Yesterday I heard a brutally honest assessment of rural ICT projects and their sustainability from the people who are meant to most benefit from these types of projects. The assessment came during a discussion forum at the "Science at the Summit" parallel event taking place at the CSIR, and the comments came from the residents of two rural villages in the Eastern Cape, Lubisi and Tsilitwa. The conclusion was that as far as sustainability goes, and particularly self-sustainability, the chances of success are very slim indeed.
The problem, as one headmaster pointed out, is that people don`t eat computers.
Alastair Otter, Journalist, ITWeb
Both projects were started with donor money, Canadian I believe, and were able to establish intriguing combinations of wind and solar power with wireless, GSM and satellite technology deep into the Eastern Cape mountains. This achievement alone deserves credit, but having got the computers there and having set up what amounts to a rural intranet, the project faces the even more difficult task of what to do with the computers, how to teach, and continue to teach, residents and what sort of information is of value to people who are illiterate and sustain themselves through small-scale farming.
The problem, as one headmaster pointed out, is that "people don`t eat computers" - a simple comment but one that struck home. It occurs to me, and I think many of the delegates at the discussion forum, that rural people being given access to the Internet and e-mail is all very well, but what people need now is food. If the computers make that possible, then well and good, but they aren`t really doing that, at least not yet.
Assuming, however, that people need and want the computers, a perhaps bigger question is what information is available to them. Is it, for example, appropriate to beam in the wonders of modern farming technology and the so-called benefits of genetically engineered seeds, to a community that has been farming using its own tried and tested methods for as long as anyone can remember? A visitor from Turkey made the point that it is important to "reinforce" the strengths of the community, rather than attempt to drag them into foreign methodologies.
Another concern raised was that residents who have been trained in the technology will inevitably leave the area in search of more lucrative work in the bigger towns and cities. Retaining these skills in the village are next to impossible.
What the CSIR`s rural ICT team has done is impressive, as are the many other projects that corporations and government roll-out regularly, but as far as sustainability goes, they could well be doomed. Particularly in the rural areas where obtaining food and water are a daily struggle, and unless computers deliver these in quantity, I fear the computers will rust away and nothing will have been achieved.
Clearly a lot more thought is needed on the issue of providing technology to people who have more pressing concerns, as much as we feel that they could benefit from them.
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