Document(s) 5 of 11

Introduction

The Youth Leadership Program for Information and Communication Technologies and Community Development in Africa (ALPID) is an initiative of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The program will target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at the threshold of excellence in terms of product quality, product standards, market orientation, and export promotion. ALPID will also target rural communities with limited information sources, with a view to helping them acquire information for health, hygiene, and responsible community living. In addition, ALPID will mobilize information resources generated through local research on indigenous systems of production, biotechnology, and environment management; identify potential end-users of this information; and disseminate, popularize, and, in the long term, commercialize such information.

The main challenge for ALPID will be to improve the quality of life, production, and knowledge. Hidden within this will be smaller challenges cutting across ALPID’s three priority areas. These smaller challenges will include maintaining quality in the face of rapid local, national, regional, and global change; using appropriate intervention programs; and identifying the amounts and types of resources required to put ALPID on a sustainable footing. This will have technical, technological, human, financial, and infrastructural implications. A high-quality ALPID product can only come from the input of high-quality resources. Finally, ALPID must promote and create such high quality by transforming, rather than reinforcing, the forces of alienation, or “de-Africanization.”

ALPID’s primary objective is to establish community-based information resources to support informed decision-making in community self-advancement and general development efforts. The program will use a youth-to-youth and youth-to-community approach to catalyze change. Skilled youth volunteers will be trained to collect and process information or identify such sources of information and establish databases of knowledge resources.

ALPID will initially provide access to information through community-based infrastructure for information and communication technologies (ICTs). This is expected to sensitize the users to the benefits of ICTs and encourage them to eventually buy their own.

With the liberalization of economies, global competition is seriously challenging the survival of SMEs. Kenyan enterprises lack the information their international competitors have to achieve efficient production. SMEs are expected to take a keen interest in ALPID and be early innovators. The target countries for the program are Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. This chapter focuses on the Kenyan situation, although it draws on comparisons with Uganda.

Preparation of this chapter involved interviews and consultations with people in various sectors, searches for available documentation on the Internet, and extensive application of my own experience.

The Information Age and global trends¹

A subtle transformation is now evident in the societies of developed countries. The Industrial Revolution focused attention on energy and matter, with the most visible output being tangible goods. But today, in the Information Age, intangible goods have a dominant market share. Economic output has increasingly shifted from agriculture and industry to services. In the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the service-industry and public-sector share in the economy is now 70%, whereas manufacturing and agricultural account for only 25 and 3%, respectively (Forge 1995). This trend is also evident in the poorer countries, where the service-sector share in the economy is higher (43%) than those of manufacturing and agriculture.

This demand is creating a new industry, an industry devoted to creating, processing, and disseminating information to consumers. The information industry is now highly recognized: it creates jobs and, most important, provides important services to the entire economy. In global terms, the information industry has been growing at twice the rate of the rest of the economy. Its greatest contribution, however, will be its impacts on the efficiency and competitiveness of nations in the 21st century.

Characteristic of the emerging Information Age is the transformation of information into a commodity created, produced, manipulated, and distributed to consumers throughout the world. Information infrastructure is a prerequisite to participation in the Information Age.

By all parameters, target countries for ALPID fair poorly and are ill-equipped to participate in the Information Age. However, along with rural-to-urban migration, unemployment, and the immense challenges in education and health delivery, the new order also offers opportunities. Policy obstacles must be removed to foster investment in the development of information infrastructure and its applications. Countries that do have the capacity to participate in the Information Age have put in place policies to foster and promote

Information generation, acquisition, and creation;
Information processing, storage, and retrieval (typically, through information technologies [ITs]); and
Information-dissemination systems (typically, through telecommunications systems).

It should be noted that as governments become more conscious of the impact of the information industry, they are putting policies in place to foster the development of ICT infrastructure and to harness its benefits and enhance development into the 21st century.

Connectivity

Like other countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Kenya faces serious challenges in its quest to provide universal telecommunication services. By the end of July 1997, the total number of connected lines in Kenya was 269 000, generating a teledensity (ratio of telephones per 100 people in the population) of slightly less than 1%. Although this is high for SSA, which has an average teledensity of 0.5%, it is far lower than the 60% common in Europe. Yet, telecommunications applications are now available for use in health-care delivery (telemedicine, home working), telecommuting, and interactive distance learning — the very applications the country badly needs in its quest for development and newly industrialized country status by 2020. In recognition of the need to develop telecommunications, the Kenyan government published a sector policy guideline in January 1997 to chart the way forward (GOK 1997) (Figure 1).

Key targets were the following:

To construct 2.7 million lines, at an estimated cost of 5.4 billion United States dollars (USD) by 2015, thereby raising national teledensity to 5% (the national teledensity spread is expected to be 20 and 1% in the urban and rural areas, respectively);
To progressively facilitate private-sector participation in the telecommunication industry and thereby provide the bulk of the financing; and
To unbundle the dominant player — Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KPTC) — and establish bodies with distinct regulatory and operational mandates.

Following up on the policy paper, the government published a parliamentary bill to unbundle KPTC and establish a regulatory body and legal framework for licencing private-sector operators. At the time of writing, the bill had not been enacted by the last parliament. In line with parliamentary procedures, the bill was being redrafted for discussion in the new parliament and for enactment within the year. Kenya’s telecommunication market recorded reduced investment in the last 5 years or so on account of a misunderstanding between the government and multilateral donors.

With the enactment of the bill, more opportunities for the private sector will open up, bringing fresh capital and stimulating fast growth to reduce a mounting backlog of unsatisfied customers, particularly those who want enhanced service. The public switched telecommunication network (PSTN) will continue to be a restricted domain of Telkom Kenya Ltd, the offshoot of the telecommunication component of KPTC. Regulatory provisions will continue to restrict international access to Telkom Kenya Ltd, as well as to the PSTN. The import duty for telecommunication equipment is high, raising the overall costs by 33.4% and thus affecting the affordability of services (Table 1).

KPTC manages the Kenyan telecommunication system as a monopoly. The system comprises a total switch capacity of 380 000 ports from more than 180 switches, 68% of which are digital. The 269 000 or so customers are connected through a national transmission network running on 4 400 km of terrestrial microwave (point-to-point links for telecommunications on the ground). However, international services are satellite based (Atlantic and Indian Ocean Intelsat satellites).

As in other public telecommunication networks in the region, the dominant product in Kenya is voice services, followed by data services; these services brought in annual revenues of about 300 million USD in 1996, making the operator the fifth largest in Africa in terms of revenue.

KPTC has implemented a packet-switching data network, with nodes in all the major towns in the country. Going under the brand name Kenpac, the network is also accessible over the PSTN. Another network, Kenstream, provides high-speed infrastructure for high-volume consumers at 64 kbps, using the existing network, with data terminal units on customers’ premises. Kenstream service is only available in the main cities of Nairobi and Mombasa. Low-volume customers continue to use leased analogue circuits. With line conditioning, the PSTN can support up to 19 200 kbps. In the late 1990s, KPTC planned to launch its very small aperture terminal (VSAT) service. KPTC will restrict this service to corporate users in East African countries. With this service operational, KPTC will be able to establish communication capability in any part of the country and thereby overcome the lack of infrastructure in the rural areas.

In 1986, KPTC embarked on countrywide rural automation. It has progressively raised automation to the current level of 98%. As of 1997, only 5 500 lines were manually switched. This has generally improved the quality of service and increased the call-completion rate. Manually switched telephone exchanges are to be found in small trading centres in rural areas. This type of telephone exchange gives a reasonable quality of service for voice calls but remains problematic for data calls because of the need to manually dial a modem at the distant end. This problem has been overcome with new software. Microsoft Windows 95, for example, has a feature for manually assisted connection. Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ, agency for technical cooperation) is using this feature for full Internet access at two sites (three sites in Tanzania have e-mail only). The advantage of this feature is the negligible investment required to access the Internet in areas without automatic telephone service. If ALPID is implemented in an area served by a manually switched exchange, this feature will be advisable, although KPTC staff will need simple training to recognize modem calls. KPTC also uses multiaccess radio systems to provide services to widely dispersed sites. Such technology is used in large farming plantations and tourist lodges in the middle of national parks.

Since 1991 KPTC has progressively initiated measures to foster private participation in certain areas, including customer-premises equipment (CPE) — private automatic branch exchange, terminal set — telephones, and fax. The easy mode of entry into the sector and the availability of products have brought 245 companies into the CPE market, bringing tangible benefits to the consumer: lower prices, high-quality products, and support. In addition, KPTC has licenced more than 250 bureaus countrywide, and many more operate without licences, particularly in the residential areas. Paging is the only telecommunication service provided by any private-sector company.

Developments in Uganda

In neighbouring Uganda, liberalization is happening more quickly. In January 1996, in a Telecommunication Sector Policy Announcement (TSPA), the Minister of Works, Transport and Communications promulgated the national vision for the telecommunication sector. The objective of the TSPA was to reorient sufficient private-sector capital to expand and enhance the quality of telecommunication services nationally. The government would withdraw from direct participation and actively facilitate private-sector operators as the engine of growth. The strategy to achieve this vision would be to create an enabling environment and level playing field to stimulate and build a competitive telecommunication market, with little or no intervention by the government, save that in its role as a regulator. The policy provides for the introduction of competition and licencing procedures for multiple operators and sets targets for provision of services, quality, and national spread. Key targets are the following:

Increased network capacity — 300 000 lines in 5 years (within the same time frame, the teledensity would increase to 2 lines per 100 people from the 1996 figure of 0.25);
Pay phones, public call offices, and other appropriate telecommunication services in the rural areas;
Automated telephone services in all district and county headquarters; and
A regulatory body to manage the telecommunication sector.

Uganda recently created an independent regulatory body — the Uganda Communications Commission — and awarded a licence to a private-sector PSTN operator, thus unleashing competition in all sectors of telecommunications. A mark of confidence in the growing telecommunication sector is the new network operator’s commitment to pay 5.6 million USD to the government for the concession to build and operate 89 000 lines within 5 years. Although the initial target of 300 000 lines may not be realized, the network will be more advanced by far than it is today. Advertisements have appeared for the sale to the private sector of Uganda Telecom Ltd — an offshoot of the former public monopoly, Uganda Posts and Telecommunication Corporation (UPTC). With the expected completion of the process by mid-1998, Uganda will become a unique telecommunication market in the region, with full competition and the private sector playing the leading role in its development.

At the time of writing, the Uganda Communications Commission intended to establish a fund to meet the special needs of rural and disadvantaged communities and to support community-based communication initiatives, such as telecentres. One such pilot telecentre, at Nakaseke, in the famous Luwero triangle region, is supported by IDRC, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and Uganda Telecom Ltd.

Alternative technologies

Datacasting

Datacasting is a fast, efficient, and low-cost way to disseminate information to an unlimited number of users. Datacasting takes advantage of already existing media infrastructure, such as broadcasting — television or radio — either terrestrially or via satellite. Packet radio can also be used. Operating at higher frequencies, television may provide higher data throughput. The receiver stations have standard antennae linked to standard personal computers (PCs), with special software and hardware to receive the information. The content developer develops the data and relays these to a broadcasting company for distribution over the broadcast network. Once data are received, they are stored on the computer hard disk and can be manipulated easily to suit the user.

Typical information might be entire databases established by ALPID. A typical television “vertical blanking interval” line can transmit data at 14.4 kbps (14 400 × 3 600 bits an hour, or 51.84 megabits of information) to many recipients simultaneously. The information can then be distributed to the target community via hard copy or any other appropriate format. This technology does not offer interactivity; however, ALPID could use it for centres in rural areas where switched telephony is unavailable. Coffee traders and paging services in Uganda are now applying variations of this technology.

Data over radio

One commercial application of ICTs in the rural areas is the transmission of data over high-frequency radio. At transmission speeds of 2 400 bps, manuals can be sent over the system to information centres in the rural areas. ALPID can therefore use the network to disseminate data to selected centres. In Uganda, a local company, Bushnet, is providing e-mail services to rural-based organizations. Although the startup investment is up to 10 000 USD for equipment, including a computer and a monthly polling fee (and this is high for mass use), more than 40 large organizations subscribe to the network. The Ugandan government has indicated its interest in using this technology to disseminate information to rural-based departments. Although Kenyan-based intergovernmental institutions involved in relief work are using this technology, no company has offered it as a commercial service.

Satellite

Large multinational corporations are testing global mobile personal communication systems (GMPCS), based on mobile satellite constellations orbiting the Earth. Low orbits make voice telephony possible through small handsets in any part of the world. Other services to be offered include fax, paging, and e-mail. User charges are expected to be 2–5 USD per minute, which is much higher than local PSTN tariffs. The services will therefore be aimed at international business travelers. Nevertheless, with the commercial operation of GMPCS, no point in Uganda will be without reliable communications services.

In 1998, the Iridium and Globalstar corporations were undertaking in-flight testing, with the hope of commencing commercial operations later in the year. Iridium was expected to inaugurate commercial operations on 23 September 1998, and 46 satellites of the 66-satellite constellation had already been launched and successfully tested in orbit. Two e-mail store-and-forward satellite systems can be used, Vitasat and Satellife. These operate in remote locations where terrestrial infrastructure is lacking.

The Inmarsat satellite system is already providing competitive mobile telecommunication services, using terminals the size of a laptop computer. Larger terminals are being used for more capacity, and these can be used to provide rural telephone services. Other fixed satellite systems offer telecommunication capacity, using VSATs to provide ground infrastructure. VSATs are simple to install at the point of service and are now used to provide a range of services: voice and data telecommunications, distance learning, and telemedicine. VSATs provide the best option in rural parts of Africa with no reliable telecommunication infrastructure.

Policy and regulatory constraints

Regulatory provisions hamper the use of satellite systems in many countries. Monopoly telecommunication operators fear that VSAT and Inmarsat systems will carry telecommunication traffic away from their networks, thereby taking away revenue. In such countries, either these systems are banned or licence fees are high to dissuade people from using them, which restricts competition and maintains the high price of international telecommunication services.

All of ALPID’s target countries allow the use of Inmarsat terminals and VSAT. Kenya was testing VSAT service and had approved Inmarsat in February 1998. Taxation has had a high impact on the final pricing of telecommunication products and services. In Kenya, the cumulative taxation on telecommunication equipment is 33.4%, and telecommunication services attract a value-added tax (VAT) of 16%. This has a negative impact on the affordability of these services. Governments are recognizing the role of telecommunications in national development and are looking for ways to reduce or even remove tariffs on telecommunication equipment. In December 1996, trade ministers from 32 countries, including the European Union, agreed on a timetable according to which tariffs would be completely removed by 1 January 2000 (Molony 1997). The Information Technology Agreement calls for a worldwide duty-free market for network hardware and telecommunication switching and transmission equipment. Signatories include India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

The significance of the foregoing is that communication technology is available to serve ALPID in its target countries; however, regulatory and commercial issues in these communities have often hindered the use of these technologies for development. To develop telecommunication infrastructure, the target countries, especially Tanzania and Uganda, have been restructuring the sector, facilitating the input of fresh capital from the private sector, and removing barriers to accessibility by promoting competition.

Information technology in East Africa

At the time of writing, Kenya has yet to formulate a comprehensive IT policy. Nevertheless, even without such a policy the government has taken actions with significant bearing on the development of the industry. The government has progressively reduced the tariff barriers in the IT industry, and the import duty on computers is now 5%, down from a high of 40–45% in the early 1990s. Lower duties have brought down the prices of computers and enhanced their affordability, as is evident from the increase in the number of PCs. The country has an estimated 200 000 PCs (The East African, 5–11 May 1997), a number expected to increase by 10–15% a year. At this level, the PC density (the number of computers per 100 people) is almost equal to teledensity at 1%. However, this compares poorly with the figures for Southeast Asian countries. By 1995, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea had PC densities of 3.97, 17.24, and 12.08, respectively. In the same year, South Africa had the highest PC density in Africa, at 2.65 (ITU 1996/97). Although data for Africa are largely unreliable, ITU (1996/97) estimated PC density in Nigeria at 0.41 and in Uganda at 0.05 (Table 2).

In addition to importing ITs, local entrepreneurs have established a thriving business in PC assembly. As clones of major brands, these assembled PCs come with lower price tags, which also brings pressure to bear on the prices of name-brand PCs. Similarly, a thriving local software industry is in place in Kenya, satisfying specialized needs. At least seven companies supply off-the-shelf, mass-packaged software products (Upstart Ltd Nairobi 1996). This is a major milestone in the local supply of the types of IT application needed by ALPID.

The Kenyan government has increasingly accepted the use of computers in its offices, thereby also providing a role model in the acquisition and use of ITs. The actual benefit the government offices derive from their use of ICTs is another matter, as at the time of writing the Kenyan government had no cohesive policy on the use of ITs.

As the result of the increased number of computers on the market, the sales and maintenance points have increased rapidly and spread nationally. Major towns have sales and support outlets, as well as the capacity to give training in basic computer awareness. Additionally, the government has decided to introduce computer courses in secondary schools and make the subject examinable (students must pass the course). This is going to be a major impetus for the enhancement of IT awareness in the country. Leading the advocacy of IT development are professional IT associations, such as the Information Technology Standards Association (ITSA) and the Computer Society of Kenya. ITSA has been leading the crusade to standardize training in the industry. Continually falling prices and increased awareness of ITs will be the driving force for increased use of ITs in the coming years.

In Uganda, the environment for the IT industry is similar to that prevailing in Kenya. Uganda has no institutional framework to coordinate the orderly development of ITs. Consequently, market forces largely determine the acquisition of IT products. The import-taxation regime has not provided a sufficient margin to encourage the local assembly of equipment. Local assembly would, in time, lead to increased local content, job creation, and localization of IT products. So far, only high-income earners and institutions can afford these products. Taxation has been cited as the major factor sustaining high prices. Imported products are subject to withholding tax, import duty, and 17% VAT. These increase the end price considerably. The Internet Society of Uganda (ISUGA) has asked the government to waive taxes to make computers affordable.

Private institutions provide training, and Uganda has no local standards. Numerous companies in Kampala are offering training and appreciation courses. Nakawa Training Institute, a training school owned by UPTC, has started basic computer literacy courses and may introduce advanced courses. In light of privatization, the institute could design and implement packages for companies and for initiatives such as telecentres (Mureithi 1997a).

Finally, availability, particularly in rural areas, is restricted by problems with power, telephones, equipment sales, etc. Furthermore, companies that sell computers are largely based in Kampala and have few technical-support centres in the rural areas. Software is largely a packaged product sold by computer vendors, with little local input.

National IT development

Kenya

The first full Internet service was launched by the African Regional Computing Centre in the last quarter of 1995. Since then seven more Internet service providers (ISPs) have appeared. This has unleashed competition, which has brought down prices, increased the points of presence (PoP) in all major towns, and generally raised Internet awareness. The greatest challenge continues to be the low level of locally relevant information on the Internet and therefore its value. All the major towns in the country — Eldoret, Kisumu, Mombasa, and Nakuru — have an established Internet PoP in Nairobi (Box 1).

On 1 April 1997, KPTC reviewed its telephone tariff policy and enlarged the local telephone call zones to have a 60-km radius. Internet users in the environs of the PoPs therefore enjoy cheap local telephone charges. Machakos and Garissa and towns in the Mount Kenya region — Embu, Meru, and Nyeri — have to pay long-distance charges for the Internet, at 28 KES per minute (in 2000, 74.35 Kenyan shillings [KES] = 1 USD). This raises operating costs significantly. At the time of writing, KPTC’s intention was to implement a national Internet backbone for as many as 30000 customers within the year. All parts of the country are expected to be within reach of the Internet at local rates.

However, Internet development in Kenya has faced a number of constraints, especially in policy. In April 1996, KPTC declared the provision of Internet service over “privately” leased lines illegal (The Standard, April 1996). At the time of writing, this position had still not been publicly withdrawn. Meanwhile, African countries have been actively promoting the development of Internet use, particularly through academic institutions. A policy statement released by the Ministry of Transport and Communication in January 1997 was perhaps the first official recognition of the Internet. Currently, ISPs have to pay a hefty licence fee of 250000 KES and a higher price for international leased lines, almost four times what ISPs have to pay in Uganda. Kenya has restricted the use of satellite technologies (that is, VSATs), which would offer cheaper international connectivity and provide more capacity than available through KPTC.

The higher operating charges for ISPs translate into higher charges levied to customers; consequently, Internet charges in Kenya are the highest in the region. However, extremely low local telephone rates reduce total costs (Table 3).

Moreover, governments are the largest consumers and the largest generators of information. Governments have increasingly used ICTs, particularly the Internet, to disseminate public information. The use of the Internet to disseminate public information provides a role model. Only one Internet site for the Kenyan government was found, and that was the site of the Kenyan embassy in the United States (www.embassyofkenya.com). This site had last been updated in mid-1997. There were other “national” sites, including those of the Kenya Sugar Authority (www.tcol.co.uk/orgs/ksa/kensugar.htm) and Moi University (www.tcol.co.uk/orgs/ moi/moi.htm).

Government use of the Internet gives the development of ICTs a much-needed boost. The Minister of Information and Broadcasting was reported as having demanded that the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation be connected to the Internet (The Daily Nation, 15 February 1997). This could have a significant influence on other government departments. The private sector, in contrast, has wholeheartedly embraced ICT use. Currently, Kenya has 458 Internet hosts, the highest number in SSA outside of South Africa (see the Network Wizards website at www.nw.com/zone/www/dist-bynum.html). And Kenya has an estimated 20 000 e-mail accounts.

Although all major towns in Kenya have commercial power, large parts of the rural areas do not. Only about 7–8% of the population has access to commercial power, which also has its problems. Power failures occur often, and even when power is available, wild fluctuations occur, which are disastrous for electronic equipment. Expensive stabilizers, even generators, must be considered. This can be expected to significantly increase project costs. Some institutions have been carrying out extensive research to design cheap power solutions for ICT applications in rural areas. The South African company, BayGen, for example, manufactures simple radios that operate without batteries or other external power sources (Box 2). Apple Computers has also reportedly been researching the prospects for mass production of laptops using the cranked-radio principle. If this is successful, it will be a milestone toward a truly universal information highway traversing rural Africa.

The Kenyan government has progressively reduced import duties and VAT on photovoltaic units to promote their use and make them affordable, and the use of these units has been increasing. Kenya could be expected to sustain this policy. Eight Nairobi-based companies and numerous agents in the rural areas install and maintain the systems. More than 20 000 photovoltaic units have been sold in Kenya since 1987, largely to rural middle-class people who are integrated into the cash economy but live far from commercial power lines (World Bank 1997). Solar power is therefore a tested technology, with potential for use in ALPID projects in the rural areas. KPTC has installed solar-powered radio stations in northeastern Kenya as part of the national transmission network and has been using solar power to run small rural exchanges in areas where commercial power is unavailable. Solar energy also has the economic potential to meet energy requirements for rural communities, given the high cost of traditional network electrification.

Uganda

The Ugandan government has embraced Internet technologies wholeheartedly, and their use has been increasing. Having several departmental websites (Box 3), the government is a role model. Many departments also have e-mail accounts.

Currently, Uganda has three major online ISPs, with close to 2 000 e-mail accounts in all. Internet accounts are fairly cheap in regional terms, facilitated by the open-sky policy adopted by the government for VSATs. Local telecommunication tariffs are, however, very high, nearly wiping out the benefit from the low cost of Internet use.

In July 1997, Uganda launched a local chapter of the Internet Society (that is, ISUGA) to act as an advocacy and sensitization group to support the development of an Internet community. At the launch of ISUGA, it was strongly felt that the government should spearhead the industry by forging a clear vision and playing a coordinating role to avoid the development of a chaotic industry. Other sensitization programs include the following.

The World Bank-supported School to School Initiative — Launched in October 1996, this initiative connects three schools in Kampala to the Internet, for the development of educational activities.
The Uganda Connectivity Project — Launched by a nongovernmental organization (NGO), this project promotes rural connectivity and aims at making the Internet available to the rural communities through training and the introduction of mobile “Internet centres.” The project is also intended to demonstrate the use of recycled, older model computers and the feasibility of using batteries as a source of power for rural communities (Mureithi 1997a).

Despite the lack of a coordinated policy for ICT development, Uganda has no major regulatory hurdles to prevent successful implementation of ALPID. Governments still have the leeway and a duty to create a more ICT-friendly environment through lower import duties, cheaper access to international bandwidth, as in Kenya, and role modeling. In the health sector, SatelLife HealthNet Kenya pioneered the use of e-mail for health workers and provides links to critical information resources. Such efforts need to be nurtured.

Priority areas for ALPID

Small and medium-sized enterprises

SMEs play a dominant role in the Kenyan economy and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. In a bid to determine the role of the SME sector, GEMINI, in conjunction with the Kenya Rural Enterprise Programme, conducted a baseline survey in 1993. A similar one was carried out in 1995, and the report, Employment and Income in Micro and Small Enterprises in Kenya (Daniels et al. 1995), has been widely accepted.

The report estimated that in 1995 Kenya had 708 000 enterprises employing slightly more than 1.2 million people. Urban enterprises represented 25.0% of the total and 29.1% of total created employment. Urban enterprises tended to be bigger than rural ones. The report defined microenterprises as having 10 or fewer employees and small enterprises as having 11–50. ALPID intends to focus on export-oriented enterprises in the second category, which the report found represented 0.2%, or about 1 400, of the total number of enterprises.

A survey of the industrial and technological information networks carried out by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in 1985 revealed that the users of information included SMEs, research institutions, consultants, government policy- and decision-makers, development banks, and private individuals. Among these, the SMEs constituted the largest proportion (32.5%) (Imende 1992). The nature of the information they required varied with the nature of their business.

The Kenyan government has identified lack of information as one of the four key constraints on SME development as part of the industrialization process set out in the Republic of Kenya Session Paper No. 2 of 1996, Industrial Transformation to the Year 2020 (ROK 1996). ALPID could significantly alleviate the information constraints in this sector.

Intervention programs to disseminate trade information

Information is now accepted as a major trade enabler. Trade-promotion organizations rate information needs as a priority and are putting trade-information systems into their programs. All the programs recognize the value of ICTs for information processing, storage, and dissemination. In Kenya, the Export Promotion Council (EPC) is implementing a project known as the Centre for Business Information in Kenya (CEBIK), supported by the European Union. This will establish a national trade-information centre linking international and local trade-information centres. At the national level, the project will establish an inclusive relationship with other industry and trade bodies, which will consume and extend the information to their own members and generate and deliver information to CEBIK. Essentially, CEBIK intends to establish a mutually reinforcing relationship with trade-promotion and lobby organizations for the generation and consumption of trade information. Such bodies would include the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI), the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, and Kenya Industrial Estates.

Information requirements within the SME sector include the following (Imende 1992)

Technical data on raw materials, finished products, and all inputs and outputs;
Current awareness services, giving selected users information on published literature in their fields of interest and specialty;
News bulletins, giving current information on forthcoming meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops, product exhibitions, shows, fairs, etc.;
Standards requirements;
Industry surveys;
Surveys of literature on specific topics of relevance; and
Referral, reprographic, and photographic services.

KNCCI is a nationwide organization of business people, established in 1965 as a trade and commerce advocacy and lobby group. It, too, is implementing a trade-information system. KNCCI contributes to the government’s trade-policy formulation and review process. At the local level, KNCCI operates through branch offices in almost all districts. It therefore has an extensive reach in the SME sector. However, the inadequacy of its resources has been a major constraint on its impact.

A trade-information system project funded by the United Nations Development Programme has identified 10 centres across the country. These are the largest business centres at the provincial level and have fully established branch offices. Each centre will be equipped with one PC, a printer, and an Internet connection.

Application of ICTs

The Kenyan horticultural industry is a success story, recording fast growth and claiming a leading role as exporters. In this industry, ICTs are an indispensable tool for monitoring international markets and coordinating production and harvests on the farms. This is in recognition of the competitiveness of the industry and the need for timely decision-making when dealing with perishable goods. Having used telephone and fax, the industry is now using the Internet extensively, not only for e-mail communication but also for actual sales of products! A local company, Media Street, sells flowers on the Internet and delivers them to homes in Europe within 24 h (see the Flower Highway initiative at www.eastafrica.com/flowers/ index.htm). The Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange is using the Internet to disseminate information on commodities and quantities of products for sale (www. arcc.or.ke/kace/cob.htm).

With the ongoing liberalization of the economy, all sectors of business are facing high competition from international competitors. Those segments of local industry with no access to information or ability to use ICTs, such as SMEs, are disadvantaged. However, large business organizations do have the ICT infrastructure, expertise, and resources to harness the technology and are increasingly using it to secure their competitive advantage.

Intervention of ALPID

ALPID will build on EPC’s and KNCCI’s activities on the ground and seek to extend the information to the SME consumer while engaging this consumer as a stakeholder and generator of local information. ALPID will focus on information gathering and dissemination, using youth volunteers. To reduce the cost of infrastructure, a communal information-exchange centre should be established near the centre of SME activity.

The project will establish a comprehensive resource for local trade information. In addition, it will facilitate and provide database searches for information needed by local entrepreneurs and communication facilities. Finally, it will act as the nucleus of an electronic trade network — business people could use it to initiate trade enquiries and finalize trade deals. In the same way that leading banks install automated teller machines in supermarkets to reach the supermarket customers, trade centres, as they develop, will offer a growing and focused customer base for trade information.

Health information for rural communities

Health care continues to pose a great challenge to Kenya. According to the development plan for 1997–2001, 60% of all diseases diagnosed in government hospitals are preventable. Vector-borne diseases, intestinal parasitic infections, and diarrhea are the main causes of morbidity and mortality countrywide. Preventive and promotive health initiatives would therefore have a significant impact on disease patterns. Health information is a key component in preventive health delivery.

One of the major problems facing the sector is lack of sufficient resources. Between 1980/81 and 1995/96, the annual per capita government expenditure fell from 9.82 to 6.2 USD (total allocation was estimated at 9.6% of government expenditures in the 1996/97 budget). About 80% of this expenditure has been concentrated in the urban areas, leaving little for the rural population. Additionally, only 20% of doctors work in rural areas, but they serve 80% of the population. In 1994, the government allocated 21% of the health budget to preventive health care in rural areas. Despite the allocation of resources being skewed against the rural areas and the poor, a study cited by Plan International showed that it is 10 times more expensive to treat the same disease in a hospital than in a lower level facility. The challenge to the government, then, is to empower the lower level facilities to fight diseases and, better still, prevent their occurrence. For the latter, an empowered community is the most appropriate intervention point.

ICTs can reduce the isolation of health professionals and support the information infrastructure needed to deliver curative and preventive health services through telemedicine. Telemedicine provides access to medical services and databases via the Internet, allowing health workers to identify problems, find information on new developments, and monitor vital signs. Data on a patient’s pulse rate, blood pressure, and respiratory activity, obtained with simple recording devices, can be sent to distant doctors. Teleconsultation allows image transfer and videoconferencing and consultation with local and international specialists. Teleeducation provides public-care programs for health-care professionals. In the late 1990s, ITU was planning to implement pilot telemedicine programs in Tanzania and Uganda.

The ALPID target countries face serious challenges in their delivery of health services to the rural poor and would greatly benefit from telemedicine. However, the capacity of the existing telecommunication networks in these countries is inadequate for some of the advanced services mentioned above; in some cases, regulatory provisions prevent the use of a satellite with sufficient capacity.

Whereas the aspects of telemedicine discussed above largely focus on curative health delivery, ALPID will seek to empower rural communities to create local information resources for health-management information systems at the community level, using the present ICT infrastructure.

Interviews with health professionals indicated that the following types of information are needed to ensure the success of interventions through telemedicine:

• Health education to raise awareness and encourage people to change their behaviour and lifestyles;
• Health-management information to provide quantitative data for health planners;
• Technical information; and
• Information on where to get what health services.

The first obstacles to overcome are the intimidation that new technologies pose and the lack of sufficient training and incentives for staff. A project to deliver information with computers was implemented in South Africa in 1996 in Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape provinces. The project was unsuccessful because of a lack of technical support in the rural areas, and financial support eventually ceased. Health staff had a low level of computer literacy.

In a bid to increase awareness of the applications of ICTs in the health sector, HealthNet has been organizing computer-literacy courses during Health Information Week, which has been held in October every year since 1992. Another issue to address is the maintenance and support of ICT systems, particularly in rural areas, as ICT systems have high costs and low priority, especially in clinics that have problems paying for drugs and other simple requirements. The whole system needs to become sustainable and no longer dependent on donor support alone. Implementors may consider integrating the health system into the clan structure to gain support at the community level.

The use of volunteers needs careful scrutiny, as often those available turn out to be the older, unemployed, and idle ones, hoping to gain stature as a reward. Ultimately, they would have little to offer the program, and their use is now being discouraged. Consequently, whoever volunteers must be properly compensated, and ALPID has to make provisions for this.

Entry point for ALPID

ALPID intends to establish a pilot, community-based, ICT-supported health information system, with youth volunteers providing information to the community and establishing local information resources for local health management.

The African Medical Relief Foundation (AMREF) has developed an effective and sustainable low-cost, community-based health information system applicable to rural communities in Africa (Oranga and Nordberg 1997). This system gets the community involved in planning, management, and evaluation of health programs, which in turn contributes to the sense of ownership and responsibility. Such a system generates information from the lowest level in the community (for example, the household) and is therefore more comprehensive than a facility-based system. ALPID will use ICTs to process, store, retrieve, and disseminate data to support community decision-making, with youth as the change agents.

If the community is to be a stakeholder in health issues, it must be empowered to make decisions on health management. In this context, the community will feel compelled to contribute to the financial support of the health information system. Most communities have a social infrastructure to organize social affairs, and the health needs of the community could be integrated into its plans. The NGO sector, with its population-development programs, also has a stake in the provision of health information at the community level. The sector needs detailed information to prepare proposals to access donor funds, evaluate programs, and monitor trends and variables.

Land-use management

Information on efficient land use to increase food production and protect the environment comes to the farmer largely through extension services. The success of the extension service in Kenya can have a significant impact on its economy, considering that agriculture contributed an average 28% of Kenya’s gross domestic product between 1991 and 1994. The country’s strategy to industrialize by 2020 also entails heavy reliance on agricultural raw materials.

Extension services are compartmentalized into animal health, animal production, and agriculture. At the lowest administrative level, the sublocation, is the frontline extension worker (FEW). The government is the largest provider of extension services, with 80000 staff, and is also the most broad-based in approach and application. Other providers of extension services are agricultural parastatals and boards, farmers’ cooperatives, NGOs, and large industrial companies, such as Kenya Breweries, Unga Ltd, and private entrepreneurs in the agriculture business. This largely top-down approach to a passive farmer lacks coordination among the providers of extension services and therefore fails to address all the needs of the farmers. Inadequate resources seriously affect government extension services; parastatals and large companies usually focus on a single commodity such as coffee (or barley in the case of Kenya Breweries). And finally, NGOs have inadequate staying power if donor funds are withdrawn.

A new approach will empower the farmer to gradually take over extension services. This new approach will strengthen the district so that it becomes the facilitator of agricultural development, and it will strengthen the divisions so that they become service centres. Subject-matter specialists (SMS) and FEWs will be assigned to divisions. A “merry-go-round” approach will provide an intensive, time-bound (12-month) extension service to a small community of about 200 farmers.

The government has a plan to strengthen the divisions with information to empower the SMS, FEWs, and the farmer. It will set up information centres in each division. From the data available, it appears that information at the centres will be limited, considering the government will have to run more than 300 divisional information centres with limited resources; moreover, when available, the publications will be in English, thereby cutting out the large majority of people who are not proficient in this language. The government has no plans to use ICTs at the centres, and it is unlikely that the farmers will be able to collect local knowledge and store it at these centres. The government’s vision is to set up an inclusive service centre for agricultural information, with the farmer as the focal point, and to harness all resources from actors in extension services.

ICTs could support and strengthen the divisional resource centres and provide a way to involve the farmer in gathering and storing indigenous farming experience and knowledge. With ICTs, the centres could integrate all extension services; strengthen farmer-researcher and farmer-extension linkages; access information from local and international sources; and create an information resource on farm and environmental resources, inputs, and markets.

Implementation process

In all three of ALPID’s priority areas, it will be imperative to sustain the project beyond its funding period. The chances of doing this would be improved by, among others things, implementing the project at lower cost; it is therefore necessary for the community to share the basic infrastructure costs where possible. Communal information bureaus have been proposed (some countries call them telecentres or telecottages). ALPID will draw on locally popular telephone bureaus but stress the use of information by and for the community. An information bureau is intended to simultaneously address issues of local connectivity, capacity-building for the target community, its lack of access to computing and communications technologies, the lack of general awareness of the potential for change, basic community development needs, etc.

KPTC has allowed and actively supported the establishment of telephone bureaus across the country. By virtue of giving customized services, these bureaus have attracted a large clientele and have been able to charge a far higher price than KPTC’s coin boxes. A 3-minute local call costs 3 KES at a KPTC coin box but 10 KES at a telephone bureau. By establishing the bureaus, KPTC opened up new opportunities for entrepreneurs in the telecommunication industry. As of June 1997, KPTC had formally registered more than 250 bureaus. Many more operate without licences in residential areas. The industry is being organized by the Telecommunication Society of Kenya, a trade group established to lobby the telecommunication operator.

Similarly, ISPs have recognized the need to offer Internet services to people who do not have the basic infrastructure — PC, modem, telephone, and Internet account. Two companies, Africa Online and FormNet, have established public access points, or Internet cafés, which are gaining in popularity. As in the case of the telephone bureaus, all the Internet cafés are in the urban areas and operate commercially.

In addressing priority needs, ALPID will seek to popularize a service point offering both voice (telephony) and data (fax and Internet) communication and, more important, information to meet the specific needs of the target community. A clear will to accomplish local development objectives is a prerequisite. This includes building community awareness; offering training in the use of new technologies; incubating the development of local ICTs, businesses, and professionals; or any other objective set out by the community. The information bureaus will create a strong linkage between the target communities and ICTs and thus contribute more than the telephone bureaus, which provide only pure connectivity.

Each information bureau will have the following basic equipment in the initial phase:

• Two PCs with the appropriate software, one printer, and an uninterruptible power supply;
• At least two telephone lines, one dedicated to voice and the other to data (Internet and fax);
• An Internet connection;
• A tape recorder, a videocassette recorder (VCR), and a television set;
• Suitable accommodation, with furniture and power supply (solar power would be an option if commercial power is unavailable); and
• Transportation for the youth volunteers.

The tasks foreseen for each team require certain skills, focusing on the priority areas in ALPID. Of primary importance are the skills to operate and provide basic support for the ICTs and ICT infrastructure in the information bureaus. One key objective of the information bureaus is to incubate new ICTs in the community environment and offer simple training and support to those members of the target community who embrace ICTs and want to buy them for their own use. Also needed are the skills to design, manage, and maintain databases. Collecting data, marketing information-bureau services, and disseminating information to those who need it may require more than one youth volunteer in a team.

Efficient use of ICTs requires high-level user training, which, as noted earlier, is readily available from numerous training institutions in the country. However, if the target communities are to use ICTs effectively, they have serious problems to overcome: language barriers, illiteracy, lack of awareness, and even lack of time to learn new skills to access information. Communities using the information bureaus should not be burdened by technology for the sake of the success of ALPID. ALPID will overcome this problem by using appropriately and well-trained youth volunteers to run the information bureaus. Each bureau will be equipped with a VCR, a television, and a tape recorder. Tape-recorded information could be viewed or heard to suit the user’s capabilities. Touch-screen systems will be considered for the information bureaus, based on community needs. Essentially, ALPID will be user driven, and the technology should be transparent to the user.

ALPID will target areas of greatest impact and derive results that can be replicated in other countries. In the selection of sites for implementation, community involvement is paramount, and therefore the community must demonstrate the need for the information bureau. An information-needs assessment for the target community (in line with ALPID) will have to be carried out beforehand. Basic ICT infrastructure and maintenance support should be present. This will reduce the need to install expensive infrastructure and will enhance the bureau’s integration with local ICT development. Finally, the pilot should create synergy with other government and target-community initiatives.

ALPID is expected to have a fixed time frame of 3 years, after which donor funding will cease. The project must seek and nurture partnerships with stakeholders to sustain itself. Ideally, the partners will progressively increase their share of the project burden. The information bureaus will seek to provide a service of value to the target communities, and this should be established at an early stage. The youth volunteers will be trained to gather and repackage information for the target consumers to use at their convenience. The program will make the target community aware of the information available and its potential to improve economic productivity and the quality of life. ALPID will also consider implementing a cost-sharing scheme.

Recommendations

Small and medium-sized enterprises

By 1995, Kenya had about 1400 SMEs with 11–50 employees (Daniels et al. 1995). These enterprises are largely urban based. To simultaneously ensure impact and sustainability, ALPID should site its information bureaus in urban centres with a critical mass of SMEs. Nairobi has the largest number of SMEs and is therefore a recommended location.

Health for rural communities

Between 1989 and 1993, AMREF developed and tested a community-based health information system in the Makueni District of Kenya. In the next phase, 1994–97, it implemented a pilot in the same district. Because of this project, financed by IDRC, the communities in the district (specifically, the Makindu, Kibwezi, and Mtito divisions) became fully sensitized to the need to manage their health affairs and supplement government efforts. The communities responded positively and have built nine resource centres at the sublocation level.

The project has trained volunteers to collect, analyze, and process information. Volunteers and community-based health workers, including traditional birth attendants, disseminate information through consultations and displays at the resource centres. Volunteers are civil servants, high-school leavers or graduates, health workers, and even the illiterate. All the resource centres submit information to an office at the subdistrict level in Makindu for consolidation.

A trained medical technician, provided with a PC, runs the office. An impact assessment of the project was under way at the time of writing, and preliminary results showed marked improvement in the health of the community. The government has seconded an officer to understudy the project, with a view to extending the community-based health system throughout the nation. Information from the system is used to benefit the community. For example, GTZ has used the information to monitor the growth of children under 5 years old. One constraint on the system has been in information processing. The resource centres submit information to a higher office in Makindu, but because of logistical problems it rarely comes back, and therefore the community does not benefit from the information so painstakingly collected.

ALPID should support this novel concept. It should participate in this project by strengthening resource centres in Kibwezi, Makindu, and Mtito. All the resource centres have complete physical infrastructure, commercial power, and telephones and serve a highly sensitized community. ALPID would therefore have an opportunity to exploit and demonstrate the ability of ICTs to enhance community empowerment at low cost. This project has aroused interest across the world and would therefore also give ALPID high visibility.

In other countries, the sustainability of community-based health systems is being addressed by community-based pharmacies under the framework of the Bamako Initiative. Kenya intends to implement the Bamako Initiative as well.

Land use

The Government of Kenya has initiated a pilot program in selected districts to empower the farming community to take over land-use decision-making at the local level, under the Agricultural Sector Investment Programme. The program is to be implemented in the 1998/99 financial year, and the government is in the process of selecting the pilot districts. Of these selected districts, ALPID should focus on three that are in high-potential arid and semiarid regions.

In the meantime, the Kikuyu Division of Kiambu District is proposed for ALPID. Kikuyu Division has a high population density, which places heavy pressure on land use and may result in land degradation. The only source of livelihood in the community is small-scale farming, so the community is likely highly amenable to new approaches to enhancing land use and increasing productivity and incomes. The farming community in the area has invested modestly in information to increase productivity, and this is a basis for a sustainable ALPID program. Finally, both ICT infrastructure and commercial power are in place.

References

Barnard, D.; Ferreira, Y. 1998. The clockwork radio — power to the people. Cited 9 Feb. e-PRODDER-mail, No. 50. Internet: www. web.co.za/prodder/

Daniels, L.; Mead, D.C.; Musinga, M. 1995. Employment and income in micro and small enterprises in Kenya: results of a 1995 survey. Kenya Rural Enterprise Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. 79 pp.

Forge, S. 1995. The consequences of current telecommunications trends for the competitiveness of developing countries. World Bank, Washington, DC, USA.

GOK (Government of Kenya). 1997. Postal and telecommunications sector policy statement. Ministry of Transport and Communications, Nairobi, Kenya. Jan 1997.

Imende, P. 1992. Information requirements and sources for small and medium scale enterprises in Kenya. Paper presented at the KIRDI Workshop on National Industrial and Technological Information Exchange and Transfer in Kenya, 25–26 Jun, Mombasa, Kenya. Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute, Nairobi, Kenya.

ITU (International Telecommunication Union). 1996/97. World telecommunication development report. ITU, Geneva, Switzerland.

Molony, D. 1997. End-user prices to fall as import tariffs are axed. CommunicationsWeek International, 20 Jan.

Mureithi, M. 1997a. Assessment of policy options for ICT use in rural communities in Uganda. International Development Research Centre, Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya.

——— 1997b. Building Kenya’s information infrastructure for the Information Age. Information Technology Standards Association, Nairobi, Kenya.

Oranga, H.M; Nordberg, E. 1997. Community-based health information systems. African Medical Relief Foundation, Nairobi, Kenya.

ROK (Republic of Kenya). 1996. Industrial transformation to the year 2020. ROK, Nairobi, Kenya. 102 pp. Session Paper No. 2. 102 pp.

Upstart Ltd Nairobi. 1996. Micro-computer Guide, 2(4), 12–13.

World Bank. 1997. Energy sector reform and power development. World Bank, Washington, DC, USA. Project report No. 16001-Ke. 53 pp.

Annex 1: Telecommunication infrastructure indicators

Table A1. Telecommunication infrastructure indicators, 1994 and 1995.
	Socioeconomic		Pricing (monthly subscription as % of GDP)				Quality of service
	Population (million)	GDP per capita, 1994		Teledensity (lines/100 people)			Satisfied demand (%)	Waiting time for line (years)	Digitalization (%)	Faults/100 main lines
				Average	Urbana	Rural
Kenya	26.69	267	20.4	0.90	7.75	0.39	77.2	6.6	56.0	191
Uganda	19.02	244	7.5	0.23	3.47	0.07	89.6	1.1	64.2	80
Tanzania	29.65	124	37.7	0.30	2.19	0.18	43.3	>10	42.8	201
Nigeria	111.27	412	6.6	0.36	1.65	0.34	80.5	3.5	42.5	327
Source: ITU (1996/97). Note: Figures are for 1995 unless otherwise stated. GDP, gross domestic product. aRefers to teledensity of the largest city.

¹ This section relies on Mureithi (1997b). Return

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