.eTransformAfrica.org, including more Agriculture, Climate Change Adaptation, Education, than 20 detailed case studies of ICT transformation in ac- Financial Services, Government Services and Health is tion in Africa. This overview presents the main messages explored. In addition, the report highlights the role of arising from this body of research. 12 The transformational power of ICTs ICTs, especially mobile phones, have revo- The eTransform Africa report explains how mobile lutionized communications in Africa. phones are being used to provide financial services in Kenya (M-PESA) and agricultural market information The explosive growth of mobile phones in Africa over the services in Ghana (Esoko). It shows how electronic past decade demonstrates the appetite for change across filing of taxes in South Africa or sensor-based irriga- the continent. In the year 2000, there were fewer than 20 tion systems in Egypt are revolutionizing traditional million fixed-line phones across Africa, a number that practices. And it describes how ICT tools are helping had accumulated slowly over a century, and a waiting list Africans face up to new challenges, like climate change, of a further 3.5 million. With a penetration rate of just or tackle ongoing issues, such as HIV/AIDS. Further- over 2 per cent, phones were to be found only in offices more, the wider use of ICTs in government is bringing and the richest households. But the coming of the mobile more transparency and openness, for instance through phone has transformed communications access. By 2012, Kenya’s Open Data initiative or the use of Twitter and there were almost 650 million mobile subscriptions in Facebook to coordinate protests and inform interna- Africa, more than in the US or the European Union, tional opinion as part of the Arab Spring. This grow- making Africa the fastest growing region in the world. ing social and economic dependence on ICTs brings Few imagined that such demand existed, let alone that new challenges, not least the need for infrastructure to it could be afforded. In some African countries, more become more robust and resilient, and for services to people have access to a mobile phone than to clean water, become more reliable. Issues of cybersecurity and data a bank account or even electricity. Mobile phones are now protection will also come to the fore as security and being used as a platform to provide access to the internet, trust become increasingly important. to applications, and to government services. It's not about the phone or the computer; it’s Africa’s “mobile decade� has driven its eco- about the applications and the information nomic growth. they deliver. Foreign Direct Investment is booming and Africa is now ICTs now offer major opportunities to advance human a much easier place to do business, thanks to its much- development – from providing basic access to educa- improved connectivity. ICTs directly contribute around tion or health information to making cash payments 7 per cent of Africa’s GDP, which is higher than the glob- and stimulating citizen involvement in the democratic al average. That’s because, in Africa, mobile phones are process. Phones, computers and websites are powerful also substitutes for many other types of service, such as tools but it is individuals, communities and firms that financial credit, newspapers, games and entertainment. are driving change. Mobile phones and the internet So the value of a mobile phone is higher in Africa than are helping to release the dynamism of African soci- elsewhere. We are now seeing the rapid development of ety. State-owned monopoly telephone companies were, mobile broadband with smartphones and affordable tab- for too long, a barrier to African ingenuity – due to lets across Africa. This will bring even greater social and waiting lists, high prices and unreliable services – but economic impacts over the next decade. now a thriving local ICT sector is part of the solution, not the problem. In many of Africa’s largest cities, smartphones can now be obtained for under US$100. ICTs can empower the lives of Africans and They have the equivalent computer power of a PC that would have cost over US$3,000 a decade earlier. With are driving entrepreneurship, innovation and cheap data packages and free Wi-Fi, smartphones can income growth. be used to start a business, or to find a job. The effect of ICTs on the African economy is impres- sive, but it is the way they are changing the everyday lives of Africans that is genuinely transformational. 13 ICTs can ease cross-border communica- interconnection and so on – that allows a liberalized market tions, financial transactions, and sharing of to thrive. Beyond that, governments can serve as a leading customer for faster networks, and can migrate their own data and information and are having a cat- services and data online. When the Kenyan government alytic impact upon regional integration and put services online such as public service jobs, tax returns, trade facilitation. exam results and candidate selection for schools, it provided a major demand driver for mobile broadband, and stimulat- Until recently it was cheaper to call America or Europe ed further investment in that country’s networks. Similarly, from Africa than a neighbouring country. And Africa’s en- in Ethiopia, government and donor sponsorship of eHealth tire internet connectivity was less than that of the tiny coun- initiatives is helping to finance network investment. try of Luxembourg. Such disparities hindered cross-border regional trade. But this has changed with some 68,000 km of submarine cable and over 615,000 km of national back- Effective use of ICTs will require cross-sectoral bone networks laid in the past few years. The internet band- width available to Africa’s one billion citizens grew 20-fold collaboration and a multi-stakeholder approach, between 2008 and 2012. These electronic highways will based on open data and open innovation. provide the trading routes of the future supporting Africa to improve its trade performance both within the continent Valuable and sustainable ICT applications are most likely and between the continent and other world regions. to develop within an environment that encourages ex- perimentation and collaboration between technologists, entrepreneurs and development practitioners. Often, The deployment of ICTs and the develop- stakeholders may combine their interests in communal projects, such as the creation of the Cape Town Internet ment of applications must be rooted in the exchange. The recent flowering of local ICT development realities of local circumstance and diversity. clusters (LIDs) – such as iHub and NaiLab in Kenya, Hive CoLab and AppLab in Uganda, Activspaces in Camer- Despite the optimism caused by Africa’s ICT revolution, oon, BantaLabs in Senegal, Kinu in Tanzania or infoDev’s there is no one-size-fits-all model, and services that prove mLabs in Kenya and South Africa – is helping to create popular in one country may fail elsewhere. National ICT new spaces for collaboration, training, applications and strategies must be developed locally, building upon con- content development, and for pre-incubation of firms. sultative stakeholder processes and adapted to local cir- cumstances. The private sector will drive the investment, and provided more than US$56 billion in telecom infra- Africa is still at the beginning of its growth structure investment in the decade to 2008. But this may not be enough to ensure competitive markets, or to reach curve and, to date, most ICT applications rural areas. Public-private partnerships (PPPs), such have been pilot programmes. Now is the as the Burundi Backbone System consortium, can help. time for rigorous evaluation, replication and But there are still whole countries, such as the newly in- dependent South Sudan, that are connected to the outside scaling up of best practice. world only through slow and expensive satellite links. The research carried out for this study has highlighted a number of success stories and has shown examples Governments have an important part to play, of programmes that could be scaled up and replicated w here. But there is a lack of systematic monitoring else­ in creating an enabling environment and in of outcomes, and cost-benefit analyses of investments acting as a role model and lead client in are rare. Nevertheless, the evidence that has been mar- adopting new innovations and technologies. shalled in these studies, the most comprehensive car- ried out to date, does point to the potential for effec- Governments may participate directly in infrastructure tive rollout and a period of rapid growth ahead. Africa investment, as the government of Botswana did when cre- was once an ICT laggard, but is now becoming an ICT ating an alternative fibre route to the coast via Namibia. leader. Innovations that began in Africa – like dual But their larger role lies in creating an enabling environ- SIM card mobile phones, or using mobile phones for ment – issuing licences, making available rights of way, auc- remittance payments – are now spreading across the tioning spectrum, mandating infrastructure sharing and continent and beyond. 14 Lessons from the sectoral studies Senegal and Uganda. Africa is especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because its major economic sectors are more sensitive to climate change and because it has lower levels of general economic development. Afri- can countries are preparing for the potential consequenc- es of climate change by building their understanding of climate science, identifying priorities and planning for adaptation, and implementing targeted adaptation mea- sures. Such measures can range from addressing the driv- ers behind vulnerability and building response capacity, to managing climate risk and addressing impacts directly. ICTs will play an important role in helping the African continent to reduce and manage vulnerability and im- pacts. Large-scale deployment of ICTs such as satellites, A study on the Agriculture sector was carried out by meteorological stations, sensor networks, GPS and GIS Deloitte and contains case study analysis of the use of applications can be used to monitor and measure climate Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags for track­ ing impacts. National and regional policies for open data and livestock in Namibia, and ICT sensor networks used in communications will be important components. Equally water management for irrigation in Egypt. These exam- important, however, will be smaller scale applications ples show how ICT can help address some of the chal- – ICT enabled information services combined with lenges facing agriculture and food security in Africa, mobile phone applications that will support knowledge such as inadequate access to markets and unfavourable sharing among people and communities to diversify market conditions, weak infrastructure, high produc- livelihoods, reduce vulnerability and build the capacity to tion and transport costs, natural disasters, environmental respond quickly to changing circumstances. degradation and loss of biodiversity. When a common in- formation system/platform is available for stakeholders, such as DrumNet in Kenya, it has been shown to improve efficiency by minimizing the duplication, ensuring the consistency and improving the integrity of data. The Education sector was examined by ict Development Associates, whose report includes country case studies from South Africa, Uganda and Senegal. It focuses on five critical aspects: teacher professional development, digital learning resources, affordable technologies, education The use of ICTs in adapting to Climate Change was management information systems and National Research studied by the International Institute for Sustainable De- and Education Networks. Education and innovation are in- velopment (IISD), with country case studies of Malawi, terrelated drivers of development, which can be facilitated 15 by ICTs. The means by which educators and students ac- cess learning materials and collaboration platforms are increasingly affordable as more functional, low-cost mo- bile devices become available. Connectivity is also crucial ing resources, and requires continued focus on for access­ competitive broadband access using suitable technologies (wired and wireless), and national and regional collab- orative networks. Access to content is improved by open educational resources, which can be copied and adapted without licence fees. However, effectively integrating technology into teaching and learning requires well-qual- ified educators, a clear focus on equipping teachers with ICT literacy skills and support for teachers to use skills and technology in teaching and learning. The Health sector study, carried out by Vital Wave Con- sulting, includes country case studies of Ethiopia and Mali. Health trends in Africa are generally positive but there is need for significant improvements. The pre-emptive use of ICT could act as a “game-changer� in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). With the impact that mobile-based ICTs are already having for con- sumer communication and transactions, they could be further used to enable and simplify consumer and institu- 0 tional healthcare service delivery funded by out-of-pocket 1 2 3 and insurance transactions. Supply chain issues that also 4 5 6 7 8 9 impede procurement and delivery of equipment and med- ical supplies could be addressed by a mobile supply chain management and equipment tracking system in which mobile devices (phones, PDAs, tablets, laptops) are used for data collection and monitoring. ICTs can also help in outreach to rural areas, and by providing communication Vital Wave Consulting analysed the Financial Services between rural healthcare extension workers and trained sector, including country case studies of Gabon and nurses and doctors in peri-urban facilities as exemplified Kenya. They conclude that mobile banking has reached by the IKON tele-radiology programme in Mali. a tipping point in Africa and now is the time for policy makers to act boldly. ICTs combined with innovative business models have helped widen financial inclusion, most visibly case in Kenya, where active bank accounts have grown fourfold since 2007 aided by some 17 million M-PESA mobile money accounts. Governments have a key role to play in encouraging investment and in en- abling effective regulation, in consultation with Central Banks and the private sector, including commercial banks and mobile money service providers. Governments need to coordinate with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in support of regional integration by introduc- ing favourable regulations to allow mobile operators and other non-bank third parties to offer cross border mobile financial services. The issue of Modernizing Government through ICT was tackled by Deloitte, with case studies of integrated financial management systems in Malawi and electronic tax filing in 16 South Africa. Clearly ICTs are fundamentally changing the profitability of trade. ICTs should, however, form part of a way in which citizens and businesses interact with govern- broad approach to trade promotion, and implementation ment representatives and other agents of the state. The associ- needs careful planning and resources. Regional integration ated high expectations, particularly regarding the speed and through Regional Economic Communities (RECs) can play flexibility with which public service providers can respond a crucial role. The RECs and International Financial Institu- to individual requests, provide feedback on programmes tions (IFIs) should work with other stakeholders to advance and expenditure and handle national crises, are extremely ICT-enabled trade facilitation. challenging. Attention to how governments communicate should not overshadow the importance of the accuracy, completeness and relevance of what they communicate. A balance is needed between the citizen-facing aspects as well as the underlying efficiency and effectiveness of back- office systems. Hence, the delivery tiers of e- and m-Govern- ment are key but depend on the design, development and implementation of underlying ICT systems. Governments should recognize the power of social media and exploit it to their advantage, in particular to reinforce democratic processes, drive efficiency, foster innovation, empower public sector workers and expose corruption. Establish- ment of accurate, effective and efficient national identifica- tion systems, incorporating technology that reduces fraud and identity theft, was found to be one of the key building blocks for an effective government service delivery. Finally, a second cross-cutting study on ICT Competitiveness was carried out by Excelsior with TNO, with country case studies of Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria. These countries are embracing the use of ICTs in novel ways to improve the social and economic opportunities available to firms and citizens. Provided the African ICT market continues its impressive double-digit growth, the market could be worth more than US$150 billion by 2016. The study highlights the need to build a competitive ICT industry to promote innovation, job creation and the export potential of African companies. Of course, challenges remain. The continent largely lags behind the rest of the world in terms of ICT readiness and Africa has made slower progress in the past two years when compared to other regions. The Arab Spring has caused a short-term decline in inward FDI in the north of the The cross-cutting study of Regional Trade and Integration continent. Pricing of ICT services, especially broadband, was carried out by ict Development Associates, and includes continues to be higher than other regions. Furthermore, case studies of Botswana, Kenya and Senegal. Africa's trade the growing trend towards taxing incoming international performance is weak compared with other world regions, calls suggests a worrying reversion to the former view of particularly in trade within the continent, and is undermined the ICT sector as a cash cow. The challenge for the next de- by inefficiencies and poor coordination between national cade is to build on the mobile success story and complete agencies along the supply chain. The study describes expe- the transformation. This will require reducing the cost of rience and opportunities for using ICTs in trade facilitation access for mobile broadband, supporting government pri- – especially in improving the efficiency and coordination vate-sector collaboration, improving the e-commerce en- of trade and transport logistics; port, customs and border vironment, enhancing ICT labour market skills, encour- management; and the availability to trading businesses of aging innovative business models that drive employment, information about markets and trade requirements. Data such as microwork and business process outsourcing, and sharing through national and regional “single windows� can creating spaces that support ICT entrepreneurship, such reduce costs and delays, improve reliability and enhance the as ICT incubators, and local ICT development clusters. 17 Part I overview chapter The Transformational Use 1 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa How ICTs are transforming Africa 1.1  Context Information and communication technologies (ICTs) January 2010. At that meeting, Ministers expressed their have the potential to transform business and govern- belief in the transformational power of ICTs and their ment in Africa, driving entrepreneurship, innova- view that Africa was poised for a new era of growth that tion and economic growth. This new flagship report would take advantage of the platform laid by investment – eTransform Africa – produced by The World Bank and in new networks over the previous decade. In the 2000s, the African Development Bank, with the support of the the focus had been on connectivity, bringing more and African Union, identifies best practice in the use of ICTs more of Africa’s citizens into the information society and in key sectors of the African economy. Under the theme building ever-faster connections to the rest of the world. “Transformation-Ready�, the growing contribution of Analytical research had indicated the boost to economic ICTs to Agriculture, Climate Change Adaptation, Educa- and social development that could come from network tion, Financial Services, Government Services and Health investment. Over the previous 25 years, a 10 per cent in- is explored. In addition, the report highlights the role of crease in the penetration rate of mobile phones had been ICTs in enhancing African regional trade and integration associated with a 0.8 per cent boost in GDP per capita in as well as the need to build a competitive ICT industry to developing countries, while the same increase in broad- boost innovation, job creation and the export potential of band networks could add a further 1.4 per cent to general African companies. economic growth (World Bank, 2009) (see Figure 1.1). In the 2010s, the focus should logically shift to transfor- The eTransform Africa study grew out of the African mation as the penetration of ICTs deepens in the core Union Summit of ICT Ministers, held in Addis Ababa in sectors of the African economy (World Bank, 2012). 20 Ove vi ew r Figure 1.1 Growth effects of various ICTs on GDP, worldwide High Income Economies Percentage Growth Low Income Economies ,1.50 1.38 1.21 1.12 ,1.00 0.81 0.77 0.73 0.60 ,0.50 0.43 ,0.00 Fixed Telephony Mobile Telephony Internet Broadband Source: Adapted from Qiang and Rossotto, 2009, p 45. While Ministers were hopeful of transformational they have been subjected to expert scrutiny both by change, they also expressed their frustration at the lack the project team and by the wider public, through the of hard evidence of the links between investment in ICTs www.eTransformAfrica.org website and other blogs. This and sectoral development. There were plenty of pilot pro- philosophy of “early exposure� of results has undoubtedly grammes but few of these had reached scale or shown strengthened the final outputs through a rigorous process wide-reaching impact. There was a need to prioritize of review and ground-truthing. investment in using ICTs for sectoral development, but which sectors should be first in the queue? Which busi- The involvement in this study of the two major investors ness models were proving successful and which pilot in the African ICT Sector – the African Development programmes represented best practice that could be rep- Bank and the World Bank Group – together with the licated and scaled up? African Union is significant because it sets out a new strategy for future investment, in close coordination This report attempts to answer some of those questions. with client governments, the private sector and other For the first time, detailed and systematic studies have stakeholders. Although ICT infrastructure investment been commissioned to show how ICTs are changing the will continue to be important (Independent Evalua- landscape in different sectors, both in terms of world- tion Group, 2011), increasingly future investment pro- wide best practice and in specific experience of African grammes will be geared to the transformational use of economies1. The eight sectoral and cross-cutting reports ICTs. The outcomes will be measured not in higher pen- were commissioned following an international tendering etration rates but rather in outcomes such as poverty re- process that attracted some of the best firms and indi- duction, creation of jobs and enterprises, increase in ag- viduals globally. The study was directed by a project team ricultural productivity, better access to healthcare, clean headed jointly by the African Development Bank and water, education and so on. Thus this report marks not the World Bank. The work programme kicked off with a so much the end of a study but rather the start of a new launch meeting in Nairobi, in February 2011, and contin- phase of growth. The ICT investment programmes that ued with a review meeting in Johannesburg in June 2011. arise from this new growth phase will be evidence-based, As the reports and case studies have been elaborated, demand driven and stakeholder-led. 21 1.2  The transformational power of ICTs ICTs, especially mobile phones, have revolutionized there were almost 650 million mobile subscriptions in communications in Africa. The explosive growth of mo- Africa (A. T. Kearney, 2011), more than in the United bile phones in Africa over the past decade demonstrates States or the European Union2, making Africa the sec- the appetite for change across the continent. In the year ond fastest growing region in the world, after South Asia 2000 there were fewer than 10 million fixed-line phones (Figure 1.2). At the start of the decade, few imagined that across Africa, a number that had accumulated slowly such demand existed, let alone that it could be afforded. over a century, and a waiting list of a further 3.5 million. In some African countries, more people have access to With a penetration rate of just over 1 per cent, phones a mobile phone than to clean water, a bank account or were to be found only in offices and the richest house- even electricity. Mobile phones are now being used as a holds. But the coming of the mobile phone has trans- platform to provide access to the internet, to applications formed communications access. By the start of 2012, and to government services3. Figure 1.2 Africa’s mobile revolution Mobile phone and fixed line subscriptions in Africa, 2000–2011 (left chart) and average mobile growth rates by region (right chart). Phone subscriptions in Africa, millions 2011 700 Mobile 648.4 m 80 Mobile subscriptions 67% 600 70 Fixed-line subscriptions 60 500 50 400 41% 40% 40 300 30% 30 28% 2000 23% 200 Mobile 16.5 m 20 2000 100 2010 Fixed 9.2 m 10 Fixed 12.1 m 0 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 South Asia Sub-Saharan Middle East & Europe & East Asia Latin America Africa North Africa Central Asia & Pacific & Caribbean Source: World Bank, Wireless Intelligence and ITU. Note: Regions in the right chart include developing countries only. The direct contribution of ICTs to Africa’s economy and has always been competitive in most African economies, its growth is impressive. In 2011, the mobile phone eco- with Nigeria having as many as nine licensees, and most system provided more than five million jobs and contrib- countries having three or more operators4. Even South uted around US$15 billion directly to government rev- Sudan, which has one of the lowest levels of cellular pen- enues in sales and import taxes and regulatory fees (AT etration in the world at about 12 per 100 inhabitants, sup- Kearney, 2011, p 21). Unlike the traditional fixed-line ports five separate operators, soon to be six (Kelly and telecommunications sector, the mobile industry in Africa Minges, 2011). The industry has gone through several 22 Ove vi ew r waves of expansion and consolidation, and some of the availability of ICTs has also contributed greatly to this largest African-based groups have recently been sold to African renaissance. foreign owners5. Nevertheless, African-owned mobile phone operators, like MTN Group, have grown to be- Foreign Direct Investment is also booming, increasing come major players on the world stage. But the signifi- almost fivefold between 2000 (US$27 billion) and 2010 cance of the direct contribution of ICTs to the African (US$122 billion), though it has declined in the north of economy is secondary to their indirect contribution, in the continent recently owing to the fall-out from the Arab driving growth in other sectors. Spring (OECD et al, 2011). In the telecommunication sec- tor, private investment, much of it from foreign sources, Africa’s “mobile decade� has driven its economic is growing and contributed some US$77m between 2000 growth. World Bank research has indicated that, be- and 2010 for Sub-Saharan Africa (Figure 1.3, right chart). tween 2000 and 2008, Africa’s early reformers enjoyed Africa is now a much easier place to do business, thanks to an extra 1.2 percentage point boost to GDP compared its much-improved connectivity. ICTs directly contribute to those that only liberalized their telecom sectors later around 7 per cent of Africa’s GDP, which is higher than the (Williams et al, 2011, p 111). Africa’s economy has en- global average. That’s because, in Africa, mobile phones joyed a renaissance in the 2000s (OECD et al, 2011) with are also substitutes for many other types of service, such as the average rate of economic growth of almost 5 per cent, financial credit, newspapers, games and entertainment so which is higher than anything achieved since the 1970s the value of a mobile phone may be higher in Africa than (Figure 1.3, left chart). Many factors have contributed to elsewhere. We are now seeing the rapid development of this, including increasing political stability, higher com- mobile broadband with smartphones and affordable tab- modity prices and reforms in other sectors of the econ- lets across Africa. This will bring even greater social and omy. But it is not too fanciful to believe that the wider economic impacts over the next decade. Figure 1.3 ICT driving Africa’s renaissance Africa’s economic growth, by decade, 1990–2010 (left chart) and private investment in telecoms, 2000–2010 (right chart). Investment commitments in Sub-Saharan Annual % change in GDP, Africa in Telecoms, US$m Sub-Saharan Africa 14,000 7 6 12,000 5 10,000 4 2000s 8,000 1980s average 3 average 2 6,000 1990s average 1 4,000 0 1980 1990 2000 2010 2,000 -1 -2 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, PPI Database. 23 ICTs can empower the lives of Africans and are challenges, like climate change, or tackle ongoing is- driving entrepreneurship, innovation and income sues, such as HIV/AIDS. growth. The effect of ICTs on the African economy is impressive, but it is the way they are changing the Furthermore, the wider use of ICTs in government is everyday lives of Africans that is genuinely trans- bringing more transparency and openness, for instance formational. The eTransform Africa report contains through Kenya’s Open Data initiative (Rahemtulla et al, more than 20 detailed case studies of ICTs in action 2012) or the use of Twitter and Facebook to coordinate (see Figure 1.4 right page). The case studies show, protests and inform international opinion as part of the for instance, how mobile phones are being used to Arab Spring (Dubai School of Government, 2011). This provide financial services in Kenya (M-PESA) and growing social and economic dependence on ICTs brings agricultural market information services in Ghana new challenges, not least the need for infrastructure to (Esoko, see Box 1.1), how electronic filing of taxes become more robust and resilient, and for services to in South Africa or sensor-based irrigation systems in become more reliable. Issues of cybersecurity and data Egypt are revolutionizing traditional practices, and protection will also come to the fore as security and trust how ICT tools are helping Africans face up to new become increasingly important. Box 1.1 Esoko, a mobile platform to support farmers Esoko is a pioneering mobile tool, developed first But the market for AMIS is becoming crowded with in Ghana and now being used in some 15 different mFarm (in Kenya) and Manobi (primarily in franco- countries in West and East Africa. The application phone West Africa among Esoko’s African competi- provides users with agricultural market information tors (Kelly and Pehu, 2011). Currently Esoko has an service (AMIS) such as up to date prices and their re- edge over other entrants due to its early start, its wider cent trends, weather forecasts and alerts, and crop coverage and its user-friendly interface. Because it production levels in order to help farmers to improve uses standard mobile services that are available on their productivity and sell their products at the right even the cheapest handset, like Short Message Ser- price, the right place and the right time. vice (SMS) and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) rather than mobile applications, that are Esoko has proved to have a significant impact on farm- specific to particular operating systems and devices, er's businesses. For example in Ghana, a randomized it currently has a wider reach. But this may prove a lim- trial survey of farmers using the system compared with iting factor as more smartphones enter the market and those not using it has shown10 percent increases in reve- users demand visual applications that work on touch nues for maize, nuts and cassava. It also shows that only screen devices. 14 per cent of Esoko users report not having access to credit compared to 47 per cent for non users. Esoko also Source: Esoko (www.esoko.com) and Subervie, 2011. reached its sustainability threshold of 10,000 subscribers overall or 2,000 subscribers in any country in most of the markets it serves, sometimes in as little as one year. 1.3  From access to apps It's not about the phone or the computer; it’s about stimulating citizen involvement in the democratic pro- the applications and the information they deliver. cess. Phones, computers and websites are powerful tools ICTs now offer major opportunities to advance human but it is individuals, communities and firms that are driv- development – from providing basic access to educa- ing change. Mobile phones and the internet are helping tion or health information to making cash payments and to release the dynamism of African society. State-owned 24 Ove vi ew r Figure 1.4 ICT putting Africa on the map Map of the case studies covered in the eTransform Africa studies. MOROCCO I ARAB REP.  OF EGYPT A Karachi MALI H SENEGAL C F T NIGERIA ETHIOPIA I H UGANDA C E KENYA F I T A Agriculture C Climate Change MALAWI E Education C G F Financial Services G Modernizing Government through ICT NAMIBIA H Health A BOTSWANA I ICT Competitiveness A T T Regional Trade and Integration SOUTH AFRICA This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank.   E G The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any IBRD 39287 endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. MAY 2012 Source: Author compilation based on country case studies at www.eTransformAfrica.org. monopoly telephone companies were, for too long, a bar- have cost over US$3,000 a decade ago. With cheap data rier to African ingenuity – owing to waiting lists, high packages and free Wi-Fi, smartphones can be used to prices and unreliable services – but now a thriving lo- start a business, or to find a job. cal ICT sector is part of the solution, not the problem. In many of Africa’s largest cities, smartphones can now Africa’s mobile phone subscriptions will grow to over be obtained for under US$100, and fake phones, sold un- a billion well before the end of this decade, and the ac- der-the-counter, are even cheaper. Today’s smartphones tual phones themselves will be replaced and upgraded. have the equivalent computer power of a PC that would Few phones are thrown away and there is a thriving 25 second-hand market, which partly explains why mobile is now being rolled out in nine other countries during phone subscriptions (i.e. SIM cards) outnumber actual 2012. Ideas that originate in Africa are also spreading. For users. But the phones in use in Africa are becoming more instance, several African operators, including Safaricom powerful and the uses to which they are put are becoming in Kenya have made the informal practice of “flashing� more sophisticated (Rao, 2012). One indication of this is (i.e. making an outgoing call but hanging up before it is the wide range of mobile applications now being devel- answered, as a way of triggering a return call) into a ser- oped locally (see Box 1.2). What’s more, innovations that vice by making free “call me back� SMS messages avail- begin in Africa are now spreading elsewhere. M-PESA able to subscribers. As the spread of mobile phones be- is being used in at least six countries outside Kenya and gins to exceed the scope of electrification, paid recharging the Etisalat Mobile Baby service, pioneered in Tanzania, services are also becoming more widely available. Box 1.2 It’s not just M-PESA: A selection of award-winning Africa-developed ICT applications Although Safaricom’s M-PESA mobile money application continues to gain a lot of international press attention, there are a number of other locally developed ICT applications that have been winning awards recently. Those shown below are just a sample. Application Short description Awards / recognition (country / website) AkiraChix is an association that inspires and develops women in technol- AkiraChix (Kenya) ogy through networking, training and mentoring. Among the applications • Unsung Heroes’ award www.akirachix.com it has developed is Magme, an open source project for visual accessibility, • Women Deliver Top 50 developed for Computer Aid International. An agribusiness company and mobile agricultural information service, • infoDev Top 20 SMEs mFARM (Kenya) incubated by infoDev’s m:Lab East Africa. M-Farm provides price infor- www.mFarm.co.ke • IPO48 mation over SMS and provides a bulk buying service for farmers. First launched in Tanzania, and now in the process of being rolled out more widely, the Mobile Baby application helps to combat maternal Etisalat Mobile Baby (Tanzania) • GSMA Nest Mobile Health Innova- mortality by creating an ecosystem of medical healthcare professionals, www.etisalat.ae tion, 2012 NGOs, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and government agencies to support pregnant mothers. MafutaGo (Uganda) A mobile application that displays the locations, prices, and special • Mobile Premier Award, 2012 http://mafutago.appspot.com offers or nearby gas stations. A mobile health platform that provides symptom checkers, first-aid MedAfrica (Kenya) • Pivot 25 East Africa 2011, overall information, doctor and hospital directories together with relevant alert http://m.medafrica.org winner services. Horticultural Remote Irrigation system (Niger) Remote control of irrigation system from mobile handset. • Orange Social Venture Prize 2011 www.tele-irrigation.net Source: Author compilation based on country case studies at www.eTransformAfrica.org. The growing popularity of mobile phones in Africa is the situation did not look promising, but a new genera- driving demand for bandwidth. At the start of the new tion of international cable projects has transformed the millennium, the entire continent of Africa had less in- situation, at least for international connectivity, as more ternational internet bandwidth than the tiny country of than a dozen submarine cable projects have connected Luxembourg (ITU, 2000). As recently as five years ago, Africa to the other rest of the world. Some 68,000 km of 26 Ove vi ew r submarine cables had been rolled out by, and a further This infrastructure represents the beginning of a new era 92,000 km are planned (Figure 1.5). The World Bank is of connectivity for the continent, promising greater in- involved in a number of these investments through its ternational bandwidth and more reliable connectivity, as US$0.5 billion Regional Communication Infrastructure seen in Mauritius where the second connection to a sub- Program (RCIP). The available capacity has increased marine cable in 2009 led to an 83 percent increase in inter- rapidly from 80 Gbps in 2008 to about 15.7 Tbps pro- national bandwidth capacity in just one year (Mauritius jected by 2012 in Sub-Saharan Africa alone (ITU, 2010). National Computer Board, 2011). Figure 1.5 Unequal broadband Cost for 1 GB/Month in USD (October 2011), and a dedicated 155 Mbps connection for selected destinations (July 2011). 80,000 250 70,000 200 60,000 BW - Jo'burg 50,000 150 40,000 100 30,000 Jo'burg 20,000 50 - 10,000 London 0 Botswana Kenya Lesotho Mauritius Rwanda South Africa Cairo - New York - London - BW - JNB - London Sao Paolo Mumbai London Source: World Bank, TeleGeography. Note: In the right chart, the data applies to a circuit from London to Johannesburg (JNB) with backhaul to Gaborone, Botswana (BW). Getting the cables to the shoreline helps, but more invest- Even when both international and national connectivity ment is required to bring connectivity to users. Some 676,739 is in place, the impact on users is only noticeable if there km of backbone infrastructure had been rolled out by are improvements in broadband speed and reliability September 2011, with new fibre being laid at a rate of 138 km and a reduction in the price paid per MB. Kenya is a per day6, using fibre to establish national backbones and to striking example: the connection to the TEAMS, EASSy connect landlocked countries with the submarine cables as and SEACOM cables in 2009-10 led to a wholesale price well. Numerous African countries are now seeing rapid de- decrease of almost 70 percent in one year (ITU, 2010). velopment of their national backbone networks through pri- Lower retail prices for consumers are also filtering vate sector investment, public finance or a mixture of both. through as seen with the announcements of tariffs re- For example, Rwanda is connected to two cable landing sta- duction for broadband by Airtel and MTN (Rao, 2012) tions through Tanzania to Dar es Salaam and also to Mom- and, with help from the regulator, in South Africa8. basa in Kenya. East African states are to spend US$400m on Broadband speeds are improving too. Ghana ranks as an optical fibre backbone to link Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Africa’s broadband speed star with an average household Rwanda and Burundi with more than 15,000km of cable7. download speed of 5.29 Mbps in April 2012. Although But not everywhere is benefitting. The world’s newest state, this ranks only 70th among global economies, and is South Sudan still has no fibre access to international cables only slightly over half the global average of 10.17 Mbps, and must rely upon very small apertures terminals (VSATs) it is still a noticeable improvement on recent years. for satellite access to the rest of the world. Plans to lay cable Behind Ghana, Libya, ranks 75th with 5.13 Mbps, while are hindered by the slow pace of demining, the lack of paved Angola, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Madagascar also make roads and an uncertain regulatory situation. the global top 1009. 27 ICTs can ease cross-border communications, financial at Konza City, it hopes to attract increased foreign direct transactions, and sharing of data and information and investment in this field. Mauritius has similarly ambi- are having a catalytic impact upon regional integration tious plans. In its national ICT Strategic Plan, 2011-2012 and trade facilitation. Until recently it was cheaper to (Gilwald and Islam, 2011), the government sets outs its call America or Europe from Africa than to call a neigh- vision to make ICT the “fifth pillar� of the national econ- bouring country. Such disparities hindered cross-border omy, with offshore ICT services to contribute some 7 per regional trade. But, as noted above, the internet band- cent of national GDP. width available to Africa’s one billion citizens grew 20- fold between 2008 and 2012. These electronic highways The report on the competitiveness of the ICT sector car- will provide the trading routes of the future supporting ried out for this study (Excelsior and TNO, 2012, p2) Africa to improve its trade performance both within the argues that reducing the cost of access for mobile and continent and between the continent and other world re- broadband is the most important single step a country gions. One consequence of this is that an increasing share can take for enhancing ICT competitiveness. Mauritius of Africa’s international traffic is shifting onto IP-based and Kenya are better placed that most African economies (Internet Protocol) networks. This is happening both as to achieve this. Kenya has the lowest price and Mauritius individual subscribers use popular voice over IP (VoIP) the fifth lowest price for mobile service in Africa accord­ services such as Skype, even where it is not legal to do so, ing to one recent survey (Research ICT Africa, 2012), and as operators themselves take advantage of the low- with the cost of the OECD low-user mobile basket be- cost transit arrangements for their international traffic. ing just US$1.90 in Kenya and US$2.39 in Mauritius for a basket of 30 calls and 100 SMS per month. In the case As an increasing share of traffic travels over IP networks of Kenya, this is a result of regulatory intervention to set and terminates on mobile phones, thus bypassing the bi- a mobile termination rate which is the lowest in Africa at lateral accounting rate system, the price of terminating a 1.44 shillings (1.68 US cents) per minute (Communica- call will tend to be the same, irrespective of origin. This is tions Commission of Kenya, 2010). reducing the disparities that used to exist between inter- regional and international traffic. But in this new world The deployment of ICTs and the development of ap- of globalized pricing, geography and policies still matter. plications must be rooted in the realities of local cir- For instance, the Union of the Comoros is disadvantaged cumstance and diversity. Despite the optimism caused by geography, as its population of fewer than one mil- by Africa’s ICT revolution, there is no one-size-fits-all lion means that it is bypassed by international submarine model, and services that prove popular in one country cable systems. Thus to terminate a Skype call there costs may fail elsewhere. National ICT strategies must be de- 66 US cents per minute, almost ten times higher than veloped locally, building upon consultative stakeholder in more populous South Africa. By contrast, Djibouti is processes and adapted to local circumstances. The private advantaged by geography, because of its situation at the sector will drive the investment, and the influx of capital entrance to the Red Sea, through which many interna- has been boosted recently, in particular by significant in- tional submarine cables pass. But it is disadvantaged by vestments from Chinese equipment manufacturers. But market liberalization. Djibouti Telecom’s monopoly over this may not be enough to ensure competitive markets, incoming international traffic means that to terminate a or to reach rural areas. Furthermore, there are still whole Skype call there costs 39 US cents per minute, or three countries, such as the newly independent South Sudan, times the rate of more liberal Egypt, at the other end of that are connected to the outside world only through slow the Red Sea10. and expensive satellite links. Such price differences matter because there is increasing One recent approach to the problem of market failure is competition among countries to compete for internation- via public private partnerships (PPPs), i.e. agreements ally footloose investment and to be the “next India� in the between the government and private organizations to de- global market for ICT-based services, estimated at over velop, operate, maintain and market a network by sharing US$500 billion (Sudan et al, 2010). Kenya, in particular, risks and rewards. The advantages to the private sector through the Kenya ICT Board, has set itself the goal of include reducing capital risk while for the government becoming “Africa’s most globally-respected knowledge there is reduced operational risk. PPPs in Africa’s ICT economy� by 2017, the end-point of its 2012-2017 Na- sector can take several forms: tional ICT Masterplan (Kenya ICT Board, 2012). It plans to create 50,000 jobs in ICT industries, development • A cooperative model, such as the Burundi Back- and innovation in 500 new organizations. In particular, bone System (BBS), where a World Bank loan, made through a business process outsourcing (BPO) operation via the government, has been used to finance the 28 Ove vi ew r construction of a national fibre backbone network network roll-out and to reach rural and remote areas. jointly operated by 17 private operators and ISPs, op- Following a push in the late 1990s and early 2000s, most erating under a self-regulation model. This scheme ad- African countries now have a USF or, like Botswana, dresses the shortage of fixed infrastructure in Burundi are planning to create one. But while USFs in Africa which, like many African countries, is dominated by have proved efficient at accumulating cash, through wireless operators. levies on operators, they are less good at disbursing it, with as much as three-quarters remaining unspent • A special purpose vehicle (SPV) share ownership according to one recent study (GSMA, 2006). In part, model, as applied in Sao Tome e Principe, Liberia, this is because mobile network roll-out has largely Sierra Leone and elsewhere, in which the government occurred without a need for subsidy (Williams et al, as well as private investors are stakeholders. 2011). Universal Service obligations placed on private operators, when added to other taxes, such as spectrum • A bulk purchase model, applied in Rwanda and fees, sales taxes, profits taxes, equipment import taxes Malawi, where World Bank investment has been used and increasingly taxes on incoming international calls as an anchor tenant and to aggregate demand, without (A. T. Kearney, 2011), can place a high burden on the any government ownership. local industry. And when funds accumulate without being spent, it can sometimes prove a temptation for An older approach to market failure in the telecommu- fraud. An opportunity now exists to revise the mandates nication sector involves using universal service funds of these USFs so that they can be used for broadband (USF), usually run by the regulator or a special body, as network roll-out, both mobile and fixed, not just voice, a way of recycling the profits of the incumbent operator and for encouraging the development and deployment or from spectrum auctions and licence fees to subsidize of applications. 1.4  The role of governments Governments have an important role to play, in creating sector cannot shoulder. In these instances, public and donor an enabling environment and in acting as a role model funding are being leveraged. For example, in 2010 Eastern in adopting new innovations and technologies. Creating and Southern Africa was the only major region in the world a vibrant environment where useful information is readily not connected to the global broadband infrastructure by fi- available to help entrepreneurs, farmers, health workers bre optic cables. Twenty countries were reliant on expensive and environmentalists, for example, make better decisions satellite connectivity to link with each other and the rest of in their daily activities requires a holistic approach and the world. African governments and development financial several supporting inputs or pillars. The key supporting institutions came together with the private sector to deploy pillars for such an environment includes adequate infor- the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), a sub- mation and communications infrastructure, digital lit- marine fibre-optic cable running 10,000 km along the east eracy and nurturing an ICT-skilled workforce that would coast of Africa, connecting South Africa, Mozambique, propel emerging efforts to leverage ICTs to the next level Madagascar, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, to achieve sustainability and replicability. Taking a holistic Comoros and Mayotte. Governments also participate directly view on a sector is a significant challenge for any govern- in infrastructure investment, as the government of Botswana ment, regardless to how developed a country may be. Yet, did when creating an alternative fibre route to the coast via as shown in the following chapters, African governments Namibia. Hence, most of the international connectivity issues have made significant steps in building these pillars. are being addressed. However, in order for ICT services to be accessible to more Africans, connectivity within the con- In terms of infrastructure, much of Africa’s investments, pri- tinent needs to be further improved. And the government’s vate and public, have been in increasing network capacity or larger role lies in creating an enabling environment – issuing bandwidth so that the quality of internet or broadband ser- licences, making available rights of way, managing spectrum, vice is available to more countries on the African continent. mandating infrastructure sharing and interconnection and Infrastructure providing international connectivity (see Fig- so on – that allows a liberalized market to thrive and bring ure 1.6) requires large upfront investments which the private down price of service for the African consumer. 29 Figure 1.6 Reconnecting Africa Undersea cable systems serving Africa, actual and projected, April 2012. This map was produced by the Map Design Unit of The World Bank. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information ESTONIA shown on this map do not imply, on the part of The World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any Mediterranean Undersea Cables endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. RUSSIAN LATVIA RUSSIAN FEDERATION DENMARK 320 gigabits UNITED FED. LITHUANIA Atlas O shore Active THE KINGDOM 1280 gigabits IRELAND NETH. BELARUS SAS-1 Active GERMANY POLAND Highbridge Bude BELGIUM 3840 gigabits LUX. CZECH REP. UKRAINE SEA-ME-WE 4 Active SLOVAK REP. KAZAKHSTAN Penmarc'h FRANCE SWITZ. AUSTRIA HUNGARY MOLDOVA 3840 gigabits SLOVENIA ROMANIA I-ME-WE Active CROATIA BOSNIA SERBIA ITALY & HERZ. Marseille Monaco Vigo KOSOVO BULGARIA 3840 gigabits MONTENEGRO FYR GEORGIA KYRGYZ REP. PORTUGAL SPAIN ALBANIA EIGAZER- Active UZBEKISTAN MACEDONIA ARMENIA BAIJAN Lisbon Seixal MONACO Palermo TURKEY TURKMENISTAN Sesimbra Catania GREECE TAJIKISTAN Portimão Chipiona CHINA Annaba Bizerte Gibraltar (UK) CYPRUS SYRIAN Asilah Tripoli ARAB REP. TUNISIA LEBANON ISLAMIC REP. Casablanca OF IRAN AFGHANISTAN Tripoli IRAQ ISRAEL West Bank MOROCCO Alexandria and Gaza KUWAIT Cairo Suez JORDAN BAHRAIN PAKISTAN Buena Vista ALGERIA NEPAL Alta Vista QATAR LIBYA ARAB REP. Former Fujairah Spanish OF EGYPT Karachi Sahara SAUDI U.A.E. ARABIA Muscat Jeddah INDIA MAURITANIA Port Sudan OMAN Mumbai Nouakchott CAPE VERDE MALI NIGER Praia SUDAN ERITREA REP. OF YEMEN To Dakar SENEGAL CHAD Malaysia, Banjul Chennai Thailand, BURKINA Singapore THE GAMBIA Bissau FASO DjiboutiDJIBOUTI GUINEA BENIN Kochi Conakry NIGERIA GUINEA-BISSAU TOGO SIERRA LEONE CÔTE GHANA ETHIOPIA SRI Freetown D’IVOIRE Lomé Cotonou Lagos CENTRAL SOUTH LANKA Monrovia Abidjan Accra CAMEROON AFRICAN REP. SUDAN Colombo LIBERIA Limbé SOMALIA Douala Kribi MALDIVES Bata Mogadishu To UGANDA Penang Santana Libreville CONGO GABON KENYA DEM. REP. RWANDA EQU. GUINEA OF SEYCHELLES SÃO TOMÉ AND Pointe-Noire CONGO BURUNDI Mombasa Victoria To PR�NCIPE Fortaleza, Muanda TANZANIA Brazil Dar Es Salaam Cacuaco Luanda COMOROS Moroni ANGOLA Kaouéni MALAWI West Coast ZAMBIA Mayotte (Fr.) 340 gigabits SAT3/SAFE Active MOZAMBIQUE Toamasina Terre- MAURITIUS 1920 gigabits ZIMBABWE Rouge MaIN OnE Active NAMIBIA MADAGASCAR Savanne Saint-Paul 2500 gigabits BOTSWANA Réunion GLO-1 Active Swakopmund Toliary (Fr.) East Coast 320 gigabits 5120 gigabits Maputo SEAS Q3 2012 SWAZILAND WACS Q4 2011 1280 gigabits SOUTH Mtunzini TEAMs Active AFRICA LESOTHO 5120 gigabits 1280 gigabits Seacom Active ACE Q3 2012 YzerfonteinMelkbosstrand 1280 gigabits Cape Town Lion2 Q2 2012 12800 gigabits 1300 gigabits Lion Active SAex Q2 2013 4720 gigabits EASSy Active Source: http://manypossibilities.net/african-undersea-cables. Beyond that, governments can serve as an anchor user for Similarly, in Ethiopia, government and donor sponsor- faster networks and migrate their own services and data ship of eHealth initiatives is helping to finance network online. When the Kenyan government opened up its data- investment (Vital Wave Consulting, 2012a). bases and put public data online, including exam results, poverty and census data, it provided a major demand In order for people to fully leverage and benefit the new driver for mobile broadband, and stimulated further in- ICT capacity that is increasingly becoming accessible in vestment in that country’s networks (Rahemtulla, 2011). Africa, attention on improving digital literacy rates and 30 Ove vi ew r ICT skills will become more and more important. ICT Creating an enabling environment in which the ICT sec- can be an engine of growth when it is embedded into tor can thrive and stimulating demand for services are the daily activities of people – whether in agriculture, important roles but, in the context of transformation, education, financial services, health or delivery of public governments need to do more. In many of the sectors services. The challenge to raise digital or ICT literacy covered in this report – such as climate change adapta- is likely to be a greater challenge than deploying infra- tion, education, health or directly modernizing the op- structure and creating robust and innovative markets erations of government – government is the leading in- for private operators to thrive in. Increasing ICT skills vestor and provider of services. It is essential, therefore, requires a number of factors. Throughout this report that there is policy coherence between the government’s Kenya is highlighted as having many of the drivers in objectives for the ICT sector and its objectives for the place including improved access to broad-based prima- user sector (OECD and infoDev, 2009). This is also true ry through to graduate level institutions, a large dias- in other areas where the government provides regulation, pora who return to the country pursuing opportunities such as financial services. Rules governing access to the in entrepreneurship, and high exposure to international SIM card are important in opening up and harmonizing institutions owing in part to its role as the African base mobile money (Makin, 2009) while financial regulations, for many multinational companies and international such as those relating to money laundering, provision of organizations. interest or lending, may also need to be reviewed. 1.5 Stakeholder collaboration Effective use of ICTs will require cross-sectoral collabo- the Cape Town Internet Exchange. The recent flower­ ration and a multi-stakeholder approach, based on open ing of local ICT development clusters (LIDs) – such as data and open innovation. Valuable and sustainable ICT iHub and NaiLab in Kenya, Hive CoLab and AppLab in applications are most likely to develop within an environ- Uganda, Activspaces in Cameroon, BantaLabs in Senegal ment that encourages experimentation and collaboration Kinu in Tanzania or infoDev’s mLabs in Kenya and South between technologists, entrepreneurs and development Africa – is helping to create new spaces for collaboration, practitioners. Often, stakeholders may combine their training, applications and content development, and for interests in communal projects, such as the creation of pre-incubation of firms (Box 1.3). Box 1.3 Local ICT Development Clusters Located on the 4th floor of a modern office building in Africa one floor below. Rather, it might be described Nairobi, where a sunny balcony gives views over the as a “pre-incubator� where good ideas come to take bustling city, Kenya’s *iHub provides a space where shape and be turned into commercial prospects. The young entrepreneurs can network, while joining focus young technologists who crowd into the place are able groups discussions, receiving mentorship, and chat- to get the necessary support to develop their ideas ting to venture capital investors. Apart from having the into marketable products. best coffee shop in town, its other big attraction to the nation’s digerati is that it offers a fast broadband con- *iHub is part of a much larger technology movement in nection, which is the quickest way to set up a business Kenya and in Africa. Two important predecessor organi- in Kenya. Established in March 2010 by Erik Hersman, zations that helped shape *iHub are Skunkworks, an in- a renowned blogger, TED fellow and entrepreneur, formal grouping of mobile applications developers, and it now has over 2,000 members benefitting from the Ushahidi, a non-profit software company co-founded co-working space. It’s not quite a business incuba- by Erik Hersman, that develops free and open source tor, though there are two of those in the same build- software for information collection, visualization and ing, with Nailab next door and infoDev’s m:Lab East crisis mapping. Ushahidi was born in the aftermath of 31 the disputed elections in early 2008 and has subse- to create tech communities that have no borders. This quently been used in over ten countries, primarily to approach to nurturing technology is quite different to map critical information to aid disaster recovery efforts the top-down approach that had been tried in the early such as in the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and the Japan 2000s of building science parks, or government run earthquake in 2011. *iHub is now, in turn, giving birth to initiatives to promote business process outsourcing. other spin-offs, such as *iHub research, and Akirachix, The difference this time is that these initiatives are both female-run start-ups. generally bottom-up and community driven. They may receive the blessing of government but are not depen- *iHub’s success has been widely followed elsewhere. dent upon it for providing opportunities for training Africa continues to see the emergence of technology and capacity building. labs in Kampala (Hive CoLab), Dar es Salaam (Kinu), Dakar (Bantalabs), Thswane (mLab Southern Africa) Source: Authors, and adapted from http://ihub.co.ke/pages/about.php and Douala (ActiveSpaces) as well as new initiatives and http://afrilabs.com/about (both accessed 20/4/2012) and White, 2011. that are coming online in Accra and Lagos. The labs serve as an accessible platform for bringing together technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers *iHub in Nairobi, Kenya. in the area. Each lab shares a focus on young entre- preneurs, web and mobile-phone programmers and designers. The technology movement in Africa is being driven by the youth who, through these labs, have the means and foresight to apply new and accessible technolo- gies to solve immediate problems and find useful solu- tions for common problems. Many of the youth are in tune with the problems and challenges that are faced in the communities in which they live. The labs conduct workshops among themselves to share experiences and brainstorm ideas, and use digital technology Stakeholder cooperation is vital also for providing initial • Leverage limited donor resources to drive private and fund for pilot programmes and trials. For instance, among consumer action towards desired financial service sec- some 92 mobile applications around the world identified in a tor goals. recent World Bank study (Qiang et al, 2012), only 15 per cent had commercial or private fund­ ing as their primary source Effective cooperation will require a spirit of openness of income. Donors provided the primary funding source and transparency on the part of all stakeholders. This is for over half the programmes, and governments and cor- exemplified in the case of agriculture, also profiled for porate social responsibility programmes provided the rest. this report (Deloitte, 2012), where the value chain that M-PESA, the mobile money application in Kenya, is perhaps links consumer and producer is extensive, and often Africa’s best known mobile application, and now a huge com- crosses continents. This sector report makes the following mercial success. But even M-PESA required an initial boost recommendations to donors: of donor cash, from UKaid. It is now supported by a large ecosystem including the mobile operator (Safaricom), con- • Develop self-sustaining funding solutions; ventional banks (including Equity Bank) and a network of 27,000 agents across the country. In the specific case of mo- • Focus on community ownership; bile money (Vital Wave, 2012b), the study carried out for this report makes the following recommendations to donors: • Make eAgriculture technology robust and accessible; • Reduce private sector risks by underwriting the risks • Focus on capacity-building; and of “first movers�; • Develop country-specific agriculture strategy maps. • Reduce shared costs by underwriting supporting sys- tems that are common all financial service players; and 32 Ove vi ew r This latter recommendation, in particular, will require study for creating a national SDI in Uganda, for in- transparency and data exchange between many different stance, puts the cost at about US$3.5m, which is rela- organizations, including those holding satellite imagery, tively small in comparison to government departmental agricultural production statistics, soil and terrain maps, budgets (Geo-Information Communication and ESRI agricultural market information systems and so on. Canada, 2011) – and the benefits can be long lasting. But the problems of coordination can be huge as an ef- Promoting a culture of open data requires a framework, fective SDI requires the participation of so many differ- such as that provided by Kenya’s Open Data Initiative, ent stakeholders. which makes available a centralized website where gov- ernment departments can post data and users can easily Africa is still at the beginning of its growth curve find it (Rahemtulla, 2011). Another useful data framework and, so far, most ICT applications have been pilot is provided by a national spatial data infrastructure (SDI) programmes. Now is the time for rigorous evalua- which provides the basic set of digital coordinates for tion, replication and scaling up of best practice. The geographical information on which specific datasets and research carried out for this study has highlighted a geographical information systems (GIS) can be overlain. number of success stories and has shown examples of Many GIS have considerable financial value, for instance programmes that could be scaled up and replicated for navigation or for mining. Others have great social value, elsewhere. But there is a lack of systematic monitoring for instance, data visualizations showing the impact of of outcomes, and cost-benefit analyses of investments climate change or land use. But without the backbone are rare (Box 1.4). Indeed, one of the surprises coming of a national SDI, the cost of constructing such overlays out of this study is how little systematic impact evalua- rises considerably and their usefulness, for the inter- tion has been carried out and published. Nevertheless, change of data, is diminished. A national SDI is therefore the evidence that has been marshalled in these studies, a classic example of a public good which is best created the most comprehensive carried out to date, does point through collaboration between public and private stake- to the potential for effective roll-out and a period of holders. The costs are often quite modest – a feasibility rapid growth ahead. Box 1.4 African Virtual University Founded in 1997, the African Virtual University to enable participating African countries and institu- (AVU) is a Pan African Intergovernmental Organiza- tions to improve their infrastructure and programmes, tion whose aim is to significantly increase access and provide technical assistance on their ICT in edu- to quality higher education and training through cation policies and strategies. The grant will also sup- the innovative use of Information and Communica- port research and development, open educational tion Technologies. It has its headquarters in Nairobi, resources, and gender mainstreaming through the Kenya with a regional office in Dakar, Senegal. The award of scholarships to women enrolled in science AVU has graduated 43,000 students across Africa programmes. The AVU would benefit from a more rig- and established a wide-ranging network of Open orous evaluation to identify success stories and what Distance and eLearning institutions in over 30 coun- programmes might be scaled up or reformed. tries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since its inception, the AVU has benefited from donor resources and, in Source: Authors and http://www.avu.org/News/the-african-virtual- January 2012, AVU received US$15.6 million from the university-receives-a-grant-of-usd156-million-from-the-african- African Development Fund for the second phase of development-bank-group-to-help-increase-ict-in-education-support- the AVU Multinational Project. This grant is intended to-african-countries.html. Africa was once an ICT laggard, but is now becoming the pace. The studies in this report document a huge an ICT leader. In virtually every area of ICT – mobile, amount of local-level innovation, both in adapting ap- broadband, international bandwidth, PC penetration – plications developed in the rest of the world to African Africa is closing the gap with the rest of the world and circumstances and in developing new home-grown in some areas, like mobile financial services, it is setting applications. But there is insufficient south–south 33 learning. It remains the case that African leaders are more platform for informal learning to take place in an envi- likely to look outside their continent for role models than ronment of fun and experimentation. It is a common- to look at the successes happening next door. place to say that Africa’s greatest strength is its youth, but in this case it is really true. As the generation of Africans Ironically, south–south learning is already happening in that have grown up with mobile phones and social media Africa, but not so much among its leaders as among its enter the labour market and government, they will bring young people. Social networks, like Twitter, Facebook with them the habits of information sharing that they and Africa’s home-grown MXit (see Box 1.5) provide a have grown up with. That will be a real eTransformation. Box 1.5 MXit, home-grown African social networking MXit, a South African social network, has become the than 19 million for Facebook, making MXit the big- premier social network in its home country and has gest social media network in Sub-Saharan Africa. expanded to reach more than 30 million users across Success has been enhanced by the high level of ac- Africa and beyond with 40,000 new users joining every tivity of its users compared to other social networks, day. Overall, MXit has 50 million users registered in with an average MXit user spending 45 hours per more than 120 countries. month on the site. In the first half of 2011, MXit registered 24 million Source: www.mxit.com and newspaper reports. users just in Sub-Saharan Africa compared to less 1. In this project, “Africa� is taken to be the continent as a whole, covering both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. , November 2011, http://gsmastage.com/newsroom/press-releases/2011/6552.htm 2.  GSMA, “Africa now the world’s second largest mobile market, reports GSMA� 3.  “Digital Africa�, Intelligent Life, http://www.economist.com/node/18529875 4.  Wireless Intelligence (2012), https://www.wirelessintelligence.com/ 5.  For instance, Orascom Telecom of Egypt, which has holdings in seven African countries was acquired by VimpelCom of Russia, via Wind Telecom, in 2005. The African company MSI Cellular Investments, which later became known as Celtel was acquired by Zain and later by Bharti Airtel of India in 2010. MTN, with headquarters in South Africa and operations in 17 African economies, remains the largest African-based operator. 6. Hamilton Research, “Africa’s fibre roll-out�, http://www.africabandwidthmaps.com/?p=2572 7.  http://thecitizen.co.tz/magazines/31-business-week/11510-east-african-states-to-spend-400m-on-optical-fibre-backbone.html 8.  “What Telkom’s price cut means for you�, My Broadband, 14 April 2012, http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/47484-what-telkoms-price-cut- means-for-you.html 9.  http://www.netindex.com/download/allcountries/, speeds retrieved on 14 April 2012, with average speeds being a rolling mean over the previous 30 days. 10.  Skype Out tariffs are available at: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/prices/payg-rates/. Skype is used in this comparison because it publishes rates for all countries on its public website. 11. In the case of mobile, the gap has arguably already been closed: Africa’s share of the world’s mobile phones, for instance, is more than twice as high, at about 10 percent, compared with its share of the world’s GDP, at just over 4 per cent. 34 References AT Kearney (2011) Africa Mobile Observatory 2011 Prepared for GSM Association http://www.gsma.com/documents/download-full-report-pdf-1-31-mb/21101 Communications Commission of Kenya (2010) Interconnection Determination No. 2 of 2010 http://www.cck.go.ke/regulations/downloads/interconnection_determination_no2_2010.pdf Deloitte (2012) Agriculture Sector Study eTransform Africa sectoral study, World Bank and African Development Bank http://www.etransformafrica.org/sector/agricuture Dubai School of Government (2011) Arab Social Media Report http://www.dsg.ae/en/ASMR3/ Excelsior and TNO (2012) ICT Competitiveness in Africa eTransform Africa sectoral study, World Bank and African Development Bank http://www.etransformafrica.org/sector/ict-competitiveness Geo-Information Communication and ESRI Canada (2011) Spatial Data Infrastructure for Monitoring Development Outcomes in Uganda (Vol 1), and Feasibility Study for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure in Uganda (Vol 2) infoDev www.infodev.org/sdi Gillwald, A. and Islam, B. 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Recommendations The role of mobile technology in eAgriculture Recommendations for policy makers and regulators Traceability Recommendations for donors Agricultural insurance ICT in rural development Further reading 3. Africa scan introduction in Africa agriculture ICTs for 2.1 The strategic application of ICT to the agricultural in- and lacks access to critical information, market facilita- dustry, the largest economic sector in most African tion, and financial intermediation services. countries, offers the best opportunity for economic growth and poverty alleviation on the continent. Food The role that ICT can play a in addressing these chal- security is paramount for the survival of individuals, lenges is increasing as personal ICT devices – such as families and ultimately nations, yet Africa’s agriculture mobile phones or tablet PCs – are becoming more widely sector has been in decline over the past 40 years. Poor available. ICT, when embedded in broader stakeholder farmers have largely remained poor with 73 per cent of systems, can bring economic development and growth as the people living in rural areas subsisting on less than a it can help bridge critical knowledge gaps. Mobile tech- dollar a day. nology, on the other hand, is increasingly being adopted as the technology of choice for delivery of ICT services Like other sectors, African agriculture is disadvantaged and solutions. owing to factors that include: The wider adoption of ICT in agriculture is of strategic • under-investment in rural areas, importance to five main stakeholder groups: • inadequate access to markets and unfair market • Businesses: businesses, associations, other organi- conditions, zations • inadequate access to advanced technologies, • Farmers: individuals; organized and informal asso- ciations • weak infrastructure, • Researchers: researchers; educators and trainers • high production and transport costs, • Government: ministries of agriculture, and other rel- • gender asymmetry in access to assets and services, evant departments and agencies • conflicts, • Citizens, both as consumers and as custodians of the environment, for instance through civil society • HIV/AIDS, organizations. • natural disasters, In identifying the ways in which ICT can help agriculture, it is useful to view the farming life cycle as a three-stage • deforestation, environmental degradation and loss of process (see Figure 2.1): biodiversity, and • Pre-cultivation: including crop selection, land selec- • dependency on foreign aid. tion, calendar definition, access to credit, etc. African agriculture is largely traditional and practised • Crop cultivation and harvesting: including land prepa- by smallholders and pastoralists. This type of agriculture ration and sowing, input management, water manage- is predominantly rain-fed, has low-yielding production, ment and fertilization, pest management, etc. 40 • Post-harvest: including marketing, transportation, information systems (GIS) for land-use planning, while packaging, food processing, etc. others are broader than agriculture, such as their use in climate change adaptation. Nevertheless, this framework Of course, some aspects of how ICTs can assist with ag- provides a useful basis for analysis. riculture are cross-cutting, like the use of geographical Figure 2.1 Information and service needs differ through the crop lifecycle 2 1 1 2 1 Information systems including DSS/MISS/GIS etc 3 1 2 Calendar 2 2 ICT-enabled learning and knowledge exchange Land selection definition 1 5 Access Crop selection 3 Modelling solutions 4 to credit 1 Pre Cultivation 2 2 4 Sensory and proximity devices Food Land preparation processing 1 and sowing 4 ICT in 5 ICT-enabled networking solutions Farming Cycle 4 Packaging Post Harvest Crop Cultivation and Harvesting Input management 1 6 Online commerce tools (eCommerce/mCommerce) 2 2 1 Transportation Water management and fertilisation 4 Marketing Pest management 1 1 4 6 1 5 4 Source: Deloitte. 41 landscape in Africa agriculture ICTs for 2.2 analysis Scanning the global landscape highlights many examples of the successful use of ICT in agriculture enabling the identification of trends relevant to Africa. These include: Common platforms for agriculture stakeholders An integrated information system for agriculture stake- on maintenance is relatively low and the amount of user holders minimizes the duplication of data and ensures training required can be reduced. A good example of consistency, improves integrity of the data and can ad- such a system is DrumNet, a network of support centres dress a wide variety of information needs. Although often in Kenya that provides hands-on assistance through the complex, systems can be customized to ensure that the delivery of financial, marketing and other information user experience is relatively simple. Cost and time spent products and services. Multi-stakeholder eAgriculture knowledge sharing in Africa Multi-stakeholder research partner-ships, including • ICTs for spatial analysis and targeting of programmes farmers, extension professionals, educators and sci- entists, have many benefits. They focus research on • ICTs for better risk management the most relevant topics, reduce the time needed to complete research, and improve the efficiency and • ICTs and financial services for the farmer effectiveness of the research process. Examples of ap- plications of ICT in agricultural knowledge sharing • eEducation include: • Virtual aggregation of small stakeholders The role of mobile technology in eAgriculture Mobile phones, GPS systems, barcode scanners, RFID technologies that can be used to capture, read and store readers and smart card readers are all examples of data. However, further components, such as the internet, 42 communication networks and regulatory systems (to • Promote a culture of knowledge sharing in the mFarm- provide data security and standard systems for codes) are er ecosystem. essential to complement the input and output devices. One example of the role of mobile technology is the The mFarmer Initiative Fund will support projects in GSMA’s mAgri Programme, which aims to identify and Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, fund opportunities for mobile communications in the ag- Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda ricultural value chain. For instance, the mFarmer Initia- and Zambia). tive Fund, launched in 2011 in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID, is designed to: Another example of mobile technology in agriculture is a well-established service that has been operating in • Stimulate the development of mobile phone-enabled Ghana since 2005. The Esoko Ghana Commodity Index agriculture information and advisory services that are (EGCI) is a rural communication platform that publishes commercially sustainable; a cash market price index composed of data on physical commodities. The index is published weekly and tracks • Build services that impact farmers’ income and pro- wholesale and retail prices and aims to improve farmers’ ductivity; incomes by building healthy markets. Currently Esoko is active in ten countries in Africa and has a variety of • Reduce the barriers for operators to launch and im- partnership agreements which include public sector ag- prove mFarmer Services; ricultural projects, Esoko country franchises and licensed partners. • Test and prove models for delivering agricultural in- formation services via mobile phones; and Traceability Consumer demand for quality and food safety is plac- The Coopetarrazú’s processing plant uses leading-edge ing increased emphasis on the traceability of agricul- technologies for coffee drying, hulling, sorting and tural production, particularly in the markets of the de- shipping. It also tracks hundreds of thousands of coffee veloped world. Traceability in the agriculture sector purchases, worth US$16 million annually from its 2,600 involves the recording of information on animals and members, during the harvest and ensures that purchases food so that an item moving through a global supply meet certification criteria to ensure premium prices. chain can be tracked from its origin along the entire value chain. For instance, remote tracking among the Traceability in livestock farming is also the focus of one of coffee growers of Costa Rica and Mexico are examples the detailed case studies, so these two cases provide two of a successful implementation in developing nations. different views of traceability. Agricultural insurance Agricultural insurance is becoming increasingly impor- greenhouses. ICTs can play an important role in the agri- tant as extreme weather patterns generated by climate cultural insurance process by: change are exacerbating volatility in food production and food prices. Crop insurance has long been used in devel- • facilitating access to information and services to stake- oped countries to deal with weather uncertainties, but its holders; availability in Africa, particularly to smallholder farmers, has been extremely limited. Agricultural insurance also • providing advance information about weather and applies to livestock, bloodstock, forestry, aquaculture and market price situations; 43 • providing better services and facilitate speedy claims • developing specialized and affordable rural insurance servicing; products; and • monitoring and tracking premium repayments; • improving complaints procedures. • ensuring a better interface between the insurer and the insured, particularly for field-based transactions; ICT in rural development Multi-purpose community centres can be used to pro- community is employed to promote and maintain those vide remote populations with information and commu- services. Services available at the CICs include basic and nication options. In Bhutan, for example, Community advanced computer training, internet access, telephone Information Centres (CIC) were established to provide facilities, government information and forms, and lami- services to a scattered population, who live in moun- nation and scanning facilities. tainous, forested terrain that has made wired internet and telephone connectivity prohibitively expensive. Broadband connectivity brings high-end services closer to Their objective was to provide sustainable, commer- the rural population and helps reduce poverty. As a result, cially viable ICT services in rural areas. The state pro- the travelling time and cost for villagers and farmers is re- vides the equipment, and an individual from the local duced while employment opportunities are generated. africa scan in Africa agriculture ICTs for 2.3 While the landscape analysis highlighted global best prac- • SMS-based services developed by Zambia’s National tices and sample cases, the Africa Scan provides a closer Farmers’ Union look at recognized eAgriculture successes in Africa. • Sissili Vala Kori – farmers’ use ICT to share new produc- The Africa Scan provides an overview of ICT solutions in tion, processing and marketing skills in Burkina Faso the agricultural sector in Africa, identifying reasons for their success and the potential for them to be scaled up. • A mango traceability system linking Malian small- These success factors emerged from studying examples holders and exporters to global consumers of ICT use that are described in more detail in the full report, such as: • Index-based agriculture insurance on agricultural inputs in Kenya – Kilimo Salama • Using ICT to bring together multiple stakeholders in the Kenyan agriculture sector – DrumNet • Using ICT to improve forest governance in Liberia – LiberFor 44 • Mobile technology as a “Game Changer� in South • A government-recognized body used to implement a Africa – MXit project provides the initiative with added credibility. • Mobile technologies used by GSMA as an initiative to • Where mobile phone reception and signal coverage alleviate food security related problems – mAgri issues were problematic, local alternative media uses emerged to circumvent the problem. • Seeing is believing – unlocking precision agriculture in West African smallholder communities with very • Additional faith and trust in the system are created high-resolution imagery when a solution is developed locally. The reasons for success identified in these examples are: • Community members find it particularly useful if farmers are directly involved in training and can dem- • Real economic value was added either because of sav- onstrate a solution. ings resulting from the use of ICT or an increase in revenue or profitability. • By increasing the scale at which knowledge and new techniques can be applied, and by reducing transaction • The language and medium used to communicate with costs, ICTs help to create sustainable business models, the farmers were important contributing factors in the based on the private sector. farmers’ response to the programme. • In instances where farmers were able to identify per- • Good conceptualization and execution was achieved sonally with a technology solution they were more in- by including multiple stakeholders in win–win clined to adopt it and continue to use it. partnerships. • In areas of low literacy and low ICT penetration rates, • Trust was built with stockists, support centre opera- use of an appropriate medium was important to the tors and the government by using local champions as success of the venture. facilitators. This is an essential element for success in any project. • It is important to establish a long-term interest and commitment amongst all those involved. • Projects were often augmented by bundling many ser- vices together with the basic or original facilities to • In the precision farming case study, the adoption of make them truly comprehensive. satellite technology resulted in lower operational costs and increased yield. case studies agriculture ICTs for in Africa 2.4 Here we focus in depth on two major opportunities for the improved traceability of livestock and products and, increased use of ICT identified as key areas for a rapid second, the increased efficiency of irrigation of crops. increase in agricultural production. These are, first, 45 ICT as a potential tool for increased traceability of livestock Livestock production is the most widespread and gener- In this system official identification is done by means of ally practised agricultural activity on the African conti- animal identification devices as required by international nent. If, as a result of intensified use of ICT in improving standards. Both radio frequency identification (RFID) for the efficiency of livestock and meat production in selected automated data input and a visual plastic ear tag that sup- African countries, significant increases in production are ports remote pastoral production where there is limited possible at affordable cost and these methods are rela- or no technological support, are used. As a backup sys- tively easy to duplicate in areas with diverse natural land- tem, branding of animals will continue. Eligible cattle are scapes, the potential for general increased wealth creation tagged as part of a specific campaign and further tagging in all parts of the continent could be enormous. takes place during annual vaccination campaigns or com- munity visit-based surveillance activities. In cases where The Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability handling facilities are in disrepair, mobile crush pens are System (NamLITS), was studied in depth (see Box 2.1). used. Box 2.1 Namibia: Livestock traceability systems unlock wealth along the value chain The results of the in-depth investigation in Namibia • The capital and operational costs involved in the revealed that: roll-out of such a comprehensive traceability pro- gramme are relatively low compared to the benefits • The traceability systems employed by the commer- which can accrue to the livestock industry, the re- cial farming community and its downstream role spective role players in the value chain as well as players have unlocked wealth along the entire value the government of the country; chain; • An enabling environment should be created by the • The experience gained by the commercial livestock government and all other interested parties to en- sector can serve as a valuable platform to roll out sure maximum efficiency of an advanced traceabil- traceability systems in under-developed rural areas ity system; where livestock production is heavily relied on to sustain the people; • Should international organizations involved in the provision of aid funding wish to make a contribution • New, streamlined traceability systems which have of note to Namibia, consideration should be given recently been developed allow a wider spectrum to concentrating their funding efforts on the provi- of functions to be included so that many additional sion and maintenance of a comprehensive trace- services can be rendered; ability system; • The co-ordinated extention of comprehensive sys- • Traceability systems can be rolled out in many other tems of traceability can improve the lives of mul- African countries where they can be expected to titudes of poor people and the long-term sustain- bring about similar wealth creation, but an enabling ability of the entire livestock industry. This has the environment must be created first; potential to positively affect the economy of the country at large; • Investment in the intensified use of ICT can offer more advantages than investment in possibly any other interventions that may be considered. 46 Intensified utilization of ICT for increased irrigation efficiency It has been demonstrated in many areas of the globe that The plan aims to improve irrigation and drainage sys- using good irrigation techniques can increase the effi- tems and the water management institutional structure. ciency and profitability of crop production as much as a The first phase of the project has resulted in crop yield in- hundredfold. Efficient irrigation practices provide a con- creases of 20 per cent, with drainage estimated to account sistent moisture supply to crops, water deficiencies can for 15-25 per cent of this increase. A further benefit is the be overcome during periods of drought, more than one re-use of drainage water. crop cycle per year can be achieved and the effective use of all production resources can be improved dramatically. A second type of intervention is illustrated by the Magrabi The pressure on the diminishing water resources can also Farms area which was a green-fields operation and has be alleviated and, as a result, more land can be put under been developed from actual desert to the 8,500 acres that irrigation. The increased utilization of ICT could have a are now fully irrigated and underpin an export-oriented positive effect on irrigation efficiency. agribusiness. Magrabi exports produce to 38 countries. Magrabi is an ideal example of the development of a Egypt depends almost exclusively on the Nile River for full-scale, economically sustainable unit that has used its water supply. Of this, 85 per cent is used for irriga- technology in order to reach its current status. They are tion. Two separate aspects of the use of ICT in manag- completely independent in terms of being able to conduct ing irrigation are highlighted through the case of Egypt. all the functionalities required for good soil, water and The first of these is an Integrated Water Resource Man- multi-cropping management. There are fully equipped agement Action Plan which the Ministry of Water Re- laboratories on the farm that form part of an integrated sources and Irrigation in Egypt has been implement- quality control programme and the whole complex has ing in response to the increasing demand for water a fully-integrated, reticulated irrigation system which while the options for increasing supply are limited. is managed by an irrigation engineer. All water passes It is being implemented on more than 2,000 km2 in the through filters and all bypass water is tested for purity as Nile Delta, covering the command of two main canals, fertigation, i.e. application of fertilizers, is a normal prac- Mahmoudia and Mit Yazid. The project aims at improv- tice. Efficiency of water usage is continuously monitored. ing the management of irrigation and drainage and in- An on-site weather station, for temperature monitoring creasing the efficiency of irrigated agriculture water use and evaporation pans to determine moisture loss, is used and services. to facilitate the correct irrigation scheduling. Box 2.2 Egypt: ICT use increases irrigation efficiency In-depth investigation in Egypt shows that: services to all communities involved with irrigation farming; • Existing ICT systems employed by some of the commercial farming community in large-scale ir- • The capital and operational costs involved in the rigated farming operations have increased the ef- roll-out of a range of ICT-based functions are rela- ficiency of water use and generated larger profits; tively low compared to the large benefits expected; • The experience gained by the large and small-scale • The enabling environment which the government commercial irrigation sector can serve as a valu- and all other interested parties create to ensure ef- able platform for even more comprehensive ICT ficient use of irrigation water, can serve as an ex- systems. Many more agrarian communities in Egypt ample to other countries; can be reached and this will contribute towards the improvement of living standards; • International aid organizations could make a seri- ous contribution to Egypt by focusing funding ef- • The intensified use of ICT can offer government forts on the intensification of ICT-based irrigation organizations opportunities to diversify their systems; 47 • The systems can also be rolled out in many other • Investment in the intensification of the use of ICT for African countries and can be expected to bring the improvement of crop production under irriga- about a similar magnitude of wealth creation, pro- tion, can offer more advantages than investment in vided that an enabling environment can be created; most other areas. recommendations in Africa agriculture ICTs for 2.5 The following recommendations aim to assist policy • Develop multi-country cooperation and best practices; makers, regulators and the donor community to: and to • Gain insight into the benefits of ICT led interventions • Prioritize interventions that would be most beneficial in their respective countries or regions; • Implement interventions that would have a tangible outcome; Recommendations for policy makers and regulators Recommendation 2.1 Create partnerships with the relevant stakeholders In many African countries, synergies between the different parties in the agricultural value chain are not exploited opti- mally. Hence, forums need to be set up to encourage dialogue, interaction and promote knowledge related to use of ICT in agriculture, such as the World Bank’s ICT in Agriculture eSourcebook. Specific partnerships should be identified and be built between stakeholders for identified eAgriculture projects with targeted outcomes, working with established partners, such as NEPAD or CAADP. These partnerships can play an invaluable role in the research, planning, problem solving, review of operations and in training relevant government officials and staff in the use of ICT in agriculture. 48 Recommendation 2.2 Establish an agricultural hub Leadership, communication and creative thinking are required to initiate and sustain eAgriculture projects that will have a significant impact. A purpose-built management and support structure would enable communication between private sector and government and drive the strategic agenda of the state. Designed to be non-bureaucratic and nimble, an agricultural hub would drive agricultural diversification, mega projects including eAgriculture projects, and initiate and coordinate opportunities in the agricultural sector. These eAgriculture projects would in turn stimulate commer- cialization, diversification and job creation. Recommendation 2.3 Implement legislation and regulations to govern specific opportunities Legislation and regulations relating to ICTs must be revisited, to ensure that, amongst other concerns, information security is protected, the cost of communications infrastructure (e.g. broadband) is reduced and ICT infrastructure is accessible even from remote rural areas. Some programmes, such as national irrigation schemes and traceability programmes, may require new, strong legislation and regulation. National legislative bodies together with Ministries of Agriculture and Ministries of Communications need to coordinate to ensure timely enactment of laws and regulations. Recommendation 2.4 Consider adoption of traceability systems at a national level Traceability systems have the potential to bring about an observable improvement in the well-being of large numbers of people on the African continent as export markets can be created when traceability systems are implemented correctly. Systems should address full traceability, from first contact to market destination, since systems that do not cover the whole lifecycle create gaps in traceability, which may be detrimental to the industry and the consumer. It is essential that legislation and regulations are enforced and will also apply to other agricultural products. Recommendation 2.5 Empower women in agriculture In Africa, women perform 65 per cent of all activities within the agricultural sector. Not only do these women often have little access to finance, but also they have little free time to devote to their own interests or to rest and are physi- cally at a disadvantage. Women in rural communities, and particularly those moving from subsistence farming to small-scale farming, can benefit greatly from ICT as these can save time and physical effort and equal access can be monitored. Governments need to provide incentives to telecommunications service providers to expand money trans- fer services to rural communities as these enable rural woman to have more autonomy over their finances. Content providers need to provide health, nutrition and educational advice on eAgriculture web pages. Active monitoring of eAgriculture programmes by government is necessary to assess the degree to which these programmes take the inter- ests of women into account. 49 Recommendation 2.6 Implement irrigation solutions in Africa ICT can be used to reduce water consumption significantly using modern irrigation techniques and as a result enhance the quality and productivity of land and eventually increase farmers’ incomes. Since technology that has been used for a number of years in Egypt with great success may still be deemed as “new� in many other African countries, consulting with and learning from experts and those with extensive experience in ICT is recommended. Recommendation 2.7 Implement integrated eAgriculture plans Implementation of a comprehensive, integrated, long-term eAgriculture Plan for each country should involve all stake- holders and hence increase stakeholder ownership, bring about economies of scale, and ensure that there is political and executive commitment to eAgriculture with the necessary budgetary allocation. The plans facilitate the design of single technology frameworks for each country into which new hardware and software components, addressing differ- ent functionality and features, could slot. Single-window services and one-stop-shops naturally result from such plans. There is also a need to strengthen African research and training institutes in the agricultural and environmental field, including those that play a role in monitoring climate change. Recommendations for donors Recommendation 2.8 Develop self-sustaining funding solutions Since eAgriculture ventures, particularly those taken up by communities, must be sustainable beyond their initial funding periods, it is necessary that strong business models exist and that the community members can benefit directly. Some jobs related to eAgriculture can be filled by local people and creating these jobs would address the rural brain drain to some small extent. Donors should publish the fact that a description of viable plans for ultimately making a project self-funding is one of their funding application’s evaluation criteria. Recommendation 2.9 Focus on community ownership Well-established community ownership assists projects to survive after donors move on and reduces long-term depen- dency on an external champion. Thus, programme designers and implementers of community-based projects should include community members in decision making early in the project and progressively hand over leadership and op- eration of the project to them. As community owned projects are often resource-scarce, it is best to adopt approaches that make adequate use of the existing infrastructure. 50 Recommendation 2.10 Make eAgriculture technology robust and accessible Systems are only valuable if they are used, but this can only occur in eAgriculture projects if the end users find the systems easy to use and the technology is cheap, available, reliable and can be run off-line when necessary. Backup and disaster recovery plans, as well as alternative work processes that can easily be linked into the primary system, need to be implemented so that systems are useable even if there is some failure of the technology. Systems designers and developers need to design system access through commonly available technology devices, such as mobile devices, and include alternative communication options in order to include the largest possible number of end users. Voice is often a better option than text because users are often not fully literate. Multi-purpose telecentres not only allow internet and ICT access but are important centres for learning, listening and stimulating ideas. Initial donor financial support is needed until the number of users reaches a critical mass. Recommendation 2.11 Build human capacity in rural communities Rural communities urgently need basic education opportunities, including basic farming skills and business manage- ment skills. Complete reliance on eEducation is not recommended in communities made up primarily of smallholders or subsistence farmers but the internet can be a very valuable resource for the teachers who provide classroom tuition. Donors and funders are urged to ask for an educational use component to be made a funding eligibility requirement for all projects. A good model here is the African Leadership in ICT (ALICT) component of the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), based in Nairobi, Kenya. Recommendation 2.12 Encourage environmental responsibility through country agriculture strategy maps Country specific agriculture strategy maps, using a variety of ICT tools but primarily imaging tools such as GIS and satellite technologies, can be used to encourage environmentally responsible farming as well as commercially astute practices. Donors are urged to assist in developing the eAgriculture plan recommended to policy makers and regula- tors in Recommendation 2.7 above by providing access to the necessary technology and international experts required for developing country specific agriculture strategy maps. 51 further reading in Africa agriculture ICTs for c Campaigne, J. and Rausch, T. (2010) “Bundling development services with agricultural finance: the experience of DrumNet� Innovations in Rural and Agricultural Finance, Focus 18, Brief 14, International Food Policy Research Institute and The World Bank http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/focus18_14.pdf Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union (2009) Economic Report on Africa: Developing African Agriculture through Regional Value Chains United Nations Economic Commission for Africa http://www.uneca.org/era2009/ERA2009_ENG_Full.pdf Gakuru, M., Winters, K. and Stepman, F. (2009) Inventory of Innovative Farmer Advisory Services Using ICTs The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa http://www.fara-africa.org/media/uploads/File/NSF2/RAILS/Innovative_Farmer_Advisory_Systems.pdf Kora, G. and Kassem, M. (2010) The Application of Information and Communication Technologies in Agricultural and Rural Development in Egypt Food And Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome http://www.fao.org/docrep/013/i1930e/i1930e00.pdf Qiang, C., Kuek, S., Dymond, A. and Esselar, S. (2011) Mobile Applications for Agriculture and Rural Development The World Bank http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/MobileApplications_for_ARD.pdf World Bank (2011) ICT in Agriculture sSourcebook - Connecting Smallholders to Knowledge, Networks, and Institutions The World Bank, infoDev and ARD http://www.ictinagriculture.org For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in agriculture in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa sector report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 52 53 chapter The Transformational Use 3 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa Climate change adaptaTion 1. Introduction 4. Case studies Understanding climate change mitigation and adaptation 5. Recommendations ICTs and climate change Recommendations for government and development partners 2. Landscape analysis Recommendations for governments and donors 3. Opportunities and challenges Further reading introduction in Africa adaptation climate change ICTs for 3.1 Like other regions of the world, Africa is beginning to ex- the Mediterranean coast, Northern Sahara and west coast perience the impacts of human-induced climate change. to 15°N, while increasing in tropical and eastern Africa. Temperature increases of 0.1 to 0.3°C per decade have An increase in the number of extreme climate events ex- been observed in South Africa, for example, with indica- perienced within the continent is likely to accompany tions that Africa is warming faster than the global aver- these changes in climatic averages. Rising sea levels are age. Rainfall patterns are becoming more variable across also projected to affect Africa’s coastline, particularly the the continent, reflecting in part the influence of tradition- eastern coastline, as well as island states. al factors such as the El Niño/La Niña-Southern Oscilla- tion (ENSO). Warming in the south Atlantic and Indian African countries are especially vulnerable to the impacts Oceans may have led to a weakening of monsoons, de- of climate change for three interrelated, mutually rein- priving the Sahel region of rainfall in recent years. forcing reasons: These observed changes in climate parameters have not 1. Africa’s climate is likely to be more severely affected by occurred uniformly across Africa: climate change than other regions, as recent data sug- gest that it is warming faster than the global average. • In East Africa temperatures have risen by an average of 1.3°C since 1960. Rain patterns have altered and 2. Its major economic sectors, such as agriculture, are droughts and floods are becoming more frequent. climate-sensitive. Since 1912, Mt Kilimanjaro’s ice fields have decreased in total area by about 80 per cent. 3. Low levels of human development (income, education, health) and the greater presence of other stress fac- • In North Africa significant warming has occurred tors (such as conflict and disease) constrain adaptive during the summer while winters are becoming drier. capacity. Sahelian Sudan experienced a 25 per cent decrease in rainfall during the last quarter of 20th century. The 2008 Human Development Report identifies five ma- jor “transmission mechanisms� through which climate • In Southern Africa decadal warming of 0.1 to 0.3°C change will affect human development: occurred between 1961 and 2000, while the duration of the dry season lengthened between 1961 and 2005. • Losses in agricultural production and food security: Africa could experience the largest losses in agricul- • West Africa saw substantial reductions in rainfall dur- tural output potential. ing the latter half of the 20th century, including pro- longed droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, and greater • Increased water stress and water insecurity: The num- rainfall variability. ber of people experiencing water stress is likely to in- crease in northern and southern Africa, while the op- The current trends of rising temperatures and altered posite is likely to happen in eastern and western Africa. rainfall patterns are set to continue during the remain- der of this century. At a continental level, mean annual • Rising sea levels and exposure to climate disasters: temperatures are projected to rise by between 3.2°C and More frequent and intense extreme events, such as 3.6°C by the period 2080 to 2099. Precipitation patterns cyclones and droughts, will increase disaster-related will also continue to change – very likely decreasing along losses. 56 • Transforming ecosystems and biodiversity: Coral While these impacts will present themselves in different bleaching, ocean acidification, warmer inland lakes ways and with varying degrees of severity in different re- and shifts in species ranges are pushing many ecosys- gions and countries, they are likely to translate into sig- tems beyond their capacity to adapt to changing cli- nificant development losses, particularly in Sub-Saharan mate conditions. Africa. Many will be irreversible and efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or sustain • Increased human health risks: The likelihood of malar- progress made are likely to be compromised. ia epidemics may increase since previously unaffected populations will not have the genetic modifications to protect against infection. Understanding climate change mitigation and adaptation International responses to climate change are coordi- Over the past decade, understanding has grown regard- nated through the United Nations, and focus in par- ing how to enable adaptation around the world. Four ticular on the UN Framework Convention on Climate principal lessons can be derived from that experience to Change (UNFCCC) and its subsequent Kyoto Protocol. guide future interventions: These responses fall into two main categories. Mitigation is concerned with reducing the level of greenhouse gas 1. There is an intimate connection between adaptation emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere that are the princi- and sustainable development. Measures that tackle the pal causes of climate change. Adaptation is concerned not underlying economic, social and environmental chal- with prevention but, in the words of the Intergovernmen- lenges of low-income countries and communities also tal Panel on Climate Change, with “adjustments in human help them to address the outcomes of climate change. and/or natural systems... to reduce [its] adverse impacts Healthier and better educated populations living in ro- or take advantage of opportunities� that may arise from it. bust ecosystems are better equipped to adapt. Adaptation takes place at all levels in society, from large- 2. The impacts of climate change and the requirements scale interventions that are driven by governments and for adaptation are highly contextual. The impacts of regional organizations to the autonomous actions taken climate change will vary markedly from country to by threatened communities and individuals. Appropriate country and location to location. Interventions must adaptation requires: be carefully tailored to the circumstances in which they are being applied. • access to current understanding of the potential physi- cal and socio-economic changes which are or could 3. Adaptation must be integral to national development occur as a result of climate change; strategies and institutions. Addressing adaptation needs is not an option within development policy; • design and implementation of effective responses to climate change is occurring and will affect countries’ the challenges and opportunities arising from climate development priorities. All development planners and change; managers need to be aware of its implications and mainstream climate change considerations into devel- • coordinated action by all stakeholders, including those opment thinking. at the local level; and 4. As in many areas of human activity, adaptation involves • reliable information and guidance on actions that may trade-offs. Actions which will protect some vulner- be taken to increase the resilience of vulnerable com- able communities may have adverse impacts on other munities and individuals. groups. Development planners need to model likely impacts while remembering that climate change itself renders the status quo in many contexts unsustainable. 57 ICTs and climate change Information and communication technologies have had 1. Addressing the drivers of vulnerability – interventions an increasing impact on economic and social develop- which are concerned with the underlying factors that ment over the past two decades, resulting from their make people and communities vulnerable to the im- capacity to generate and disseminate information, to fa- pacts of climate change, rather than being concerned cilitate the coordination of different actors in and beyond with those impacts themselves. government, and to make government, business and de- velopment processes more efficient. These three capaci- 2. Building the response capacity of local and regional ties are as relevant to climate change adaptation as they systems and communities – interventions which help are to other fields. However, the extent of experience in communities to acquire the resources they need to re- deploying ICTs for adapting to climate change is currently spond to the impacts of climate change. less than in other development fields, such as health and education. 3. Reducing and managing risks related to climate vari- ability and climate change – interventions which pro- ICTs also have a complex relationship with sustainability vide information and facilities to help communities and with the underlying cause of climate change. This rela- change lifestyle and economic behaviours in ways that tionship can be described in terms of the effects of ICTs: make them more sustainable in new climate conditions. • First order (direct) effects concern the impacts which 4. Confronting climate change – interventions which di- ICTs themselves have on climate change, in particu- rectly address the physical impacts of climate change lar the CO2 emissions from the production, use and such as rising sea levels and the spread of malarial disposal of communications equipment and services, mosquitoes into newly favourable regions. accounting for between 2 and 2.5 per cent of global emissions. Within this framework, it is possible to categorize inter- ventions more precisely in a number of ways: • Second order (indirect) effects concern the role ICTs can play in reducing emissions resulting from other • By sector: A number of development sectors are par- industrial sectors, by having them adopt ICTs to im- ticularly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, prove efficiency and production. A complication arises notably agriculture and water resources, forestry and from rebound effects which may eliminate the gains fisheries, health and livelihoods. resulting from apparent reductions, such as increased power consumption resulting from lower energy prices • By geographic scale: Climate change is a large-scale achieved through greater energy efficiency. phenomenon but will also have impacts that vary greatly between individual locations. Interventions • Third order (societal) effects result from large-scale therefore range from those at regional or national level changes in social and economic behaviour resulting down to specific actions to meet the needs of individ- from widespread use of ICTs, including changing pat- ual communities. terns of trade, production and consumption, and glob- al to local engagement of citizens in decision-making. • By technology: ICTs are highly diverse and can be im- plemented on different scales. At one end of the scale There are a growing number of perspectives on how to they include expensive one-off applications such as approach the intersection of ICTs and adaptation. IISD sensor networks, satellite earth stations and meteoro- has built on several analytical approaches to create a new logical systems. At the other, they include the mobile framework to guide future policy and programming in- phones that individuals can use to access information, terventions. This framework categorizes interventions at report problems or share experiences. four points along a continuum of adaptation, which are as follows: This analytical framework is illustrated graphically in Figure 3.1. 58 Figure 3.1 A framework to assess ICT tools for climate change adaptation EXAMPLES policy IssueS Addressing development / Focus on vulnerability Responding to climate change / Focus on impact Early warning systems Open data policies Weather management Acquisition Remote sensing systems Large scale Smart systems Infrastructure deployment Sensor networks ADDRESSING Building Managing Confronting THE DRIVERS OF Response Climate Climate VULNERABILITY Capacity Risk Change GIS Capacity building, training GPS and education Modelling Examples: Examples: Examples: Examples: Micro-credit schemes; Improving information Introduction of drought- Reducing potential for immunization programmes and communications resistant crops; glacial lake outburst flood; infrastructure; emergency response systems building sea walls training in GIS technology Knowledge management Communication strategies Information sharing Public awareness/outreach Decision-making tools Partnerships Small scale Mobile phone apps Mobile phone apps GPRS GPRS 59 landscape in Africa adaptation climate change ICTs for 3.2 analysis The UNFCCC lies at the heart of much of the work • Forestry: “Adapting the Framework of Forestry Policy which addresses adaptation in Africa today. Strategic to meet the needs of climate change in the MENA re- instruments arising from this work include countries’ gion� (GIZ). National Communications on their climate response activities, and the National Adaptation Programmes of • Health: “Transferring the Malaria Epidemic Prediction Action (NAPAs) which have been developed by Least Model to Users in West Africa� (CCAA). Developed Countries (LDCs). The African Union, NEPAD and some Regional Economic Communities • Meteorology: “The Regional Science Service Centre (RECs) in Africa have sought to achieve coordinated for Adaptation Climate Change and Sustainable Land action by governments at the continental or regional Management in Southern Africa�. levels, and to stimulate national policy development for adaptation. Two critical challenges arise from this work: A number of projects and programmes are currently • the extent to which adaptation is integrated with wider being implemented in Africa to support adaptation to development planning; and climate change. Major continental programmes focus- ing on climate change adaptation with a budget above • the extent to which strategic planning leads to practi- US$50 million include: the Climate Change Adapta- cal implementation on the ground. tion Support Programme for Action-Research and Capacity Development in Africa; the Africa Adapta- Both of these are challenges in many development sec- tion Programme; and the Climate for Development tors, not just for climate change adaptation. Where the in Africa (ClimDev-Africa) Programme and its com- use of ICTs is concerned, they are supplemented by two ponent, the African Early Warning and Advisory Cli- more specific issues: mate Services. • the extent to which ICTs are integral to adaptation In conjunction with these multi-country, multi-sector planning; and projects are others that focus on capacity-building (in- cluding policy linkages) and research activities in specific • the extent to which they can be deployed in practical sectors such as: implementations, given current infrastructure, finan- cial and human resource limitations. • Agriculture: “Strategies for Adapting to Climate Change in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa: Targeting the Governments have made some references to ICTs in Most Vulnerable� (FANFRAN) and “Developing National Communications, NAPAs and other documents rice and sorghum crop adaptation strategies for cli- which establish these sectoral priorities, though these ref- mate change in vulnerable environments in Africa� erences are rather few and limited. The use of ICTs is sug- (RISOCAS). gested for tasks such as the collection and dissemination of agro-meteorological information, monitoring for flood • Water and energy: “The Water, Climate and Develop- projection, and planning for and tracking of changes in ment Programme in Africa� and the “Climate Proofing the distribution of diseases such as malaria and menin- Energy Systems: Vulnerability-Adaptation-Resilience� gitis, early warning systems and disaster preparedness. (HELIO). Many countries in West, East and Southern Africa have 60 identified a desire to improve their meteorological and • developing information systems within the food sector forecasting capacity and to strengthen their early warn- that are better able to reflect household access to food ing and disaster risk reduction systems. and food consumption; In general, current uses of ICTs in the context of climate • developing early warning and hazard risk information change tend to achieve the objectives of: systems to deal with the additional fire hazards associ- ated with climate change and to enable integrated fire • generating, organizing and communicating informa- management; and tion about the risks resulting from climate change, cli- mate variability and extreme climate events, as well as • developing ICT mapping tools to map vulnerable areas preparing for their effects on food security and water and provide spatial representations of climate change supply; impacts. opportunities in Africa adaptation climate change ICTs for 3.3 and challenges Programmes and projects across Africa confirm the changing as a result of climate variability or climate importance of interventions in several areas of activity. change; and These include: • transmission of information and advice to and be- • monitoring and measurement of climate impacts, tween local communities on impacts that they may including weather systems, the impact of weather/ experience, actions that they could take to protect climate on natural resources such as water (sea levels, themselves against sudden (weather-induced) crises, rainfall) and weather-dependent economic sectors and potential lifestyle and behavioural changes that (agriculture, forestry, fisheries), and the potential im- could help to secure their lives and livelihoods in the pact of climate change on health; longer term. • early-warning systems concerned particularly with These practical applications use a wide variety of tech- acute events resulting from climate variability and cli- nologies which are interconnected using existing com- mate change; munications networks and services, including: • knowledge-sharing between intergovernmental and • high-value remote monitoring equipment such as satellites; national government agencies, businesses and aca- demic institutions that have the capacity and/or the • networks of remote sensors; responsibility for designing or coordinating responses to climate change; • global positioning and GIS applications; • implementation of small-scale activities to protect • communications services such as the internet, mobile lives and livelihoods in vulnerable communities and to networks and SMS; and support the lifestyle and behavioural changes needed to enable survival and prosperity in contexts that are • handheld devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. 61 It is clear that there are important shortfalls in current The evidence that emerges nevertheless confirms that adaptation policy and practice and in the application of ICTs do have significant potential value in adaptation and ICTs to adaptation. that this potential should be exploited more effectively. More attention, in particular, should be paid to: • While nearly all African countries have ratified the UNFCCC and so committed themselves to taking ac- • high-level meteorological and other climate monitor- tion to reduce their vulnerability to climate change, ing, using satellites, sensors and other ICTs, and asso- there is a big gap at present between strategy develop- ciated early warning systems; ment and implementation activity. Adaptation has not yet become effectively mainstreamed into development • knowledge-sharing among climate change and devel- planning in many countries, and remains absent from opment professionals; and many comprehensive national development strategies. • using locally available communications media (broad- • ICTs, likewise, have not yet become effectively in- cast services and mobile phones, and internet as it be- tegrated into adaptation planning. The potential of comes more readily available) to support local com- ICT-related interventions is insufficiently explored in munities’ adaptation efforts with information and NAPAs and other adaptation strategies and rarely inte- advice, and to integrate local information and knowl- grated into comprehensive thinking about how adap- edge more effectively into large-scale planning. tation can best be achieved. This leads to under-use of ICTs in programmes and projects which are associated A number of factors will be critical to enabling govern- with these strategies. ments and development partners to maximize the value of ICTs’ potential. These include: • Most ICT-related interventions which are currently taking place are either at a macro or a micro level – • improvements in the availability and quality of com- intergovernmental dialogue, national strategies, large- munications networks, including rapid progress to- scale projects such as weather monitoring by satellite ward ubiquity in the availability of mobile networks, and large-scale sensor networks; or projects aimed at rapid growth in broadband networks, and lower prices increasing awareness and information for vulnerable for end-users in communications markets; communities and individuals which will help them identify and manage their own adaptation needs. • commitment on the part of political leaders and devel- There is a shortage of the meso level activity which is opment policy-makers to integrate adaptation effec- essential in bridging the gap between grand strategies tively in development planning and to integrate ICTs and local circumstances. effectively in adaptation; • Use of ICTs to support adaptation to climate change • awareness-raising and capacity-building at all levels, is concentrated in a small number of development from decision-makers to residents in vulnerable com- domains, notably agriculture, water and coastal zone munities, concerning the importance of adaptation to management. The degree to which these actions, and climate change, the ways in which adaptation can be adaptation efforts more broadly, are coordinated with achieved, and the potential role of ICTs in this regard; the broader development objectives of African coun- tries varies from country to country, and generally • improved governance that is capable of taking advan- could be strengthened. As ICTs can have a pervasive tage of better information resources and translating impact across the spectrum of development, their strategy more effectively into implementation on the use at the community level also could be expanded to ground; and more holistically encompass the diversity of adapta- tion needs in different sectors at the local level. • the financial resources required to achieve these goals. 62 case studies in Africa adaptation climate change ICTs for 3.4 In reviewing the evidence on the use of ICTs in cli- • adaptation and agriculture: the needs of farmers in mate change adaptation in Africa, three country case Uganda and the role that community knowledge studies were conducted. These studies paid particular workers play as local information brokers for sharing attention to: knowledge that can aid in adaptation (see Box 3.1). Box 3.1 Climate change adaptation in agriculture – the role of Community Knowledge Workers in Uganda Established by the Grameen Foundation, Community • Information about available storage facilities. Knowledge Workers (CKWs) in Uganda are a network of locally-based “trusted intermediaries� who interface be- CKWs are themselves farmers and are elected by tween content producers and smallholder farmer groups. fellow members of local cooperative farmer groups. They conduct mobile based surveys of their communi- They must speak English, must be judged innovative ties, and act as the conduit for dissemination of central- in their farming practices, must be willing to serve ized information to community farmers. The objectives their communities, and must aspire to meet target ob- of the CKWs include improvements in farm productivity, jectives which are regularly checked and monitored increases in revenue and the collection of information through an online dashboard. They are incentivized that can help farmers to meet their needs. Specific types with a rented smartphone kit which is preloaded with of information that the CKWs transmit which are relevant applications concerned with crop production such as to climate change adaptation include: land preparation and weather projections; a solar or bicycle operated battery recharge system to power • advice on land preparation based on available community cell phones; and a shirt, hat and vest to weather forecasts, especially expected rainfall; indicate their role. • information on pests (farmers can send pictures of By July 2011, over 20,000 farmers and households an infested crop and seek diagnostic advice); had registered to receive information by a total of 463 CKWs. The initiative aimed to achieve a total of 800 • information about value-chains, market prices and CKWs by the end of 2011. opportunities; and 63 • adaptation knowledge sharing among policy makers and practitioners: the use of knowledge-sharing plat- forms in Senegal such as AfricaAdapt (see Box 3.2). Box 3.2 Adaptation and knowledge sharing for decision making Senegal: AfricaAdapt - knowledge sharing for adaptation: Africa, Nigeria and Algeria). Limited financial re- sources and the challenge of establishing strong AfricaAdapt aims to facilitate the flow of climate academic and research bases have contributed to change adaptation knowledge for sustainable liveli- the slow uptake of remote sensing on the continent. hoods between researchers, policy-makers, civil so- African remote sensing data, information and appli- ciety organizations and communities that are vulner- cations have been used in many different sectors, able to climate variability and climate change across including agriculture and rural development, cli- the continent. This distributed community of practice mate and weather analysis, exploitation of natural (CoP) is supported by a website that lists face-to-face resources, forestry, natural disaster and water re- events and allows members to upload their profiles sources management. and showcase their work. AfricaAdapt is animated by four network conveners (called Knowledge Sharing • The South African Risk and Vulnerability Atlas Officers), one from each of the main partners. (SARVA). This electronic spatial database direct- ly supports access to and visualization of data Other applications with potential for adaptation, about the impact of global change (including cli- information gathering, knowledge sharing and deci- mate change) on human and natural environments. sion support: The Atlas initiative provides access to a large col- lection of scientific data and knowledge, includ- • Satellite and remote sensing – The number and ing climate and weather related datasets including range of remote sensing (RS) infrastructure and ap- forecasts of rainfall, wind and temperature, sea- plications has continued to grow in Africa, though sonal forecasts, and climate change projections for this is primarily located in a few countries (South rainfall, temperature and circulation. • adaptation and water: the management of water in Malawi through community based participatory geo- graphic information systems (see Box 3.3). Box 3.3 Adaptation and water management: Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) in Malawi Mangochi is an old town set on the west bank of the The PGIS project established to address the prob- Shire River, which flows between Lakes Malawi and lem of deforestation was conducted in a study area Malombe, and is close to important forest reserves and of nine village communities that are within 500 metres nature parks. Using Participatory Geographic Information of a water body (as stipulated by the National Water Systems (PGIS) and problem tree analysis, deforestation Policy), and 2000 metres of a source of fuel for food has been identified as a major environmental problem supply. Its objective was to engage government of- that has left much of the area’s customary land bare, ficials and local communities in the process of partici- leading to soil erosion, loss of soil fertility, siltation of rivers patory decision making for environmental and natural and water holes, loss of biodiversity and flooding in low resource management. Through this process, it aimed lying areas around the Malombe and Shire Valley. to establish a baseline assessment and to investigate 64 climate change adaptation strategies concerned with precisely located fuel, water, forestry and areas prone access to forest resources, food security and the avail- to floods and droughts. The exercise illustrated the ex- ability of water for irrigated agriculture and domestic tensive knowledge of the immediate local community consumption. as well as its susceptibility to the impacts of climate change or variability. Communities were empowered As part of the programme’s work, communities were by the initiative which improved their understanding of trained and required to map their villages using GPS the presence or lack of resources in their immediate devices, to generate maps of their own communities, surroundings, of climatic variations and of approaches and to create a centrally located model that can be to developing communal adaptation strategies, includ- used to determine current and future water needs. ing long-term strategies. It also improved communi- The outcome of the project suggested that men ties’ capacity to negotiate with government agencies produced less detailed maps than women, who more over issues such as the location of water points. While the case studies have been presented through the to consider the various applications aligned according to sector lenses of agriculture and livelihoods, knowledge the ICTs and adaptation framework, as shown in Table 3.1. management and water management, it is important also Table 3.1 ICTs and climate change adaptation framework Tool & Application Categories Continuum of Adaptation Activities Addresing Drivers Building Response Confronting Climate Managing Climate Risk of Vulnerability Capacity Change Examples: Examples: Examples: Examples: Micro-credit schemes; Improving information Introduction of drought- Reducing potential for Scale Examples Policy Considerations immunization programmes and communications resistant crops; glacial lake outburst flood; infrastructure; emergency response building sea walls training in GIS technology systems • Early warning Systems • Increasing the number of weather stations • Weather Management • Open Data Policies • Distance early warning system (METs) • MET Systems • Acquisition • Community flood information system • Satellite and remote sensing systems • Satellite and Remote Sensing Systems Large scale implementations • Smart Systems of ICTs • Infrastructure deployment • Hartebeespoort Dam programme • Himalayas glacial lakes sensors • Sensor Networks • Geographic Information Systems • Malawi Participatory GIS • Capacity building, training, and • South Africa Risk and Vulnerability Atlas • Global Positioning Systems • Water-related information system, Mekong education • PRECIS regional climate modelling system • Modelling Delta (WISDOM) • Communication strategies • Open Risk Data Initiative • Knowledge Management Systems • Uganda Community Knowledge workers • Public information, outreach and • Climate Change Explorer Tool • Information Sharing Systems • AfricaAdapt awareness • AfricaAdapt Small scale • Planning and decision tools • Ushahidi implementations • Partnerships • Ushahidi of ICTs • Mobile Phone Applications • MPESA • General Packet Radio Systems • Access and Affordability of Access • Kilimo Salama • TextToChange (GPRS) Vulnerability Focus Impact Focus 65 recommendations in Africa adaptation climate change ICTs for 3.5 Three broad observations should pervade the thinking can only deliver services and applications if that un- of governments and development partners in this field of derlying infrastructure is available. It needs strength- ICTs and climate change adaptation: ening across the continent. 1. Understanding local circumstances – the ecosystem it- 3. Human skills are just as essential to the application of self and its social and cultural environment – is essen- ICTs for adaptation as infrastructure, equipment and tial if adaptation interventions are to be successful. In applications. ICTs can play a crucial role in supporting this field, as in others, large-scale programmes will only public outreach and building awareness of the impact work if they respond to the granularity of local contexts. of climate change and adaptation, as well as offering opportunities to address those challenges. 2. Reliable, high quality communications infrastructure is essential for the effective use of ICTs. Technology Recommendations for government and development partners Recommendation 3.1 Use a systematic framework to structure thinking A systematic framework, such as that illustrated in Figure 3.1, is fundamental to structuring the approach to the role of ICTs in adapting to climate change. Such a framework should focus on: • reducing vulnerability, such as on ICTs that contribute to improvements in health, food, nutrition and other social drivers of vulnerability; and • building adaptive capacity, such as on ICT-enabled interventions in the water and agriculture sectors, on weather prospects and water hazards, land management and adaptive capacity of farmers and pastoralists. In addressing direct impacts of climate change, the framework should focus on: • developing climate change projections at national, regional and sectoral levels; and • programme and project interventions in urban planning; coastal and water resources management, the establish- ment and management of early warning systems, and the delivery of disaster and emergency relief. 66 Recommendation 3.2 Build capacity for integrating ICTs into national strategic adaptation plans Building the capacity for integrating ICTs into adaptation policy development will have significant benefits. Particular attention should be paid to including more detailed application of ICTs in National Adaptation Plans in LDCs and adaptation planning efforts in other countries. Traditional bureaucratic “silos� separate environment, climate change and adaptation policy makers and planners from those working on ICTs and telecommunications. Planned inter- ventions should be undertaken to bring those responsible for adaptation policy and planning (particularly National Adaptation Plans) together with ICT/telecommunications government staff to work together for more effective plan- ning and implementation. Recommendation 3.3 Involve the private sector more extensively in planning and implementation Engagement of the ICT private sector in climate change adaptation is less substantial and widespread than it is in mitigation, where the private sector is directly involved in developing clean technologies, energy efficiency, demateri- alization to reduce carbon footprints and other areas of innovation. More work is needed to engage strategically with the private ICT sector, to review where privately motivated interests in applications could directly or serendipitously enhance adaptation while also delivering commercial value. Recommendations for governments and donors Recommendation 3.4 Embed ICT planning in the adaptation planning process Use of ICTs should be embedded in the adaptation planning processes that are already underway in most African countries. In particular, for the LDCs, the preparation of second generation National Adaptation Plans should be seen as a window of opportunity for the inclusion of ICT-relevant interventions. Preparation for these should in- clude a capacity building programme to review where and how investments in ICTs might be best integrated within these plans. Recommendation 3.5 Develop open data policies across Africa Access to data is a fundamental requirement for adaptation planning. Model policy frameworks and guidance could be developed for countries across Africa, with a view to making environmental and meteorological data open to all interests (public, academic, and private). 67 Recommendation 3.6 Invest in tools and infrastructure There is considerable scope to invest in tools and infrastructure that will have a direct impact on knowledge of current and projected climate change impacts. These include: • early warning systems, weather management, meteorological systems, satellite and remote sensing systems; • smart systems and sensor networks; • geographic information systems/modelling/planning and decision-making tools; • knowledge management systems, information sharing systems, planning and decision-making tools; and • mobile phone applications and GPRS. Recommendation 3.7 Support for the sharing of knowledge and action for adaptation Adaptation policy makers and planners need to be able to connect with and learn from one another about what is working and what is not – and this knowledge exchange needs to be informed by real experience on the ground. Two major gaps need to be addressed: • mechanisms for sharing information between platforms, and for meta-level search-and-retrieval access across all platforms; and • mechanisms for managing, sharing and developing flows of communication with vulnerable communities. The potential for using crowd-sourcing techniques to address these gaps should be explored, particularly those that are enabled by mobile phones, to generate real-time data on both acute and chronic impacts of climate change. 68 further reading in Africa adaptation climate change ICTs for c Karanaisos, S. (2011) New and Emergent ICTs and Climate Change in Developing Countries Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester, Manchester http://www.niccd.org/KaranasiosClimateChangeEmergentICTs.pdf McGray, H., Hammill, A. and Bradley, R. (2007) Weathering the Storm: Options for Framing Adaptation and Development World Resources Institute, Washington DC http://pdf.wri.org/weathering_the_storm.pdf Ospina, A. and Heeks, R. (2010) Linking ICTs and Climate Change Adaptation: A Conceptual Framework for e-Resilience and e-Adaptation Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester http://www.niccd.org/ConceptualPaper.pdf Souter, D., MacLean, D., Akoh, B., and Creech, H. (2010) ICTs, the Internet and Sustainable Development: Towards a New Paradigm IISD, Winnipeg http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2010/icts_internet_sd_new_paradigm.pdf For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in climate change adaptation in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa sector report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 69 chapter The Transformational Use 4 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa education 1. Introduction Building human capacity Challenges 2. Landscape analysis 4. Case studies 3. Opportunities and challenges 5. Recommendations Establishing an enabling policy environment For policy makers and regulators Widening access to ICT infrastructure and connectivity For development partners Providing increased connectivity to support education and learning Harnessing ICT to improve management and administration Further reading Harnessing Open Educational Resources introduction in Africa education ICTs for 4.1 The future development of Africa and its participation in expected benefits. This chapter examines the potential for the knowledge society will be greatly influenced by how the use of ICT to support improvement and transforma- Africa manages to deliver quality education to its citizens. tion of the education sector in Africa, including brief case The African Union specifically acknowledges this in its studies of South Africa, Uganda and Senegal. It identifies Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006–2015) Plan specific opportunities and challenges, and recommends of Action: areas of intervention for governments, development part- ners and other stakeholders. It looks in particular at the Education forms the basis for developing innovation, following five areas: science and technology, in order to harness our resources, industrialise, and participate in the global knowledge • teacher professional development; economy and for Africa to take its rightful place in the global community. It is also the means by which Africa will • digital learning resources; entrench a culture of peace, gender equality and positive African values. • affordable technologies; While ICT has been used in many parts of the world to im- • education management information systems (EMIS); and prove the quality and increase access to education, most African countries still face the challenge that increased • National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). expenditure on education is not necessarily achieving the landscape in Africa education ICTs for 4.2 analysis In Africa, many governments have focused on developing ICT in education, in order to achieve critical strategic devel- national ICT policies and National Information and Com- opmental objectives – or at least agreeing policies to do this. munication Infrastructure Plans to support their socio-eco- nomic development efforts and policies for ICT in educa- Developing countries, however, have experienced dif- tion. Several African governments are prioritizing the use of ficulties in adapting policies and regulations to rapid 72 changes in technology and market structure. In some in- creating collaborative learning opportunities, and pro- stances, policies concerned with ICT and education are viding insight and support both during formal class time not complemented by policies in other relevant areas, and outside of contact time. Unfortunately, however, such as telecommunications, that support such develop- most professional development programmes tend to con- ment. Furthermore, ICT policies are not always accom- centrate on teaching educators how to use the technology panied by detailed implementation plans or commitment itself. Professional development needs to focus on how to from government to implement them. mentor and guide learners in this environment. Increasingly, investment in ICT is being seen by educa- At the same time, the emergence of the concept of Open tion institutions as a necessary part of establishing their Education Resources (OER) has led to growth in the collec- competitive advantage, because it is attractive to students tive generation and sharing of content by networked groups and is also deemed essential by governments, parents, of people, and in the proliferation of technologies that enable employers and funders of higher education. Despite this, cheap information-sharing and collaboration. The digitiza- there is no direct correlation between increased spending tion of information in all media has also, meanwhile, intro- on ICT and improved education performance. duced significant challenges concerning intellectual property. Benefit and impact, to the extent that they can be reliably ICT is reducing barriers to entry for potential competi- measured, are more functions of how ICT is deployed tors to traditional education institutions by reducing the than of what technologies are used. importance of geographical distance, enabling potential new efficiencies in overheads and the logistical require- The growth of knowledge societies has placed increas- ments of running education programmes and research ing emphasis on the need to ensure that people are in- agencies, and expanding cheap access to information re- formation-literate. However, it is important to consider sources. As a result, there has been significant growth in expanded definitions of information literacy that are the number of distance education programmes in which based on mastering underlying concepts rather than on teachers and students are physically separated, and in specialized skill sets. Education systems need to develop which teaching and learning take place by means of indi- and establish methods for teaching and evaluating these vidual technologies or combinations of technologies. critical literacies at all levels of education. Mobile and personal technology platforms are increas- ICT can facilitate a transition of the role of the teacher ingly seen as appropriate for services of all kinds. The in the classroom into that of an instructional manager capabilities of mobile and personal devices have grown, helping to guide students through individualized learn- driven partly by the increasing availability of digital ma- ing pathways, identifying relevant learning resources, terials and applications. opportunities education ICTs for in Africa 4.3 and challenges Planning for new interventions which aim to harness take place. There is no single right approach which suits ICT to improve education must begin with contextual- all educational environments but there are a number of ized needs analysis and careful preparation which takes general opportunities which are worth noting: account of the realities within which implementation will 73 Establishing an enabling policy environment Establishing an enabling policy environment, or reviewing initiatives that help to drive the national ICT agenda, what is in place to ensure sufficiency, is a major opportunity and includes policy on ICTs in education, bandwidth for many countries (see Box 4.1). South Africa and Egypt and connectivity. Existing education policies in most are examples of countries that have achieved significant African countries need thorough review and updating to progress in the integration of ICT in education through ensure that the policy for ICT in education supports and enabling policy environments, supported by appropri- is supported by complementary policies for education ate institutional and regulatory structures. They illustrate as a whole. Additionally, all education legislation should that, where there has been significant scaling up of ICT be reviewed and updated to safeguard against legal and integration into teaching and learning, implementation conceptual contradictions created by ICT in education has been carried out through cross-sectoral collabora- policies. Most important is the need to align resource al- tion between ministries of education and other sectors. locations and budgets with priorities defined in these new An enabling policy environment includes policies and policy positions. Box 4.1 Establishing an enabling policy environment While responsibility for the management of schools is sector-specific ICT policy, this draft, at the time shared between national and provincial government in of this study, was still with Cabinet for ratification. South Africa, all priorities and programmes are in line The absence of an approved policy and strategy for with national policy determined by the national gov- ICT in education is the most likely cause of a lack of ernment. South Africa has a number of cross-sectoral common focus and direction among many, largely and mutually supportive policies. Successful imple- donor-driven, initiatives for ICT in education. mentation of policy requires enabling institutional ar- rangements. South Africa has several public entities Senegal, on the other hand has the necessary policy and agencies concerned with ICT, as well as a na- environment for ICT in education, but has seen limited tional commission to advise on ICT development in real progress. Adopted in 2009, the policy has yet to the country. These support ICT in education in various have any significant impact on the state of ICT in edu- ways as part of their mandates. cation. This suggests that Senegal still has to put in place a more comprehensive range of related policies Uganda first developed a National ICT Policy in order to achieve success. framework in 2003. While there is a draft education Widening access to ICT infrastructure and connectivity Widening access to ICT infrastructure and connectivity is exploit this high level of access to learning on an increas- another priority. It is important first to harness devices ingly large scale (see Box 4.2). However, mobile phones that teachers and learners already own. The proliferation may not be the most appropriate platform to address a of mobile phones has meant that more learners have ac- particular educational need, and may present challenges cess to ICT devices than ever before, offering opportuni- of access, cost and usability. As technology costs decline ties in terms of sustainability and scalability. A number of further, other devices (such as laptops and tablets) are pilot projects are testing the use of mobile phones to sup- likely to become more affordable and accessible platforms port educational activities and some, such as the Yoza and for both teachers and learners. Math for Mobile projects in South Africa, are seeking to 74 Box 4.2 Widening access to ICT infrastructure and connectivity Alongside a vibrant private sector, the government donor-driven projects supplemented by initiatives of of South Africa has invested substantially to develop the communications regulator, the Uganda Commu- the country’s telecommunications sector. It has made nications Commission – there has been no coordi- considerable strides in the electrification of schools, nated effort yet to address access and connectivity with more than 85 per cent of public schools covered for schools. The overwhelming majority of schools by 2009. South Africa also has initiatives in place to in Uganda – primary and secondary – lack access to provide computer laboratories in schools and connect both the internet and power. them to the internet. In Senegal, telecommunications operators are the Because of the high penetration of mobile technol- main players in the extension of internet connectiv- ogy in the country, especially among the young, South ity to schools. There are, in addition, a number of Africa is piloting projects that make use of mobile externally funded projects aimed at providing ac- technology for learning. South African universities are cess to schools, the largest to date being the USAID also making use of mobile technologies to support Basic Education project (USAID/EDB). All of these academic administration and community work. were initiated before the adoption of an ICT in educa- tion policy. The impact of this policy in directing donor- In the absence of an enabling policy environment funded projects remains to be seen. in Uganda, it is not surprising that – apart from Models of shared access to mobile devices, as well as those One-to-one computing strategies may be suitable for pro- focused on teacher access, are more realistic from the viding access to teachers. If they have laptops or netbooks, perspectives of cost and support than one-to-one com- they can use these to engage in informal learning at their puter access. These devices can be moved around within own pace, to source and develop materials, and to design schools, and can therefore be more easily integrated into and project lessons. This approach is being explored in classroom teaching. countries including South Africa (Teacher Laptop Initia- tive) and Kenya (Laptops for Teachers Programme). Providing increased connectivity to support education and learning The increasing rollout of competitive fibre to Africa and created an important opportunity to extend affordable within African countries and greater penetration of wire- non-commercial broadband to education institutions. less and mobile platforms have expanded opportuni- South Africa and Kenya stand out as examples where a ties for connectivity and broadband access. Wi-Fi and combination of sector liberalization and government WiMAX especially create the opportunity for wide scale investment in connectivity to education, working with deployment of wireless access devices. NRENs, has led to prices falling to less than 10 per cent of what they were three years ago. The emergence of National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa over the past ten years has 75 Harnessing ICT to improve management and administration There is also value in harnessing ICT to improve educa- the monitoring of national and regional education per- tional management and administration (see Box 4.3). formance. There is also a need to upgrade current Educa- One major problem with current management informa- tional Management Information Systems (EMIS) through tion systems is the lack of adequate and well-designed the adoption of web-enabled tools, and for the sharing policies and strategies for the collection and use of educa- of knowledge on requirements, challenges and oppor- tional information by both governments and individual tunities. The National Education Statistical Information institutions. There is a need to support African govern- System (NESIS) programme, which has been promoted ments so that they can formulate cost-effective and sus- by the Association for Education Development in Africa tainable strategies for educational data collection and (ADEA) provides a platform to promote policy and other use, and for the development of indicators that enable capacity support for EMIS development in Africa. Box 4.3 Harnessing ICT to improve management and administration South Africa has established a comprehensive range and challenges in sustainability resulting especially of EMIS platforms that cover the acquisition, process- from connectivity costs. In addition, the data collected ing, dissemination and reporting of education data at are only used at the centre: they are not yet used to the national level, and within different education strata. support decision-making by schools or districts. In Uganda, several development partners – including In Senegal, there are centrally managed systems for the World Bank, USAID and DFID – have at different collecting educational statistics at all levels of educa- times supported EMIS, including decentralization to tion. There are also systems for managing examina- districts and the incorporation of GIS capability into tions, finance, and human resources. Most of these the system. EMIS in Uganda has, nevertheless, faced are internally developed, pointing to the fact that several challenges, including unreliability of data, chal- Senegal has made significant progress both in capac- lenges in decentralization resulting from a lack of hu- ity development and in implementing EMIS. man capacity in EMIS and equipment maintenance, Open source platforms provide another opportunity for to adapt a generic tool to the specific characteristics of African countries, though they require expert human ca- their national education system and to customize the pacity. One example is OpenEMIS, which was sponsored components of the information system appropriately. by UNESCO. OpenEMIS allows database administrators Harnessing Open Educational Resources The growth of Open Educational Resources (OER) Developments include those, such as OER Africa and and the communities around them provides a signifi- the Teacher Education for Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) cant opportunity to improve access to and use of high Initiative, which are involved in promoting and support- quality educational materials (see Box 4.4), of which ing the creation and use of OER in Africa. African governments and educators can take advantage. 76 Box 4.4 Harnessing digital learning resources Several initiatives provide free educational resources Uganda does not have any significant initiative to in South Africa. The Thutong portal, run by the Depart- produce OER, either in the public or private domains. ment of Basic Education, has resources on curricu- Senegal, on the other hand, has made considerable lum and examinations, teacher development, school progress in developing digital learning resources. administration and management. Mindset Network, At the national level, the Ministry of Education has col- an NGO, has been distributing high-quality materials laborated in the development of an education portal for the schooling and health sectors openly and freely. through which teachers can download learning re- The Siyavula project, founded in 2008, works with sources and adapt them to local needs. The portal teachers to develop teaching and learning materials also provides a training space that allows teachers to in collaboration and then share them through an open take courses, participate in collaborative work and en- licence agreement. gage with peers and experts. The transformative educational potential of OER revolves Important challenges to OER development include: the around increased availability of relevant high-quality need to ensure that the resulting products are education- learning materials that can contribute to more productive ally effective and of a high standard; provision of adequate work by students and educators. The principle of allow- ICT infrastructure and connectivity; buy-in from those ing adaptation of materials also provides a mechanism to academics and educators who are not yet aware of the develop roles for students as active participants in edu- benefits and possibilities; adjustments to staff workload cational processes. OER has the potential to build capac- to enable participation in content creation and adaptation ity by providing institutions and educators, at little or no processes; capacity to develop and adapt OER resources; cost, with access to the means to develop their compe- and hidden costs associated with search and adaptation. tence in producing educational materials and to carry the There is also a need to develop enabling policies for in- necessary instructional design to integrate such materials tellectual property rights, human resource benefits, and into high quality programmes of learning. NGOs and the quality assurance. private sector are active in the generation of OER, offer- ing opportunities for collaboration with governments and educational institutions. Building human capacity Building sufficient and competent human capacity re- development. For example, Namibia’s TECH/NA! strat- mains a challenge for most African countries. Countries egy maps out training of the entire education workforce that have developed a national strategy for professional from ministry to school level, with training of teachers development find it easier to achieve scale in the train- focused on pre-service and in-service training by teacher ing of their teachers and in resourcing their professional training colleges. Box 4.5 Building human capacity One of the important features of teacher education which specifies how ICT can be used to widen access in South Africa is the National Framework for Profes- to teacher education, improve teacher-learners’ mo- sional Teacher Education and Development (NFPTED), tivation, speed up communication, and provide an 77 enriched environment for learning. ICT professional While both Uganda and Senegal have initiatives aimed development has been integrated into pre-service at building the capacity of teachers, both countries teacher education by some universities, and there are appear to focus on computer literacy among teachers also many opportunities for in-service teacher profes- rather than pedagogical issues around ICT in learning. sional development in ICT. The training by universities Uganda has remained at the small-scale pilot level, in ICT teacher professional development has been without any visible plan or strategy for national level complemented by the efforts of SchoolNet South expansion. Senegal, in addition to participating in in- Africa, which manages three large teacher develop- ternational programmes like Microsoft PiL and iEARN, ment programmes: Intel Teach, Microsoft PiL, and the has some national level initiatives that address both Commonwealth Certificate for ICT Integration. pre-service and in-service training. There are parameters for good practice which inform the for teacher competence development include worldwide strategy for professional development for ICT integration and regional programmes such as iEARN, which is avail- that can be taken on board in African countries. Those de- able in 29 countries on the African continent. veloped within the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative advocate a holistic multi-stakeholder, multi-modal delivery approach Because of their reliance on teachers themselves to con- to professional development, specifying that all educa- tribute and sustain them, communities of practice offer a tional role-players should “possess the skills and compe- cost-effective model of professional development. Teach- tence required to use ICT effectively in their daily lives�. ers that engage in communities of practice are more con- In addition, “ongoing educational opportunities – formal, fident of their work and less afraid to display it for scru- non-formal, and informal – [should be] made available to, tiny and critique by others. Examples include the Partners and…used by, all of these groups of people to further de- in Learning Network (PILN), Siyavula, and the Teacher velop their educational ICT competence�. Opportunities Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) Forum. Challenges The opportunities for ICTs in education must be un- • lack of necessary ICT skills among teachers, and of the derstood within a context of challenges and difficulties. specific training needed to be able to use ICT appro- These include: priately in the classroom; • the absence of comprehensive policies which enable • lack of appropriate content; and support interventions and which are supported by clearly defined and resourced strategies for implemen- • lack of accurate, comprehensive, up-to-date data on tation at national level as well as at the level of educa- education; and tional institutions; • the tendency of ICT to accentuate social, cultural and • lack of financing and prioritization of ICT investments; economic disparities. • limited infrastructure of the kind required to support It is generally believed that ICT can empower teach- the use of ICT in education; ers and learners, promote change, and foster the devel- opment of 21st century skills, but data to support these • lack of capacity at all levels to integrate and support the perceived benefits from ICT are limited and evidence of use of ICT in education effectively; effective impact remains elusive. 78 case studies in Africa education ICTs for 4.4 Three country case studies, of South Africa, Uganda and 1. A robust policy environment that supports the ICT Senegal, were conducted to enable a deeper examination in education policy is an enabling, but not sufficient, of success factors and challenges. condition for ICT roll-out. South Africa provides an example of a country which is 2. Policy requires supportive institutional arrangements at a comparatively advanced stage of implementing ICT that may necessitate central-level coordination. in education. Uganda offers lessons for countries where there has been some effort to introduce ICT in educa- 3. ICT integration in education requires national bud- tion, and where the education sector appears vibrant, get support as well as nationally driven partnerships but where there is no coordinated framework. Senegal, with the private sector. Total reliance on donor-funded like South Africa, was one of the early pioneers of ICT projects that are necessarily driven by differing donor in education, has a reasonably well-developed framework agendas will lead to standalone projects that are not and, according to all indications in the literature, has a sustainable. vibrant education sector. However, the UNDP Human Development Report 2010 education indicators point to 4. National ownership and sustainability planning are educational outcomes well behind those in South Africa critical in all initiatives if they are to go beyond the and Uganda. novelty pilot level to nationwide projects that have real impact. The progress of South Africa, Uganda and Senegal against the challenges identified above is briefly outlined in Boxes 5. Success of integration of ICT in education requires a 4.1–4.5. The case study countries, through their achieve- change of focus from computer literacy for teachers to ments and challenges, suggest the following lessons: understanding ICT integration in education from the pedagogic perspective. 79 recommendations in Africa education ICTs for 4.5 For policy makers and regulators Recommendation 4.1 Establish an enabling policy environment Ensure that all investments in ICT in education (including those made by governments, development partners, indi- vidual educational institutions and NGOs) are directed by a single, integrated ICT-in-education strategy so that they are working towards common national strategic objectives. To be effective, strategies should be developed through ap- propriate processes of consultation within countries, in order to ensure that there is strong consensus on the proposed approaches by all major stakeholders, combined with buy-in to the strategic objectives that have been defined. Recommendation 4.2 Widen access to ICT infrastructure and connectivity Implement programmes that enable students, teachers, and administrators to gain access to, or own suitable computing devices, and that support the development of NRENs as a means to enable resource-sharing and collaboration. Recommendation 4.3 Harness ICT to improve management and administration Promote data-driven decision-making at all levels. The focus on data usage at all levels implies that investment in future EMIS development should focus on schools, colleges and universities that provide the data. Recommendation 4.4 Harness digital learning resources Consider judicious investments in content creation and aggregation to ensure compliance with African curricula and/or local lan- guage demands, motivating usage by educators and students. In the first instance, priority content could be derived from open content sources. If suitable content is not available, it will be useful to identify and invest in priority content development focus areas. 80 Recommendation 4.5 Build human capacity Adopt a suitable global professional development framework to guide national implementation of ICT in education professional development. The UNESCO ICT Competence Standards for Teachers and Teacher Training (CFT) is a good starting point for planning professional development strategies at national level. Figure 4.1 presents a model for such a framework, based on the approach that Guyana has used to develop a professional development for ICT integra- tion strategy using the UNESCO ICT Competency Framework. Figure 4.1 Illustrative model of national framework for ICT professional development Pre-Service continuing professional development (cpd) Teacher Training Introductory Stand-Alone Certificate/Diploma in Course on Use of ICT in Education Education (Include specialized courses (Dedicated, generic CPD Technology on ICT Integration, plus ICT course aimed at qualified, Literacy focuses in subject-specific practising teachers who Specific Short Courses courses) have not been taught about and Other PD Support ICT in their Initial Training) Strategies Specialized interventions aimed at practising teachers, qualified and unqualified, offered alongside generic Intermediate Stand-Alone CPD modules: Bachelor of Education Course on ICT integration in Education • Use of specific education- (Two specialized courses on al software applications ICT and on teaching IT as (Dedicated, generic CPD a subject, plus ICT focuses course aimed at qualified, Knowledge • Teaching IT as a subject in other subject-specific practising teachers who Deepening • ICT maintenance and courses) have not been taught about support ICT in their Initial Training) • etc. Opportunities would include courses, conferences, online Intermediate Stand-Alone communities of practice, Course on ICT integration access to self-study mate- in Education rial, etc. (Dedicated, generic CPD Knowledge course aimed at qualified, Creation practising teachers who have not been taught about ICT in their Initial Training) Incentives Certificates; Professional recognition, Salary increments; Time off for training, etc. Modalities of delivery Face-to-face training; online training; mentoring; action research; communities of practice; expos and showcasing; schools of ICT excellence; information and guides; distance training; etc. 81 For development partners Development partners are potential sources of funding guidance and expertise. They are especially well posi- for initiatives which cannot be readily financed from tioned to stimulate and support initiatives that are based national budgets, as well as potential sources of policy on cross-border collaboration: Recommendation 4.6 Ensure funded projects contribute to national policies and objectives Often, ICT in education projects initiated by development partners have not been clearly aligned to broader national policies and objectives. Where this has been the case, such projects tend to be unsustainable and may even impede progress in effective roll-out of ICT in education by creating conflicts of interest and unnecessary fragmentation. Recommendation 4.7 Consider investment in the enabling policy environment Should national strategy be unclear, development partners should consider support for governments to develop the policy environment, including expert support, financing and capacity building at both national and regional levels. Recommendation 4.8 Consider investments to build capacity at a regional or continental level Regional or continental initiatives can contribute to building capacity that would support policy makers in implementing the kinds of initiatives outlined in this chapter. These might include: 1. development of common, openly licensed course and programme materials; 2. support for the aggregation and release under open licences of digital learning resources produced in African countries, possibly by supporting regional consortia of providers; 3. establishment of platforms for capacity building and knowledge exchange on EMIS deployment; 4. support for the development of NRENs and deployment of associated data networks and applications (e.g. grid- computing, video-conferencing, e-learning, etc); and 5. development of the capacity of policy makers and regulators to enable them to establish more effective ICT in educa- tion policies, strategies and regulatory frameworks. 82 Recommendation 4.9 Continue to fund pilot projects to test innovative technologies Technology is still developing rapidly bringing with it new educational opportunities. Experimentation is important, therefore, to test the potential educational applicability of these new technologies and approaches, examine their total cost of ownership and establish their strengths and weaknesses. Often, it is difficult for governments to fund such ex- perimentation, but it remains an essential part of building a knowledge base of best practice. Development partners have a critical role to play in supporting such activities, not least in ensuring pilot projects are well evaluated and the results widely shared. Recommendation 4.10 Ensure that intellectual capital generated by funded projects is shared Adopting policies that lead to release of intellectual capital under open licences (unless there are valid reasons not to do so) and ensuring that this is stored in a sustainable online repository would help significantly to reduce wastage and duplication of investment. Recommendation 4.11 Undertake an evaluation and impact assessment of regional initiatives Investments by donors, and national governments, in this crucial field will be much more productive if they are rooted in independent critical evaluation of regional initiatives at different stages of development and implementation. This will provide better understanding of which initiatives to support and how these can be best supported, reinforced or expanded where appropriate, including support for collaboration between regional initiatives so that they reinforce one another. 83 further reading in Africa education ICTs for c African Union (2006) Second Decade of Education for Africa (2006–2015) Plan of Action, Revised August 2006 http://www.nepad.org/system/files/Second%20Decade%20of%20Education%202006-2015.pdf Butcher, N. (2011) A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER) UNESCO and Commonwealth of Learning http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=357 Educational Technology Debate: Exploring ICT and Learning in Developing Countries http://www.edutechdebate.org EduTech: A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/ Farrell, G. and Isaacs, S. (2007) Survey of ICT and Education in Africa: A Summary Report Based on 53 Country Surveys infoDev http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.353.html IEG (Independent Evaluation Group) (2011) Capturing Technology for Development: An Evaluation of World Bank Group Activities in Information and Communication Technologies The World Bank Group http://ieg.worldbankgroup.org/content/dam/ieg/ict/ict_evaluation.pdf Neil Butcher and Associates (2010) ICT, Education, Development, and the Knowledge Society Thematic paper prepared for GeSCI African Leadership in ICT: Building Leadership Capacities for ICT and Knowledge Societies in Africa UNESCO (2011) UNESCO ICT Competency Framework for Teachers UNESCO http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002134/213475e.pdf For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in education in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa sector report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 84 85 chapter The Transformational Use 5 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa financial services 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Introduction 4. Recommendations 2. Landscape analysis Recommendations for policy makers Recommendations for donors Opportunities and challenges Further reading 3. Case studies Senegal Kenya introduction in Africa services financial ICTs for 5.1 The second most populous continent in the world and However, the financial services sector has distinct devel- with abundant natural resources, Africa continues to opmental challenges. Issues of trust, consumer protec- grow as the world’s economy currently stands on shaky tion, and network systemic risks that can slow the pace ground. However, steady GDP gains are sometimes ob- of progress require clear and strong regulations. The need scured by the continent’s economic, political and social for policy and regulatory development is made more dif- problems. As Africa grows and becomes more tightly in- ficult by the speed of technological change. Nevertheless, tegrated with the global economy, its citizens and busi- strategic intervention through policy or public invest- nesses increasingly need access to financial services tools ment can play a critical role in addressing the challenges that will allow them to compete. ICT is one avenue for faced by the financial services sector. And the rapid pace increasing that access as ICT and financial services com- of technological change can motivate leaders to acceler- plement each other. ICTs allow for greater financial inclu- ate policy deliberations, providing this does not lead to sion, and the financial services sector is a primary driver regulatory over-reach. of communications and network technology. landscape in Africa services financial ICTs for 5.2 analysis It is striking to see the role that ICT and innovative busi- But Kenya only provides the introduction to a longer story. ness models have played in the explosive growth of finan- It took bold thinking and several years for M-PESA to cial inclusion. In Africa, the most visible case is Kenya, build internal support to get it started. With M-PESA and where active bank accounts have grown more than four- others now as proof points to reduce risk, new players fold between 2007 and 2012. This process has been aided are entering the market in Kenya and else-where, and the by M-PESA which had created some 17 million mobile time-to-market is reduced. While the pace of adoption money accounts by early 2012. Transactions through may be different from nation to nation, the opportunity is mobile banking service M-PESA exceed US$375 million no longer debated; it is just a matter of making it happen. each month and account for up to 20 per cent of the na- tion’s GDP. Summarizing the state of the financial services sector for an entire continent is a daunting task, compounded by 88 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 rapid advancements that are underway, many made pos- densities, poor transport and limited communications in- sible by ICT. Literature on this subject is abundant and frastructure contributing to a lack of supply in extensive useful thanks to concerted efforts at national and interna- regions of the continent. tional levels to bring attention to both the challenges and opportunities in Africa’s financial services sector. Here There are several methods to monitor national progress we focus on the prime objectives of improving financial on improving financial inclusion. Among these, one inclusion and nurturing the growth of micro and small can assess to what extent financial services are avail- businesses. Attention is also given to those operational able to a population by quantifying points of access, and supporting systems necessary for improved service generally defined as the density of financial institu- provision for these markets. tion branches within a country. Alternatively, analysis examines the percentage of the adult population that According to Making Finance Work for Africa: has deposit or credit accounts. The data indicate that compared to countries in other regions, African na- In Africa, on average, less than 20 percent of households tions and their citizens have less access to formal finan- have access to formal financial services, with low population cial services and tools. Opportunities and challenges Advances in ICT present unique opportunities for fi- 1. build upon consumer acceptance of these new models, and nancial services sector development in Africa. These advances touch all facets of the financial services sec- 2. leverage the transactional capabilities to introduce a tor ecosystem, from innovations and cost reductions for more diverse portfolio of financial services. user access to devices and transmission technology (in- cluding the revolution in mobile communications and Governing and regulatory challenges: Governance and the growth of broadband internet access), data storage regulatory demands for developing Africa’s financial ser- and sharing, security, and analytical processing. All of vices sector are in many respects the starting point for these will be critical enablers to a thriving financial ser- advances in the sector. Without transparent roles and vices sector in Africa. These developments can accelerate responsibilities, commercial interests may decide the un- the drive towards development goals and allow African known risks are too high to make the sizable investments nations, historically in the lower ranks of financial sector needed for building out networks. In the innovative mod- indices, a way to leapfrog challenges that have afflicted els of mobile financial services, lack of clarity regarding other nations. the roles for financial institutions and mobile operators can cause market fracture or lead to redundant invest- Challenges to greater use of ICT in financial services can ments that are transferred as costs to the consumer. be broadly grouped into three major categories: consumer challenges, governing and regulatory challenges, and Market maturity challenges: Financial inclusion may be market maturity challenges. These categories, and the ma- limited by a poor competitive environment or a lack of jor issues that comprise them, are illustrated in Figure 5.1: supporting infrastructure. Low levels of interest or under- standing by financial institutions in serving low-income Consumer challenges: Many of the efforts to address populations, the unsuitability of conventional practices consumer challenges in financial services have focused (such as brick-and-mortar locations), the relatively weak on expanding access to the most fundamental services voice of financial inclusion advocates, and the weakness – transactional capabilities and simple market informa- of credit bureaus and collateral registries all contribute to tion services that can utilize the growing penetration of the relative paucity of financial services products for un- mobile phones. As these core capabilities are rolled out, banked populations. innovators are trying to: Figure 5.1 next page l 89 Figure 5.1 Challenges to greater ICT use in financial services Customer/End User Challenges Governing/Regulatory Challenges Liquidity Management Lack of ID documents Consumer Protection Moveable assets Identification Intersystem agreements Fragmented collateral data Fraud Corruption Limited products SME access to capital credit collateral bureaus registry Fear of Redundancy Market Maturity Challenges Institutional Opacity Customer Services Security Discrepant data Fortunately, there are initiatives underway that seek to initiatives and their applicability to African countries address these fundamental challenges. Seven major ini- are further analysed in the case studies on Senegal and tiative areas are identified in Table 5.1. Some of these Kenya. Table 5.1 Major initiatives to address challenges in financial services Challenge area Key initiatives • Transactional friction and retail payments: Methods for making regular payments or deposits in ways that can reduce complexities such as physical proximity to financial institution branches or the identification requirements, such as mobile payment systems Consumer challenges • New product development: New products such as savings, lending, and eBanking that appeal to underserved consumers • SME access to capital: Easing access to capital for small businesses through tools like electronic cash registers Governing and regulatory • Identification: Initiatives to allow registration and identification through mobile or other electronic means challenges • Collateral registry: Integrated collateral registry databases that allow for verification of property and other assets • SaaS for MFIs: Cloud-based IT services that reduce the need for physical financial services infrastructure Market maturity challenges • Credit bureaus: Use of mobile or other transaction data to establish creditworthiness 90 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 case studies in Africa services financial ICTs for 5.3 Senegal Senegal’s economy is strengthened by a relatively good over 68 per cent coverage in 2010. The figure for finan- infrastructure, openness, the nation’s ability to attract in- cial services, although improving, is much lower (16%). vestment and ambitious development projects. For a mo- However, the barriers to increased financial inclusion in bile society with a large migrant population, the impor- Senegal are quickly disappearing as technology innova- tance of telecommunication and financial services cannot tions and mobile payment services spread across Africa be overstated. Senegal’s ICT sector, in particular, enjoys (see Table 5.2). a steady growth in the area of mobile telephony with Table 5.2 Senegal’s challenges and opportunities for ICT and financial services Readiness (regulations, Drivers of growth Challenges Opportunities infrastructure, demand) • Multiple regulators • Diversification of products/services offered on ICTs High • Bureaucracy existing platforms (mobile) • Slow mobile money services • Linking to financial and non-financial services • Up-market focus • Low-cost, down-market banking • Inefficient MFIs • Leveraging excessive technological capacity Financial services Low-Medium • Lack of credit to SMEs and the informal sector • Diversification of products and delivery • Technology limitations platforms • Limited knowledge of market • Demand-driven product offering Market players Medium • Competition not aggressive enough • More competition • Bureaucracy Some of the factors that have delayed the expansion of fi- inadequate capital, a narrow menu of products, a lack of nancial services in Senegal are limited products, low-risk professionalism, and limited technological resources. behaviour, and the lack of interest by banks to serve SMEs and the informal economy. Although there are more than Telcos in Senegal could make financial services acces- 200 microfinance institutions (MFIs), they suffer from sible without the geographic and time limitations that 91 characterize branch banking. A more aggressive drive to in underserved areas, they are not attractive to risk-averse deliver new services, such as the recently launched Or- lenders. In order to meet its financial inclusion hopes, ange Money, could transform the landscape if matched by Senegal would have to transform the financial land- trusted, demand-driven products and flexible customer scape by aligning policy and regulatory frameworks. identification requirements. The country should remove barriers to scale by reducing duplicate efforts by MFIs, donors, and the private sector Most of the necessary pieces are present in Senegal for players that offer different mobile financial services. significant expansion of financial inclusion. A solid in- frastructure, steady economic growth, favourable regula- Significant opportunities exist in Senegal for mobile net- tions, and a robust private sector together with high-level work operators (MNOs) to expand financial services. government backing of ICT access would help Senegal Recently launched mobile money transfer services, no- leverage mobile technology for financial services. In a tably by Orange, are steps in the right direction. Speed country where remittances play a significant role, match- to scale, however, remains an issue that challenges mo- ing the penetration of mobile phones with financial ser- bile payment services, mainly caused by a gap between vices capable of capturing small transactions is techni- demand and the types of products offered. With a well- cally possible, but operationally challenging. coordinated strategy and policies that favour the poor, Senegal has the potential to become an exemplary per- Senegal’s public sector has not yet offered strong incen- former in financial inclusion. Overall, Senegal is at the tives for telcos and banks to form partnerships that prof- tipping point to become one of the top performers in fi- itably serve lower-income markets using mobile plat- nancial services in Africa. Success in Senegal is likely to forms. Relatively simple incentives include reducing the create a model that can be transferred to the rest of Fran- layers of bureaucracy. Although MFIs would be natural cophone Africa. choices for financial inclusion because of their footprint Kenya Despite the political and ethnic turmoil that it has expe- has been hugely successful for several reasons. First, the rienced in the past few years, Kenya’s economy is still the company already had a widespread agent network, which largest and most diversified in the East African Communi- meant that the service was easily accessible throughout ty (EAC) and the wider East Africa/Horn of Africa region. the country. In addition, Safaricom’s management have Compared to its neighbours, aid only plays a limited role, and devoted a lot of effort and commitment to the basic issues Kenya’s private sector is known for its resilience. The country of the business, in particular on agent training, branding, serves as a communications hub for the region, and Kenyan marketing and security of the system. firms increasingly aim for a regional footprint. Kenya’s la- bour force is better educated than that of its neighbours, and Since its launch, a range of payment services have been Kenyan professionals are often hired throughout the region. added: subscribers can now pay at retail outlets, purchase airline tickets, make school fee payments and pay utility Kenya’s ICT sector has benefited from these conditions bills with their mobile money account. In addition, the and a relatively advanced telecommunications sector, service has become increasingly integrated with the bank- strengthened by three undersea fibre optic cables. The ing sector: subscribers can pick up cash from PesaPoint ICT sector was also identified as one of the key sectors ATMs, and Equity Bank was the first commercial bank to promote by the government in its Vision 2030 devel- to offer a link between M-PESA mobile money accounts opment plan. On the other hand, Kenya still had a large and traditional bank accounts. unbanked population, dependent on remittances, which made it ripe for mobile money solutions, unlike, say, Agency banking allows commercial banks to use retail out- South Africa where bank accounts and credit card own- lets and other agents to conduct a limited range of bank- ership were already well entrenched. ing services through them. Agents may therefore need to be given some limited access to core banking functions. The focus of extensive media coverage, Safaricom’s mobile Given the infrastructural challenges, the banks currently money service M-PESA (‘pesa’ is Kiswahili for money) rolling out this service use GSM technology as well. 92 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The example of Kenya offers lessons to policy makers on in the case of mobile money, it gave clients the reas- both the conditions and policies that have allowed an in- surance that they would find a Safaricom outlet every- novative ICT-based financial service to scale, with posi- where in the country where they could retrieve their tive effects on the rest of the financial services system. cash. In some ways, Safaricom’s current dominance Kenya’s market-oriented business environment and its has actually been strengthened by its early success with innovative telecommunications sector have enabled com- mobile money, which increases customer loyalty as it petition to respond to the new entry, and ICT remains a has important lock-in effects for users. In addition, government priority. These conditions and policies sup- consumers are so familiar with the ubiquitous brand port the development of other services that use mobile that they feel safe entrusting it with their funds; an money (e.g. micro-insurance), giving an additional boost important factor given the political turmoil in Kenya to mobile money providers. Policy makers have also been following the 2007/08 election. Safaricom also treated relatively flexible in their approach to experimentation. mobile money as a profitable service, not a CSR proj- The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) was willing to support ect, and therefore invested the necessary resources to a mobile money pilot and find a balance between regula- develop it. This is something that policy makers in tions, oversight, and flexibility for the mobile operator to other countries should consider when studying ways experiment. Finally, due to M-PESA, the banking sector to allow room for innovation. The company also in- has recognized that there is money to be made by offering vested heavily in branding, marketing, a simple user services to lower-income consumers. There is both com- interface, and system safety and security, while also petition and co-operation between mobile money and constantly expanding its offerings (e.g. merchant and the banking industry, but banks have recognized that it is bill payments, receipt of remittances, and introduc- useful for clients to connect their mobile money account tion of a prepaid Visa card). Finally, the company has to their bank account, and the potential to increase their engaged in regular, proactive conversation with regu- revenues has helped to reduce their opposition to mobile lators like the CBK. That has allowed Safaricom, and money as an immediate competitor, while increasing the others, to expand their service offerings to customers offerings available to consumers. while reassuring regulators that appropriate safeguards are in place. Thus, the Kenyan example offers guidance The competitive impact of Safaricom’s market domi- to both public and private-sector actors, and illustrates nance may not make for an ideal market structure but, the importance of a multi-sector approach. Table 5.3 Kenya’s challenges and opportunities for ICT and financial services Readiness (regulations, Drivers of growth Challenges Opportunities infrastructure, demand) • Build on mobile money success by allowing • Address interoperability challenges to allow ICTs High greater functionality for other savings, payment operator-independent platforms to compete and insurance products • Create competitive environment for additional mobile or ICT-based savings and payments • Overcome relatively high transaction costs by services to thrive addressing market competition issues • Improve and clarify regulatory structure to Financial services Medium • Address international payments issues (such as encourage cross-sector participation by telcos remittances) and banks/MFIs • Diversification of products and delivery platforms • Mitigate dominant market position of one Market players Medium • Encourage greater competition carrier 93 recommendations in Africa services financial ICTs for 5.4 For both national policy makers (including regulators) The financial services sector is a complex ecosystem. and international donors, recommendations address No single part of the sector can easily be addressed in iso- consumer, public sector and market issues, taking into lation, and there is no “one size fits all� solution for all account the different stage of maturity in African coun- countries. From that point of view, each nation will view tries. No two countries in Africa start from the same the recommendations offered here through their own point when it comes to financial services. Those begin- lens when determining their priorities. Some areas justify ning to pursue the opportunity are at a formative stage greater attention owing to the degree of maturity of the while others are in a better position to scale endeavours existing financial services sector and the existing policy/ already underway. All are working towards a desired state. regulatory environment. Recommendations for policy makers Recommendation 5.1 Commit to financial inclusion through mobile banking Commitment to poverty reduction and development on a national level form the basis of a commitment to financial inclu- sion. Policies and regulations should encourage market entry (e.g. permit mobile operators to accept deposits on behalf of licensed financial institutions where depositors could earn interest) and prevent monopolies (e.g. disallow exclusive agree- ments for cash in/out points). Experimentation should be encouraged by easing procedures for testing new approaches. Interoperability should be encouraged by developing data and process standards specific to new areas of financial services, such as mobile financial services. Scaling states should coordinate awareness-raising with third-party organizations with target markets (e.g. agribusiness, healthcare). The more advanced states should consider introducing a real-time mobile transaction clearing/settlement switch in order to remove the bottleneck when shifting to an open network. Recommendation 5.2 Support diversification in mobile financial services Generic single products or constricted services leave latent and explicit demands unmet or even discourage uptake and participation. Socio-economic conditions specific to a country’s environment should be taken into account in the kinds of products offered (e.g. Islamic finance), rather than regulations determining the choices offered to consumers. Cash-in/cash-out, bill payments, deposits, savings, remittances, insurance, provident funds, and loans are examples of products that can be offered, and national policies should provide incentives to institutions and agents to offer these and other diversified services. 94 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Recommendation 5.3 Encourage access to capital for SMEs Promoting growth and fostering SME success requires transformative policies that pay particular attention to the ripple effects that SME capital access has on the overall economy. These effects include increased employment, asset building and more tax revenue. Governments should help to lower the fear of risk among bankers by providing mea- sured loan guarantees, similar to the Small Business Administration in the United States. Such programmes can also be complemented by making training available to SMEs in financial management, innovation and marketing. Recommendation 5.4 Promote appropriate and flexible identification policies Absence of, or limited proximity to, financial institutions is not the only barrier that keeps poor customers from ac- cessing financial services. Identification flexibility for small transactions is a crucial policy component that should be seriously considered. Incentives aimed at making services widely available should come before mandates to obtain identity documents such as a national ID, driving licence, proof of residence, or passport. National identification initiatives should be undertaken that use low-cost services to register and identify users, with feasibility studies of biometric options. Citizen participation in identification enrolment should be encouraged through a mix of incen- tives and requirements, e.g. by pairing with useful services (G2P payments and advertising), or by requiring linking to activation of SIMs. Risk-based methods of identification should be used for establishing new financial accounts so that risks may be mitigated by limiting balance and transfer amounts and providing increasing capabilities with greater evidence of identity. Recommendation 5.5 Provide guidance for streamlining back-end systems Detailed guidelines rather than mandatory rules would be most helpful to streamline the back-end systems that should be installed and managed across institutions. A banking technology coordinating group within central banks, ministries of finance/development, or independently operating offices could assess and audit technologies that enable financial inclusion. Such a body could monitor and outline the latest and most strategically relevant back-end systems, including mobile banking components, and interface with technologies used by different institutions. Recommendation 5.6 Develop data standards and practices for credit data Policies should aim to address the problems presented by fragmented, standalone or non-existent credit bureaus that complicate lending for institutions as well as beneficiaries. A database system should be established to provide trans- parency for both lenders and borrowers. Data standards and practices should be developed for generating and ag- gregating credit data. Alternative forms of data for discerning credit-worthiness should be examined. An obligation should be considered for national utilities to make payment data available to credit bureau services. 95 Recommendations for donors Recommendation 5.7 Reduce private sector risks by underwriting “first movers� Donors have an important role to play in underwriting the risks of first movers thereby encouraging private sector involvement and innovation. For instance, private sector involvement could be induced through goal-oriented awards for early and successful efforts to address inclusion goals through the availability of mobile banking (Gates Foundation incentive fund for Haiti is an example). Incubator efforts for product designs and concepts tailored to consumer needs should be supported. Recommendation 5.8 Reduce shared costs by underwriting common supporting systems The selection of back-end systems log-ically falls to the private sector, since it affects competitive positioning and costs considerations. However, donors might consider underwriting a “minimum-feature� service available via the cloud so that even the smallest MFIs and banks would be able to manage accounts. Donors would also make a positive impact by supporting the systems necessary for interconnection (real-time switches for mobile payment interoperability) and systems that pre-condition infrastructure for service delivery (identification registries). Such investments work with rather than against the private sector, enabling more market participation. Recommendation 5.9 Leverage limited resources to drive private and consumer action Donors have an essential role in reducing the risks of lending to small, unknown businesses. Loan guarantee pro- grammes are an important part of small business support efforts and donor funds could be leveraged for this purpose. In areas where traditional credit bureaus are failing to serve SMEs (or do not exist), donors could also support alterna- tive methods for assessing and sharing risks. Such scenarios might include leveraging crowd-based voting mechanics combined with donor-to-peer (Kiva.org) and peer-to-peer (Prosper.com) lending models to determine donor alloca- tion of funds. Donors should support efforts to raise consumer awareness, and back solution incubators and heavy experimentation to translate needs into products. 96 further reading in Africa services financial ICTs for c Alliance for Financial Inclusion (2010) The AFI Survey on Financial Inclusion Policy in Developing Countries: Preliminary Findings http://www.g24.org/Workshops/afisur.pdf Deloitte (2011) Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS): A Vehicle to Usher in Inclusive Growth and Bridge the Digital Divide Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu https://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-India/Local%20Assets/Documents/Deloitte_ASSOCHAM_MVAS_Study.pdf Kendall, J., Mylenko, N. and Ponce, A. (2010) Measuring Financial Access around the World Policy Research Working Paper No 5253, The World Bank, Finance and Private Sector Development http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.43130/Measuring_Financial_Access_Around_World.pdf Mylenko, N. et al (2010) Financial Access 2010: The State of Financial Inclusion through the Crisis The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, The World Bank http://www.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.46570/FA_2010_Financial_Access_2010_Rev.pdf Stein, P., Goland, T. and Schiff, R. (2010) Two Trillion and Counting, Assessing the Credit Gap for Micro, Small, and Medium Sized Enterprises in the Developing World IFC and McKinsey Consulting http://www.mckinseyonsociety.com/downloads/reports/Economic-Development/Two_trillion_and_counting.pdf Stork, Christoph (2011) mBanking the Unbanked http://www.mobileactive.org/files/file_uploads/mBankingTheUnbanked.pdf World Economic Forum (2011) The Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011 http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_MFSD_Report_2011.pdf For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in financial services in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa sector report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 97 chapter The Transformational Use 6 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa health 1. Introduction 3. Case studies Trends and challenges 4. Recommendations ICT as a game changer in health Recommendations for policy makers, regulators, administrators 2. Landscape analysis and project managers Recommendations for donors eLearning and telemedicine Data exchange and analysis Further reading Supply chain management Public health promotion Health financing introduction in Africa health ICTs for 6.1 Countries in Africa spend significant amounts of their Although there are many ongoing projects across GDP on delivering health services through systems that Africa that attempt to improve the health sector through are often inefficient, costly and lacking in transparency. the use of ICTs, most remain pilots, few are evaluated Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have and even fewer are designed or assessed for scalability. the potential to transform the delivery of health services While a recent World Bank survey of nearly 150 active across the continent in ways that not only increase efficien- health projects revealed that a third had a specifically fi- cy but also improve accountability (World Bank, 2004). nanced eHealth component, few were systemic fixes, and a gap remains in strategy, communication, capacity and The availability and quality of ICT services are growing available investment regarding ICTs for health system rapidly across Africa, with mobile network coverage ris- strengthening. ing from 16% in the late 1990s to over 90% of its popula- tion in 2011. Growth in this sector has led to increased ICTs present a large, unexploited potential for transform- investments, decreased costs and rapid growth in tech- ing governance and transparency in the health sector nology-enabled services. in Africa to achieve “more health for money spent� and thereby improve the efficiency of health spending, both However, these gains in ICT infrastructure have not domestic- and donor-financed. as yet benefitted the health sector in a systematic way. Trends and challenges The overall trend in healthcare across Africa reflects the Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Mauritius have already more than optimism arising from the general improvement in social halved their rates since 1990. Progress on MDG 6 is also welfare, as shown by the 10 percentage-point reduction visible in countries like Botswana, Rwanda, Namibia, and of people living on less than $1.25 per day between 1999 Zambia, where over 55% of people living with advanced and 2009. While few African countries are en route to HIV have access to antiretroviral therapy. achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), many are making significant progress. Although immense progress has been made, a majority of For instance, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced Africa countries are falling behind on their MDG com- a reduction in child mortality from 180 to 129 deaths per mitments and existing strategies will not be sufficient. 1,000 live births, and while there is still regional progress New approaches are needed. to be made to reach the MDG goal of 60 by 2015, certain countries with high under-five mortality, like Madagascar, The main opportunities for ICTs to positively impact Malawi, Eritrea, Liberia, Niger, and Tanzania, have already the health sector reflect the remaining core chal- more than halved their rates of child mortality between lenges countries face in pursuit of MDG targets, and 1990 and 2010. Similarly, while the entire region requires implementation of ICTs to assist in resolving micro- more progress to reducing maternal mortality by three- level challenges will only be successful if macro-chal- quarters by 2015, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Cape Verde, lenges do not obstruct ICT capabilities. The systemic 100 challenges faced are substantial and complex, and • Shortages of drugs, equipment and supplies: Without include: medical equipment and supplies it is difficult for health workers to provide the care they have been trained to • Insufficient skilled healthcare workers: It is estimated provide. Sometimes, supply shortages even lead to that Africa, which has 11% of the world’s popula- health centre shutdowns. In 2010 in Uganda, for ex- tion, carries 22% of the global disease burden and ample, eight rural health centres closed because of lack more than 1.5 million additional health workers are of supplies, leaving people in the Amuru district with- needed to resolve the human resource shortage. Yet in out healthcare, and an additional twelve recently-built resource-constrained health systems, existing workers health centres have not opened for the same reason. are often inefficiently allocated, leaving service gaps in rural areas, or insufficiently monitored and motivated, • Inadequate public information about preventable dis- leading to attrition and potentially poor quality of care eases: The simplest preventive solutions can lead to delivered in the absence of training and knowledge lives saved. For example, while HIV testing services support in the field. may be highly available, without encouragement and clear communication about the details of the service • Lack of health information systems: Many low- and they may go underutilized. Or alternatively, if the gen- middle-income health systems lack sufficient tech- eral public was able to receive information about con- nology to enable communication between house- taminated water sources – in the form of alerts about holds, care providers, and eventually, policy makers. diarrhoea or malaria outbreaks – households could The absence of these infrastructure elements increases protect themselves from disease. the possibility of morbidity and mortality owing to the “third delay�, i.e. the delay in receiving adequate • Financing constraints: Often, care is not accessed be- service after reaching a healthcare facility. The impact cause patients are unable to pay out of pocket. Also, is felt most by people in rural areas, where delays are governments remain challenged to provide adequate more extreme. financial resources for seeding health systems infra- structure, research and innovations. ICT as a game changer in health eHealth may be defined as the use of information and Data from the 2011 Global Observatory for eHealth communication technology (ICT) – including com- (GOe) survey showed that some 83 per cent of 112 sur- puters, mobile phones, satellites, software, information veyed countries identified at least one ongoing mHealth systems and digital platforms, etc – to enable, support programme, and 33 per cent identified at least one tele- and deliver health services to patients and populations. medicine programme within their country. Of the 31 eHealth can make use of tools like mobile phone-based African countries who responded to the survey, SSA na- health (mHealth) applications, telemedicine systems, or tions were least likely to have established, institutional- eLearning programmes, and includes the digitization ized eHealth programmes in mHealth, telemedicine or of a country’s Health Management Information System eLearning. When these programmes exist, they are in (HMIS) or Health Information System (HIS). It is as- either the pilot or informal stages of development. Yet the sumed that use of ICTs will lead to greater efficiencies in fact that over 67 per cent of the African WHO members use of resources and greater efficiency in service delivery, responded to the survey is encouraging, indicating will- a significant matter when the 2010 WHO World Health ingness to “mainstream� eHealth as a component of their Report revealed that 20 to 40 per cent of all health spend- health strategies. ing was wasted due to inefficiencies. Investment in ICT has the potential to reform health systems, extend services to underserved areas, and reduce waste and redundancy. 101 landscape in Africa health ICTs for 6.2 analysis Though limited in quantity and rigour, there is evidence programmes for tracking patient records, monitoring emerging that ICTs can address challenges of maternal infectious diseases, managing drug and supply chains, and child health and infectious diseases in rural Africa. telemedicine communications with health professionals Hundreds of mHealth interventions to date have been in distant areas and eLearning and training for health- piloted across the continent, for a variety of purposes in- care workers. With the proper telecommunications in- cluding remote consultation, patient data management, frastructure and committed leadership, such strategies referrals, supply chain management and health worker could facilitate new business and service models. For this training. Some countries, like Rwanda, have implement- reason, countries are experimenting with different types ed a comprehensive national eHealth System, including of applications, as outlined below. eLearning and telemedicine eLearning and telemedicine programmes have the ca­ health workers at the KITSO AIDS Training Program, pacity to improve human resources for health by enabling a public-private partnership between the Ministry of workers with the training and information, needed to Health and Harvard Medical School. Other innovative respond to emergencies and crises. Several Francophone forms of support for frontline health workers are applica- African countries, such as Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal tions like CommCare, from mHealth company Dimagi, and Burkina-Faso, have implemented an online platform which programmes various health worker protocols (RAFT) that allows for web-based seminars, training, for different types of patient interactions into a mobile discussions and sharing of best practices between health- phone, complete with picture and voice prompts for not care professionals in each of the ten participating Fran- fully literate users. Other creative ICT solutions for the cophone countries. The Tunisian Society of Telemedicine human resource crisis include Switchboard’s MDNet pro- and eHealth – an NGO composed of doctors, telecom en- gramme, a free closed calling network between all doc- gineers, and communications specialists – sponsors and tors’ mobile phones in Ghana, which removes the cost promotes videoconferencing between health professionals and connectivity barriers to doctors seeking advice or as- in emergency cases. It allows for tele-diagnosis by profes- sistance from their peers. sionals in hospitals at a distance, and between the coun- try’s thirteen tele-radiology centres, three tele-pathology, Such simple interventions could make a significant dif- two tele-optomology, six regional hospitals, general hos- ference in attracting, retaining and improving the perfor- pitals and six specialized centres, up to twenty remote sites mance of limited health workers, like using mobile phone can utilize the videoconference at any given time. communication to improve referral systems, or creat- ing an interactive voice response menu on a phone that Other programmes targeting community health workers contains knowledge reminders and remote training for include Botswana’s eLearning programme for community health workers in rural locations. 102 Data exchange and analysis In traditional paper-based reporting systems, collecting costs when using the programme Episurveyor on a mo- and exchanging quality and timely health data remains a bile phone for data collection compared to paper. When challenge, as the process can consume the time and atten- the NGO Partners in Health employed a personal digital tion of health workers who are meant to be providing ser- assistant (PDA) for tuberculosis results collection, the vices instead, and can result in inaccurate or incomplete processing time of 6.2 days was significantly lower than data. Electronic Health Information Systems (HIS) can baseline and control days with date entry errors reducing help minimize time spent recording data, such as the HIS from 10.1% to 2.8%. shared across Southern African countries Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania. When designed appropriately, free and customizable The BEANISH programme – Building Europe-Africa software like Episurveyor, OpenXData and Open Data Collaborative Network for Applying ICT in Healthcare Kit enable remote fast, accurate and inexpensive data col- Sector – is an open-source Java-based program that al- lection eliminating a large amount of burdensome work lows healthcare professionals to gather data and enter it that distracts workers from their core duties. The Mobile into a digital healthcare system, which can be used for Technology for Community Health (MoTeCH) Midwife data analysis and management. Similarly, OpenMRS, initiative, for example, conceived by the Grameen Foun- developed by the Regienstrief Institute and Partners in dation and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun- Health, provides a lightweight, user-friendly option for dation, uses mobile phone technologies to help Ghana an electronic medical records system. achieve those goals. Using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Short Message Service (SMS) and Interactive A unique feature of ICT-enabled data collection is that Voice Response (IVR) technologies, MoTeCH surveys data can be viewed and analysed in real time so that midwives, allows them to dial-in toll-free and record and care providers and policy makers can make lifesaving update critical data about pregnant mothers. Another decisions based on evidence. Such tools can save health example, Child Count, is an SMS-based application that workers time and costs of paper-based data entry and allows community health workers to upload patient met- transportation, as in a project in Guatemala when the rics to an external database which is then monitored for World Bank reported a 71% decrease in data collection irregularities. Supply chain management Weak supply chain systems across low-income countries The World Bank is currently conducting an evaluation – caused by poor road infrastructure that delays delivery, in Zambia of the use of mobile phones to improve sup- and poor electrification that eliminates the possibility ply chain management. Other ongoing efforts include of a cold chain – can result in remote health posts being StopStockouts, in Kenya, which allows field-level health under-stocked or stocked-out of essential commodities, workers to report stock-outs by SMS on their mobile such as contraceptives for reproductive-aged women and phones to a central database which then converts, via vaccinations for children. Further, the World Health Or- GPS data, to a geographic visualization of the problem in ganization’s estimate that 10-30% of drugs in the develop- order to alert administrators and supervisors of the issue. ing world are counterfeit could put millions of lives on In Tanzania, the SMS for Health project uses ICTs for the African continent at risk of unnecessary death and supply chain management of malaria drugs. disease if those medicines make it into the system unno- ticed. In Ghana, mPedigree employs Sproxil, a technology that uses barcodes and unique identification mechanisms to track counterfeit drugs in developing countries. 103 Public health promotion An AED-SATELLIFE project, the Uganda Health In- Aside from surveying public information for use by the formation Network (UHIN) uses PDAs to provide early government, there are many ICT for health efforts that warning information about the spread of communicable aim to deliver key public health messages from the gov- diseases to citizens. The data collection element is four ernment to the public. Launched to encourage healthier times as efficient and 25 per cent more cost effective than behaviour that avoids future treatment costs, Praekelt manual data entry, with the goal of surveying populations Foundation’s Project Masiluleke, a programme that of- for crucial disease information. With the ability of mobile fers free information about HIV testing locations via cus- phones to track and record GPS locations, governments tomers’ mobile phones, resulted in 1.5 million calls to a can be more informed about emergency disaster relief local AIDS helpline. Mobile phones are also being used scenarios. RapidSMS, InSTEDD’s GeoChat, and Ushahidi in Uganda in the Text to Change campaign, which seeks are all applications that have been used to assist govern- to increase knowledge and understanding of HIV/AIDS ments with rapid response to emergencies from famine to through SMS-based quizzes. flooding to earthquakes. Health financing Patients often forego care owing to the inability to pay at physical terminals. The opportunities for personal fi- healthcare costs out of pocket, and providers and health nance to strengthen health systems are numerous since system administrators are struggling to make care truly both require components like user IDs, identity authenti- accessible in low-resource environments. Considering cation and security measures. By enabling patients to set that, by the year 2012, there will be an estimated 1.7 bil- aside funds for health specifically, and make more direct lion people with no bank account but who own a mobile payments, efficient delivery of health services becomes phone, the proliferation of mobile money systems like quicker and more cost-effective. M-PESA in Kenya is an emerging ICT solution. Such ser- vices allow even low-income people to manage small pay- Table 6.1 summarizes the opportunities for ICT interven- ments from their mobile phone without requiring a bank tions to address the major challenge areas listed above. account. Programmes like Changamka in Kenya provide Yet it also indicates that such interventions cannot be patients with pre-paid “smart cards� coded to approve realized without adequate infrastructure and committed them to receive specific kinds of healthcare at designated leadership. health facilities, and can be topped up by M-PESA or 104 Table 6.1 Summary of opportunities and challenges for ICT to improve health systems Health Sector ICT Opportunity ICT Challenge Challenge Insufficient skilled eLearning and telemedicine solutions can extend expertise to Facility set-up and maintenance costs and efforts; sufficient healthcare workers remote areas and provide otherwise inaccessible care. will for providers to participate (liability concerns). Data collection and surveillance mHealth applications can monitor and track health indicators in real time, providing Lack of health Requires widespread mobile connectivity and sufficient insight to policymakers on true challenges and providing information systems access to phone hardware, but not always the case. valuable data enabling health workers to better serve and patients to be more proactive in their own health. Supply Chain Management mHealth applications can de- To realize full potential, ICT solutions still rely on physical Shortage of drugs, crease stock-out frequency and increase efficacy of and trust transport of goods and services. If entire system poorly orga- equipment and supplies in health system. nized, digitizing system likely will not help. Inadequate public Public health promotion applications can be used to dissemi- To be successful, ICT solution still relies on end user to take information about nate empowering information in friendly, personal manner. action on information, and assumes health system is prepared preventable diseases Engaging without being intrusive. to handle increased patient load. Health financing and personal insurance programmes offer Participation in mobile savings programmes still requires com- Financing constraints increased opportunities for savings, both for patients and mitment from users. Also, governments still are challenged to healthcare providers. commit more significantly to health systems. case studies in Africa health ICTs for 6.3 Several countries, including Ethiopia and Mali, have within the framework outlined above to identify their made notable advances in utilizing ICT to increase health- micro and macro challenges, and to investigate key eHealth care access and quality of service to their populations. interventions that have gained traction within each Ethiopia and Mali were analysed as case study countries country. 105 Box 6.1 Lessons from Ethiopia Ethiopia’s health sector challenges range from the Refine underlying systemic and organizational macro-level concerns of funding, human capital, infra- processes structure and cultural norms to specific health-sector challenges such as equipment and supply shortages, Ethiopia’s FMOH also demonstrated the ability to refine insufficient quantity of skilled healthcare workers, and the underlying systemic and organizational processes a relatively uneducated population. Over the past six that control operations in the health system before at- years, the Ethiopian government has rolled out signifi- tempting ICT interventions. This approach is exempli- cant national telecommunications infrastructure. This fied by their HIS reform, during which the FMOH and has enabled the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) all partners undertook a painstaking reorganization of to use ICT to improve data exchange within hospitals the paper data collection system before introducing and to support the national cadre of Health Extension electronic capture and transmission of data. Through Workers (HEWs) in remote areas. this process, Ethiopia recognized that even advanced technology overlaying faulty processes is unlikely to Integrate efforts and look for synergies deliver improvements in health system functioning or service delivery. The FMOH began the process of integrating all ICT solutions in the health sector by commissioning a stra- In applying ICT to solve health systems problems, tegic framework for delivering eHealth and mHealth Ethiopia has been most effective at national-level interventions to the population. Though they have yet initiatives, such supporting the Health Extension Pro- to implement the strategy, discussions from within gramme (HEP), through which all HEWs are employed, FMOH indicated that all stakeholders value the in- with ICT tools, and building private-sector participa- creased efficiency and expanded reach of services tion with the ICT sector, such as allowing France Tele- provided via ICT solutions, while expending fewer in- com to manage Ethio Telecom. cremental resources. HEWs and ICT in Ethiopia: opportunities and challenges One example is the application of ICT to supply chain management, specifically through the DELIVER Opportunities PROJECT which began in 2003. The FMOH, USAID, • Utilize telemedicine to connect HEWs to the ap- and other development partners implemented the propriate health personnel in order to receive as- Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) in sistance in diagnosing and referring patients. order to ensure the availability of vital health supplies. DELIVER ensured efficient delivery systems, trans- • Leverage ICTs to allow for the continued training of parent and cost-effective procurement processes HEWs while they are still in the field. and strong supply chains that worked both domesti- cally and internationally. Two crucial projects followed • Use mobile applications to efficiently collect patient DELIVER, interoperating with its system: the Improv- data and keep longitudinal records. ing Supply Chains for Community Case Manage- ment of Pneumonia and Other Common Diseases of Challenges Childhood (SC4CCM) project, focusing on improving • Large volume of HEWs to train and provide phones supply chain management at a local level in order to for (30,000). improve the treatment of children under five; and the Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) focusing • Language barriers in written information. on procuring and distributing medicines and supplies needed for HIV/AIDS patients. • Technology limitations on the quantity of informa- tion that can be delivered. 106 Box 6.2 Lessons from Mali Mali provides an example of a low-income country with interventions, creating an environment conducive to extraordinary health challenges that has acknowledged innovation and partnerships. the value of ICT and is attempting to expand its tech- nological capacity on a limited healthcare budget. Growth strategy Mali has recently adopted many of the recommended short-term interventions in the fields of telemedicine, Though it has made some promising steps toward a distance learning, remote data collection and health- more comprehensive eHealth programme, Mali would care worker communication. benefit from adopting more appropriate ICT interven- tions and programmes. A mobile-assisted supply Use ICT to realize efficiency and combat waste chain management system would be useful to prevent waste and stock-outs and improve management of Telemedicine is being used to overcome the lack of medications, immunizations and insecticide-treated trained healthcare workers and specialists in rural bed nets. Given the lack of access to financial ser- areas, specifically the IKON Tele-radiology pro- vices and insurance, Malians would benefit from mo- gramme, and digital distance learning tools are being bile-based savings and insurance programmes that used to improve healthcare worker training and effi- could be used for basic and emergency health needs. cacy, such as the RAFT network, CATEL and Keneya ICT-based public information campaigns such as ra- Blown. Further, open-source digital medical record dio shows, information hotlines and mobile-recorded systems are being used to develop e-administration messages about preventable diseases and healthy systems, further improving efficiency and combating practices for expectant mothers and children could waste. The upcoming Flotte de Mobile programme will vastly improve health education and help reduce mor- further improve healthcare worker communication and tality rates. In the long term, Mali will need to address allow for remote data collection. many of the country’s systemic challenges, including improving rural connectivity, roads and healthcare in- Partnerships increase access to expertise, funding frastructure, and training capacity. and ICT Mali’s communication infrastructure: opportunities The programmes in Mali result from a wide range of and challenges partnerships which increase access to expertise, funding and ICT options. Some of these programmes, Opportunities such as the adoption of an e-administration system, • Communication between rural and urban areas are government initiatives. Others, such as Pesinet, can be further developed by strengthening tele- have been developed by NGOs with the approval and health programmes, the e-administration intranet, potential future involvement of the government, within and various practitioner networks including RAFT, a public-private partnership framework. The Flotte Keneya Blown and CATEL. de Mobile programme is the result of such a partner- ship that involves the Ministry of Health, the mHealth • Additionally, the use of data collection software Alliance, the Orange Foundation and the Rockefeller packages such as DHIS2 and OpenClinic should Foundation. Similarly, IKON Tele-radiology and Keneya better facilitate the exchange of information and Blown grew out of partnerships between an NGO (IICD) data between rural and urban centres. and groups of Malian medical professionals. These programmes illustrate how the private healthcare Challenges sector can optimize local resources through coordi- • Limited internet connectivity. nated efforts with government. The decentralized na- ture of the country also allows regional and community • Weak infrastructure, particularly electricity in rural healthcare centres to independently experiment with areas. 107 recommendations in Africa health ICTs for 6.4 The degree to which an eHealth service can be effec- A strong, enabling environment includes scalable and ap- tively established and provided is often dependent on the propriate infrastructure, transparent processes, fair legal complexity of the system being implemented in relation frameworks, rules and standards for ICT component in- to the enabling in-country environment. Yet, for many teroperability and incentivizing policies. The success of countries, eHealth interventions are generally neither interventions could be accelerated through stakeholder systematic nor fully strategic. Typically, there is a lack of collaboration involving end-users, government (cross- emphasis on: sector), civil society (including donors), private sector (industry) and researchers, and a well-designed mix of 1. Infrastructure and standards: creating an enabling en- ICT interventions could help a country create synergies vironment, and avoid redundancies. The resulting product would im- prove resource allocation, reduce delays to care, improve 2. Partnerships: amplifying collaboration between criti- continuity of care, improve health worker skills and make cal stakeholders, and ICT useful to health workers as a tool for overcoming the challenges discussed earlier. 3. Interoperability: exploring effective combinations of interventions. Recommendations for policy makers, regulators, administrators and project managers The recommendations listed below will help those who • Implement interventions that produce measurable results. participate in and influence the delivery of ICT-based health solutions in Africa to: • Evaluate the impact and cost-efficiency of ICT solu- tions before going to scale. • Design appropriate and sustainable ICT solutions for health systems strengthening efforts. • Develop fast-track options for multi-country collaborations. Recommendation 6.1 Create specific and scalable architecture A scalable architecture should be established to assure an eHealth system can expand to meet new capacity require- ments, adapt to social or political changes and continue to function despite financial limitations. One useful reference model is the mHealth Alliance’s Enterprise Architecture initiative (see Box 6.3), coordinating all stakeholders, including 108 consumers, administrators, application developers, vendors, policy makers, regulators, civil society and funders. System rules provide boundaries that govern stakeholders’ use of health systems and the platforms on which they are managed, allowing developers, in particular, to create appropriate applications. Another example of an eHealth ecosys- tem becoming more common in Africa is ongoing in Sierra Leone. With a multi-phased approach to target specific segments of the healthcare community, administrators can consider the needs, situation and infrastructure of the country to optimize intervention and cost. It is important to aim for simple, low-cost interventions before attempting more complex system-based interventions that interact with other health technology initiatives. The more ICT is a part of the healthcare worker’s daily engagement, the more likely eHealth interventions will become accepted as the norm. Box 6.3 The mHealth Alliance’s Enterprise Architecture Initiative The mHealth Alliance is working with a wide variety of • Continuing a process of rapid prototyping and spi- organizations to create a coordinated, flexible, global ral development collaborative team able to support leaders from devel- oping countries in: With its partners, the mHA is developing a draft enter- prise architecture as a first reference model – initially • Developing requirements, to be deployed in South Africa – so that the various stakeholders can see the benefits of such a system • Designing systems that addresses those requirements, and test various collections of software and services. The diagram below is a depiction of what the “info • Deploying first reference models, structure� might look like for a system with an Elec- tronic Health Record (EHR), repository for laboratory • Learning from mistakes and successes, and data and core services, authorization/access control. Health EHR Laboratory Registries Information Data & Data & Data & Data Services Services Organizations Warehouse Core services Health Information Access Layer Message Bus (Wired and Wireless) Point of Service Point of Service Application Application 109 Recommendation 6.2 Precede ICT interventions with needs assessments Before large-scale investments in eHealth are undertaken, policy makers should commission a comprehensive needs assessment to provide an up-to-date, objective view of the health and intervention needs of the population and of health workers. An additional situational analysis can also provide an examination of the resources available to sup- port ICT-based interventions, including physical infrastructure, human capacity and telecommunications networks. Similarly, an infrastructure asset assessment will ensure that eHealth strategies and interventions properly leverage existing and available infrastructure, and that policy makers map evidence-based interventions. Recommendation 6.3 Create fora to unite decision-makers National governments should facilitate cross-sector dialogue and cooperation by creating forums in which public and private-sector decision makers can collaboratively determine priorities and identify available assets, reducing fragmen- tation and accelerating the potential for scale. A well-executed forum allows diverse stakeholders to share best practices and capitalize on economies of scale, even through regional collaborations. Regional Economic Communities (RECs), supported by the African Union, World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and African Development Bank, could also play a role in bringing decision makers together. One example of this type of forum is “Connect Africa�, a working group convened by the African Union and Interna- tional Telecommunication Union, in partnership with the World Bank, governments of donor countries, and govern- ments of participating African countries. Launched in October 2007 with USD $55 billion pledged at that time, the initiative is designed to mobilize all resources needed to bridge ICT infrastructure gaps across Africa. In such a regional forum, economies of scale can easily be derived; for example, the success of UNICEF’s rollout of RapidSMS to improve supply chain management during the famine in Ethiopia could be replicated in similar situations in other countries, such as Somalia. Recommendation 6.4 Create incentives for partnership and foster cross-sector collaboration Development of ICT-based solutions tends to be “siloed�, within a vertical sectors, yet the multi-faceted nature of eHealth requires the skills and resources of multiple sectors. National policy makers can facilitate multi-sector partner- ships that include the private sector, universities and other research and development organizations. Public-private partnerships can encourage corporate fiscal discipline and deep understanding of consumer needs. Creating a cross-sector digital platform with potential use across health, financial services, agriculture, public services and education could accelerate the scaling and sustainability of ICT-based interventions by increasing economies of scale and return on investment. This is particularly important in African countries that are small markets, where sector- specific platforms may not be viable given their relatively small user or customer base. In some countries, mobile plat- forms that offer services in other sectors, such as mobile money transfer, may provide a base on which health services can be added. 110 Recommendation 6.5 Create national ID systems to facilitate impact measurements Health records linked to uniquely identifiable individuals are a key pillar of successful eHealth strategies, because of their potential to improve continuity of care, enable point-of-service devices, and feed nationwide health information systems. The creation of unique identifiers that can form the basis of individual, digitized health records is a strong first step. These unique IDs are also extremely useful for targeting social protection systems. Further, the lack of measurable, longitudinal data is one of the biggest barriers to eHealth investment because it pre- vents the ability to measure the impact of the solutions and justify the investment in these interventions. After enabling national unique ID systems, governments should take a more active role in conducting rigorous impact studies through robust monitoring and evaluation programmes, or through engaging universities and NGOs as research partners. Recommendation 6.6 Conduct a total cost of ownership analysis A common reason for the inability of eHealth interventions to scale or sustain themselves is the failure by planners to consider all of the financial costs associated with such programmes, and the comparative cost effectiveness with non- ICT solutions. Technology costs, especially hardware, often comprise an entire budget with inadequate attention given to training, support, maintenance and operating costs. Conducting a rigorous total cost of ownership study can prevent unforeseen costs from damaging projects’ chances for success, and can also force planners and partners to consider all of the elements they will need to plan for and how each of them will be funded. Recommendations for donors Though policy makers play the central role in setting a • Design a course of action to include ICT in planning course for national eHealth development, many African discussions with policy makers when considering de- countries remain heavily dependent on donor funds and velopmental investments. expertise. The donor community plays a critical role in supporting and enabling sustainable and scalable eHealth • Designate a role for the public and private sector, keeping solutions, and the following recommendations are aimed in mind that government is a lead user and regulator of to help donors and other health sector investors to: ICTs while the private sector is primarily a lead provider. Recommendation 6.7 Incentivize policy makers to follow system rules Donors should encourage countries to adopt policies within a set of architectures that enable developers and vendors to provide the best services and applications at the most affordable prices. Donors could, for example, create or add to project checklists the desired systems characteristics (i.e. interoperable, scalable, sustainable, multi-layered, and supported by a private-public partnership) that must be present before donors fund projects. Countries that fulfil the conditions listed on the checklists would then benefit from a fast-track status on applications. 111 Recommendation 6.8 Establish cooperation within and between donor agencies Donors should use ICT to establish standards among themselves – regarding nomenclature, metrics and databases. They can use ICT to automatically cross-reference one another’s research, pre-empt disagreements and promote col- laboration, thereby reducing overall system costs, minimizing duplication and increasing the benefit of each of their efforts. ICT systems that are built only to support an individual donor’s programmes, especially in disease-specific projects, are often cited as a major reason for the fragmentation of the eHealth landscape. Donors can do their part to improve this situation by coordinating their technology funding initiatives and seeking alignment with each other on common standards, as well as by adhering to the “rules� established by national governments. Within their respective institutions, donors should archive and make available impact assessments for all projects, and reward projects that provide useful assessments like impact analyses and standardized return on investment cal- culations. Such standardization should encourage policy makers, administrators and project designers to actively and consciously integrate measurement and evaluation into their eHealth strategies. Recommendation 6.9 Reward cross-sector and PPP efforts in eHealth systems development Donors should encourage and reward countries that demonstrate a commitment to maximizing ICT for cross-sector and public-private partnership (PPP) and collaborations. Such a position among donors will encourage meaningful dialogue, interaction and collaboration between such agencies and ministries of health, technology and education with more revenue-driving ministries such as communication and finance. Donors should make cooperation within government, and involvement of other relevant sectors, a pre-requisite for financial or technical assistance. 112 further reading in Africa health ICTs for c Foster, V. and Briceño-Garmendia, C. (2010) Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation Agence Française de Développement and the World Bank http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/aicd_overview_english_no-embargo.pdf Huet, J-M., Romdhane, M. and Tcheng, H. (2010) TIC et système de santé en Afrique Institut Francais des Relations Internationals http://www.ifri.org/?page=detail-contribution&id=6081 IFC (2007) The Business of Health in Africa: Partnering with the Private Sector to Improve People’s Lives (2007) International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/healthinafrica.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/IFC_HealthinAfrica_Final/$FILE/IFC_HealthinAfrica_Final.pdf Prata, N. et al (2005) Private Sector, Human Resources and Health Franchising in Africa World Health Organization http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?pid=S0042-96862005000400011&script=sci_arttext UN (2010) Levels & Trends in Child Mortality Estimates Developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation http://www.childinfo.org/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2010.pdf UN (2010) The Millennium Development Goals Report 2010 United Nations http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202010%20En%20r15%20-low%20res%2020100615%20-.pdf Vital Wave Consulting (2011) mHealth in Ethiopia: Strategies for a New Framework http://www.vitalwaveconsulting.com/pdf/mHealth%20Framework%20for%20Ethiopia%202011.pdf World Bank (2004) World Development Report: Making Services Work for Poor People http://www.worldbank.org/wdr For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in health in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa sector report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 113 chapter The Transformational Use 7 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa Modernizing Government 1. Introduction 3. Case studies 2. Landscape analysis 4. Recommendations Commitment to excellence in public service delivery Recommendations to policy makers and regulators Accountability, transparency, citizen collaboration and interaction Recommendations to the donor community ICTs as a means of extending social democracy Convenience and efficiency in service delivery Further reading Reform and re-engineering of government Exploiting technological advances to meet service delivery objectives introduction in Africa government modernizing ICTs for 7.1 ICT is fundamentally changing the way in which govern- However, attention to how governments communicate ment representatives, citizens, business and other agents should not overshadow the importance of the accuracy, of the state interact throughout the world as well as in completeness and relevance of what they communicate. Africa. The public service sector has strategic significance This requires achieving a balance between the citizen- as it impacts not only on the well-being of individuals, facing aspects as well as the underlying efficiency and families and communities and on individual national effectiveness of back-office systems. Hence, not only are governments but indirectly on the stability of the global the delivery tiers of eGovernment and mGovernment economy. The associated high expectations, particularly important, but attention must also be paid to the founda- regarding the speed and flexibility with which public tional tier and the design, development and implementa- service providers can respond to individual requests, tion of ICT systems making up the enabling tier. A com- provide feedback on programmes and expenditure and prehensive framework for service delivery comprising handle national crises, are extremely challenging. these three tiers is illustrated in Table 7.1. Table 7.1 ICT-enabled public service delivery framework Performance monitoring Legal and quasi-legal Institutional structure Foundational Tier: Well-defined service objectives Codified laws and rules in conformity Dedicated institutional structure for constitutes the core foundations Monitoring and evaluation with processes service delivery for service delivery indicators Flexibility to enact rules for enhanc- Appropriately skilled and empowered Monitoring mechanism ing service delivery Clear responsibilities Organizational capability Procedures and processes Systems and technologies Enabling Tier: Organizational staff strength Re-engineered and standardized enables efficient and effective processes Integrated data structures Staff capability regarding rules, delivery of services process and technology Clearly defined role allocations Standardized applications Capability related to customer Well-defined timelines and Omnipresent networks service platforms Service delivery External communication Front office or citizen interface Service Delivery Tier: Regular awareness sessions Front office, ambience or infra- in direct contact with the service- Service delivery principles Institutionalized customer structure seeker Service delivery parameters feedback Service delivery channels Redress or escalation mechanisms Consultative mechanisms Helpdesk features 116 Efficient service delivery is frequently hampered by pro- government revenue, followed by improved employee gramme developers who do not listen sufficiently care- motivation and prompting more such investments. Hence fully to the poor and hence are not able to identify their this vicious cycle can be transformed into a virtuous one. needs and prioritize them. Planning that focuses on sup- plier interests rather than those of the end-user is also a ICTs, however, cannot miraculously turn bad gover- problem. nance into good, although they can be used as tools un- der the right conditions and circumstances to effectively Figure 7.1 represents the vicious cycle in which service reach out to communities as part of the reform process. delivery in developing countries is often trapped. A way ICTs are therefore necessary but insufficient as a solution. of breaking the cycle is by investing in ICTs and other Associated factors, like pro-poor policies, decentralized infrastructure as new, ICT-enabled systems will increase decision-making, education, basic infrastructure and po- accountability and transparency and improve many other litical will, are all pre-requisites for effective service deliv- aspects of service delivery. When citizens see the bene- ery. Insufficient fulfilment of these conditions will likely fits, demand for services will grow resulting in increased lead to inadequate outcomes. Figure 7.1 The vicious cycle of ineffective service delivery Rich opt out of Citizens not the government provided space services, poor for participation suffer in government Demotivated employees Services do not work Citizen apathy - little participation in government Service provider credibility drops No transparency Negative vicious cycle and accountability Citizens do not pay taxes and fees Poor infrastructure and networked services Inefficiency and corruption further debilitates providers Fragmented skate- holders compound woes Low efficiency Low returns and effectiveness lead to low further demotivates investment in stakeholders infrastructure 117 landscape in Africa government modernizing ICTs for 7.2 analysis Landscape analysis of ICT and public service delivery in 6. Reform and re-engineering of government industrialized nations and emerging economies highlight trends in six major categories: Examples of best practice or extended uses of technolo- gies already employed are outlined below. Also described 1. Commitment to excellence in public service delivery are examples of implementations from Africa to illus- trate the options, opportunities and constraints. Some 2. Accountability, transparency, citizen collaboration and ICT-enabled public service implementations reveal par- interaction ticularly good opportunities for replication else-where. Although there is no intention to suggest that “one size 3. ICTs as a means of extending social democracy fits all� or that “best practice� is transferrable to all other contexts, these examples can inform and possibly inspire 4. Convenience and efficiency in service delivery programmes elsewhere. 5. Exploiting technological advances to meet service de- livery objectives Commitment to excellence in public service delivery At national level, commitment to excellence in public The clearest example of a commitment to excellence is service delivery by political as well as executive leaders is the Open Government Partnership, launched in 2011 generally expressed as policies, legislation, regulation and with Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Norway, the Philippines, contributions to international bodies. Mechanisms and South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States budget allocations are needed so that these intentions can as founding members. These nations made commitments be enforced. This trend is located in the foundational tier to open government, supported by individual national of the framework. plans. A further 41 countries undertook to develop their own national plans by May 2012. The plans published by Although ICTs are recognized as being important by the the first eight nations include specific actions: publish- role players at this level and technologies are specifically ing information regarding government expenditures and referred to in their statements, it is essential that these budgets, improving access to information laws, harness- technologies are acknowledged as being necessary but ing information technology, improving means by which insufficient in raising the standards of service delivery. the public can participate in government, and improving Associated factors, like pro-poor policies, decentralized corporate accountability outside the public sector. decision-making, education, basic infrastructure and po- litical will are all pre-requisites for effective service deliv- Public service monitoring and evaluation can be im- ery. Insufficient fulfilment of these additional conditions proved by regularly using purpose-built tools such as the will likely lead to inadequate outcomes even if ICT use is Canada Common Measurements Tool developed by the increased. Government of Canada together with the Institute for 118 Citizen-Centred Service. This is an easy-to-use, com- Recommendations made in the NICTSP relate to a re- puter-based, client-satisfaction survey instrument that vamped institutional structure and eGovernment inter- allows jurisdictions to be compared and ensures that vention. Implementation risks were identified and imple- public-sector managers are able to understand client ex- mentation and review plans were drawn up in 2010 and pectations, assess satisfaction, and identify priorities for set out a course of action for the following three years improvement. (2011-2014). Within Africa, Mauritius and Namibia in particular have The Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) has demonstrated commitment. The National ICT strategic formulated a National eGovernment Policy whose main plan for Mauritius (NICTSP) includes eGovernment objectives are to: as one of ten domains of concern. The area of strategic importance most relevant to eGovernment is to acceler- • Provide credible information about political processes ate ICT adoption in society by embracing eGovernment and government services that will be available to citi- and by taking measures towards making ICT widely zens at all times; and equitably available. Three strategies pertaining to eGovernment are: • Progress from passive information access to active citi- zen participation; 1. collaborate widely when designing and implementing eGovernment systems so as to enhance citizen conve- • Fulfil citizens' needs and expectations by simplifying nience and improve internal efficiencies and effective- interaction with GRN and providing services based on ness in the government; their choices; 2. undertake key investments for higher visibility of • Provide speedy, transparent, accountable, efficient and eGovernment; and effective administration; 3. accelerate the uptake of ICT in society by making it ac- • Widen access to rural areas and other marginalized cessible, available, applicable and affordable to everyone. sections. Accountability, transparency, citizen collaboration and interaction The internet and mobile applications make it increas- although they do not necessarily include features that ingly easy for citizens to interact directly with govern- allow input from the citizens back to the government. ment and social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, These new technologies form the delivery tier of the can also facilitate dialogue between representatives of framework. government and members of society and hence enhance transparency and accountability. Increasing numbers One example of a transparency portal is found in Timor- of governments are recognizing this by implementing Leste (East Timor) launched in January 2012 (http:// “transparency portals� accessible via the internet, where www.transparency.gov.tl). Portals typically focus on fiscal interested parties can find current, detailed information transparency but there are others that focus on particular about government procedure and process as well as deci- sectors, e.g. forestry. sions made, activities, budgets, expenditure and official project reviews. Open data is the embodiment of the ideal that data should be freely available for everyone to use and republish, with- There are also cases where complete data sets originat- out restrictions from copyright, patents or other control ing from government sources are available on the in- mechanisms. These have generally only become available ternet for access by everyone (open data) but not many since 2009 but some collections now house thousands of these come from developing countries. These trans- of open data sets. Examples are from the Australian, parency mechanisms allow public servants to be held Canadian, Kenyan, Norwegian, United States and United accountable by donors and citizens and form at least Kingdom governments. the first part of citizen collaboration and interaction 119 There are many examples worldwide of legislation that an information service for human rights organizations. protects the citizens’ right to information. One example RapidSMS is useful for data collection in geographi- is India’s Right to Information Act. cally remote areas with limited infrastructure. Extrac- tive industries locations and data are mapped in Ghana. Mobile applications can provide a versatile, adaptable In Dar Es Salaam community assets, water points, etc, management information system for crowd sourcing and are mapped during a series of “hackathons� financed by hence for citizen collaboration. Several applications that the World Bank and other donors. The World Resource have been used by projects in Africa to improve transpar- Institute’s Forestry Transparency Initiative is financing a ency, and hence reinforce accountability, involve crowd map of DRC’s forests, while the WWF is financing Moabi sourcing as a means of collecting information that is then Platform in Cameroon. overlaid on interactive maps. Ushahidi was used to report: post-election violence in Kenya in 2008 and wildfires in Kenya is the first country in Africa to launch a national Russia in 2010. In Egypt, FrontlineSMS is used to collect open data initiative (national census data, government reports of harassment via SMS. FrontlineSMS is used by a expenditure, parliamentary proceedings and public ser- Zimbabwean civil society organization, Kubatana.net, as vice locations). ICTs as a means of extending social democracy Social media and mobile devices can facilitate effective disasters where social networks were used effectively by citizen participation. eParticipation includes contact be- citizens to obtain and contribute essential information. tween people and their elected officials, access to public information, participation in public decision-making and Examples of eParticipation are growing in Africa, e.g. the monitoring how government programmes are being run. ADEN project in Burkina Faso, Maison du Citoyen in Cape Examples of social media for the exchange of ideas and Verde, and Abidjan.net launched by the Ivoirian diaspora. requests for comments on government policies are Chal- lenge.gov in the United States and the use of Twitter by The use of ICTs during “The Arab Spring� is another re- the Israeli Consulate in New York City. cent example of the use of social media. Mass protests sweeping through the Middle East in early 2011 high- Social media are increasingly used to handle crises. lighted the distinct role that ICT and digital social media For example, in the recent Libyan uprising, the US and tools and networks could play, particularly with respect UK embassies in Tripoli used Facebook to connect their to organization and communication. Social media net- citizens with ferries so that they could escape danger. works played an important role in the disintegration of The Haiti earthquake, typhoon Morakot disaster in Tunisia and Egypt, while also contributing to sociopoliti- Taiwan and flooding in Thailand are recent natural cal mobilization in Bahrain and Syria. Convenience and efficiency in service delivery The importance of multi-channel service delivery is illus- rather than directly by the service seekers. Citizens, trated by the various SMS-based services in the Philip- therefore, do not need skills or equipment to access the pines that provide citizen feedback, information dissemi- eGovernment applications or interfaces themselves but nation and service delivery. benefit from less travel time, cost and queues as they visit local centres. In the German Mobile Citizen Services (MoBüD) proj- ect, currently undergoing pilot testing, mobile devices are Portals are part of the delivery tier of web and mobile used by civil servants who regularly visit neighbourhood citizen interfaces and are intended to make it easy for centres to connect with central databases and applications citizens to find information and access services. They are 120 ideally one-stop-shops, backed by integrated procedures National identity systems deserve particular atten- and processes and the collaborative delivery of public ser- tion as several African countries are reviewing their vices at the lower levels of the framework. There are many national systems for identifying citizens and others African countries where eGovernment portals give citi- have recently adopted such systems. Examples include: zen’s access to services. Angola, Botswana, Ruanda and Angola, Uganda, Botswana, Nigeria, Sudan and Kenya. South Africa all have well-designed web sites that offer The case of Somalia reveals important issues. The ePass- information about government and services and some ports and ID cards could be provided by the contractor interaction such as application for licences or responses within four months, but this is the off-the-shelf technol- to requests for specific information such as progress of a ogy component. The difficult and expensive process of is- particular application. suing these will take an estimated five years. In the case of Somalia this process will be complicated by the political Service delivery needs to be accessible via more than situation. one channel. Access to government web sites via mobile phone rather than via a computer is one example of multi- Related systems involve recording life events (birth, mar- channel service delivery. This only addresses the needs riage, death) – the Moroccan eFez system is an example of those who have mobile phones that currently allow of renewed efforts in this regard. this. The alternative is to equip community centres with computers, and to facilitate knowledge sharing and build Whereas in the United States and other western coun- capacity. There are many examples of projects to ex- tries the debate related to compulsory national identifi- tend access to information by setting up multi-purpose cation systems regarding cost, effectiveness, privacy and community centres (MPCC), Public Internet Access civil liberties starts at the time that the systems are pro- Points (PIAP) and telecommunications networks to re- posed, in Africa the debate seems to arise only after these mote communities in rural areas. Amongst those in systems have been approved and development is far ad- Africa are Nteletsa Botswana; Kitsong centres, Botswana; vanced. Only then is attention focused on cost, challenges Knowledge sharing initiatives, Egypt; Marwan Project, involved with accurately identifying and registering all Morocco; Community Multimedia Centres, Mozam- bona fide citizens and possible unintended consequences bique; and eBrain, Zambia. such as disenfranchisement. Reform and re-engineering of government Business process re-engineering (BPR) exercises have The use of ICT to create and support collaborative net- been carried out by the public services sector in order works are another aspect of reform and re-engineering. to modernize government in Ethiopia and Namibia. Key ICT is used to create and support networks between dif- points arising from these include: ferent stakeholders and service providers but each case places emphasis on different aspects of the network. • Management relies on the rules, procedures and regu- For instance, in Ethiopia’s WoredaNet, the communica- lations of the regulatory agencies. tions network receives particular attention and there are a wide variety of users, whereas in the case of GCNet in • ICT is crucial in re-engineering business processes. Ghana two systems are linked that have complementary African countries have a latecomer advantage since in functionality but are both related to import and export. many cases computerization has not taken place; there- The third type of network, iNetwork in Uganda, was fore BPR can be followed by computerization. created to share knowledge and information on how to use ICTs. All of these systems are intended to facilitate • The government needs to pay attention to change collaboration, communication and partnerships and na- management and appropriate awareness raising efforts tional agencies play some role in each of them. should accompany the BPR effort. • BPR strategies for different organizations are usually different, principally divided according to the extent to which organizations are customer-facing. 121 Exploiting technological advances to meet service delivery objectives Examples of how technological advances may be exploit- • Advanced biometrics used for identification. ed include: Specifically with regard to Africa, mobile telephone • Establishment of an automated back-end to an open solutions are very important although the most recent data portal so that data is always up-to-date without mobile applications are not necessarily the best options requiring a dedicated person to maintain the site or for Africa. Biometric technologies are being intro- update data manually; duced in national identification cards and ePassports with digital colour photographs. Substantial amounts • Sophisticated mobile software applications, e.g. allow- of additional data can be stored directly on the card ing secure payment, as in the US Department of Cor- and are updateable and the cards are counterfeit- rections, Arkansas, inmate deposit service, property resistant, durable and do not need access to commu- tax payments; nications infrastructure. Other examples include link- ing social media initiatives with other technologies, • The German Mobile Citizen Services (MoBüD); e.g. interactive maps. case studies in Africa government modernizing ICTs for 7.3 Deeper analysis of Malawi’s Integrated Financial Man- Financial Management (PFM) practices and to increase agement Information System (IFMIS) allows identifica- development funds substantially. Although this case does tion of the circumstances under which ICTs can be ap- not aim for total integration of systems or a customer- plied successfully and quickly. This creates opportunities facing interface (eGovernment), it is an example of re- for transformation in other African countries, some of form and re-engineering of government as well as pro- which have a poor track record of IFMIS implementa- viding the necessary high standard financial information tion. In Africa, the main drivers for most of the ambitious for accountability and transparency. The case is described IFMIS projects are an urgent need to improve Public in Box 7.1. Box 7.1 Malawi’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) In line with the country’s Financial Management and to ensure that it was efficient, linked to the budget de- Transparency and Accountability Project, the IFMIS in velopment system and would improve and strengthen Malawi was developed and implemented to modern- public expenditure management and bring about fis- ize the public accounting system. The main aim was cal discipline. 122 More specifically, the IFMIS was set up with the following IFMIS systems implementations of this kind are chal- objectives in mind: lenging and success depends on: • To integrate all accounting modules • Allowing sufficient time for planning and system design; • To provide government with a state of the art com- • Realistic cost/time estimates, procurement plans, puterized accounting system disbursement schedules and technical specifica- tions (bidding documents), including clarification of • To ensure that other sub-systems properly inter- IFMIS prerequisites; faced with IFMIS • Country-specific solutions that meet functional and • To enable government to reduce domestic borrow- technical requirements; ing and the accumulation of arrears • Functionality of the IFMIS system that fits govern- • To assist government in the production of timely ment strategy; and reliable financial data. • Strong political will and support from senior man- Three lessons from Malawi’s IFMIS are instructive: agement and policy makers; • The Malawian draft ICT policy provides a framework • Limiting reliance on consultants and developing of that has been successfully used elsewhere and can appropriate in-house capacity; be readily embraced in other developing countries. • Carefully designed change management programmes; • Large ICT projects require buy-in at the highest levels of government, but also at the lowest levels • Sound project methodology and collation of infor- from those expected to work with and manage this mation for system improvements; technology. • Small, manageable steps in implementation (incre- • A comprehensive project plan must be created as mental implementation); the foundation on which not only the IFMIS but also all other major national ICT projects must be built. • Developing the necessary infrastructure including connectivity. The South African government is proud of the achieve- taxpayers and engage traders by automating routine pro- ments of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) cesses and redeploying the resources that were released which has made immense strides through eFiling, the to bolster both service and enforcement initiatives. This online service delivery tool that has made the Receiver programme improves compliance by improving ser- the front-runner in public service delivery in the country. vice to honest taxpayers and enhancing enforcement First-world countries are aware of the achievements made for non-compliant taxpayers. This is a clear example of and are in constant interaction with SARS to learn about Convenience and efficiency in service delivery as well as the eFiling system. A modernization agenda was adopt- Accountability, transparency, citizen collaboration and ed in 2007/08 to improve services to taxpayers, educate interaction. The case is described in Box 7.2. Box 7.2 The South African Revenue Service (SARS) eFiling System The environment within SARS is one that supports enhance these systems and processes. The eFiling innovation, improvement, change and efficiency in- system is now operated, extended and managed cluding annual improvement of the eFiling system. in-house as outsourcing as a permanent solution is Surveys are conducted regularly to get feedback to not ideal. SARS believes that it is important to own 123 these systems fully and to bring the associated skills • Improved communication: SARS communicates in-house. with users via SMS and email; The eFiling system is designed to be easy to use, has • Engagement with stakeholders: Many tax profes- a secure interface and is easy to access via the inter- sionals representing large companies in South net. SARS has automated as many functions of the Africa sit on the advisory committee; system as possible. Their aim is to incentivize citizens to register on eFiling rather than provide manual sub- • Improved general perception of SARS; missions. • Easier client management for tax professionals – • A wizard pre-populates the form, asks a few ques- the client management process is easier as eFiling tions and provides a four-page tax return. provides a client database and access to a state- ment of accounts. • No substantiating documents are required unless requested by SARS. Although the eFiling system is efficient there are some challenges and limitations: • A record of contacts made with SARS is kept on file electronically. • When the tax computation becomes complex the use of the system becomes complicated and the sys- • VAT returns can be submitted five days later – on tem cannot assist the individual leading to frustration. the 31st of every month. • Some individuals lack the skills to complete tax re- • Assessments or re-assessments of submissions turns correctly. (audits) have a quick turnaround time and payment is made quickly. • Users cannot always gain access to the system when too many users are online. • A taxpayer can amend a return without going through an objection and can appeal online. • Many taxpayers still do not have access to the internet. • eFiling can be done when convenient and where • Resistance to change among individual taxpayers convenient. and even tax practitioners. The eFiling system has resulted in: • SARS under-estimated the difficulties experienced by small businesses when using eFiling. • Greater compliance in submitting tax returns, iden- tifying and automatically registering new taxpayers • Lack of adequate skills by SARS call centre operators. and enforcement, resulting in increased revenue collection; • The electronic system still requires a manual pro- cess: This is seen as the biggest challenge of • Simplified tax returns including absolving those SARS’s service offering. An example includes tax with low income and only one employer from sub- clearance certificates that are requested online but mitting a return; still require users to collect from the branch. • Improved service and turnaround time with efficient It should be noted that the introduction of SARS fol- support services for tax professionals; lowed a lengthy period of cleaning up basic processes and organizational issues as a necessary step to en- • Continuous improvements to the eFiling system in- able the move to eFiling. cluding extensive usability research; 124 The modernization approach of SARS 1 2 3 4 Increase revenue collection Improve service efficiency Build future revenue pipeline Enforcement capacity through specialization and reduce costs by increasing effectively increased to handle complex cases by streamlining and compliance culture through relocation automating processes compliance activities Human Resources recommendations in Africa government modernizing ICTs for 7.4 Recommendations to policy makers and regulators Recommendation 7.1 Develop new organizational and legal support structures Individual countries should develop over-arching national eGovernment plans that look at the public service of the country as a whole. By integrating existing systems, agencies can share information and communicate quickly, easily and frequently and access and participation by the citizens can be facilitated. A complete legal framework for ICT-enabled service delivery should address aspects such as cybercrime and misuse, electronic signatures and data protection. Awareness campaigns need to drive home the message among communities that payment over electronic channels is safe and that the data they share with governments is confidential and will not be used to their detriment. 125 Recommendation 7.2 Eastablish national identification systems Accurate, effective and efficient national identification systems, incorporating technology that reduces fraud and iden- tity theft (e.g. biometric technologies that complement textual information), mean that people can be identified even without having a document at hand. Cost, including the cost of reaching citizens in remote areas and issuing national identification cards, privacy, risk of disenfranchisement and other civil rights issues need careful attention. Technology is necessary but by no means sufficient for a successful outcome. Recommendation 7.3 Address socio-economic and digital divides The digital divide in African countries is wide. Without access to ICT-related infrastructure the poor cannot easily benefit from other eGovernment initiatives. Those in rural communities, the poor and women are least likely to have access to technology. However, access via mobile phones can remedy the problem to some extent and connectivity can be addressed by exploiting mobile phone networks. A second strategy is building and equipping internet-enabled community information centres. Recommendation 7.4 Recognize the power of social media Public agencies should exploit social media to their advantage. Governments can use social media as a platform to enhance transparency, exchange ideas and invite comments on government policies, handle crises, and build political opinion among the masses. Recommendation 7.5 Exploit economies of scale Projects should be identified that have the greatest potential impact, that can provide benefits simultaneously to more than one large group of stakeholders, and that have the potential for quickly recovering development costs. Economies of scale and scope can also be brought about by intra-public sector collaboration, leading to better cost-benefit factors in at least the following ways: • A unified data centre with adequate disaster recovery to host applications for all agencies • A government-wide ICT network with high availability and adequate redundancy • Common citizen helpdesks for trouble-shooting and general assistance • Shared information systems (e.g. human resources management systems, financial management systems, and inven- tory and asset management systems) • Sharing the same service delivery infrastructure through citizen service centres. 126 Recommendations to the donor community Recommendation 7.6 Support citizen-centric initiatives with social media Learn from existing initiatives. This could be notably applicable in countries with upcoming elections, particularly where previous elections have been tainted by allegations of corruption, suppression of information or intimidation. Ensure that legislation and institutional requirements imposed by government do not restrict adoption and use of Web 2.0 and social media technologies. Recommendation 7.7 Pilot cloud computing in independent election monitoring Funding will be needed for pilot projects that could serve as a proof of concept for the use of cloud computing in election monitoring. Recommendation 7.8 Establish technology platforms for anonymous whistle-blowing Pilot a technology system using anonymous web communication and other technologies to completely hide the iden- tity of whistle blowers who expose corruption in the public sector. Recommendation 7.9 Create incubation spaces for innovative technical solutions Create incubation spaces for collaboration and innovation for applications in the public service sector. Cloud comput- ing can assist sites in sharing data and software, hence only occasional face-to-face meetings are required. Recommendation 7.10 Support capacity building programmes for open data projects Replicate open data capacity building projects for transparency and accountability. Recommendation 7.11 Empower public sector workers in rural areas Reduce administrative burden on workers. This could be achieved through the reduction of paperwork through the development of mobile applications to replace paper-based solutions. 127 further reading in Africa government modernizing ICTs for c Gray, M. (2007) “The impact of ICT on the design and delivery of public services� Third Sector Foresight, National Council for Voluntary Organisations http://www.3s4.org.uk/news/the-impact-of-ict-on-the-design-and-delivery-of-public-services Heeks, R. (2008) “ICTs for government transparency� eGovernment for Development, University of Manchester's Institute for Development Policy and Management http://www.egov4dev.org/transparency/definitions.shtml Kagoda-Batuwa, S. (2009) “Development of the EAC Regional E-Government Framework� Presentation to UN Public Administration Conference on Electronic/Mobile Government in Africa: Progress Made and Challenges Ahead, 17-19 February 2009 Addis Ababa http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un/unpan033659.pdf Panos Institute West Africa and the United Nations Development Programme (2011) E-governance and Citizen Participation in West Africa: Challenges and Opportunities http://www.undpegov.org/sites/undpegov.org/files/UNDP-IPAO-Report-English.pdf United Nations (2012) United Nations E-Government Survey 2012 http://www2.unpan.org/egovkb/global_reports/12report.htm For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in modernizing government in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa sector report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 128 Part III Cross- cutting issues chapter The Transformational Use 8 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa regional trade and integraTion 1. Introduction 4. Regional and national experiences Trade, regional integration and Africa’s development 5. Recommendations ICTs and trade facilitation Governments 2. Landscape analysis Regional Economic Communities International financial institutions and other development partners 3. Opportunities and challenges Further reading introduction in Africa and integration regional trade ICTs for 8.1 Trade, regional integration and Africa’s development Trade is critically important to Africa’s economic pros- These challenges result in three main problems for trad- pects, as a source of revenue, investment and employment, ing businesses: yet Africa’s trade is highly fragmented and the weakness of its trade performance constrains growth and poverty • increased costs (including fees, bribes and manage- reduction. Africa today generates only about 2.5-3.5 per ment expenses); cent of world trade. African countries mostly export pri- mary commodities while importing manufactured goods, • delays in the transit and delivery of goods, which add from Europe, North America or developing regions out- further transport and warehousing costs; and side Africa. Only about 10 per cent of Africa’s trade is ex- changed within the continent, a much lower proportion • unreliability, resulting from inaccurate data man- than in other world regions. Small domestic markets, agement. landlocked status and limited natural resources restrict the trade potential of many countries. These structural Transit times for African consignments between point factors inhibit the development of manufacturing sectors of origin and continental ports are substantially higher which could supply both African and world markets. than those in other regions, and African countries per- form poorly against the World Bank’s Logistics Perfor- Two factors are important in addressing Africa’s trade mance Index. A recent World Bank report suggests that problems. First, trade costs on the continent are higher the continent is losing billions of dollars in revenue as a than in other regions, making African exports less com- result. petitive both on the continent and globally, while also raising the cost of imports. Second, formal tariff barriers Regional integration is crucial to reducing non-tariff have fallen but non-tariff barriers are considerable. Criti- requirements and improving cross-border infrastruc- cal factors include: ture and coordination, which in turn reduce trade costs and improve trade performance. The African • inadequate transport and other infrastructure – ports Union supports regional integration through eight Re- and airports, roads, railways and river routes – partic- gional Economic Communities (RECs)1, which have ularly for the continent’s sixteen landlocked countries; some overlapping membership. Some of these have implemented free trade zones and four (COMESA, • complex, unnecessary and inconsistent non-tariff re- EAC, ECOWAS and SADC) have implemented or are quirements at ports of continental entry/exit and bor- der-crossing posts; 1.  The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), the Community of Sahel-Saharan • inefficient and uncoordinated management of trade, States (CEN-SAD), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern both within countries and along trade routes; and Africa (COMESA), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Commu- nity of West African States (ECOWAS), the Intergovernmental Authority • inadequate information about trade requirements and on Development (IGAD), and the Southern African Development import/export opportunities. Community (SADC). 132 implementing custom unions, with further progress Trade barriers are strongest at critical points along the anticipated towards common market principles. The supply chain between producers and consumers of goods remaining RECs have failed to achieve comparable in- and services, particularly points of entry/exit between tegration. countries. These are illustrated in Figure 8.1, together with the main actors involved at each stage. Figure 8.1 Supply chain model between producers and consumers Country of origin Transit Destination country Land Sea/air Sea/air Order Despatch Transport Transport Transport Transport Delivery Payment border border border Customs Customs Customs Customs Order Immigration Immigration Immigration Immigration Verification transaction Quarantine Quarantine Quarantine Quarantine and payment Security Security Security Security Freight agents & c Freight agents & c Freight agents & c Freight operators Freight operators Shipper/airline Freight operators ICTs and trade facilitation Trade facilitation aims to simplify, harmonize and stan- • they improve the information and knowledge about dardize processes in order to minimize the delays and trade processes and markets which are available to costs incurred at bottlenecks and to improve reliability businesses, enabling them to manage consignments for both trading businesses and governments. ICTs are more efficiently and to enter new markets at lower risk. crucial to trade facilitation for three main reasons: ICTs are therefore important inputs to the enabling en- • they improve the efficiency with which trade trans- vironment for cross-border and regional trade. They actions are handled, improving transparency and ac- cannot directly address the structural and infrastruc- countability, reducing the cost of human interfaces, tural deficits which undermine Africa’s trade perfor- eliminating delays and reducing the scope for corrupt mance but, in these three ways, they can reduce the ad- interactions between traders and officials; ministrative barriers that contribute to costs, delays and unreliability. Their effectiveness will be greatest when • they improve coordination between different actors in they are integrated with other measures to address the the trade management process, particularly between structural, infrastructural and non-tariff barriers that government agencies within individual countries, and also inhibit trade. Their contribution is illustrated in across national borders; Figure 8.2. 133 Figure 8.2 The impact of ICTs on trade facilitation Structural barriers Administrative barriers (nature of African Infrastructual barriers (inefficiency, poor economies, etc.) (poor roads, lacks of coordination, etc.) skills, etc.) Coordination Efficiency Potential Potential Knowledge exporters markets Infrastructual barriers Structural barriers (poor roads, lacks of Administrative barriers (nature of African skills, etc.) (inefficiency, poor economies, etc.) coordination, etc.) landscape in Africa and integration regional trade ICTs for 8.2 analysis Cross-border trade involves a large number of different Trade processes, as a result, are highly complex systems stakeholders, as illustrated in Figure 8.3. As well as the in which many different stakeholders interact. The most principals (the suppliers and purchasers of goods), these significant ICT applications are likewise large and com- include at least four government agencies in each of the plex systems with a higher degree of centralization and countries through which a consignment travels (customs, information-sharing than in most ICT/development sec- immigration, quarantine and security, abbreviated to tors, although these also increasingly rely on internet and CIQS), together with a variable range of other agencies in other networks and benefit from the spread of mobile and individual countries), port and airport authorities, freight other personal ICTs. businesses, banks, insurance companies and other busi- nesses and agencies. Experience in ICT applications for trade is most ad- vanced in industrial countries and global trading centres, 134 Figure 8.3 Stakeholders in cross-border trade Business stakeholders Transport operators (hauliers, agents etc.) Producers Suppliers Purchasers Distributors Transaction businesses (banks, insurance etc.) Border agencies Interface Border agencies suppliers Finance International Finance Customs Customs single windows Trade National single window National single window Trade Immigration Immigration Ports & airports Transport Transport Quarantine Quarantine & Sea & air & Foreign inspections operators inspections Foreign affairs affairs Security Interfaces Security Security agencies agencies Security Government stakeholders Government stakeholders COUNTRY A COUNTRY B Regional Economic Communities International stakeholders — WCO, WTO, etc particularly in Europe, North America and Asia. The improvements in the efficiency of trade and supply chain most widespread use of ICTs in African trade is in cus- management: toms automation, though there is growing experience of other ICT deployments along the supply chain, such as • The automation of customs administration was the consignment tracking and port management, particular- earliest major application of ICTs in trade, dating from ly in countries with major seaports such as South Africa, the 1980s. Automated customs systems expedite the Kenya and Senegal. Global experience of ICTs in trade clearance, and thereby transit, of goods while improv- is increasingly based around single window principles, ing identification of suspect consignments and rais- which allow for the sharing of data between government ing revenue collection rates. The ASYCUDA customs and business actors throughout the supply chain. African management system pioneered by UNCTAD has been experience with single window principles, and the pro- adopted in more than thirty African countries, while cesses that put them into practice, is limited but growing. other countries (including Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya and Senegal) have preferred systems specifically As indicated above, the main trends in the use of ICTs designed for their own national contexts or other off- for trade exploit their capacity to improve efficiency, co- the-shelf systems which they believe give them greater ordination and information resources available to trade flexibility. Recent customs automation programmes aim stakeholders, thereby reducing costs and delays while to incorporate online payments and to move trading improving reliability. Eight main types of application are businesses towards paperless trade based on digital data identified. Three of these are principally concerned with shared along the supply chain through single windows. 135 • Transport corridors play a significant part in trade lo- • The most complex trade environments are those at gistics in Africa, particularly for landlocked countries. ports and airports, where multiple actors – including While the most substantial challenges along transport shipping lines and agents, freight forwarders and bro- corridors are often infrastructural, the multiplicity of kers, transport operators and port administrations, as administrations, government agencies, permit issuing well as CIQS and other border agencies – form highly authorities and others along these routes causes substantial complex “port communities�. Consignments passing delays. A survey in West Africa indicated an average of through ports and airports undergo many different op- about three checkpoints per hundred kilometres along erations and movements before onward transit to their major trade routes. Advance information on the move- final destinations. In the past, these multiple processes ment of goods, people and money reduces the need for were coordinated manually. ICTs have enabled them checkpoints, expedites transit at those remaining, and to be coordinated electronically, increasing efficiency reduces the incidence of fees and bribes. Electronic and reducing delays. Governments and businesses in cargo tracking systems using Radio Frequency Identi- ports worldwide have implemented Port Community fication (RFID) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Systems (PCS), often as joint ventures, to maximize the technology are becoming more widespread. value derived from ICT-enabled systems, and these are now being deployed at major ports in Africa. Similar • Enforcement is an essential part of trade management, Cargo Community Systems (CCS) are being imple- largely dependent on inspection regimes. Tracking mented in airports. systems, data management, and data sharing through ICTs enable CIQS agencies to focus inspection re- Two further trends are principally concerned with infor- sources, with intelligence-led inspections taking the mation and transactions: place of random selection or universal examination of consignments. Where well implemented, this results in • Trade processes involve extensive transactions be- higher levels of security from fewer stoppages, raising tween trade principals, businesses involved in freight revenue while reducing delays for the majority of trade transport and logistics (such as insurance companies), in transit. It is, however, highly dependent on the qual- customs and permit issuing authorities. Many of these ity of data shared. are international transactions. ICT-enabled data-shar- ing allows transactions to be automated and digitally Three trends in ICT-enabled trade facilitation are prin- recorded, reducing the need for data-checking and cipally concerned with improved coordination between face-to-face interactions that are susceptible to cor- government and other stakeholders: ruption. Online payments are increasingly common in PCS and CCS, while micropayments are increasingly • Border management is a complex multi-agency envi- made by mobile phone. These applications can signifi- ronment involving CIQS agencies enforcing tariffs and cantly reduce the gross cost of transactions relating to non-tariff regulations with the aims of safeguarding consignments along the supply chain. lawful trade, identifying and preventing illegal trade, and ensuring national security. The data-sharing and • African businesses have often been deterred from en- coordination capabilities of ICTs enable CIQS agencies gaging in cross-border trade by lack of information in individual countries to integrate and synchronize about trade requirements (non-tariff barriers), export inspection processes, share customer-facing systems opportunities and goods available for import from and core databases, and thereby reduce transit times at neighbouring countries. Internet-based trade por- border crossing-points from days to hours. tals, some implemented through Regional Economic Communities, are improving information available • Integrated cross-border management (ICBM), coordi- to potential trading partners and enhancing scope nating the activities of CIQS agencies on both sides of for intra-regional trade. While information resources border crossings, adds greater complexity which can cannot overcome structural limitations in African only be managed effectively through the data-sharing economies, they can increase opportunities for trade enabled by ICTs backed by supporting intergovern- and cooperation between trading businesses in neigh- mental agreements. The most effective deployments of bour countries. ICBM – just beginning to appear in Africa – include one-stop border posts, where joint operations of both Many of the trends described above rely on the potential countries’ CIQS agencies, backed by intelligence-led for ICTs to: transit management, implement single inspection regimes. • replace the need for data on consignments to be entered 136 at multiple points along the supply chain with a single along the supply chain, both within individual countries data entry point; and and across national borders. • share the resulting data between all stakeholders that The implementation of single window principles in prac- need access to them either within particular commu- tice depends on close cooperation between government nities or along the supply chain as a whole. and business stakeholders. Implementation can occur in localized environments such as border crossings, PCS These are coalescing into a meta-trend in trade facilita- and CCS; at national level, involving trade and trans- tion, which is the integration of trade management pro- port businesses as well as government agencies and trade cesses into ICT-enabled “single windows�, integrated principals; and at regional level, for example along entire systems which allow all parties involved in trade trans- trade corridors or on trans-oceanic transit routes. The actions to lodge standardized documentation through various types of single window process are illustrated in a single entry point, and to share such data as required Figure 8.4. Figure 8.4 Single window variants International border Regional single window National single window Supply chain single window Customs International border Customs only only Cross-border integrated integrated border border management management Port community system Transition towards a single window process is a major implementation of processes at critical points along the trend in trade facilitation worldwide, and an increasingly supply chain, and lead over time to fully-integrated na- important goal for trade facilitation in Africa. A fully tional systems. In Kenya, for instance, the sharing of integrated single window process at national level is a data between the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and highly complex arrangement involving many different the Kenya Port Authority (KPA) was a critical early step government departments and business actors. Gradual towards initiating a single window. Data-sharing can integration of systems is therefore usually preferable to a also begin to take place across borders from a relatively “big bang� approach. early stage where both countries concerned have ap- propriate and compatible automated customs systems, This can begin with adoption of the principles of though data-sharing in other CIQS functions may take data gathering and sharing that underpin single win- longer to establish as automation in these is less well dow processes, build over a period of time through established. 137 opportunities in Africa and integration regional trade ICTs for 8.3 and challenges The opportunities arising for Africa from the trends de- draw on the expertise, address the needs and secure the scribed above are considerable, but there are also substan- support of both government agencies and trading busi- tial challenges to bringing them about. These challenges, nesses. Businesses also gain value from exploiting the and the time required to overcome them and deploy new potential of ICTs within their own systems, for example systems, should not be underestimated. In particular, by using electronic transactions and by enhancing com- new systems are unlikely to be effective if they are not munications with employees and business partners, and associated with reforms in the organization and manage- from ensuring that their systems are compatible with of- ment of trade administration which simplify procedures ficial applications for cargo tracking, customs administra- and eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies. tion and e-commerce. Africa’s poor trade performance derives from a number of The adoption of single window principles and the gradual factors. Some of these are structural factors related to the development and implementation of single window pro- continent’s resource base (in terms of raw materials and cesses offers the greatest potential value for ICT-enabled human skills) and political and economic contexts (such trade facilitation in Africa. The structural and infrastruc- as regional conflict and varying degrees of regional eco- tural deficits of African trade are exacerbated by ineffi- nomic integration). Some are infrastructural, related to ciencies that result from poor data sharing, inadequate inadequate port, transport, power and communications coordination and low standards of administrative prac- facilities, whose improvement is often dependent on in- tice, including corruption. By building trade processes vestment by international financial institutions (IFIs) and around a single point of entry, which governs progress of development partners. Some, however, are the result of a consignment along the supply chain, single window sys- inefficiencies, poor coordination and limited information tems reduce the number of interventions and inspections resources, all of which are susceptible to improvement required from government agencies, eliminate many of by the deployment of ICTs. ICTs can alleviate some of the errors that appear in manual documentation, allow the constraints undermining Africa’s trade performance, resources to be targeted on suspect consignments, enable opening up new opportunities for trade to generate em- more secure collection of fees and customs revenue, and ployment, investment and growth, though their overall reduce the time required for transit. impact will depend on the extent to which governments and development partners also address the structural and Particular opportunities for ICTs in trade arise through infrastructural challenges which beset African trade per- the continent’s Regional Economic Communities, the formance. agreed framework for the development of economic inte- gration on the continent, including trade promotion, and The value of ICTs in trade facilitation derives, to a larger the logical framework therefore for the implementation extent than in most development sectors, from the imple- of regional single windows. Trade is, by definition, de- mentation of large-scale systems which are increasingly pendent on cooperation between governments and busi- networked and thereby leverage the efficiency and coor- nesses in more than one country. Africa’s more successful dination gains that can be achieved through system-wide RECs have sought to promote regional trade through the data-sharing and data management. The engagement of creation of free trade zones (one of which now covers the all stakeholders in the trade environment is required to combined COMESA-EAC-SADC region), the develop- maximize these gains: experience worldwide suggests, for ment of customs unions (with a common external tariff), example, that complex applications such as PCS are often and preliminary agreement on progress towards a com- best implemented as public-private partnerships which mon market which enables the free movement of people 138 and capital together with freedom of business establish- • The shortage of ICT skills in developing and managing ment, extending free trade principles more fully to trade distributed data networks is acute. Complex systems in services. such as PCS and national single windows require spe- cialist ICT skills that are often unavailable. Both govern- While single window processes have value at a national ments and businesses need to invest in capacity-build- level, they have greater potential value at a regional level ing in order to secure the benefits of ICT-enabled trade. where a single point of data entry and data-sharing can cover the entire transit route for goods with regional • Business and administrative systems also need to be destinations and transit between landlocked countries redesigned to take advantage of ICT-enabled trade – and their continental points of import/export. Some transiting, for example, from paper-based to paper- cross-border data-sharing is already taking place, for less record-keeping and from full to intelligence-led example between customs agencies, and this can pro- inspection regimes. Cohesive decision-making, ap- vide evidence for further progress. The development propriate fee structures and integration along the sup- of regional single windows, however, will require high ply chain are critical. The efficiency and coordination levels of intergovernmental cooperation. The more suc- gains achievable through ICTs in contexts like customs cessful RECs are therefore better placed to move to- administration can only be unlocked if underlying bu- wards this goal. Progress towards regional ICT-enabled reaucratic systems are also simplified. trade is evident in the COMESA, EAC, ECOWAS and SADC regions, but much less evident in other regions • A high level of commitment is required, at national and where RECs have been unable to achieve significant regional levels, on the part of both governments and integration. Where RECs do achieve progress in trade trading businesses. Political leaders must be prepared facilitation, this can provide a model for ICT-enabled to address the sovereignty challenges and partnership integration in other economic and social sectors, par- requirements of regional integration. Users must have ticularly where it builds on improvements in regional confidence in the integrity and value of the systems communications infrastructure. that are being introduced. Issues of corruption need to be addressed. A high degree of cooperation, includ- However, ICTs are not able to transform trade perfor- ing public-private partnership in the management of mance on their own. The benefits described above are systems, has proved beneficial in other world regions. dependent on other factors, such as the quality of data in- put into single window processes, the compliance of trad- • Major ICT systems such as PCS and single windows ing businesses, and the modernization of administrative require significant finance. While the benefits of auto- systems. Evidence in the report emphasizes the following mation can be considerable, some governments are re- challenges which need to be addressed if the potential luctant to spend resources on costly ICT solutions and benefits of ICTs, and particularly the successful imple- associated capacity-building, particularly in those re- mentation of single window processes, are to be achieved. gions where regional integration has so far been limited. There is an important role here for International • Africa lags behind other world regions in the deploy- Financial Institutions and other development partners. ment of ICT infrastructure, particularly broadband. More investment is needed in regional backbones, and The impact of ICT-enabled trade facilitation, and single in the reliability of communications networks, to en- windows in particular, can be substantial, but it is unlike- able all trade posts to be integrated in single windows ly to be achieved overnight. Major system changes such and ensure continuity of data transmission. Power in- as those required take considerable time to implement frastructure also needs to be addressed. and to gain the confidence of users. Long-term gains are likely to be more important than short-term gains. Sys- • Regional integration and single windows require stan- tems need to remain viable over a significant period dur- dardization of non-tariff regulations and documenta- ing which other ICT deployment may change rapidly – in tion along trade routes. This includes adoption of stan- particular, the adoption of new mobile and internet appli- dardized digital formats for data entry, interoperable cations by trading businesses, and changes in the balance systems for data interchange (based on globally agreed between formal and informal trade. standards such as EDIFACT), and reliable processes for the authentication of documents and signatures. Underpinning these developments are changes that The quality of data input also needs to be improved. have taken place in African communications. The rapid Legislation enabling electronic commerce still needs to growth towards ubiquity of mobile networks has in- be enacted in some countries. creased cross-border communications, though it is not 139 yet clear what impact this has had on the movement of in inland broadband infrastructure. The advent of mobile goods and people. Liberalization of communications transactions and of low-cost mobile roaming has had an markets and the deployment of new international sub- impact on transactions and cross-border business inter- marine cables around the African coast have facilitated action in some regions. Africa’s global connectivity and encouraged investment Regional/national in Africa and integration regional trade ICTs for 8.4 experiences Extending ICT-enabled trade from national implementa- Political borders and relationships are problematic in tion to regional integration is critical to leveraging devel- some cases, making progress towards regional eco- opmental gains. There has been significant variation in nomic cooperation and data-sharing hard to manage. the development of regional integration in Africa, with These RECs are also seriously under-resourced. Progress consequential impacts on ICT-enabled trade. Develop- is, therefore, to a significant degree, dependent on the ments in East, West and Southern African regions have resolution of regional conflicts and the development of been more encouraging than those elsewhere, including a effective intergovernmental cooperation outside ICTs Tripartite Agreement which establishes a free trade zone and trade. among the 26 countries of COMESA, EAC and SADC. Progress has been made towards greater integration, the Kenya and Senegal illustrate both the potential and establishment of customs unions and, especially in the the challenges of ICT-enabled trade facilitation. Both EAC, towards a common market. In East and Southern are significant trading nations, which provide conti- Africa these efforts have been boosted by the launch of nental ports of entry/exit for landlocked neighbours. public-private-donor “Trade Mark� partnerships, which In both countries, customs automation has been critical include ICT-enabled initiatives for trade facilitation. to ICT-enabled trade. Senegal was one of the first Afri- can countries to automate customs, building its own The report identifies examples of progress that has been GAINDE system rather than adopting the generic ASYC- made in these regions towards ICT-enabled trade. These UDA system which is in wider use in Africa. Kenya also include initiatives to support the transit of goods along uses a variant of GAINDE known as SIMBA. In Kenya, a trade corridors in four REC regions (COMESA, EAC, three year process of integration between SIMBA and the ECOWAS and SADC), experiments with one-stop bor- KWATOS PCS at Mombasa has been completed, but there der posts, integration of customs administrations in is as yet no comparable integration between GAINDE landlocked countries with continental entry points in and the port management system at Dakar in Senegal. other states, the establishment of regional business infor- Both countries have sought to adopt intelligence-led risk- mation portals and payment systems, and steps towards management for goods in transit through their territory the establishment of regional single windows. to neighbouring countries, in an effort to reduce evasion of customs payments. Business information services have The weakness of the four remaining RECs – AMU, CEN- been developed in both countries, though Senegalese SAD, ECCAS and IGAD – is, however, a major chal- businesses benefit more than their Kenyan counterparts lenge. With the exception of the CEMAC sub-region in from information about potential market opportunities ECCAS, where cross-border trade is limited, these have in their region. been unable to move towards effective free trade zones. 140 The integration of customs administration with PCS and challenges to ICT-enabled trade illustrated by experience other CIQS systems is complex and challenging. Senegal in Kenya and Senegal are not technical but infrastructural has made more progress in developing a national single and institutional, including skill and resource limitations. window, ORBUS, which has reduced clearance times New legislation and regulations are required, especially in and reduced transaction costs for trade consignments. areas like eCommerce. Vested interests are often reluctant Additional facilities are being integrated with ORBUS, to support transition to new systems. Power shortages including online payments, with the overall objective of and teething problems can undermine user confidence. achieving a paperless trade environment. The Govern- These challenges are serious and substantial, and ICT ment of Kenya has established a company, Kentrade, implementations that ignore them are unlikely to suc- to develop a national single window building on the ex- ceed. Nevertheless, the experience of these two countries perience of integration between SIMBA and KWATOS. illustrates the potential for ICT-enabled trade facilitation and for achieving progress towards integrated single win- Both countries’ single window deployments are lengthy dows at national level. In particular, it illustrates how the processes, owing to the complexities involved in secur- introduction of ICT-enabled systems at particular points ing coordination between government agencies, partner- along the supply chain, such as PCS and customs man- ship between government and business, and the neces- agement, acts both as a precursor to and a prerequisite for sary system upgrades and redesign. The most important the implementation of a national single window. recommendations in Africa and integration regional trade ICTs for 8.5 The objectives of ICT-enabled trade facilitation are to: These cross-cutting areas of activity include: • improve the efficiency with which individual trade • the development of trade and industrial policies processes are undertaken; aimed at economic diversification, including manu- facturing and services as well as primary commodity • improve coordination between different actors along production; the supply chain; and • investment in power and transport infrastructure; • improve access by trading parties to necessary informa- tion on trade management and market opportunities. • the establishment of an enabling environment for communications sector investment and an enabling Together with administrative reform and simplification of legal and regulatory environment for eCommerce; trade management, ICT-enabled trade facilitation should help to reduce costs and delays experienced by trading • greater attention to regional integration and economic businesses and to improve the reliability of trade. partnership by governments; and The value of ICTs in trade facilitation can only be effec- • the adoption of common standards for data inter- tively realized if it is integrated with broader cross-cutting change and non-tariff requirements. activities by governments and development partners, as illustrated in Figure 8.5. 141 Figure 8.5 ICTs and trade – the supporting environment Information on Formalities, Logistics, regulation, taxation, governance transactions non-tariff barriers, and efficient and infrastructure business opportunities flow of goods support and compliance Policy and regulation, standards, human capacity development, business process change, governance and coordination Within this context, governments, RECs and develop- 3. adopting single window principles and gradually de- ment partners should work with other stakeholders veloping national single window systems for data man- progressively to build ICT-enabled trade facilitation in agement and sharing; and Africa by: 4. extending single window principles and practice to re- 1. assessing the needs of actors in the supply chain, gional levels. strengthening the capacity of government institutions and trading businesses to use ICT-enabled systems; The adoption of single window principles lies at the heart of the core programme of ICT-enabled trade facilitation 2. deploying ICT-enabled applications at critical points recommended in the report, with the implementation of along the supply chain such as customs, ports and bor- single window processes derived from these principles der crossings; evolving from individual locations through national to regional trade environments. Governments Governments are particularly concerned with revenue 1. Adoption of international standards for non-tariff bar- collection, compliance and trade promotion leading to riers and for trade documentation, and harmonization economic growth. The starting point for government en- of both across land borders. gagement with ICTs and trade should be a national policy framework based on a critical assessment of trade bar- 2. Adoption of single window principles and develop- riers and opportunities, through which the most effec- ment of a strategy for gradual implementation of these tive points of implementation for ICTs can be identified. based around needs assessment and stakeholder par- Governments should also invest in infrastructure im- ticipation. provements, without which ICT-enabled trade facilita- tion will have limited impact. 3. Upgrading of integrated customs management and development of joint government/business-led Within this context, governments should prioritize the Port and Cargo Community Systems at ports and following ICT-enabled interventions, building sequen- airports. tially from points 1 to 7: 142 4. Introduction and development of intelligence-led in- In addition, from an early point in the sequence just de- spections with high levels of data integrity. scribed, they should address issues of transaction and in- formation access: 5. Integration of compatible border management sys- tems aimed at minimizing clearance time at border 8. Enactment of legislation and implementation of regu- crossings. lations and procedures that enable e-commerce and electronic transactions. 6. Procurement and implementation of a national single window process which is consistent with automated 9. Implementation of portals that provide information customs management, and which will integrate ICT- concerning national trade processes, including rules, enabled applications at particular locations and in regulations and procedures, and information concern- particular communities within a coherent system ing business opportunities. which has the active engagement of both government agencies and trading businesses (and which may be Implementation needs to be undertaken gradually, in jointly managed by them through a public-private prioritized and manageable stages which can be properly partnership). resourced, with the consent and engagement of all stake- holders, particularly trading businesses. Retraining and 7. Experimentation with bilateral one-stop border posts capacity-building will be critical, and progress should be with neighbouring countries where harmonization of monitored and evaluated. non-tariff structures has been achieved. Regional Economic Communities Regional Economic Communities have an important • developing guidelines to foster national and bilateral role to play in enabling regional integration of ICTs and trade facilitation that will have regional value, for ex- trade. In the case of the weaker RECs – AMU, CEN-SAD, ample on trade corridors; ECCAS and IGAD – the priority should be to establish better coordination and begin to make progress towards • supporting the harmonization of national approaches free trade zones and customs unions. Where the stronger to trade management across the region, including RECs – COMESA, EAC, ECOWAS and SADC – are common non-tariff requirements (such as rules of concerned, they should build on existing experience and origin and plant hygiene standards) and common data agreements by: and documentation standards; • adopting a regional vision for trade facilitation, based • implementing portals and other business information on the single window concept; resources; and • focusing attention on the infrastructure challenges • monitoring and evaluating the development of regional that inhibit trade, including transport and communi- trade, including trade in services and informal trade as cations networks; well as formal trade in goods. 143 International financial institutions and other development partners International financial institutions and other develop- • by providing policy and capacity-building support in ment partners should support these national and regional areas including the assessment of national policies, initiatives in three main ways: regional harmonization and standardization, and the monitoring and evaluation of trade performance. • by investing in the enabling environment for trade, includ- ing power, transport and communications infrastructure; They should also provide institutional and financial sup- port to develop the capacity of Africa’s RECs. • by providing financial support for the implementation of national and regional ICT-enabled trade facilitation programmes along the lines described above; and 144 further reading in Africa and integration regional trade ICTs for c African Development Bank ADB Group Regional Integration Strategy, 2009-2012 http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Policy-Documents/BANK%20GROUP%20REGIONAL%20INTEGRATION%20 STRATEGY%202009%20-2012.pdf Brenton, P. and Isik, G., eds (2012) De-Fragmenting Africa: Deepening Regional Trade Integration in Goods and Services World Bank http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTAFRICA/Resources/Defrag_Afr_English_web_version.pdf McLinden, G., Fanta, E., Widdowson, D. and Doyle, T., eds (2011) Border Management Modernization World Bank http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2011/01/07/000356161_20110107013015/Rendered/PDF/588450 PUB0Bord101public10BOX353816B.pdf NEPAD “Regional integration and infrastructure� NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency http://www.nepad.org/regionalintegrationandinfrastructure UNDP (2011) Regional Integration and Human Development: a Pathway for Africa http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/Poverty%20Reduction/Trade,%20Intellectual%20Property%20and%20Migration/RIR%20 English-web.pdf UNECA (2010) Assessing Regional Integration in Africa IV: Enhancing Intra-African Trade http://www.uneca.org/aria4/ World Bank (2011) Harnessing Regional Integration for Trade and Growth in Southern Africa http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTRANETTRADE/Resources/239054-1239120299171/5998577-1254498644362/6461208-1300202947570/ SA_Regional_Integration.pdf For a more detailed presentation on the role of ICT in trade and regional integration in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa theme report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 145 chapter The Transformational Use 9 of Information and Communication Technologies in Africa ict competitiveness 1. Introduction 4. Case studies 2. Landscape analysis Kenya Morocco 3. Opportunities and challenges Nigeria 5. Recommendations Further reading introduction in Africa competitiveness ICT 9.1 The ICT sector has proven to be a strong driver of GDP comparatively low in Africa, never before in the history growth in nations across the world. From developing of the continent has the population been as connected countries such as India and the Philippines, to devel- as it is today. oped nations such as the United States of America and Ireland, the ICT sector has contributed to the success This summary outlines the current and historical land- of each of these nation’s economies, the advancement scape of the local ICT sector in Africa, explains the pri- of its people’s skills and capabilities and positioning the mary areas of ICT that would most benefit the continent, nation as a place for global firms to more efficiently do makes tactical recommendations to continue the mo- business. The ICT sector is socially and economically mentum of growth, lists roadblocks to overcome in order relevant to Africa in that it has been the major economic to implement the recommendations and describes case driver in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. studies from specific African nations that currently lead Although mobile and internet penetration remains the way. landscape in Africa competitiveness ICT 9.2 analysis The opportunity in ICT for Africa is significant. Pro­ access to ICT services but the continent largely lags be- vided the ICT market continues its impressive double- hind the rest of the world in terms of ICT readiness. digit growth, expenditures in ICT within Africa could The ITU Development Index, for instance, indicates that exceed US$150 billion by 2016 (see Figure 9.1). the African region has made slower progress when com- pared to other regions in the past 2 years, with roughly Nevertheless, although current performance indica- half the improvement on an aggregate basis (see Figure tors and financial predictions are largely positive, there 9.2). According to the ITU, most of the limited gains have are still challenges for the continent in the ICT sector. taken place in providing greater access to ICT. A number of African countries have made progress on 148 Figure 9.1 Projected ICT expenditures in Africa to 2016 155-180 Estimate for rest of Africa Set of 10 Countries representing 65-70% of African GDP* 95-100 60-65 110- 125 US$ billions 11% 66 Assumes ICT 45 annual maintains growth share of GDP 2005 2009 2016 ICT expenditures (% of GDP estimated) 6.3% 6.7% 6-7% * Countries in sample set are Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia. Note: ICT expenditures include computer hardware and computer software, computer services (information technology consulting, computer and network systems integration, Web hosting, data processing services, and other services); and communications services (voice and data communications services) and wired and wireless communications equipment. Source: World Bank Databank - African Development Indicators, ITU Measuring the Information Society, 2011, consultant analysis. Figure 9.2 ICT Development Index indicators Score of weighted factors of ICT Access, Use and Skills. Regional Scores 2008 2010 6.42 5.80 3.62 4.08 4.06 3.61 3.50 3.89 3.18 3.85 1.68 1.93 World Africa Europe Asia-Pacific Americas Com. Of Indep. Sates 7.80 8.04 Africa examples 4.00 3.43 3.29 2.60 2.29 1.74 1.54 1.85 1.40 1.53 0.94 1.08 Korea, Rep Mauritius Morocco Kenya Nigeria Cameroon Chad Rank within Africa (out of 40 rated countries) #1 #4 #12 #15 #26 #38 Source: ITU Measuring the Information Society, 2011. 149 A key indicator in determining access and usage is the this is more than four times the penetration of the inter- price of service, such as for voice and data. Pricing of voice net. Spending on ICT within Africa is roughly in line with services in many African countries has become competi- the global average, although there is a considerable varia- tive and comparable with the rest of the world. However, tion between countries. For example, Morocco spends 3.5 broadband costs continue to be beyond the reach for most times its GDP on ICT than Nigeria. Africans. Furthermore, when differences in GDP are taken into account as compared to global benchmarks, Africa has improved its relative share of foreign direct in- Africans pay even more owing to the lower GDP base. vestment (FDI) over the past two decades, albeit from a The ITU’s ICT price basket analysis details the extent of small base. From 1995 to 2010, Africa’s FDI inflows grew the gap: for mobile cellular calls, Africans pay on aver- at 16 per cent compared with 11 per cent for develop- age 25 per cent of monthly gross national income (GNI) ing world counterparts, and 9 per cent globally. Further- per capita versus 11 per cent in other developing nations. more, Africa’s perception as an investment destination, On the other hand, the story of mobile penetration across including ICT, has improved tremendously in the past the continent is far better than the internet. Overall, 45 few years, according to Ernst and Young’s Africa attrac- per cent of African residents have a mobile subscription; tiveness survey. opportunities in Africa competitiveness ICT 9.3 and challenges The continent is primed to continue its momentum in the Areas where these opportunities can be capitalized are ICT sector. Continent-wide opportunities include: with eCommerce, microwork, and the establishment of ICT parks. These areas not only already have a relatively • increasing industrialization of the ICT industry, strong presence throughout Africa, but multinational firms are increasingly looking to Africa to leverage these • greater fragmentation and differentiation within software, areas for greater efficiencies and productivity. • continued growth of the business process offshoring sector, The most prevalent challenges across the continent to fully move forward in these business areas are infrastruc- • leveraging open source software adoption, which has ture, energy constraints and the ICT skills gap (compared lowered barriers to entry for firms, and to other parts of the world), which impacts users as well as the pool of available, skilled labour for firms wanting • encouraging greater intra-Africa FDI to allow sharing to do business in Africa. These challenges are further out­ of solutions already proven on the continent. lined in a few case studies throughout the study. 150 case studies in Africa competitiveness ICT 9.4 Three nations that are emerging in the area of ICT are each of these nations’ opportunities and roadblocks are Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria. Case studies which outline included in the study. Some of these insights are as follows. Kenya The Kenya ICT Board (KICTB), the implementation • KenCall is the first independent Kenya based company arm for ICT policy in Kenya, focuses on action-oriented that provides a full suite of BPO services from call cen- approaches to boost ICT including partnerships with tre functions to supply chain management (in partner- MNCs. The board’s eGovernment initiatives have at- ship with Seven Seas). tempted to replicate best-in-class Ethiopian and US eGovernment systems to streamline public service deliv- • The third major BPO player is Horizon, which has ery. In addition, the KICTB’s public-private partnership carved out a niche in IT maintenance and HR provision. initiatives (PPPs) have enhanced self-sustaining devel- opment projects and skill building initiatives around the The emergence of these three players on the Kenyan local country. The board is now focused on closing other gaps ICT landscape is important as it offers proof of concept of such as rural connectivity, lagging business process out- Kenya as a potential global hub for specialized ICT services. sourcing (BPO) performance relative to global providers, content exports, and enabling ICT in the private sector Kenya is unique in that a single, non-government owned beyond mobile finance. operator, Safaricom, dominates the market, with a 70 per cent and 92 per cent share of mobile and internet sub- Kenya has made great strides in ICT development in the scriptions respectively (CCK, 2nd Quarter). This market past few years and is now considered to be a leader within dominance has enabled Safaricom to launch initiatives Africa. The government’s focus on developing an ICT-en- that have rapidly changed the cadence of Kenyan ICT at abled country has contributed to development of a robust a retail level. Most notable is the ubiquity of Safaricom’s ICT landscape. Science, technology and innovation (STI) mobile payments platform, M-PESA, that has served as a are core pillars of Kenya’s Vision 2030 plan. Through STI foundation for eCommerce and mobile BPO companies initiatives, the Kenyan government intends to raise pro- like Virtual City and Seven Seas. With a widespread and ductivity and efficiency through increased resource allo- common platform for sending and receiving payments, cation to scientific research penetration. barriers for eCommerce have come down from both a vendor and purchaser perspective. Within the BPO sector, three players have risen to the top as full service BPO providers: A difficult but important task is to change Kenya’s image on the international stage as the perception of corrupt • DDD Kenya is a data entry and back office services practices at both corporate and government levels has provider backed by US philanthropic organizations stymied the inflow of international capital. Kenya has re- that train disadvantaged Kenyan youths to play an ac- cently implemented policies ensuring accountability and tive role in the BPO sector. transparency across both political and business mediums 151 but should also focus on acquiring credibility through Another constraint for Kenya is its lack of reliable data partnerships with international organizations with trust- centres and general infrastructure. This has led to higher ed brand equity. In the same vein, the government needs costs for software-as-a-service (SaaS) or “on-demand� to relax labour restrictions on Kenyan businesses so that offerings. Research suggests that the largest constraint the private sector can achieve scale through international within the East African region is the existence of afford- trade. The Kenyan Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) was able and sustainable ICT infrastructure, implying that the created to provide a single corporate voice for Kenya so existing infrastructure is neither cost effective, nor scal- that dialogue with government could add more value. It is able. Although current mobile penetration rates are over currently managing a number of projects and initiatives, 60 per cent and growing rapidly, Kenya’s internet penetra- including a US$15m programme on Youth Employment tion rate remains low at about 15 per cent, attributed to that has created 700 internships to date. KEPSA has been limited cable installation in rural areas. Also, constant particularly praised for its systematic approach to setting power outages as well as hardware security risks have and monitoring key performance indicators to track pro- constrained overall productivity. gramme objectives. Table 9.1 Kenya roadblocks and pathways to success Roadblocks Pathways Examples of success as a motivator: Raise profile of tech successes in Kenya, continue to attract high value competitions to make income generation Small pool of qualified young tech graduates: Limits pool of talent to potential of tech tangible enable scale in existing companies, reduces likelihood of breakout tech entrepreneurial ventures Additional rigor of university level ICT programmes: International standards applied to University technology curricula Lower cost of failure via fellowships and development programmes: De-couple professional and personal success High cost to entrepreneurship: Reduces tendency of talent to move into young innovative ventures Implement guarantees for small business AR: Reduction of cash conversion cycle, starting with most reliable payers serves to improve small business cash management and prospects Conduct joint initiatives between international bodies and local Low perception of quality and trust in Kenyan businesses: Kenyan companies Boost credibility through partnerships businesses must be "that much better" to succeed, limits tendency to execute large, outside of network, initiatives Implement counterparty verification: Objective assessment of risk of doing business with reviewed counterparties Limited exposure to foreign innovations and markets: Few beyond Increase pathways to foreign exposure: Support efforts to inroduce foreign Diaspora benefiting from innovations developed elsewhere and bringing experts to Kenya and vice versa international perspective Collaboration with governments to dialog on labor policy: Initiate conver- sation between business leaders and government on specific areas for labor Unclear government policy and protectionist tendencies: Strict labor policy improvement policies reducing ability to do business internationally and benefit from scale Central policy clearinghouse and interpretation: Develop hub for dissemi- nation of easily understood policy information 152 Morocco In Morocco, the Government has created two different providers offering affordable prepaid and subscription public bodies along with an ICT federation to facili- based telecoms services and mobile phone setup time tate development, research and legislature in the sector. takes less than five minutes as SIM registration is current- The Moroccan Telecommunications Regulatory Agency ly not required. The confluence of low cost, easy access (ANRT) is in charge of granting telecom licences, imple- and relatively high GDP per capita of about US$5,000 has menting ICT framework and supporting development led to a country with one of the highest penetration levels and research in the sector. Although not solely created for on the continent. the ICT sector, the Ministry of Finances and Privatization plays a large role in the ICT sector by preparing tax and To become a global hub, Morocco cannot sequester it- finance law to aid the ICT sector as well as to create value self from continental exposure; it must open knowledge added services in the field of eGovernment. and economic pathways into Sub-Saharan Africa and the world. One way to do this is by hosting international ICT The local ICT sector in Morocco is largely concentrated symposiums and engagements. The country also needs in the outsourcing (BPO), advisory, and infrastructure to focus on becoming a research and development des- space though there is a strong concentration of content tination and unlock some of the value hidden in its uni- and solutions developers. In fact, over two hundred versities. To achieve this, the country should borrow best technology and BPO focused companies operate from practices from Israel, which was able to boost its research technology complexes in Casablanca and Rabat and four capabilities in part by loosening constraints on the com- additional complexes around the country are in develop- mercialization of technology developed in universities by ment stages. offering professors a greater share of any realized profits. Another educational initiative that Morocco should fo- There are over five major telecommunications companies cus on is increasing support for government programmes serving the domestic space in Morocco. This high level to enhance digital literacy. In 2008, only 20 per cent of of competition has led to a high quality of phone and in- public schools in Morocco had computer labs and equip- ternet service at affordable prices with internet penetra- ment to enable greater digital literacy and a tech-compe- tion nearing 50 per cent, mobile penetration eclipsing tent labour force. ICT adoption and uptake have a greater 100 per cent, and the average cost of broadband ranging chance of success if the population has had ICT exposure from US$15 to US$30 per month. Further, the Moroccan during seminal stages of education. government’s action to reduce trade restrictions for IT equipment has helped to lower prices for enterprise Despite the rapid pace of technology adoption among grade networking hardware and retail devices. In 2009, the Moroccan population and accelerated development Morocco joined the WTO Information Technology of local businesses through government partnerships, Agreement (ITA) that removed all tariff barriers to IT Morocco faces high hurdles to developing into an ICT products. In addition to reduced hardware costs, the hub that maximizes the likelihood of scale among locally strong brick and mortar retail presence of telecoms pro- developed companies. Utilization and locally developed viders has also helped to boost telecoms penetration content has not yet been maximized as the majority of by lowering barriers to access. In fact, in most major Moroccans are still adapting to using technology for more travel hubs (train stations and airports), there are several than just checking basic email and making phone calls. 153 Table 9.2 Morocco roadblocks and pathways to success Roadblocks Pathways Knowledge exchange events in sub-Saharan Africa: Use education as a Limited exposure to sub-Saharan Africa: Limits extent to wich Morocco means to open up markets and support other African countries serves as a continental leader and scope of market access for domestic tech companies International partnerships and engagement in continental symposiums: Leverage opportunities for in person meetings with potential partners Lower barriers to University researcher participation in upside to com- Lack of research and development commercialization: Top talent largely in mercialization: Leverage Silicon Valley and Israel models to tech research Universities with limited ability to commercialize technology acceleration Opportunity for greater exposure of top technology talent to non-Africa Expand exchange programmes to include greater diversity of Morocco innovation hubs: Current exchange programmes limited to only a few (age and sector) and increase number of people who are able to attend participants (ex. Only 20 in South Korea exchange) Increase familiarity with technology at a young age: Provide continued Limited utilization of technology by broad population beyond basic support to educational initiatives (ICT as a right not a privilege) services: Adoption in schools still in transition period with some push-back from teachers. Few popular organically developed websites. Limited use of Provide greater support to very young, innovative companies: Offer mobile and purely online payments stepping stone incubators to support companies not yet prepared to enter techno-parks Nigeria In 2008, the Nigerian government in coordination with create a new set of mobile entrepreneurs and new busi- the World Bank began implementing an integrated ness models with strong value realization in a market personnel and payroll information system (IPPIS) to of over 90 million mobile subscribers, a large segment decrease fraud and increase accountability in payroll of whom remain unbanked. The impressive growth re- administration and HR recording. Some estimates say corded in the Nigerian telecommunications market has the technological implementation has already saved 12 unfortunately been challenged by criminal activity and billion Naira (US$120 million) solely in the pilot phase as such, the success of the mobile payments sector ap- by eliminating “ghost workers� or fraudulent payees on peals to many Nigerians as it provides a cost-effective the payroll. Nigeria has also recently partnered with solution to authenticate payments and reduce the over­ Intel to increase access to rural healthcare and boost all risk of theft. Effective mobile payment companies delivery systems via ICT related to health care pro­ have provided the Nigerian population with an inno- viders. Multiple stakeholders including ethnic leaders, vative and detailed payment management process that the Ministry of Health, Intel executives and participat- covers the entire scope of the value chain across all the ing hardware and software vendors have come together participants in the mobile payment system. The recent to increase productivity and the IT presence in rural focus on initiatives and licensing opportunities in both areas. the mobile and financial industry on mobile banking and payment services has driven a number of compa- In recent years, a number of entrepreneurial companies nies to develop innovative mobile payment solutions to throughout Nigeria have realized the potential oppor- transform Nigeria’s banking landscape. tunity within the mobile payments space, which could 154 Nigeria needs first and foremost to address its endemic tenders, offer financing, and share resources to tackle power issue, one that if left unaddressed will keep not this problem. only the ICT industry but also the country in eco- nomic stasis. Even though Nigeria’s political leaders In addition to enhancing infrastructure, Nigeria needs have promised to solve the crises for years now, it is to focus on enabling its people with enterprise-scale de- still a huge barrier to growth. Multilaterals such as the velopment skills and literacy in ICT via educational ini- World Bank and African Development Bank should tiatives and dedicated training programmes for students galvanize sustainable energy and power experts, issue and business owners. Table 9.3 Nigeria roadblocks and pathways to success Roadblocks Pathways Mobile phones as digital gateway: Increased access to smart phones, mobile enabled web pages, mobile as information portal, mobile application Low digital literacy: Constrains ICT adoption and innovation at consumer monetization and commercial levels ICT education: Increased access to ICT in schools, dedicated training for students and business owners International leadership enabler: Mix of domestic and foreign managers, advisors, and directors Lack of exposure to external markets, few domestic forums: Reduces Exposure as a two way street: Expert exchange and learning trips, in visibility into new technology and scale of business country forums and incubators Online tech community portal: Development and networking tools for African tech skateholders Investment rather than aid: Low returns to early stage venture in Nigeria, but necessary for growth High barriers to business development: Little early stage capital, high cost of operation, high cost of failure Operating cost parity: Support for high cost of power, connectivity, and facilities Limited access to virtual payments: High non-banked population (80%) and Mobile money adoption: Support for regulation and encouragement of mobile limited means for online payment limits ability to automate for domestic needs money movement and interaction across banking and alternative systems Technology as a fraud reduction tool: Business automation to enable scale and increase intra business accountability via transparency Rampant fraud and msitrust: High levels of distrust within businesses and among partners, strong reliance on relationships rather than capabilities, Certification promotion: Objective certifications of ability and reliability international perception of risk among individuals and businesses to enable non relationship-based counter party verification 155 recommendations in Africa competitiveness ICT 9.5 Despite the successes and the roadblocks, there are develop to sustain and further grow the ICT sector. These specific, proven interventions that African nations can recommendations include: Recommendation 9.1 Reduce the cost of access for mobile and broadband Addressing the direct cost challenges will require improving the regulatory and competitive environments for opera- tors as well as better coordination in developing the infrastructure. There will be some negative near-term effects on the largest or incumbent players, since many of these interventions encourage increased competition. However, the improvement of the long-term outlook for the ICT sector should benefit operators by expanding the customer and business base for these services. One method is to encourage nimble billing approaches to lower end-user costs and drive up usage. Interventions may include allowing for longer periods of validity for pre-paid credit, enabling per second billing, nation-wide tariffs, low denomination recharges, and enabling discounts for “friends and family� networks. Regulators will have to own most of these initiatives. The nature of the underlying barriers is business competition and product design. That said, there is a potential role for donors to provide limited subsidies to jump start ICT usage in countries with high retail access costs. Recommendation 9.2 Support government/private-sector collaboration While government and the private sector may not agree on all issues, it is important that the two have an ongoing, structured dialogue. In order to ensure this, the first task would be to create a vehicle and the expectation for interac- tion between the two groups. The Kenya ICT Board is an example of this. Established five years ago to be the imple- mentation arm for ICT policy in Kenya, this board has played the role of mediator between the government and private sector and, more importantly, advocate for the sector and its advancement. Areas where such partnerships can create success include jointly develop and manage infrastructure projects, e.g. large broadband projects like EASSy and SEACOM. Governments can also spotlight private sectors on joint priorities to engage and attract donors and MNCs to promote the local BPO industry. 156 Recommendation 9.3 Improve the eCommerce environment Governments, the private sector and donors all play a role in improving the eCommerce environment. All three can set an example by themselves embracing eCommerce in their own operations, by engaging in online (mobile) procure- ment practices and creating incentives for companies to go online. Other methods include launching communication campaigns to promote eCommerce, adopt model eContracting/transactions and eSignature legislation for a region, develop data and electronic security laws to include data protection and develop online consumer/supplier protection laws including IP sections. Recommendation 9.4 Improve ICT worker skill levels African countries need to continue to invest strongly in education as the complexity and competition for vendors in the arena is increasing. Human capital is a weakness for most African countries and BPO success is largely predicated on reliable talent. Owing to intense global competition in virtually every segment of the BPO value chain, African countries need to delineate exactly where they would like to participate (medical transcription, coding, billing), build up relevant experience in these niche areas, and improve infrastructure to execute seamlessly. Methods to develop skills amongst the local population include supporting broad primary and secondary education efforts, customizing tertiary schooling efforts to reflect greater context of business and supporting technical skills de- velopment through incubators and the private sector. For example, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda have all established networks and academies to advance BPO skills and capabilities, including BPO certifications supporting global standards. Nigeria has established the BPO Academy and the Association of Outsourcing Practitioners of Nigeria. In Uganda, the School of Uganda’s Makerere University, a leading computing school in East Africa, has collaborated with Orion Outsource World and the African BPO Academy to offer a training programme focused on skills to work for global BPO firms and ultimately qualify students for the BPO Certification Institute’s (BCI) globally accredited certification. The programme is currently aiming to train 3,000 young Ugandans. Donors can provide both technical and financial support to design and implement these initiatives. Recommendation 9.5 Encourage innovative business models that drive employment, such as microwork Microwork represents the promise of ICT as an enabler of broad economic impact. This is possible due to the disag- gregation of complex problems into work products that can be addressed by a variety of skill levels and the ability to leverage the relatively well-distributed mobile phone as a work interface. Tactics to encourage microwork can be divided into both the demand side and the Supply-side. Demand side tactics include expanding the number of business issues that can be addressed through microwork, creating a marketplace for retail/individuals for microwork-related solutions, and creating an internal demand for microwork from local African governments or large corporations. Supply side tactics include addressing the standard basket of ICT SME challenges (e.g. technical skills of the microworker), as many of the issues will be similar for the microworker, creating standards on workflow management to allow for interchangeability between the various players in the value chain, and creating voice-enabled interfaces to expand the labour pool of microworkers. The standard setting exercise would be a particu- larly critical area for donor involvement, as the standards would need to be continent-wide, if not world-wide, to drive transformative business impact and visibility for this sector. 157 Likewise, the BPO opportunity is large but highly competitive. Even operating in the right business environment and maintaining strong BPO fundamentals, there are industry pitfalls that need to be avoided for African BPO companies to survive. An example of a pitfall is BPO firms locking in long-term unprofitable deals in a reaction to the intense competition, thereby dooming the partnership to ultimately fail. The large amount of upfront cash investment required for large BPO deals often causes vendors to increase capacity very quickly, putting them into a situation with excess capacity. Although these pitfalls are substantial, there are enough methods and experience in the marketplace so that with the right due diligence a firm can avoid them. There may be a role for the donor community to disseminate these business decision best practices to BPO players on the continent. Recommendation 9.6 Create ICT parks in countries that meet infrastructure requirements The development of the ICT sector has been proven to contribute heavily to the growth of a nation’s GDP and, there- fore, expanding that investment in developing countries in Africa would be a strong initiative for the continent and its future growth. Not all countries, however, are poised to successfully implement, operate and sustain an ICT park. However, there are common success factors across the most successful parks from which countries can learn as they determine their own viability to establish a park. Some of these success factors include park organizers having very clear and concise plans to address and mitigate the critical barriers of lack of sponsorship, availability of skilled labour, weak university curricula, infrastructure challenges and programme leadership. Successful parks are, furthermore, located in countries or sub-regions where literacy rates and Human Development Index (HDI) ratings are high, have relatively stable governments and have the right balance of both government and private sector interest and sponsorship. The location of an ICT park is also quite crucial in supporting these success criteria. For example, the proposed Konza City in Kenya is being built 60 km from Nairobi, on the opposite side of the perennially crowded central business district from the airport. At the same time, it is building the infrastructure improvements to ensure that this is not a bottleneck, e.g. independent power supply incorporating green elements, water management and a mass-transit trans- portation model. Clearly, governments have been the primary drivers behind these efforts, which is appropriate given the scale of the operational and regulatory challenge. The donor community can be helpful in sharing best-practices and providing access to finance to develop the projects (e.g. IFC, AfDB, other development banks). Recommendation 9.7 Support ICT entrepreneurs Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria have established themselves in the ICT marketplace, and, although there are still many challenges that each nation faces, they have successfully advanced their journey to offer best practice to their fellow African nations. In particular, all three have removed roadblocks and created pathways for ICT entrepreneurs to be successful from which others may learn. One example is overcoming the high cost to entrepreneurship, which reduces the tendency for talent to move into in- novative ventures. A solution to this includes reducing that cost by decoupling business and personal success through the creation of fellowships and business development programmes. Another challenge is the perceived lack of quality and trust in African business. However, through the creation of joint initiatives with local companies and partnerships with international bodies, this too can be overcome. The donor community can support these programmes through both financial and technical assistance. 158 further reading in Africa competitiveness ICT c Calandro, E. and Moyo, M. (2011) “Models and strategies for ICT Infrastructure investment in selected African countries: a regulatory perspective� http://www.researchictafrica.net/publications/CPRafrica_2011_-_Presentations/Calandro_-_Moyo_-_Models_and_strategies_for_ICT_Infrastructure_ investment_in_selected_African_countries_-_a_regulatory_perspective.pdf Boateng, R. Molla, A., Heeks, R. and Hinson, R. (2011) “Advancing e-commerce beyond readiness in a developing economy: experiences of Ghanaian firms� Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, Vol 9, No. 1, pp 1-16 http://www.igi-global.com/article/advancing-commerce-beyond-readiness-developing/49645 Ernst & Young (2011) It’s Time for Africa: Ernst & Young’s 2011 Africa Attractiveness Survey http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/2011_-_Africa_Attractiveness_Survey/$FILE/Attractiveness_africa_low_resolution_final_WEB.pdf The Excelsior Firm (2011) Transforming the ICT Sector by Creating a Business Engine for SMEs InfoDev http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.1040.html Sudan, R., Ayers, S., Dongier, P., Muente-Kunigami, A., and Qiang, C. (2010) The Global Opportunity in IT-Based Services: Assessing and Enhancing Country Competitiveness The World Bank http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/Resources/Global_Opportunity_IT_ Based_Services.pdf UNCTAD (2011) Information Economy Report 2011: ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development United Nations Conference on Trade and Development http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ier2011_en.pdf For a more detailed presentation on ICT competitiveness in Africa, see the full eTransform Africa theme report: http://www.etransformafrica.org 159 Statistical annex mobile broadband C M To om ob ta M (% po A ile To lb ob Fi un GR ta br xe ro (C ile of M ff (U l oa d )2 ta ad d- M M (pe ob S ce GN An 0 ri db br ob ob r ba ile $ p llu I oa su nu 05 an nd ile ile 10 la pe ce er db bs al 11 d rp r Su Su 0 p su llu m su G an cr re cap bs bs e o bs ro (in la on bs – d ibe pa it r p th w % cr cr ple cr cr In rs th ) id a) ip ip ) ip ip re ) te tio tio tio tio Ra ta pa rn rif ns ns ns ns et id te f 2005 2011 2005 2011 2005 2010 2005 2010 2010 2010 2010 � Algeria 13,661,355 28,229,835 15.6% 41.54 78.46 17.48 12.49 7.71 3.42 900,000 -- 900,000 Angola 1,611,118 11,443,293 48.0% 9.77 58.33 -- 19.24 -- 5.82 20,000 873,216 893,216 Benin 596,267 7,074,914 85.6% 7.81 79.94 22.35 13.04 47.05 20.00 3,569 -- 3,569 Botswana 563,782 2,933,000 39.1% 30.06 144.43 -- 13.16 -- 2.35 11,978 116,817 128,795 Burkina Faso 633,554 7,246,000 62.8% 4.46 42.70 23.66 21.20 72.81 46.25 14,193 -- 14,193 Burundi 153,000 2,149,212 69.6% 2.11 25.06 -- -- -- -- 200 0 200 Cameroon 2,252,508 10,623,000 36.4% 12.83 53.03 30.98 20.07 39.98 20.10 1,000 -- 1,000 Cape Verde 81,721 371,871 46.1% 17.28 74.97 34.48 41.64 -- -- 15,971 -- 15,971 Central African Republic 100,000 736,000 64.7% 2.49 16.72 -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 Chad 210,000 3,968,922 80.0% 2.15 34.44 -- 15.35 -- 29.81 150 -- 150 Comoros 15,523 244,463 73.6% 2.41 32.45 -- 24.25 -- -- 150 -- 150 Congo, Dem. Rep. 2,746,094 9,095,000 34.9% 4.78 13.79 -- -- -- -- 8,673 -- 8,673 Congo, Rep. 558,192 3,885,000 47.4% 15.80 93.85 -- -- -- -- 124 0 124 Côte d’Ivoire 2,349,439 17,041,000 48.6% 13.04 84.56 45.03 13.61 62.11 14.07 7,900 -- 7,900 � Egypt, Arab Rep. 12,828,000 80,389,817 44.3% 17.29 97.40 11.12 7.02 10.68 3.47 1,449,904 4,988,001 6,437,905 Equatorial Guinea 96,900 403,000 42.8% 15.94 57.57 -- -- -- -- 1,186 -- 1,186 Eritrea 40,438 185,275 46.3% 0.90 3.53 -- -- -- -- 118 -- 118 Ethiopia 410,630 10,526,190 91.3% 0.55 12.42 -- 4.10 -- 12.62 4,107 442,997 447,104 Gabon 736,690 2,533,000 28.0% 53.74 165.10 -- -- -- -- 4,082 -- 4,082 Gambia, The 247,478 1,478,347 56.3% 16.46 85.50 -- -- -- -- 350 9,229 9,579 Ghana 2,874,560 21,165,843 49.1% 13.28 84.78 16.18 7.37 42.21 7.10 50,082 201,000 251,082 Guinea 189,000 4,731,000 90.4% 2.09 46.28 -- 4.13 -- 12.30 500 -- 500 Guinea-Bissau 98,825 869,000 54.5% 7.23 56.17 -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 Kenya 5,329,000 28,080,771 39.4% 14.96 67.49 21.07 10.78 48.63 16.00 4,155 1,405,814 1,409,969 Lesotho 249,786 961,000 40.1% 12.09 44.27 -- 24.14 -- 26.53 400 62,942 63,342 Liberia 160,000 1,677,000 60.0% 5.03 40.62 -- -- -- -- 186 -- 186 � Libya 2,000,000 10,900,000 52.8% 34.66 171.52 -- -- -- -- 72,800 2,714,269 2,787,069 Madagascar 510,269 7,711,721 97.2% 2.85 37.23 21.82 15.43 87.27 42.98 5,359 157,190 162,549 Malawi 421,163 4,050,000 57.3% 3.28 26.33 -- 21.24 -- 77.09 5,120 23,189 28,309 Mali 761,986 10,940,000 70.4% 5.78 69.07 33.90 14.44 104.30 28.80 2,314 99,924 102,238 Mauritania 745,615 2,961,000 31.8% 24.47 83.61 -- 14.62 -- 17.52 6,624 -- 6,624 Mauritius 656,828 1,190,900 16.0% 52.83 92.97 6.57 6.84 1.47 1.04 79,227 194,360 273,587 Mayotte -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 � Morocco 12,392,805 36,554,000 24.2% 40.78 113.27 32.99 33.10 20.20 13.94 498,682 3,321,325 3,820,007 Mozambique 1,503,943 5,947,000 41.0% 7.24 25.43 -- 16.95 -- 46.36 14,633 347,097 361,730 Namibia 448,857 2,549,392 41.5% 21.58 109.70 26.30 17.01 9.56 4.52 9,640 135,066 144,706 160 mobile broadband C M To om ob ta M (% po A ile To lb ob Fi un GR ta br xe ro (C ile of M ff (U l oa d )2 ta ad d- M M (pe ob S ce GN An 0 ri db br ob ob r ba ile $ p llu I oa su nu 05 an nd ile ile 10 la pe ce er db bs al 11 d rp r Su Su 0 p su llu m su G an cr re cap bs bs e o bs ro (in la on bs – d ibe pa it r p th w % cr cr ple cr cr In rs th ) id a) ip ip ) ip ip re ) te tio tio tio tio Ra ta pa rn rif ns ns ns ns et id te f 2005 2011 2005 2011 2005 2010 2005 2010 2010 2010 2010 Niger 323,853 3,664,000 83.4% 2.49 23.62 27.15 20.81 125.32 67.46 3,707 -- 3,707 Nigeria 18,587,000 95,167,308 38.6% 13.29 58.58 25.76 13.74 49.06 13.37 99,108 4,783,403 4,882,511 Rwanda 222,978 4,304,532 80.8% 2.42 39.34 21.82 13.92 96.98 32.08 2,640 420,593 423,233 São Tomé and Principe 11,953 102,700 71.2% 7.83 62.24 -- 12.72 -- -- 582 -- 582 Senegal 1,730,106 9,384,300 40.2% 15.91 73.50 25.83 12.68 38.74 14.11 78,647 232,309 310,956 Seychelles 58,806 126,635 21.1% 70.94 145.56 -- 15.90 -- -- 6,278 4,938 11,216 Sierra Leone -- 2,000,000 -- -- 34.09 15.84 -- -- -- -- 5,749 5,749 Somalia 500,000 3,236,332 45.3% 5.98 33.86 -- -- -- -- -- -- 0 South Africa 33,959,958 64,613,000 13.7% 71.95 127.73 24.68 23.26 6.11 4.59 743,000 8,097,586 8,840,586 *Sudan 1,827,940 22,517,000 65.2% 4.76 50.45 9.00 -- -- -- 164,500 2,027,225 2,191,725 Swaziland 200,000 834,000 33.1% 19.66 78.11 -- 24.17 14,16 9.91 1,626 -- 1,626 Tanzania 2,964,000 25,666,455 54.0% 7.63 55.53 17.01 9.69 52.35 21.56 3,150 1,032,697 1,035,847 Togo 433,635 2,452,433 54.2% 8.02 40.68 29.29 19.90 103.37 48.73 3,852 -- 3,852 � Tunisia 5,680,726 11,300,401 14.7% 56.64 105.87 11.49 10.00 4.31 2.88 481,810 109,611 591,421 Uganda 1,315,300 14,676,505 62.0% 4.63 42.53 14.41 12.20 57.63 29.28 54,804 239,628 294,432 Zambia 949,559 7,308,000 50.4% 8.28 54.23 21.23 16.85 50.95 18.95 10,267 -- 10,267 Zimbabwe 647,110 7,500,000 84.5% 5.15 59.66 6.00 20.49 16.37 53.48 33,000 433,312 466,312 North Africa Sub-Total 46,562,886 167,374,053 30.38 99.69 14.49 11.25 9.20 3.45 3,403,196 11,133,206 14,536,402 Sub-Saharan Africa 91,085,364 448,325,314 12.14 57.10 22.09 14.98 50.01 19.48 1,477,152 21,346,281 22,823,433 Sub-Total Africa Total 137,648,250 615,699,367 15.24 59.26 21.82 14.53 47.84 16.76 4,880,348 32,479,487 37,359,835 Notes � North African countries. 2010 data is in white. * Data for 2005 and 2010 refer to the former country of Sudan before the independence of South Sudan in July 2011. Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions refers to the number of subscriptions to a public mobile-telephone service. Mobile-cellular prepaid tariff refers to the price of a standard basket of mobile monthly usage for 30 outgoing calls per month (on-net, off-net, to a fixed line and for peak and off-peak times) in predetermined ratios, plus 100 SMS messages. It is based on the 2009 methodology of the OECD low-user basket. Fixed broadband subscriptions refers to subscriptions to high-speed access to the public Internet (a TCP/IP connection), at downstream speeds equal to, or greater than, 256 kbit/s. Mobile broadband subscriptions are the sum of the number of subscriptions using the following technologies: CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, LTE and mobile WiMAX. Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database, ictData.org, Wireless Intelligence, and World Bank. 161 About the authors Deloitte Excelsior Deloitte (www.deloitte.com) refers to one or more of The Excelsior Firm (www.excelsiorfirm.com) is a New Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private com- York and Nairobi-based capital advisory and research pany limited by guarantee, and its network of member organization focused on opportunities in business and firms, each of which is a legally separate and indepen- infrastructure growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Excelsior dent entity. With a network of member firms in over 140 identifies specific opportunities in high growth sectors countries, Deloitte provides audit, tax, consulting, and such as information and communication technology, financial advisory services to public and private clients health care, infrastructure and real estate, and agribusi- spanning multiple industries. ness, and links private and public sector partners with expertise and financing to successfully execute projects Omri Van Zyl, a lawyer by education, is a Director in and scale up medium and large companies. Deloitte SA and specializes in strategy consulting assign- ments. Agriculture is a focus area for Omri. Javier Ewing, Founding Partner and Managing Director, is a recognized expert on both ICTs and entrepreneur- Kamal K Mukherjee, formerly in Indian Forest Services, is ship. Mr. Ewing is an experienced investment advisor, a management consultant of over 17 years, and specializes with over a decade of experience leading capital advisory, in eGovernance and ICT for Development. capital placement, and strategic review projects in the public sector/PPP, telecommunications, infrastructure Liezl De Graaf, an entrepreneurial and innovation spe- and financial services sectors, in Africa, North America, cialist with a legal background, focuses on new solution Europe, and the Asia/Pacific Region. development for Deloitte. She is a manager in the firm’s management consulting practice. Patricia Alexander is an Associate Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa in the School of IT. Her research interests are the adoption and use of tech- nology in organizations of all kinds. 162 ict  Development Associates The International Institute for Sustainable Development ict Development Associates is a UK-based consultan- cy which brings together independent experts from The International Institute for Sustainable Development different continents to address issues of ICT policy (IISD) (www.iisd.org) is a Canadian-based, public policy and regulation as well as the relationship between ICTs research institute that has a long history of conducting and development, environment, governance and other cutting-edge research into sustainable development. public policy issues. Ben Akoh, an IISD associate, has a rich background in David Souter is the managing director of ict Development using media and information and communications tech- Associates, which he founded in 2003, and has over 20 nologies (ICTs) as tools for change. years' experience in ICT policy, regulation and develop- ment issues. He is visiting professor in communications Heather Creech, adjunct professor and consultant, fo- management at the University of Strathclyde and a senior cuses her research on how communications technology visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Po- supports and changes how society organizes its governing litical Science. systems, economies and cultures in unprecedented ways. Lishan Adam is an ICT consultant and researcher based Jo-Ellen Parry, Deputy Director of IISD’s Climate Change in Ethiopia, with over 20 years' experience focused on and Energy programme, specializes in adaptation to the ICT policy and regulatory reform, e-applications and effects of climate change, giving particular attention to is- NREN development in developing countries. sues and responses in developing countries. Neil Butcher is an educational technology specialist Livia Bizikova, with a PhD in Economic Forestry, has an based in South Africa with over 20 years of experience extensive research background on sustainable develop- working in a wide range of developing country contexts ment and climate change and has performed recent work in Africa and beyond. on scenario analyses and capacity-building. Abiodun Jagun is an expert in ICT policy, regulation and Julie Karami, a Project Manager for IISD’s Climate economic development, with a particularly strong focus Change and Energy programme, focuses her research on on sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently a special assistant disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change. to the Hon. Minister of Communication Technology in Nigeria. Anne Hammill is Program Leader in Adaptation and Risk Reduction. Much of her work focuses on under- Murali Shanmugavelan has 15 years' experience in re- standing how better environmental management can search, policy and practice of media, communication and build resilience to climate stress and contribute to peace ICTs in development, and is a director of Maple Consult- building. ing Services. He is currently researching effects of com- munication practices on marginalised communities at Phil Gass, Project Manager with the Climate Change and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Energy programme, specializes in climate change and energy policy at the sub-national and national level in Claire Sibthorpe is a director at Maple Consulting Ser- North America and international developments within vices, with over 15 years of experience in managing and the UNFCCC process. implementing projects and programmes. She specialises in ICT for development, education and capacity building Daniella Echeverría, Research Assistant for IISD’s Cli- initiatives. mate Change and Energy programme. Her research fo- cuses primarily on adaptation to climate change in de- F. F. Tusubira, currently the chief executive officer of the veloping countries, as well as complementary work in the UbuntuNet Alliance, is a telecommunications engineer Canadian Prairies. who is actively involved in ICT policy and regulation and ICT for development within Africa. 163 Vital Wave EDITORS Vital Wave Consulting (www.vitalwaveconsulting.com) Enock Yonazi is a Principal Telecommunications Engi- accelerates revenue growth in emerging markets through neer in the Transport & ICT Department of the African end-to-end commercialization services, with a focus on Development Bank. He acted as task-Team leader for technology as a business enabler. As a recognized leader the African Development Bank team for this report. in emerging-market business consulting, the company He worked previously at East African Community as engages multinational corporations and development Senior Engineer Planner responsible for the communica- organizations to design, promote and create business tions sector. solutions across a range of industries in diverse global markets. Dr Tim Kelly is a Lead ICT Policy Specialist in the ICT Sector Unit of the World Bank. He acted as task-Team Nam Mokwunye, a technology and telecommunica- leader for the World Bank team for this report. He worked tions professional with experience throughout West and previously at infoDev, ITU and OECD and has written logy East Africa, is Vital Wave Consulting’s senior techno­ widely on the topic of ICT economics. transfer consultant focused on health technology for emerging markets. Naomi Halewood is an ICT Policy Specialist with the ICT Sector Unit of the World Bank. She focuses on policy, Bethany Murphy Gomez is an international market re- operations, and analytical work for the telecommunica- searcher with a background in health, education and pro- tions and ICT for transformation practice areas. gramme evaluation and experience in analytical writing, statistical analysis, econometrics and research design. Dr Colin Blackman is Director of Camford Associates (www.camfordassociates.com), a consultancy specializ- Rick Doerr, an international research professional with ing in policy impacts of ICTs. He is also the Editor of info: a background in technology business development and the journal of policy, regulation and strategy for telecom- emerging market technology consulting, has worked munications, information and media, and was formerly extensively on issues related to mobile health in the de­ Editor of Telecommunications Policy. veloping world. Scott Stefanski is an entrepreneurial market strategist and product developer with over 10 years of success ad- vising entrepreneurs, corporations, and investors in de- veloping successful start-up operations and new software products and services. He has been engaged in numerous projects aimed at delivering mobile financial services, de- veloping mobile social networking applications and in- creasing financial inclusion in emerging markets. Andrea Bohnstedt is the managing director and pu­ blisher of Ratio Magazine, an online East Africa business magazine, and www.africa-assets.com, a website focused on private equity and venture capital in Sub-Saharan Africa. She also works as a country risk analyst. 164 © 2012 All Rights Reserved World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington, DC 20433, USA Tel: (+1) 202 473 1000 Fax: (+1) 202 477 6391 Website: www.worldbank.org African Development Bank AfDB Temporary Relocation Agency (Tunis) 15 Avenue du Ghana P.O.Box 323-1002 Tunis-Belvedère, Tunisia Tel: (+216) 71 10 39 00 Website: www.afdb.org AIN REPORT www.eTransformAfrica.org Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the potential to transform business and government in Africa, driving entrepre- neurship, innovation and economic growth. This new flagship report – eTransform Africa – produced by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, with the support of the African Union, identifies best practice in the use of ICTs in key sectors of the African economy. Under the theme “Transformation-Ready�, the growing contribution of ICTs to Agriculture, Climate Change Adaptation, Education, Finan- cial Services, Government Services and Health is explored. In addition, the report highlights the role of ICTs in enhancing African regional trade and integration as well as the need to build a competitive ICT industry to boost innovation, job creation and the export potential of African companies. eTransform AFRICA AFRICAN UNION