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As we enter the 21st century, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is building on the momentum and excitement surrounding the new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to ensure that Africa’s peoples are not left behind in the global information age.

Launched in April 1996, IDRC’s Acacia Initiative works mainly with rural and disadvantaged communities in sub-Saharan Africa. These communities have generally been isolated from the technological advances that are changing the ways people are doing business and living their lives in the urban centres today. Acacia’s program of research, experimentation, demonstration, and action supports the efforts of national governments to promote universal access to ICTs by building African capacities and bringing connectivity to poor communities through telephone, fax, and the Internet. Its central hypothesis is that connectivity and access to ICT-based tools and knowledge can enable communities to solve their own development problems and begin to close the information and development gap.

The Acacia Initiative is Canada’s leading contribution to the African Information Society Initiative (AISI). AISI was adopted by the African Ministers Responsible for Economic and Social Development and Planning at their 31st session, in Addis Ababa in May 1996. It was endorsed the same week by the African Regional Telecommunication Development Conference, in Abidjan, and subsequently by the Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity, in Yaounde, and the Group of Seven, in Denver.

AISI is an action framework to build Africa’s information and communication infrastructure. It aims to accelerate the economic and social development of Africa by promoting the use of ICTs on the continent. It is to be implemented by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Acacia is exploring a range of national models and promising technologies to increase access to communications and information. Among these are community telecentres. An early innovation in Africa, they can be found in various forms across the continent. Many questions about the community telecentres remain unanswered: Do they meet real community needs? Do they stimulate new ideas and opportunities? Do they change social relations and economic patterns within and between communities? How can they be made financially sustainable and socially acceptable in the longer term? Are there some success stories to share?

Acacia and its partners are investing considerable effort to answer these questions in a program of evaluation and continuous learning that is grounded in the participation of community leaders and groups and links researchers and policymakers across Africa.

This report supports a pan-African approach to research on the roles and impacts of community telecentres. It was written primarily for the African research and policy community, but it would also be useful to those evaluating the effectiveness of community telecentres in other parts of the world.

Finally, it should be noted that the report raises an issue of some urgency. Although it recommends basing our understanding of community telecentres on the best research and information available, it also stresses the fact that community telecentres are springing up all over Africa without the support of studies to measure their impacts or determine what works best. Community telecentres may be a key to enabling rural communities to close the development gap, or they may be yet another expensive cul de sac. Acacia believes this publication will help to decide that issue and hopes that development researchers and policymakers will make extensive use of it in Africa and elsewhere.

Gaston Zongo
Executive Director, Acacia Initiative
Dakar, Senegal

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