Nepad takes IT to schools across Africa

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 12 Jul 2007

E-schools are the New Partnership for Africa's Development's (Nepad) first tangible success, says Nepad Business Foundation (NBF) CEO Lynette Chen.

The project is rolling out IT and associated infrastructure to 120 schools in 16 countries - or six schools per nation.

Chen says implementation is complete in nine of the countries. "The project was very challenging but very instructive. Some of the schools are [in] deep rural [areas]," she adds, saying the required infrastructure took longer to install in some instances than initially anticipated.

"E-schools are an example of how business has been co-operating with the Nepad secretariat to deliver on a massive scale."

The initiative was launched in March 2003 and aims to see the digitisation of all of the estimated 600 000 schools in Africa by 2013. Chen says the project is fully sponsored by HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, AMD and their consortium partners, and shows businesses' commitment to the success of Africa in general and Nepad in particular.

Chen, who calls Nepad the socioeconomic delivery arm of the African Union, says the e-schools project aims to build IT capacity at school-level and describes the pilot phase as the test bed for "defining a blueprint for ICT education in Africa".

Although the consortia are all led by major IT players, Chen says the project has so far been technology agnostic. Implementation consists of providing the required hardware, software and connectivity to the school concerned - as well as electricity. Also catered for is IT training for teachers, curriculum content generation and computerised school administration systems.

Ernst & Young is evaluating the project's results and will develop a business plan and recommendations for African governments to expand the programme, she notes.

Sidelines

Chen, HP SA's head of government and public affairs, took on the NBF CEO's job just shy of a year ago. The section 21 company was established as a platform for business to understand and support Nepad. Chen says over 300 companies have already joined the NBF and are organised into 13 industry sectors, including ICT.

Despite Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade's recent accusation that Nepad was wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and achieving nothing for the poverty-stricken continent, Chen remains insistent that Nepad is relevant. She says the biggest obstacle the continent faces is scepticism and negativity.

"The European Union took decades to establish. Nepad, the social and economic delivery arm of the AU, has only been going for five years. I think the negativity and scepticism is unwarranted. There is massive foreign direct investment interest in Africa, and definitely much opportunity," she adds.

"Business is on board, but too many are still taking a wait-and-see approach," Chen chides, adding that "if you plan to stay in Africa, you need to make it work... it is in your own interest."