Each tile in Bill Gates’ kitchen costs $900, double the average annual income in Africa’s poorest countries. Diarrhea kills 3 million African children each year.
And now we’re told that the new best way to solve Africa’s problems is ICT (information & communication technology). Is there nothing Internet can’t do?
It was perhaps appropriate that the forum, ‘The Impact of ICT on Africa’, was organized by IFES, a Christian student organisation. Just as Christian crusaders in shining armor used to convert or kill unbelievers, today’s global techno-crusaders with their shiny hardware believe ICT can solve Africa’s problems.
IFES had invited three knowledgeable panelists to discuss this contentious issue: a Dutch civil servant specializing in developmental aid; a private sector capitalist working for an institute concerned with ‘sustainable business’; and an African academic from Tanzania. A small but intelligent audience was on hand and the meeting room’s dark, dank décor provided a suitably revolutionary atmosphere.
The forum should have been a success, yet it never really took off, ultimately posing more questions than it managed to answer.
Certainly, the charming though inept discussion leader didn’t help matters, failing to direct the speakers to the heart of the issues and only taking two quick questions from the audience. But, perhaps more significantly, the forum’s shortcomings seemed to reflect the general shortcomings of ICT as a quick-fix for Africa. While ICT hype is familiar to western ears, when applied to Africa, where massive infrastructure problems exist and millions die from Aids, malaria and dysentary, the hype and vague generalities not only sound patently ridiculous but are also disconcerting: Will the techno-crusader’s eventually convince governments and NGOs to divert already insufficient funds away from the vital and basic developmental aid programs that aim to eradicate poverty and improve education and infrastructure?
The sound-bites and blurbs say ‘ICT is a development tool to bridge the digital divide, ICT in Africa improves human welfare through capacity development, independent knowledge brokering, sustainable development based on local ownership…. ‘ Yet, the forum’s enduring question, never satisfactorily answered, remains: Given the killer epidemics and lack of basic infrastructure in most African countries, could we ever justify investing $5 million (or even five cents) in ICT, when it’ll simply benefit Africa’s wealthy business elite, and when that $5 million could be used instead to provide medicine, education, sanitation systems, clean drinking water, food…?
The private sector representative responded with an enthusiastic yes. The government representative and African academic, however, were cautiously optimistic, stressing that improving healthcare, building solid infrastructures and helping to create a skilled workforce is what Africa needs most. After all, ITC demands large amounts of money and a constant and reliable power source % two things Africa’s in very short supply of.
ICT, though, is the new, new thing, and one left this forum feeling that, ultimately, ICT projects will commandeer funds that were previously given to developmental aid projects that actually save African lives and build infrastructure. With the enthusiastic support of the World Bank combined with the West’s child-like excitement for expensive plastic things that go beep, it seems only a matter of time before the techno-crusaders get their way in Africa too.
Each tile in Bill Gates’ kitchen costs $900, double the average annual income in Africa’s poorest countries. Diarrhea kills 3 million African children each year. And now we’re told that the new best way to solve Africa’s problems is ICT (information & communication technology). Is there nothing Internet can’t do?
It was perhaps appropriate that the forum, ‘The Impact of ICT on Africa’, was organized by IFES, a Christian student organisation. Just as Christian crusaders in shining armor used to convert or kill unbelievers, today’s global techno-crusaders with their shiny hardware believe ICT can solve Africa’s problems.
IFES had invited three knowledgeable panelists to discuss this contentious issue: a Dutch civil servant specializing in developmental aid; a private sector capitalist working for an institute concerned with ‘sustainable business’; and an African academic from Tanzania. A small but intelligent audience was on hand and the meeting room’s dark, dank décor provided a suitably revolutionary atmosphere.
The forum should have been a success, yet it never really took off, ultimately posing more questions than it managed to answer.
Certainly, the charming though inept discussion leader didn’t help matters, failing to direct the speakers to the heart of the issues and only taking two quick questions from the audience. But, perhaps more significantly, the forum’s shortcomings seemed to reflect the general shortcomings of ICT as a quick-fix for Africa. While ICT hype is familiar to western ears, when applied to Africa, where massive infrastructure problems exist and millions die from Aids, malaria and dysentary, the hype and vague generalities not only sound patently ridiculous but are also disconcerting: Will the techno-crusader’s eventually convince governments and NGOs to divert already insufficient funds away from the vital and basic developmental aid programs that aim to eradicate poverty and improve education and infrastructure?
The sound-bites and blurbs say ‘ICT is a development tool to bridge the digital divide, ICT in Africa improves human welfare through capacity development, independent knowledge brokering, sustainable development based on local ownership…. ‘ Yet, the forum’s enduring question, never satisfactorily answered, remains: Given the killer epidemics and lack of basic infrastructure in most African countries, could we ever justify investing $5 million (or even five cents) in ICT, when it’ll simply benefit Africa’s wealthy business elite, and when that $5 million could be used instead to provide medicine, education, sanitation systems, clean drinking water, food…?
The private sector representative responded with an enthusiastic yes. The government representative and African academic, however, were cautiously optimistic, stressing that improving healthcare, building solid infrastructures and helping to create a skilled workforce is what Africa needs most. After all, ITC demands large amounts of money and a constant and reliable power source % two things Africa’s in very short supply of.
ICT, though, is the new, new thing, and one left this forum feeling that, ultimately, ICT projects will commandeer funds that were previously given to developmental aid projects that actually save African lives and build infrastructure. With the enthusiastic support of the World Bank combined with the West’s child-like excitement for expensive plastic things that go beep, it seems only a matter of time before the techno-crusaders get their way in Africa too.
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