From peterb@orientation.com Sat May 12 15:29:08 2001 From: peterb@orientation.com (Peter Benjamin) Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 15:29:08 US/Eastern Subject: [Communitysa] CommUnity newsletter Message-ID: <200105121932.f4CJW0a05621@news1.orientation.com> Dear all, Here is the latest text version of the CommUnity newsletter. It has been sent (in paper form) to the 500 community ICT projects we know of in SA. See the website http://www.communitysa.org.za Cheers, Peter CommUnity Newsletter May 2001. Volume 2: Edition 1 Edited by: Peter Benjamin & Trevor Nivi peter@sn.apc.org CONTENTS: *Community ICT in South Africa - introduction to this edition * Policy on Univ. Access * Community ICT survey * USA Telecentre survey * Telecentres & HIV/AIDS * Global Dev. Gateway - debate and controversy in SA * Lebepe interview - chairperson of the Northern Prov Telecentre Committee * Notes & Updates * Dot Force report * Women'sNet *************************************************** COMMUNITY ICT IN SOUTH AFRICA - INTRODUCTION TO THIS ISSUE Many positive things are happening in community Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in South Africa. There are now over 500 projects of this kind, many doing well, though with several recurring problems. All the community ICT projects we know of are now on a web-searchable database (www.communitysa.org.za). A survey of the USA's telecentres shows that while some are doing well, while others have real problems. One of the most positive initiatives is forming provincial committees of telecentres for mutual support, as we hear from the chairperson of the Northern Province committee Peter Lebepe. The Department of Communications is producing policy that will greatly support the work in this country, while internationally there is much discussion on 'Closing the Digital Divide', as we hear in a report from the DotForce meeting. However not all international projects are beneficial. There has been considerable local opposition to the World Bank's plans to set up a Global Development Gateway. A key issue that ICT projects can try to address in their communities is HIV/AIDS, as we explore. Also, Women'sNet is an organisation that can support telecentres extending electronic access, especially to women. The next step seems to be to create linkages to share experience and find common solutions. Telecentres, community radios, training centres, NGOs and government information points together can provide information access to support development in SA. Please share you views with us in future editions. ****************************************************** POLICY DIRECTIVES ON UNIVERSAL ACCESS Following its policy process, the Department of Communications has produced directives for comment at the end of March 2001. Below are sections relevant to Universal Access. Universal access & service objectives · In furtherance of the objective of universal service, improving access to telecommunication services is an important short-, medium- and long term priority. The targets for universal access have to be re-defined in terms of services for access to include advanced services such as Internet multimedia. In particular, account shall be taken of special needs of differently abled persons and the equitable geographical spread of services. · Targets for access shall provide for accelerated access for differently abled persons to services including text and speech relay services, emergency speed dialling and specialised operator assistance. Universal Service Agency (USA) · The role of USA shall be to evaluate and monitor implementation of universal access projects. Institutional capacity to support effective evaluation and monitoring of attainment of targets is a priority. · A seven member board, one of whom will be the chairperson, will be appointed by the Minister to provide oversight. Contributions to the Universal Service Fund · Policy Direction No.3: Contributions to the Universal Service Fund (issue under Notice 775 of 1997) is hereby repealed with effect from April 2003. · In order to increase the size of the Fund, all telecommunication licensees shall from April 2003 contribute to the Fund a percentage of their turnover as prescribed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA): Provided that the prescribed percentage shall not exceed 0.5%. · The size of the Universal Service Fund shall be reviewed from time to time. EDUCATION RATE (E-RATE) · Telecommunication operators shall be required as part of their licence obligations to give a 50% discount on all Internet access calls made by any public school. · Registration of domain names by public schools shall be free of charge. UNDER-SERVICED AREAS · Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide telecommunication services including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for the specific purpose of advancing universal access in geographic areas with a teledensity of less than 1% from 7 May 2002. · SMMEs and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide such services using their own or leased infrastructure. ******************************************************* COMMUNITY ICT SURVEY The Community ICT Survey being carried out by the LINK centre is coming to an end. The project has been lead by Peter Benjamin and co-ordinated by Trevor Nivi, with funding from the IDRC. We looked for community ICT projects in South Africa - any place where people could use ICT systems (especially for internet access and training) in disadvantaged areas. We did not count phoneshops, urban cybercafes, or school sites only used by the school, but we did count libraries with computer access, telecentres with computers, schools with community classes. Due to the synergies between these projects, we also counted Community Radio initiatives. We asked for contact details from over 30 organisations, sent out around 1,000 questionnaires, and had 11 fieldworkers conducting interviews around the country. The project ran from October 2000 - April 2001. Below is a table of the type of sites, how many we know about (have proper contact details), how many we have data on (filled questionnaires on website) and our 'best guess' of how many exist. Type of Centre: Have address Have data Best guess USA Telecentres: 65, 44, 65 Libraries: 62, 18, 80 GCIS: 6, 3, 10 Community Radio: 74, 52, 80 Information Literacy (InfoLit) sites: 29, 25, 30 Digital Villages: 12, 7, 15 Education Centres: 23, 19, 30 'Old' Multi-Purpose Community Centres: 6 5, 10 DoC WIL Labs (Schools & Technikons): 44, 33, 46 ISPA sites: 2, 2, 20 Schoolnet (with community access): 2, 2, 20 Social Change Assistance Trust (Cape Provs): 5, 3, 10 Sangoco - individual NGOs: 4, 3, 30 Others: 35, 30, 50 TOTALS: 368, 243, 526 It is certain that we have missed some sites from business, government and community. So, we think there are somewhere over 500 community ICT projects in South Africa. We got little information from many organisations - especially ISPA. Donating computers without proper education, awareness, monitoring and evaluating of these programmes is not enough. It was also disturbing to find that centres established by the same company do not know of one another. A mechanism should be devised to encourage sharing of common experiences between and amongst those centres. In future editions we will analyse what we found - what lessons, successes and problems there are. All the sites are on a searchable database on the website. Please inform us if you know of a community ICT projects that we have not covered. Website: http://www.communitysa.org.za Check the 'Projects' link ************************************************* USA TELECENTRE SURVEY These are the results of a survey into USA telecentres, conducted by Peter Benjamin with great assistance from the USA staff and telecentre managers. This was presented to telecentre managers at a workshop in March. The Universal Service Agency (USA) has established 65 telecentres. The provincial breakdown is: Northern Province 13 Easter Cape 10 KZN 10 Free State 6 Western Cape 6 Gauteng 5 Mpumalanga 5 North West 5 Northern Cape 5 These 65 can be divided according to how well they are operating: · 30 (46%) Have both computers and phones operating · 12 (18%) Have computers but no phones operating · 2 (3%) Have phones but no computers operating · 21 (65%) Are not operating · 5 (8%) use the internet. As measures of sustainability, we asked which telecentres paid a salary (usually under R1,000), which were profitable (bare operating profit), and which considered themselves 'Successful'. Paid salary 20 (32%) Profitable 23 (38%) Successful 30 (48%) There were big differences between different provinces, with most telecentres successful in Gauteng, Northern Province and the NorthWest; and few successful in Mpumalanga, KZN and the N Cape. Factors of Success appear to be: · Good manager · Vodacom phones (much better than Telkom because of %profit and more reliable) · Ability to develop new services · External linkages & networks. Factors of Failure included: · Equipment problems (phones, DECT, callcutters) · Excessive Telkom bills · Poor management & community conflict · Security (many thefts) So some USA telecentres are working very well, but there are problems with many. The USA is working to make the telecentres more successful, and learn from this experience. For more information: LINK: Peter Benjamin, peter@sn.apc.org ************************************************ TELECENTRES AND HIV/AIDS Each edition CommUnity will focus on a key issue that telecentres and Community ICT projects can address. The aim is to raise awareness, and suggest things that your centre can do. It is estimated that over 4.7 million people in South Africa are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Not only those who are directly infected with the virus are affected, but also their loved ones, family, community members and the rest of society. Fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic is everyone's responsibility - the individual, family, community and society at large. An integrated approach needs to be adopted to fight the disease. The Government, together with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), is fighting the multinational drug companies to allow SA to provide people with affordable drugs and medicines. We should all support this. Other things we can do include providing people with as much information as possible on HIV/AIDS issues. Another plan is to support national policy to provide proper treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. This means establishing links with community organisations like telecentres and multipurpose community centres to run and co-ordinate educational projects or campaigns. Telecentres can link up with health institutions closest to them like clinics, get pamphlets, posters and booklets on HIV/AIDS. For instance, TAC in Khayelitsha has introduced "Project Ulwazi". This has trained staff who visit schools; workplaces and clinics educating people about HIV/AIDS issues. They advise people on how to practice safe sex- this include either not practising sex at all, to using condoms and staying with one relationship. This can be summed up as A B C: Ø Abstain Ø Be faithful Ø Condomise They encourage people to go to clinics for a HIV/AIDS test so they can know their status, form support groups to talk together and later be open about these issues. Counselling for those positive is done so they can approach their new situation in a positive way. If someone is in this situation, it's the attitude behind the fact that counts. Things you and your centre can do: · Advertise the AIDS helpline free number 0800 012 322 - and allow people to call it in privacy! · Give out free condoms (get them from your health clinic) · Put up AIDS awareness posters and distribute leaflets (get from health clinic) · Find out where in your area people can get HIV tests, and let people know this · Assist people setting up support groups of HIV+ people and support people living positively · Introduce HIV+ people to email to link with others and visit websites on this issue · Learn about HIV / AIDS, safe sex and related issues yourselves - and teach others · Let people know of the AIDS / HIV awareness campaigns - check the websites below For more information please feel free to contact TAC at: J'burg: 011 304 7021 Cape Town: 021 364 5489 Durban: 031 304 3673 Website: http://www.tac.org.za Email: info@tac.org.za Websites to check: AIDS Treatment News www.aids.org/immunet/atn.nsf/homepage UN AIDS Programme www.unaids.org AEGIS AIDS resources www.aegis.org NAPWA National Association of People Living with HIV / AIDS napnat@sn.apc.org Johannesburg: 011 872 0975 Cape Town: 021 424 1106 ********************************************** THE WORLD BANK's GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY: Compiled by Lauren Fok, SANGONeT lauren@sn.apc.org This is an extract from a report written by Lauren regarding the World Bank's project to set up a 'portal' for development information. On the next page is the draft (not yet finalised) response of South African Civil Society Organisations. To find out more about the GDG yourself, visit http://www.developmentgateway.org The idea of a global development gateway (GDG) was born at the Davos meeting in 1999. Bill Gates pledged an amount of US$40 million. The World Bank also committed about US$20 million to the project. The 3 GDG objectives are: - * Networking amongst the development community (government, private sector, donors and civil society) - * Tool for improving the delivery of development funds - * Knowledge management - 'a repository of global development knowledge' The World Bank has set up national country gateway Working Groups (WG) in around 12 countries already. The World Bank will fund the initial development of the gateway, technical infrastructure, access to international markets, BUT the content is envisaged to be a country operation. A grant of US$75 000 has been budgeted for each of the country gateways. The World Bank organised a meeting with civil society organisations in South Africa through SANGONeT on 15 February to explore the possibility of setting up a South African Working Group for the GDG. A subsequent meeting of those NGOs, trade unions and others met on 28 February to discuss the suggestion. Many criticisms of the bank were raised and it was decided to decline to work with the World Bank. Criticisms included the GDG initiative 'crowding out' local plans; mistrust of the World Bank which is not a neutral provider of development information; The World Bank is using words such as "grassroots", " representative", "consultation" as buzzwords to gain buy-in and credibility in its desire to position itself as central to the information economy. Ultimately the gateway is a Northern initiative, controlled by Northern institutions; We are calling on all civil society organisations to join our ICT Development Network to work towards creating an environment where ICTs are made accessible and used as tools to improve the lives of all the peoples of South Africa. DRAFT LETTER TO WORLD BANK PRESIDENT in response to South African CSO consultation meetings: Mr James Wolfensohn President, The World Bank Dear Mr Wolfensohn On 15 February 2001, South African civil society organisations met to discuss the recent offer of collaboration with the World Bank Global Development Gateway together with two World Bank representatives, Monica Quigley and Happy Nkhoma. A report-back session was held on the 28 February 2001, attended by representatives from, amongst others, SANGONeT, Jubilee South Africa, COSATU, SANGOCO (representing 4000 NGOs), the community radio sector and the churches. The participants took a unanimous decision to discourage any collaboration with the World Bank's GDG initiative and to work towards a more appropriate development network. We want to firmly and unequivocally state our intention not to participate in the World Bank Development Gateway project. As civil society organisations in South Africa we feel the Bank's true intention is to control the development information discourse to promote its own particular perspectives. A growing number of organisations in South Africa and globally are expressing opposition to World Bank interventions in South Africa as a result of several decades of experience of the institution in the developing world. There are many specific reasons why the Development Gateway is already repeating the Bank's legacy of interference and domination. The meeting of 15 February was misrepresented in the GDG newsletter. We want nothing to do with systematic development misinformation of the sort we have come to associate with the World Bank. Sincerely, Lauren Fok, SANGONeT (lauren@sn.apc.org) George Dor, Jubilee South Africa (george@sn.apc.org) on behalf of the participants at the report-back meeting ********************************************** INTERVIEW WITH PETER LEBEPE Peter Lebepe is the owner of the successful Mokwakwaila mini-telecentre. He was recently elected as the chairperson of the committee of Northern Province telecentres. Trevor Nivi of CommUnity interviewed him. CommUnity: Your telecentre at Mokwakwaila is one of the most successful. How have you done this? What new services have you been able to set up? Peter Lebepe: This telecentre was established on 8 October 1998 though it was applied for in 1997. From 1997 I started marketing, finding out what kind of machinery can be used. While I was busy marketing, I discovered that the Department of Education will no longer supply any stationery to the schools. Then besides the limited services normally offered by mini-telecentres, I decided to immediately exploit that opportunity and produced such stationery as: * Attendance register, * Policy documents, * Merit certificates, * Study guides, * Business cards, * School reports. So I would say that vigilance, marketing and not adhering to the prescription (or going beyond traditional services) made my telecentre successful. CU: What would your advice be to other telecentres to increase services, customers and profit? PL: Telecentre managers should go out there and do marketing. They should not change managers that are causing problems as customers would then loose hope and interest in the telecentres. CU: You are the chairperson of the newly-formed Northern Province Telecentre Committee. How has this helped the centres and what plans do you have? PL: Forming a provincial committee facilitates the process of communication between local centres and the national office. It was not good for individual centres to communicate directly with the national office, in this case USA. So the provincial committee assist in co-ordinating all communications between the two levels of operation in terms of channelling requests, problems and recommendations. For instance, telecentre managers hold monthly meetings with the help of the forum, solving problems sharing ideas and compiling and taking those we cannot solve to USA and seeking advice. On planning, a research on needs assessment has been conducted and it came with the following recommendations: * More training on computer skills * Linking telecentres with government departments so that telecentres can offer many services themselves, especially Home Affairs & the Dept of Education * Postnet and courier services. CU: From the recent research, it seems that the telecentres in the Northern Province are doing better than the average. Why do you think this is? PL: There was a lot of mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation with regard to telecentres in the Northern Province. That might be one reason why they succeed. We usually held meetings in order to discuss our common experiences and learnt a lot from one another. So networking is very important. CU: What is your opinion of the work of the Universal Service Agency. What should it be doing to support telecentres and Universal Access in SA? PL: The Universal Service Agency should continue monitoring, supervising telecentres, helping them with funds and training. The agency should also help mini, community, and multi-purpose centres with discussions, ways and means of getting funds to sustain themselves. It should also assist us in getting credit facility from banks. CU: Is there anything else you would like to tell us? PL: A number of meetings with the Regional Director of Home Affairs is still under process, including the Director-General in Pretoria. The same applies with the departments of Health, Justice, Education. By these kinds of meetings we want to take services to the people on the ground. That will definitely cut many costs that our people incur when they are visiting these places. ************************************************** NOTES & UPDATES * New Head of the USA >From 1 February the Universal Service Agency has had a new head, Ms Dipuo Mvelase. She has started a very vigorous exercise of reassessing the Agency: the telecentres projects, USA organisations and finances. The CommUnity newsletter wishes her every success. * Zandi Lesame, Lesamnc@unisa.ac.za Zandi is a lecturer at UNISA studying for her doctorate assessing how urban and rural telecentres are used for education in South Africa. She has done an extensive literature review of examples from other countries. She is now conducting research in SA and is eager to contact people interested in or involved with education projects in telecentres. People who wish to contribute on how telecentres are used in South Africa for education can send information to Zandi by e-mail. Comments, discussion of the questionnaire or other feedback welcome. * Telecom Co-operatives The new policy directive allows for telecom co-operatives to be established, especially in underserviced areas (see page 3). This is largely due to the lobbying work of Tina James. Working for the American National Telephone Cooperative Association (NTCA), she has led an active discussion in this country of how to use co-ops to provide ICT access. The NTCA has worked in many countries supporting local cooperatives set up telecomms local loop and internet services. With the new policy, in SA this work should move from words to action soon. For more information, contact Tina. tjames@intekom.co.za, 082 460 7915. * IDRC Offices Closing The Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has been very active in supporting community ICT research, policy and implementation for the past decade. It is with regret that we learn that their Southern African office (based in Braamfontein, Johannesburg) will probably be closing this year. While we still hope the head office in Canada will change their decision, CommUnity would like to acknowledge the huge amount of energy, commitment, expertise (and sometimes even money) the IDRC has contributed to this sector. Thank you, Marc van Amerigen, Kate Wild, Shafika Isaacs, Bas Kotterink, Christel Jacob, Linah Hlatshwayo, Nigel Motts, Claire Sibthorpe, Heather Hudson and more. Through learning together you have given us much. *************************************** DOT FORCE IN SOUTH AFRICA Alison Gillwald reports on the recent international meeting in South Africa. The second leg of the Digital Opportunity Task Force (DOTForce) took place in Cape Town from the 1 -2 March 2001 - the only formal DOTForce meeting to be held in the South before the final meeting in Genoa in mid-year when the Force will report back to the G8 countries on their recommendations. The work of the DOTForce launch at the G8's meeting in Okinawa last year was a response to two divergent trends. On the one hand, developing nations face new opportunities for sustainable social and economic development created by information and communication technologies (ICT) and the increased integration of the global economy. On the other hand, there is a growing divide between and within countries and a marginalised of the majority of the world's population from these developments. Under the leadership of Italy's Vincenzo Schioppa and Bruno Lanvin who was seconded to head the secretariat, the Force has made considerable progress in reviewing where we have come from and producing a framework on how to move ahead. But the devil is always in the detail and the most difficult part of the project still lies ahead with the development of recommendations to the G8. These could contribute significantly to development in the developing world or they could, like so many global initiatives before them, founder. It was these debates that preoccupied representatives from the G8, international bodies such as the World Bank, OECD, ITU and a few developing countries Brazil, Egypt, India and South Africa were the developing countries present and early on in the debate there were indications that some countries felt the initiative was not sufficiently attuned to the developing world and should be boycotted or at least redirected. The developed countries were represented both by the private sector and non-profit sector in addition to their governments, which was not the case for the developing world. Only South Africa, with a silent private sector representative, had any representation other than government. This was unfortunate, in that the richness of the debate was certainly enhance by the private and public sector participation of the developed countries. The themes debated included: · Trade and Investment Policy in the digital world, with the arising project a Virtual policy centre; · Strategic uses of risk capital to promote ICT, requiring seed funding; · Business, non-profit and government organisation as partners in a digital world: new technology enables development alliances such as government on-line or joint education; · Regional economic and technical cooperation through regional consultations; · comparing new digital development infrastructure; and · old telecom which would require collaboration on new policies. The key elements include human capacity, infrastructure, policy and regulatory frameworks, enterprise and content. To see the latest draft of the report: http://www.markle.org/dotforce.html ***************************************** WOMEN'SNET Dear TeleCentre owner/Manager Women'sNet is a vibrant and innovative networking support programme designed to enable South African women to use the Internet to find the people, issues, resources, tools and skills they need. We are a joint project of SANGONeT, an NGO, and the Commission on Gender Equality. Women'sNet aims to empower South African women to use information and communication technologies more effectively in their struggle towards advancing women's equality. Women'sNet seeks to: · make the Internet accessible and less intimidating to women · provide gender-sensitive training and support · link people working in related projects and help them find tools and resources on the Internet · create a platform for women's voices and issues · help distribute information in formats accessible to women not directly linked to the Internet. The Women'sNet web site contains information and discussion generated by South African women on gender issues and includes: News, Radio Exchange, HIV/AIDS, Job and Study Opportunities, Beijing + 5 in Africa, Women and Human Rights, Preventing Violence Against Women, Gender in Parliament, Health, New Communication Technologies, Women and Enterprise, Gender Links and Resources, Directory of South African Women's Organisations, Calendar of events You can find our site at: http://womensnet.org.za Women'sNet is constantly seeking better ways to work with communities and bridge the digital divide between men and women, advantaged and disadvantaged. We also need feedback from women in communities so that we can keep our project relevant. As such we would like to form partnerships with services in communities, like yours, to assist us in better servicing your needs. We would like to support your Telecentre by: · Developing materials that are of interest to the women in your local community; · Disseminating information on topics of local interest, in formats most accessible to your women clients; · Assisting you to gain access to, and network with, national and international organisations, lobbying groups and funders; · Providing training on technical skills, networking skills, lobbying and advocacy through the use of radio, Internet and print media. We can provide the above services, tailored to your needs. In this way Women'sNet can help you to make the Internet more accessible to local women. Women'sNet will gain an understanding of the needs of rural women, which will allow us to better service the informational needs of South African women. Women'sNet will be contacting your office in the near future to follow up our interest to be of service to TeleCentre owners and managers. I hope that we will be able to collaborate in the near future. Yours sincerely, Natasha Primo Women'sNet Project Manager natasha@womensnet.org.za --------------------------------------------- think globally, search locally - Orientation South Africa Email. http://za.orientation.com From PROENZA-FAO@iadb.org Mon May 21 15:57:50 2001 From: PROENZA-FAO@iadb.org (Proenza, Francisco) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 11:57:50 -0400 Subject: [Communitysa] Telecenters Message-ID: <64021C94CDF9D411865C00B0D0687B9BF5AC10@hq-mail-03> I am pleased to announce the online publication of "Telecenters for Socioeconomic and Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean", a joint FAO - IADB - ITU effort. The Executive Summary, Power Point Presentation and Full report may be downloaded from: http://www.iadb.org/regions/itdev/telecenters/index.htm A Spanish version of the report is also available from the same site. Francisco J. Proenza FAO Investment Centre FAO-IADB Cooperative Program proenza-fao@iadb.org Tel. 202-623-2383; Fax. 202-623-1786 From peterb at orientation.com Sat May 12 15:29:08 2001 From: peterb at orientation.com (Peter Benjamin) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:07:36 2007 Subject: [Communitysa] CommUnity newsletter Message-ID: <200105121932.f4CJW0a05621@news1.orientation.com> Dear all, Here is the latest text version of the CommUnity newsletter. It has been sent (in paper form) to the 500 community ICT projects we know of in SA. See the website http://www.communitysa.org.za Cheers, Peter CommUnity Newsletter May 2001. Volume 2: Edition 1 Edited by: Peter Benjamin & Trevor Nivi peter@sn.apc.org CONTENTS: *Community ICT in South Africa - introduction to this edition * Policy on Univ. Access * Community ICT survey * USA Telecentre survey * Telecentres & HIV/AIDS * Global Dev. Gateway - debate and controversy in SA * Lebepe interview - chairperson of the Northern Prov Telecentre Committee * Notes & Updates * Dot Force report * Women'sNet *************************************************** COMMUNITY ICT IN SOUTH AFRICA - INTRODUCTION TO THIS ISSUE Many positive things are happening in community Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in South Africa. There are now over 500 projects of this kind, many doing well, though with several recurring problems. All the community ICT projects we know of are now on a web-searchable database (www.communitysa.org.za). A survey of the USA's telecentres shows that while some are doing well, while others have real problems. One of the most positive initiatives is forming provincial committees of telecentres for mutual support, as we hear from the chairperson of the Northern Province committee Peter Lebepe. The Department of Communications is producing policy that will greatly support the work in this country, while internationally there is much discussion on 'Closing the Digital Divide', as we hear in a report from the DotForce meeting. However not all international projects are beneficial. There has been considerable local opposition to the World Bank's plans to set up a Global Development Gateway. A key issue that ICT projects can try to address in their communities is HIV/AIDS, as we explore. Also, Women'sNet is an organisation that can support telecentres extending electronic access, especially to women. The next step seems to be to create linkages to share experience and find common solutions. Telecentres, community radios, training centres, NGOs and government information points together can provide information access to support development in SA. Please share you views with us in future editions. ****************************************************** POLICY DIRECTIVES ON UNIVERSAL ACCESS Following its policy process, the Department of Communications has produced directives for comment at the end of March 2001. Below are sections relevant to Universal Access. Universal access & service objectives · In furtherance of the objective of universal service, improving access to telecommunication services is an important short-, medium- and long term priority. The targets for universal access have to be re-defined in terms of services for access to include advanced services such as Internet multimedia. In particular, account shall be taken of special needs of differently abled persons and the equitable geographical spread of services. · Targets for access shall provide for accelerated access for differently abled persons to services including text and speech relay services, emergency speed dialling and specialised operator assistance. Universal Service Agency (USA) · The role of USA shall be to evaluate and monitor implementation of universal access projects. Institutional capacity to support effective evaluation and monitoring of attainment of targets is a priority. · A seven member board, one of whom will be the chairperson, will be appointed by the Minister to provide oversight. Contributions to the Universal Service Fund · Policy Direction No.3: Contributions to the Universal Service Fund (issue under Notice 775 of 1997) is hereby repealed with effect from April 2003. · In order to increase the size of the Fund, all telecommunication licensees shall from April 2003 contribute to the Fund a percentage of their turnover as prescribed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA): Provided that the prescribed percentage shall not exceed 0.5%. · The size of the Universal Service Fund shall be reviewed from time to time. EDUCATION RATE (E-RATE) · Telecommunication operators shall be required as part of their licence obligations to give a 50% discount on all Internet access calls made by any public school. · Registration of domain names by public schools shall be free of charge. UNDER-SERVICED AREAS · Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide telecommunication services including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for the specific purpose of advancing universal access in geographic areas with a teledensity of less than 1% from 7 May 2002. · SMMEs and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide such services using their own or leased infrastructure. ******************************************************* COMMUNITY ICT SURVEY The Community ICT Survey being carried out by the LINK centre is coming to an end. The project has been lead by Peter Benjamin and co-ordinated by Trevor Nivi, with funding from the IDRC. We looked for community ICT projects in South Africa - any place where people could use ICT systems (especially for internet access and training) in disadvantaged areas. We did not count phoneshops, urban cybercafes, or school sites only used by the school, but we did count libraries with computer access, telecentres with computers, schools with community classes. Due to the synergies between these projects, we also counted Community Radio initiatives. We asked for contact details from over 30 organisations, sent out around 1,000 questionnaires, and had 11 fieldworkers conducting interviews around the country. The project ran from October 2000 - April 2001. Below is a table of the type of sites, how many we know about (have proper contact details), how many we have data on (filled questionnaires on website) and our 'best guess' of how many exist. Type of Centre: Have address Have data Best guess USA Telecentres: 65, 44, 65 Libraries: 62, 18, 80 GCIS: 6, 3, 10 Community Radio: 74, 52, 80 Information Literacy (InfoLit) sites: 29, 25, 30 Digital Villages: 12, 7, 15 Education Centres: 23, 19, 30 'Old' Multi-Purpose Community Centres: 6 5, 10 DoC WIL Labs (Schools & Technikons): 44, 33, 46 ISPA sites: 2, 2, 20 Schoolnet (with community access): 2, 2, 20 Social Change Assistance Trust (Cape Provs): 5, 3, 10 Sangoco - individual NGOs: 4, 3, 30 Others: 35, 30, 50 TOTALS: 368, 243, 526 It is certain that we have missed some sites from business, government and community. So, we think there are somewhere over 500 community ICT projects in South Africa. We got little information from many organisations - especially ISPA. Donating computers without proper education, awareness, monitoring and evaluating of these programmes is not enough. It was also disturbing to find that centres established by the same company do not know of one another. A mechanism should be devised to encourage sharing of common experiences between and amongst those centres. In future editions we will analyse what we found - what lessons, successes and problems there are. All the sites are on a searchable database on the website. Please inform us if you know of a community ICT projects that we have not covered. Website: http://www.communitysa.org.za Check the 'Projects' link ************************************************* USA TELECENTRE SURVEY These are the results of a survey into USA telecentres, conducted by Peter Benjamin with great assistance from the USA staff and telecentre managers. This was presented to telecentre managers at a workshop in March. The Universal Service Agency (USA) has established 65 telecentres. The provincial breakdown is: Northern Province 13 Easter Cape 10 KZN 10 Free State 6 Western Cape 6 Gauteng 5 Mpumalanga 5 North West 5 Northern Cape 5 These 65 can be divided according to how well they are operating: · 30 (46%) Have both computers and phones operating · 12 (18%) Have computers but no phones operating · 2 (3%) Have phones but no computers operating · 21 (65%) Are not operating · 5 (8%) use the internet. As measures of sustainability, we asked which telecentres paid a salary (usually under R1,000), which were profitable (bare operating profit), and which considered themselves 'Successful'. Paid salary 20 (32%) Profitable 23 (38%) Successful 30 (48%) There were big differences between different provinces, with most telecentres successful in Gauteng, Northern Province and the NorthWest; and few successful in Mpumalanga, KZN and the N Cape. Factors of Success appear to be: · Good manager · Vodacom phones (much better than Telkom because of %profit and more reliable) · Ability to develop new services · External linkages & networks. Factors of Failure included: · Equipment problems (phones, DECT, callcutters) · Excessive Telkom bills · Poor management & community conflict · Security (many thefts) So some USA telecentres are working very well, but there are problems with many. The USA is working to make the telecentres more successful, and learn from this experience. For more information: LINK: Peter Benjamin, peter@sn.apc.org ************************************************ TELECENTRES AND HIV/AIDS Each edition CommUnity will focus on a key issue that telecentres and Community ICT projects can address. The aim is to raise awareness, and suggest things that your centre can do. It is estimated that over 4.7 million people in South Africa are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Not only those who are directly infected with the virus are affected, but also their loved ones, family, community members and the rest of society. Fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic is everyone's responsibility - the individual, family, community and society at large. An integrated approach needs to be adopted to fight the disease. The Government, together with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), is fighting the multinational drug companies to allow SA to provide people with affordable drugs and medicines. We should all support this. Other things we can do include providing people with as much information as possible on HIV/AIDS issues. Another plan is to support national policy to provide proper treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. This means establishing links with community organisations like telecentres and multipurpose community centres to run and co-ordinate educational projects or campaigns. Telecentres can link up with health institutions closest to them like clinics, get pamphlets, posters and booklets on HIV/AIDS. For instance, TAC in Khayelitsha has introduced "Project Ulwazi". This has trained staff who visit schools; workplaces and clinics educating people about HIV/AIDS issues. They advise people on how to practice safe sex- this include either not practising sex at all, to using condoms and staying with one relationship. This can be summed up as A B C: Ø Abstain Ø Be faithful Ø Condomise They encourage people to go to clinics for a HIV/AIDS test so they can know their status, form support groups to talk together and later be open about these issues. Counselling for those positive is done so they can approach their new situation in a positive way. If someone is in this situation, it's the attitude behind the fact that counts. Things you and your centre can do: · Advertise the AIDS helpline free number 0800 012 322 - and allow people to call it in privacy! · Give out free condoms (get them from your health clinic) · Put up AIDS awareness posters and distribute leaflets (get from health clinic) · Find out where in your area people can get HIV tests, and let people know this · Assist people setting up support groups of HIV+ people and support people living positively · Introduce HIV+ people to email to link with others and visit websites on this issue · Learn about HIV / AIDS, safe sex and related issues yourselves - and teach others · Let people know of the AIDS / HIV awareness campaigns - check the websites below For more information please feel free to contact TAC at: J'burg: 011 304 7021 Cape Town: 021 364 5489 Durban: 031 304 3673 Website: http://www.tac.org.za Email: info@tac.org.za Websites to check: AIDS Treatment News www.aids.org/immunet/atn.nsf/homepage UN AIDS Programme www.unaids.org AEGIS AIDS resources www.aegis.org NAPWA National Association of People Living with HIV / AIDS napnat@sn.apc.org Johannesburg: 011 872 0975 Cape Town: 021 424 1106 ********************************************** THE WORLD BANK's GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY: Compiled by Lauren Fok, SANGONeT lauren@sn.apc.org This is an extract from a report written by Lauren regarding the World Bank's project to set up a 'portal' for development information. On the next page is the draft (not yet finalised) response of South African Civil Society Organisations. To find out more about the GDG yourself, visit http://www.developmentgateway.org The idea of a global development gateway (GDG) was born at the Davos meeting in 1999. Bill Gates pledged an amount of US$40 million. The World Bank also committed about US$20 million to the project. The 3 GDG objectives are: - * Networking amongst the development community (government, private sector, donors and civil society) - * Tool for improving the delivery of development funds - * Knowledge management - 'a repository of global development knowledge' The World Bank has set up national country gateway Working Groups (WG) in around 12 countries already. The World Bank will fund the initial development of the gateway, technical infrastructure, access to international markets, BUT the content is envisaged to be a country operation. A grant of US$75 000 has been budgeted for each of the country gateways. The World Bank organised a meeting with civil society organisations in South Africa through SANGONeT on 15 February to explore the possibility of setting up a South African Working Group for the GDG. A subsequent meeting of those NGOs, trade unions and others met on 28 February to discuss the suggestion. Many criticisms of the bank were raised and it was decided to decline to work with the World Bank. Criticisms included the GDG initiative 'crowding out' local plans; mistrust of the World Bank which is not a neutral provider of development information; The World Bank is using words such as "grassroots", " representative", "consultation" as buzzwords to gain buy-in and credibility in its desire to position itself as central to the information economy. Ultimately the gateway is a Northern initiative, controlled by Northern institutions; We are calling on all civil society organisations to join our ICT Development Network to work towards creating an environment where ICTs are made accessible and used as tools to improve the lives of all the peoples of South Africa. DRAFT LETTER TO WORLD BANK PRESIDENT in response to South African CSO consultation meetings: Mr James Wolfensohn President, The World Bank Dear Mr Wolfensohn On 15 February 2001, South African civil society organisations met to discuss the recent offer of collaboration with the World Bank Global Development Gateway together with two World Bank representatives, Monica Quigley and Happy Nkhoma. A report-back session was held on the 28 February 2001, attended by representatives from, amongst others, SANGONeT, Jubilee South Africa, COSATU, SANGOCO (representing 4000 NGOs), the community radio sector and the churches. The participants took a unanimous decision to discourage any collaboration with the World Bank's GDG initiative and to work towards a more appropriate development network. We want to firmly and unequivocally state our intention not to participate in the World Bank Development Gateway project. As civil society organisations in South Africa we feel the Bank's true intention is to control the development information discourse to promote its own particular perspectives. A growing number of organisations in South Africa and globally are expressing opposition to World Bank interventions in South Africa as a result of several decades of experience of the institution in the developing world. There are many specific reasons why the Development Gateway is already repeating the Bank's legacy of interference and domination. The meeting of 15 February was misrepresented in the GDG newsletter. We want nothing to do with systematic development misinformation of the sort we have come to associate with the World Bank. Sincerely, Lauren Fok, SANGONeT (lauren@sn.apc.org) George Dor, Jubilee South Africa (george@sn.apc.org) on behalf of the participants at the report-back meeting ********************************************** INTERVIEW WITH PETER LEBEPE Peter Lebepe is the owner of the successful Mokwakwaila mini-telecentre. He was recently elected as the chairperson of the committee of Northern Province telecentres. Trevor Nivi of CommUnity interviewed him. CommUnity: Your telecentre at Mokwakwaila is one of the most successful. How have you done this? What new services have you been able to set up? Peter Lebepe: This telecentre was established on 8 October 1998 though it was applied for in 1997. From 1997 I started marketing, finding out what kind of machinery can be used. While I was busy marketing, I discovered that the Department of Education will no longer supply any stationery to the schools. Then besides the limited services normally offered by mini-telecentres, I decided to immediately exploit that opportunity and produced such stationery as: * Attendance register, * Policy documents, * Merit certificates, * Study guides, * Business cards, * School reports. So I would say that vigilance, marketing and not adhering to the prescription (or going beyond traditional services) made my telecentre successful. CU: What would your advice be to other telecentres to increase services, customers and profit? PL: Telecentre managers should go out there and do marketing. They should not change managers that are causing problems as customers would then loose hope and interest in the telecentres. CU: You are the chairperson of the newly-formed Northern Province Telecentre Committee. How has this helped the centres and what plans do you have? PL: Forming a provincial committee facilitates the process of communication between local centres and the national office. It was not good for individual centres to communicate directly with the national office, in this case USA. So the provincial committee assist in co-ordinating all communications between the two levels of operation in terms of channelling requests, problems and recommendations. For instance, telecentre managers hold monthly meetings with the help of the forum, solving problems sharing ideas and compiling and taking those we cannot solve to USA and seeking advice. On planning, a research on needs assessment has been conducted and it came with the following recommendations: * More training on computer skills * Linking telecentres with government departments so that telecentres can offer many services themselves, especially Home Affairs & the Dept of Education * Postnet and courier services. CU: From the recent research, it seems that the telecentres in the Northern Province are doing better than the average. Why do you think this is? PL: There was a lot of mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation with regard to telecentres in the Northern Province. That might be one reason why they succeed. We usually held meetings in order to discuss our common experiences and learnt a lot from one another. So networking is very important. CU: What is your opinion of the work of the Universal Service Agency. What should it be doing to support telecentres and Universal Access in SA? PL: The Universal Service Agency should continue monitoring, supervising telecentres, helping them with funds and training. The agency should also help mini, community, and multi-purpose centres with discussions, ways and means of getting funds to sustain themselves. It should also assist us in getting credit facility from banks. CU: Is there anything else you would like to tell us? PL: A number of meetings with the Regional Director of Home Affairs is still under process, including the Director-General in Pretoria. The same applies with the departments of Health, Justice, Education. By these kinds of meetings we want to take services to the people on the ground. That will definitely cut many costs that our people incur when they are visiting these places. ************************************************** NOTES & UPDATES * New Head of the USA From PROENZA-FAO at iadb.org Mon May 21 17:57:50 2001 From: PROENZA-FAO at iadb.org (Proenza, Francisco) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:07:36 2007 Subject: [Communitysa] Telecenters Message-ID: <64021C94CDF9D411865C00B0D0687B9BF5AC10@hq-mail-03> I am pleased to announce the online publication of "Telecenters for Socioeconomic and Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean", a joint FAO - IADB - ITU effort. The Executive Summary, Power Point Presentation and Full report may be downloaded from: http://www.iadb.org/regions/itdev/telecenters/index.htm A Spanish version of the report is also available from the same site. Francisco J. Proenza FAO Investment Centre FAO-IADB Cooperative Program proenza-fao@iadb.org Tel. 202-623-2383; Fax. 202-623-1786 From peterb at orientation.com Sat May 12 15:29:08 2001 From: peterb at orientation.com (Peter Benjamin) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:11:19 2007 Subject: [Communitysa] CommUnity newsletter Message-ID: <200105121932.f4CJW0a05621@news1.orientation.com> Dear all, Here is the latest text version of the CommUnity newsletter. It has been sent (in paper form) to the 500 community ICT projects we know of in SA. See the website http://www.communitysa.org.za Cheers, Peter CommUnity Newsletter May 2001. Volume 2: Edition 1 Edited by: Peter Benjamin & Trevor Nivi peter@sn.apc.org CONTENTS: *Community ICT in South Africa - introduction to this edition * Policy on Univ. Access * Community ICT survey * USA Telecentre survey * Telecentres & HIV/AIDS * Global Dev. Gateway - debate and controversy in SA * Lebepe interview - chairperson of the Northern Prov Telecentre Committee * Notes & Updates * Dot Force report * Women'sNet *************************************************** COMMUNITY ICT IN SOUTH AFRICA - INTRODUCTION TO THIS ISSUE Many positive things are happening in community Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in South Africa. There are now over 500 projects of this kind, many doing well, though with several recurring problems. All the community ICT projects we know of are now on a web-searchable database (www.communitysa.org.za). A survey of the USA's telecentres shows that while some are doing well, while others have real problems. One of the most positive initiatives is forming provincial committees of telecentres for mutual support, as we hear from the chairperson of the Northern Province committee Peter Lebepe. The Department of Communications is producing policy that will greatly support the work in this country, while internationally there is much discussion on 'Closing the Digital Divide', as we hear in a report from the DotForce meeting. However not all international projects are beneficial. There has been considerable local opposition to the World Bank's plans to set up a Global Development Gateway. A key issue that ICT projects can try to address in their communities is HIV/AIDS, as we explore. Also, Women'sNet is an organisation that can support telecentres extending electronic access, especially to women. The next step seems to be to create linkages to share experience and find common solutions. Telecentres, community radios, training centres, NGOs and government information points together can provide information access to support development in SA. Please share you views with us in future editions. ****************************************************** POLICY DIRECTIVES ON UNIVERSAL ACCESS Following its policy process, the Department of Communications has produced directives for comment at the end of March 2001. Below are sections relevant to Universal Access. Universal access & service objectives · In furtherance of the objective of universal service, improving access to telecommunication services is an important short-, medium- and long term priority. The targets for universal access have to be re-defined in terms of services for access to include advanced services such as Internet multimedia. In particular, account shall be taken of special needs of differently abled persons and the equitable geographical spread of services. · Targets for access shall provide for accelerated access for differently abled persons to services including text and speech relay services, emergency speed dialling and specialised operator assistance. Universal Service Agency (USA) · The role of USA shall be to evaluate and monitor implementation of universal access projects. Institutional capacity to support effective evaluation and monitoring of attainment of targets is a priority. · A seven member board, one of whom will be the chairperson, will be appointed by the Minister to provide oversight. Contributions to the Universal Service Fund · Policy Direction No.3: Contributions to the Universal Service Fund (issue under Notice 775 of 1997) is hereby repealed with effect from April 2003. · In order to increase the size of the Fund, all telecommunication licensees shall from April 2003 contribute to the Fund a percentage of their turnover as prescribed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA): Provided that the prescribed percentage shall not exceed 0.5%. · The size of the Universal Service Fund shall be reviewed from time to time. EDUCATION RATE (E-RATE) · Telecommunication operators shall be required as part of their licence obligations to give a 50% discount on all Internet access calls made by any public school. · Registration of domain names by public schools shall be free of charge. UNDER-SERVICED AREAS · Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide telecommunication services including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for the specific purpose of advancing universal access in geographic areas with a teledensity of less than 1% from 7 May 2002. · SMMEs and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide such services using their own or leased infrastructure. ******************************************************* COMMUNITY ICT SURVEY The Community ICT Survey being carried out by the LINK centre is coming to an end. The project has been lead by Peter Benjamin and co-ordinated by Trevor Nivi, with funding from the IDRC. We looked for community ICT projects in South Africa - any place where people could use ICT systems (especially for internet access and training) in disadvantaged areas. We did not count phoneshops, urban cybercafes, or school sites only used by the school, but we did count libraries with computer access, telecentres with computers, schools with community classes. Due to the synergies between these projects, we also counted Community Radio initiatives. We asked for contact details from over 30 organisations, sent out around 1,000 questionnaires, and had 11 fieldworkers conducting interviews around the country. The project ran from October 2000 - April 2001. Below is a table of the type of sites, how many we know about (have proper contact details), how many we have data on (filled questionnaires on website) and our 'best guess' of how many exist. Type of Centre: Have address Have data Best guess USA Telecentres: 65, 44, 65 Libraries: 62, 18, 80 GCIS: 6, 3, 10 Community Radio: 74, 52, 80 Information Literacy (InfoLit) sites: 29, 25, 30 Digital Villages: 12, 7, 15 Education Centres: 23, 19, 30 'Old' Multi-Purpose Community Centres: 6 5, 10 DoC WIL Labs (Schools & Technikons): 44, 33, 46 ISPA sites: 2, 2, 20 Schoolnet (with community access): 2, 2, 20 Social Change Assistance Trust (Cape Provs): 5, 3, 10 Sangoco - individual NGOs: 4, 3, 30 Others: 35, 30, 50 TOTALS: 368, 243, 526 It is certain that we have missed some sites from business, government and community. So, we think there are somewhere over 500 community ICT projects in South Africa. We got little information from many organisations - especially ISPA. Donating computers without proper education, awareness, monitoring and evaluating of these programmes is not enough. It was also disturbing to find that centres established by the same company do not know of one another. A mechanism should be devised to encourage sharing of common experiences between and amongst those centres. In future editions we will analyse what we found - what lessons, successes and problems there are. All the sites are on a searchable database on the website. Please inform us if you know of a community ICT projects that we have not covered. Website: http://www.communitysa.org.za Check the 'Projects' link ************************************************* USA TELECENTRE SURVEY These are the results of a survey into USA telecentres, conducted by Peter Benjamin with great assistance from the USA staff and telecentre managers. This was presented to telecentre managers at a workshop in March. The Universal Service Agency (USA) has established 65 telecentres. The provincial breakdown is: Northern Province 13 Easter Cape 10 KZN 10 Free State 6 Western Cape 6 Gauteng 5 Mpumalanga 5 North West 5 Northern Cape 5 These 65 can be divided according to how well they are operating: · 30 (46%) Have both computers and phones operating · 12 (18%) Have computers but no phones operating · 2 (3%) Have phones but no computers operating · 21 (65%) Are not operating · 5 (8%) use the internet. As measures of sustainability, we asked which telecentres paid a salary (usually under R1,000), which were profitable (bare operating profit), and which considered themselves 'Successful'. Paid salary 20 (32%) Profitable 23 (38%) Successful 30 (48%) There were big differences between different provinces, with most telecentres successful in Gauteng, Northern Province and the NorthWest; and few successful in Mpumalanga, KZN and the N Cape. Factors of Success appear to be: · Good manager · Vodacom phones (much better than Telkom because of %profit and more reliable) · Ability to develop new services · External linkages & networks. Factors of Failure included: · Equipment problems (phones, DECT, callcutters) · Excessive Telkom bills · Poor management & community conflict · Security (many thefts) So some USA telecentres are working very well, but there are problems with many. The USA is working to make the telecentres more successful, and learn from this experience. For more information: LINK: Peter Benjamin, peter@sn.apc.org ************************************************ TELECENTRES AND HIV/AIDS Each edition CommUnity will focus on a key issue that telecentres and Community ICT projects can address. The aim is to raise awareness, and suggest things that your centre can do. It is estimated that over 4.7 million people in South Africa are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Not only those who are directly infected with the virus are affected, but also their loved ones, family, community members and the rest of society. Fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic is everyone's responsibility - the individual, family, community and society at large. An integrated approach needs to be adopted to fight the disease. The Government, together with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), is fighting the multinational drug companies to allow SA to provide people with affordable drugs and medicines. We should all support this. Other things we can do include providing people with as much information as possible on HIV/AIDS issues. Another plan is to support national policy to provide proper treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. This means establishing links with community organisations like telecentres and multipurpose community centres to run and co-ordinate educational projects or campaigns. Telecentres can link up with health institutions closest to them like clinics, get pamphlets, posters and booklets on HIV/AIDS. For instance, TAC in Khayelitsha has introduced "Project Ulwazi". This has trained staff who visit schools; workplaces and clinics educating people about HIV/AIDS issues. They advise people on how to practice safe sex- this include either not practising sex at all, to using condoms and staying with one relationship. This can be summed up as A B C: Ø Abstain Ø Be faithful Ø Condomise They encourage people to go to clinics for a HIV/AIDS test so they can know their status, form support groups to talk together and later be open about these issues. Counselling for those positive is done so they can approach their new situation in a positive way. If someone is in this situation, it's the attitude behind the fact that counts. Things you and your centre can do: · Advertise the AIDS helpline free number 0800 012 322 - and allow people to call it in privacy! · Give out free condoms (get them from your health clinic) · Put up AIDS awareness posters and distribute leaflets (get from health clinic) · Find out where in your area people can get HIV tests, and let people know this · Assist people setting up support groups of HIV+ people and support people living positively · Introduce HIV+ people to email to link with others and visit websites on this issue · Learn about HIV / AIDS, safe sex and related issues yourselves - and teach others · Let people know of the AIDS / HIV awareness campaigns - check the websites below For more information please feel free to contact TAC at: J'burg: 011 304 7021 Cape Town: 021 364 5489 Durban: 031 304 3673 Website: http://www.tac.org.za Email: info@tac.org.za Websites to check: AIDS Treatment News www.aids.org/immunet/atn.nsf/homepage UN AIDS Programme www.unaids.org AEGIS AIDS resources www.aegis.org NAPWA National Association of People Living with HIV / AIDS napnat@sn.apc.org Johannesburg: 011 872 0975 Cape Town: 021 424 1106 ********************************************** THE WORLD BANK's GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY: Compiled by Lauren Fok, SANGONeT lauren@sn.apc.org This is an extract from a report written by Lauren regarding the World Bank's project to set up a 'portal' for development information. On the next page is the draft (not yet finalised) response of South African Civil Society Organisations. To find out more about the GDG yourself, visit http://www.developmentgateway.org The idea of a global development gateway (GDG) was born at the Davos meeting in 1999. Bill Gates pledged an amount of US$40 million. The World Bank also committed about US$20 million to the project. The 3 GDG objectives are: - * Networking amongst the development community (government, private sector, donors and civil society) - * Tool for improving the delivery of development funds - * Knowledge management - 'a repository of global development knowledge' The World Bank has set up national country gateway Working Groups (WG) in around 12 countries already. The World Bank will fund the initial development of the gateway, technical infrastructure, access to international markets, BUT the content is envisaged to be a country operation. A grant of US$75 000 has been budgeted for each of the country gateways. The World Bank organised a meeting with civil society organisations in South Africa through SANGONeT on 15 February to explore the possibility of setting up a South African Working Group for the GDG. A subsequent meeting of those NGOs, trade unions and others met on 28 February to discuss the suggestion. Many criticisms of the bank were raised and it was decided to decline to work with the World Bank. Criticisms included the GDG initiative 'crowding out' local plans; mistrust of the World Bank which is not a neutral provider of development information; The World Bank is using words such as "grassroots", " representative", "consultation" as buzzwords to gain buy-in and credibility in its desire to position itself as central to the information economy. Ultimately the gateway is a Northern initiative, controlled by Northern institutions; We are calling on all civil society organisations to join our ICT Development Network to work towards creating an environment where ICTs are made accessible and used as tools to improve the lives of all the peoples of South Africa. DRAFT LETTER TO WORLD BANK PRESIDENT in response to South African CSO consultation meetings: Mr James Wolfensohn President, The World Bank Dear Mr Wolfensohn On 15 February 2001, South African civil society organisations met to discuss the recent offer of collaboration with the World Bank Global Development Gateway together with two World Bank representatives, Monica Quigley and Happy Nkhoma. A report-back session was held on the 28 February 2001, attended by representatives from, amongst others, SANGONeT, Jubilee South Africa, COSATU, SANGOCO (representing 4000 NGOs), the community radio sector and the churches. The participants took a unanimous decision to discourage any collaboration with the World Bank's GDG initiative and to work towards a more appropriate development network. We want to firmly and unequivocally state our intention not to participate in the World Bank Development Gateway project. As civil society organisations in South Africa we feel the Bank's true intention is to control the development information discourse to promote its own particular perspectives. A growing number of organisations in South Africa and globally are expressing opposition to World Bank interventions in South Africa as a result of several decades of experience of the institution in the developing world. There are many specific reasons why the Development Gateway is already repeating the Bank's legacy of interference and domination. The meeting of 15 February was misrepresented in the GDG newsletter. We want nothing to do with systematic development misinformation of the sort we have come to associate with the World Bank. Sincerely, Lauren Fok, SANGONeT (lauren@sn.apc.org) George Dor, Jubilee South Africa (george@sn.apc.org) on behalf of the participants at the report-back meeting ********************************************** INTERVIEW WITH PETER LEBEPE Peter Lebepe is the owner of the successful Mokwakwaila mini-telecentre. He was recently elected as the chairperson of the committee of Northern Province telecentres. Trevor Nivi of CommUnity interviewed him. CommUnity: Your telecentre at Mokwakwaila is one of the most successful. How have you done this? What new services have you been able to set up? Peter Lebepe: This telecentre was established on 8 October 1998 though it was applied for in 1997. From 1997 I started marketing, finding out what kind of machinery can be used. While I was busy marketing, I discovered that the Department of Education will no longer supply any stationery to the schools. Then besides the limited services normally offered by mini-telecentres, I decided to immediately exploit that opportunity and produced such stationery as: * Attendance register, * Policy documents, * Merit certificates, * Study guides, * Business cards, * School reports. So I would say that vigilance, marketing and not adhering to the prescription (or going beyond traditional services) made my telecentre successful. CU: What would your advice be to other telecentres to increase services, customers and profit? PL: Telecentre managers should go out there and do marketing. They should not change managers that are causing problems as customers would then loose hope and interest in the telecentres. CU: You are the chairperson of the newly-formed Northern Province Telecentre Committee. How has this helped the centres and what plans do you have? PL: Forming a provincial committee facilitates the process of communication between local centres and the national office. It was not good for individual centres to communicate directly with the national office, in this case USA. So the provincial committee assist in co-ordinating all communications between the two levels of operation in terms of channelling requests, problems and recommendations. For instance, telecentre managers hold monthly meetings with the help of the forum, solving problems sharing ideas and compiling and taking those we cannot solve to USA and seeking advice. On planning, a research on needs assessment has been conducted and it came with the following recommendations: * More training on computer skills * Linking telecentres with government departments so that telecentres can offer many services themselves, especially Home Affairs & the Dept of Education * Postnet and courier services. CU: From the recent research, it seems that the telecentres in the Northern Province are doing better than the average. Why do you think this is? PL: There was a lot of mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation with regard to telecentres in the Northern Province. That might be one reason why they succeed. We usually held meetings in order to discuss our common experiences and learnt a lot from one another. So networking is very important. CU: What is your opinion of the work of the Universal Service Agency. What should it be doing to support telecentres and Universal Access in SA? PL: The Universal Service Agency should continue monitoring, supervising telecentres, helping them with funds and training. The agency should also help mini, community, and multi-purpose centres with discussions, ways and means of getting funds to sustain themselves. It should also assist us in getting credit facility from banks. CU: Is there anything else you would like to tell us? PL: A number of meetings with the Regional Director of Home Affairs is still under process, including the Director-General in Pretoria. The same applies with the departments of Health, Justice, Education. By these kinds of meetings we want to take services to the people on the ground. That will definitely cut many costs that our people incur when they are visiting these places. ************************************************** NOTES & UPDATES * New Head of the USA From PROENZA-FAO at iadb.org Mon May 21 17:57:50 2001 From: PROENZA-FAO at iadb.org (Proenza, Francisco) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:11:19 2007 Subject: [Communitysa] Telecenters Message-ID: <64021C94CDF9D411865C00B0D0687B9BF5AC10@hq-mail-03> I am pleased to announce the online publication of "Telecenters for Socioeconomic and Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean", a joint FAO - IADB - ITU effort. The Executive Summary, Power Point Presentation and Full report may be downloaded from: http://www.iadb.org/regions/itdev/telecenters/index.htm A Spanish version of the report is also available from the same site. Francisco J. Proenza FAO Investment Centre FAO-IADB Cooperative Program proenza-fao@iadb.org Tel. 202-623-2383; Fax. 202-623-1786 From peterb at orientation.com Sat May 12 15:29:08 2001 From: peterb at orientation.com (Peter Benjamin) Date: Wed May 23 10:56:48 2007 Subject: [Communitysa] CommUnity newsletter Message-ID: <200105121932.f4CJW0a05621@news1.orientation.com> Dear all, Here is the latest text version of the CommUnity newsletter. It has been sent (in paper form) to the 500 community ICT projects we know of in SA. See the website http://www.communitysa.org.za Cheers, Peter CommUnity Newsletter May 2001. Volume 2: Edition 1 Edited by: Peter Benjamin & Trevor Nivi peter@sn.apc.org CONTENTS: *Community ICT in South Africa - introduction to this edition * Policy on Univ. Access * Community ICT survey * USA Telecentre survey * Telecentres & HIV/AIDS * Global Dev. Gateway - debate and controversy in SA * Lebepe interview - chairperson of the Northern Prov Telecentre Committee * Notes & Updates * Dot Force report * Women'sNet *************************************************** COMMUNITY ICT IN SOUTH AFRICA - INTRODUCTION TO THIS ISSUE Many positive things are happening in community Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects in South Africa. There are now over 500 projects of this kind, many doing well, though with several recurring problems. All the community ICT projects we know of are now on a web-searchable database (www.communitysa.org.za). A survey of the USA's telecentres shows that while some are doing well, while others have real problems. One of the most positive initiatives is forming provincial committees of telecentres for mutual support, as we hear from the chairperson of the Northern Province committee Peter Lebepe. The Department of Communications is producing policy that will greatly support the work in this country, while internationally there is much discussion on 'Closing the Digital Divide', as we hear in a report from the DotForce meeting. However not all international projects are beneficial. There has been considerable local opposition to the World Bank's plans to set up a Global Development Gateway. A key issue that ICT projects can try to address in their communities is HIV/AIDS, as we explore. Also, Women'sNet is an organisation that can support telecentres extending electronic access, especially to women. The next step seems to be to create linkages to share experience and find common solutions. Telecentres, community radios, training centres, NGOs and government information points together can provide information access to support development in SA. Please share you views with us in future editions. ****************************************************** POLICY DIRECTIVES ON UNIVERSAL ACCESS Following its policy process, the Department of Communications has produced directives for comment at the end of March 2001. Below are sections relevant to Universal Access. Universal access & service objectives · In furtherance of the objective of universal service, improving access to telecommunication services is an important short-, medium- and long term priority. The targets for universal access have to be re-defined in terms of services for access to include advanced services such as Internet multimedia. In particular, account shall be taken of special needs of differently abled persons and the equitable geographical spread of services. · Targets for access shall provide for accelerated access for differently abled persons to services including text and speech relay services, emergency speed dialling and specialised operator assistance. Universal Service Agency (USA) · The role of USA shall be to evaluate and monitor implementation of universal access projects. Institutional capacity to support effective evaluation and monitoring of attainment of targets is a priority. · A seven member board, one of whom will be the chairperson, will be appointed by the Minister to provide oversight. Contributions to the Universal Service Fund · Policy Direction No.3: Contributions to the Universal Service Fund (issue under Notice 775 of 1997) is hereby repealed with effect from April 2003. · In order to increase the size of the Fund, all telecommunication licensees shall from April 2003 contribute to the Fund a percentage of their turnover as prescribed by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA): Provided that the prescribed percentage shall not exceed 0.5%. · The size of the Universal Service Fund shall be reviewed from time to time. EDUCATION RATE (E-RATE) · Telecommunication operators shall be required as part of their licence obligations to give a 50% discount on all Internet access calls made by any public school. · Registration of domain names by public schools shall be free of charge. UNDER-SERVICED AREAS · Small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide telecommunication services including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) for the specific purpose of advancing universal access in geographic areas with a teledensity of less than 1% from 7 May 2002. · SMMEs and co-operatives shall be permitted to provide such services using their own or leased infrastructure. ******************************************************* COMMUNITY ICT SURVEY The Community ICT Survey being carried out by the LINK centre is coming to an end. The project has been lead by Peter Benjamin and co-ordinated by Trevor Nivi, with funding from the IDRC. We looked for community ICT projects in South Africa - any place where people could use ICT systems (especially for internet access and training) in disadvantaged areas. We did not count phoneshops, urban cybercafes, or school sites only used by the school, but we did count libraries with computer access, telecentres with computers, schools with community classes. Due to the synergies between these projects, we also counted Community Radio initiatives. We asked for contact details from over 30 organisations, sent out around 1,000 questionnaires, and had 11 fieldworkers conducting interviews around the country. The project ran from October 2000 - April 2001. Below is a table of the type of sites, how many we know about (have proper contact details), how many we have data on (filled questionnaires on website) and our 'best guess' of how many exist. Type of Centre: Have address Have data Best guess USA Telecentres: 65, 44, 65 Libraries: 62, 18, 80 GCIS: 6, 3, 10 Community Radio: 74, 52, 80 Information Literacy (InfoLit) sites: 29, 25, 30 Digital Villages: 12, 7, 15 Education Centres: 23, 19, 30 'Old' Multi-Purpose Community Centres: 6 5, 10 DoC WIL Labs (Schools & Technikons): 44, 33, 46 ISPA sites: 2, 2, 20 Schoolnet (with community access): 2, 2, 20 Social Change Assistance Trust (Cape Provs): 5, 3, 10 Sangoco - individual NGOs: 4, 3, 30 Others: 35, 30, 50 TOTALS: 368, 243, 526 It is certain that we have missed some sites from business, government and community. So, we think there are somewhere over 500 community ICT projects in South Africa. We got little information from many organisations - especially ISPA. Donating computers without proper education, awareness, monitoring and evaluating of these programmes is not enough. It was also disturbing to find that centres established by the same company do not know of one another. A mechanism should be devised to encourage sharing of common experiences between and amongst those centres. In future editions we will analyse what we found - what lessons, successes and problems there are. All the sites are on a searchable database on the website. Please inform us if you know of a community ICT projects that we have not covered. Website: http://www.communitysa.org.za Check the 'Projects' link ************************************************* USA TELECENTRE SURVEY These are the results of a survey into USA telecentres, conducted by Peter Benjamin with great assistance from the USA staff and telecentre managers. This was presented to telecentre managers at a workshop in March. The Universal Service Agency (USA) has established 65 telecentres. The provincial breakdown is: Northern Province 13 Easter Cape 10 KZN 10 Free State 6 Western Cape 6 Gauteng 5 Mpumalanga 5 North West 5 Northern Cape 5 These 65 can be divided according to how well they are operating: · 30 (46%) Have both computers and phones operating · 12 (18%) Have computers but no phones operating · 2 (3%) Have phones but no computers operating · 21 (65%) Are not operating · 5 (8%) use the internet. As measures of sustainability, we asked which telecentres paid a salary (usually under R1,000), which were profitable (bare operating profit), and which considered themselves 'Successful'. Paid salary 20 (32%) Profitable 23 (38%) Successful 30 (48%) There were big differences between different provinces, with most telecentres successful in Gauteng, Northern Province and the NorthWest; and few successful in Mpumalanga, KZN and the N Cape. Factors of Success appear to be: · Good manager · Vodacom phones (much better than Telkom because of %profit and more reliable) · Ability to develop new services · External linkages & networks. Factors of Failure included: · Equipment problems (phones, DECT, callcutters) · Excessive Telkom bills · Poor management & community conflict · Security (many thefts) So some USA telecentres are working very well, but there are problems with many. The USA is working to make the telecentres more successful, and learn from this experience. For more information: LINK: Peter Benjamin, peter@sn.apc.org ************************************************ TELECENTRES AND HIV/AIDS Each edition CommUnity will focus on a key issue that telecentres and Community ICT projects can address. The aim is to raise awareness, and suggest things that your centre can do. It is estimated that over 4.7 million people in South Africa are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Not only those who are directly infected with the virus are affected, but also their loved ones, family, community members and the rest of society. Fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic is everyone's responsibility - the individual, family, community and society at large. An integrated approach needs to be adopted to fight the disease. The Government, together with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), is fighting the multinational drug companies to allow SA to provide people with affordable drugs and medicines. We should all support this. Other things we can do include providing people with as much information as possible on HIV/AIDS issues. Another plan is to support national policy to provide proper treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. This means establishing links with community organisations like telecentres and multipurpose community centres to run and co-ordinate educational projects or campaigns. Telecentres can link up with health institutions closest to them like clinics, get pamphlets, posters and booklets on HIV/AIDS. For instance, TAC in Khayelitsha has introduced "Project Ulwazi". This has trained staff who visit schools; workplaces and clinics educating people about HIV/AIDS issues. They advise people on how to practice safe sex- this include either not practising sex at all, to using condoms and staying with one relationship. This can be summed up as A B C: Ø Abstain Ø Be faithful Ø Condomise They encourage people to go to clinics for a HIV/AIDS test so they can know their status, form support groups to talk together and later be open about these issues. Counselling for those positive is done so they can approach their new situation in a positive way. If someone is in this situation, it's the attitude behind the fact that counts. Things you and your centre can do: · Advertise the AIDS helpline free number 0800 012 322 - and allow people to call it in privacy! · Give out free condoms (get them from your health clinic) · Put up AIDS awareness posters and distribute leaflets (get from health clinic) · Find out where in your area people can get HIV tests, and let people know this · Assist people setting up support groups of HIV+ people and support people living positively · Introduce HIV+ people to email to link with others and visit websites on this issue · Learn about HIV / AIDS, safe sex and related issues yourselves - and teach others · Let people know of the AIDS / HIV awareness campaigns - check the websites below For more information please feel free to contact TAC at: J'burg: 011 304 7021 Cape Town: 021 364 5489 Durban: 031 304 3673 Website: http://www.tac.org.za Email: info@tac.org.za Websites to check: AIDS Treatment News www.aids.org/immunet/atn.nsf/homepage UN AIDS Programme www.unaids.org AEGIS AIDS resources www.aegis.org NAPWA National Association of People Living with HIV / AIDS napnat@sn.apc.org Johannesburg: 011 872 0975 Cape Town: 021 424 1106 ********************************************** THE WORLD BANK's GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY: Compiled by Lauren Fok, SANGONeT lauren@sn.apc.org This is an extract from a report written by Lauren regarding the World Bank's project to set up a 'portal' for development information. On the next page is the draft (not yet finalised) response of South African Civil Society Organisations. To find out more about the GDG yourself, visit http://www.developmentgateway.org The idea of a global development gateway (GDG) was born at the Davos meeting in 1999. Bill Gates pledged an amount of US$40 million. The World Bank also committed about US$20 million to the project. The 3 GDG objectives are: - * Networking amongst the development community (government, private sector, donors and civil society) - * Tool for improving the delivery of development funds - * Knowledge management - 'a repository of global development knowledge' The World Bank has set up national country gateway Working Groups (WG) in around 12 countries already. The World Bank will fund the initial development of the gateway, technical infrastructure, access to international markets, BUT the content is envisaged to be a country operation. A grant of US$75 000 has been budgeted for each of the country gateways. The World Bank organised a meeting with civil society organisations in South Africa through SANGONeT on 15 February to explore the possibility of setting up a South African Working Group for the GDG. A subsequent meeting of those NGOs, trade unions and others met on 28 February to discuss the suggestion. Many criticisms of the bank were raised and it was decided to decline to work with the World Bank. Criticisms included the GDG initiative 'crowding out' local plans; mistrust of the World Bank which is not a neutral provider of development information; The World Bank is using words such as "grassroots", " representative", "consultation" as buzzwords to gain buy-in and credibility in its desire to position itself as central to the information economy. Ultimately the gateway is a Northern initiative, controlled by Northern institutions; We are calling on all civil society organisations to join our ICT Development Network to work towards creating an environment where ICTs are made accessible and used as tools to improve the lives of all the peoples of South Africa. DRAFT LETTER TO WORLD BANK PRESIDENT in response to South African CSO consultation meetings: Mr James Wolfensohn President, The World Bank Dear Mr Wolfensohn On 15 February 2001, South African civil society organisations met to discuss the recent offer of collaboration with the World Bank Global Development Gateway together with two World Bank representatives, Monica Quigley and Happy Nkhoma. A report-back session was held on the 28 February 2001, attended by representatives from, amongst others, SANGONeT, Jubilee South Africa, COSATU, SANGOCO (representing 4000 NGOs), the community radio sector and the churches. The participants took a unanimous decision to discourage any collaboration with the World Bank's GDG initiative and to work towards a more appropriate development network. We want to firmly and unequivocally state our intention not to participate in the World Bank Development Gateway project. As civil society organisations in South Africa we feel the Bank's true intention is to control the development information discourse to promote its own particular perspectives. A growing number of organisations in South Africa and globally are expressing opposition to World Bank interventions in South Africa as a result of several decades of experience of the institution in the developing world. There are many specific reasons why the Development Gateway is already repeating the Bank's legacy of interference and domination. The meeting of 15 February was misrepresented in the GDG newsletter. We want nothing to do with systematic development misinformation of the sort we have come to associate with the World Bank. Sincerely, Lauren Fok, SANGONeT (lauren@sn.apc.org) George Dor, Jubilee South Africa (george@sn.apc.org) on behalf of the participants at the report-back meeting ********************************************** INTERVIEW WITH PETER LEBEPE Peter Lebepe is the owner of the successful Mokwakwaila mini-telecentre. He was recently elected as the chairperson of the committee of Northern Province telecentres. Trevor Nivi of CommUnity interviewed him. CommUnity: Your telecentre at Mokwakwaila is one of the most successful. How have you done this? What new services have you been able to set up? Peter Lebepe: This telecentre was established on 8 October 1998 though it was applied for in 1997. From 1997 I started marketing, finding out what kind of machinery can be used. While I was busy marketing, I discovered that the Department of Education will no longer supply any stationery to the schools. Then besides the limited services normally offered by mini-telecentres, I decided to immediately exploit that opportunity and produced such stationery as: * Attendance register, * Policy documents, * Merit certificates, * Study guides, * Business cards, * School reports. So I would say that vigilance, marketing and not adhering to the prescription (or going beyond traditional services) made my telecentre successful. CU: What would your advice be to other telecentres to increase services, customers and profit? PL: Telecentre managers should go out there and do marketing. They should not change managers that are causing problems as customers would then loose hope and interest in the telecentres. CU: You are the chairperson of the newly-formed Northern Province Telecentre Committee. How has this helped the centres and what plans do you have? PL: Forming a provincial committee facilitates the process of communication between local centres and the national office. It was not good for individual centres to communicate directly with the national office, in this case USA. So the provincial committee assist in co-ordinating all communications between the two levels of operation in terms of channelling requests, problems and recommendations. For instance, telecentre managers hold monthly meetings with the help of the forum, solving problems sharing ideas and compiling and taking those we cannot solve to USA and seeking advice. On planning, a research on needs assessment has been conducted and it came with the following recommendations: * More training on computer skills * Linking telecentres with government departments so that telecentres can offer many services themselves, especially Home Affairs & the Dept of Education * Postnet and courier services. CU: From the recent research, it seems that the telecentres in the Northern Province are doing better than the average. Why do you think this is? PL: There was a lot of mobilisation, monitoring and evaluation with regard to telecentres in the Northern Province. That might be one reason why they succeed. We usually held meetings in order to discuss our common experiences and learnt a lot from one another. So networking is very important. CU: What is your opinion of the work of the Universal Service Agency. What should it be doing to support telecentres and Universal Access in SA? PL: The Universal Service Agency should continue monitoring, supervising telecentres, helping them with funds and training. The agency should also help mini, community, and multi-purpose centres with discussions, ways and means of getting funds to sustain themselves. It should also assist us in getting credit facility from banks. CU: Is there anything else you would like to tell us? PL: A number of meetings with the Regional Director of Home Affairs is still under process, including the Director-General in Pretoria. The same applies with the departments of Health, Justice, Education. By these kinds of meetings we want to take services to the people on the ground. That will definitely cut many costs that our people incur when they are visiting these places. ************************************************** NOTES & UPDATES * New Head of the USA From PROENZA-FAO at iadb.org Mon May 21 17:57:50 2001 From: PROENZA-FAO at iadb.org (Proenza, Francisco) Date: Wed May 23 10:56:48 2007 Subject: [Communitysa] Telecenters Message-ID: <64021C94CDF9D411865C00B0D0687B9BF5AC10@hq-mail-03> I am pleased to announce the online publication of "Telecenters for Socioeconomic and Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean", a joint FAO - IADB - ITU effort. The Executive Summary, Power Point Presentation and Full report may be downloaded from: http://www.iadb.org/regions/itdev/telecenters/index.htm A Spanish version of the report is also available from the same site. Francisco J. Proenza FAO Investment Centre FAO-IADB Cooperative Program proenza-fao@iadb.org Tel. 202-623-2383; Fax. 202-623-1786