Circumstances and Experiences concerning ...

Circumstances and Experiences concerning Education for Innovation Gertjan van Stam Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC) Harare, Zimbabwe [email protected]

Abstract. This the text of the address at the conference “ICT Creating Africas Quantum Leap” hosted by the Computer Society of Zimbabwe, 14 November 2013, in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The address takes the position that assuring of food security and nutrition, the provisioning of social services and poverty eradication, the implementation and operation of infrastructure and utilities, and assuring value addition and beneficiation is constrained in both ’the World of Things’ and ’the World of Humans’. Derived from experience of the influence of Information and Communications Technologies in rural communities, this paper shows clear challenges of paradigms for institutions, regimes of knowledge and social practices that influence choice, constrains meaning and influences identities and communities. This paper positions from an African perspective, a position often restrained or ‘out of reach’. From 12 years experience and ethnographic study of engineering activities in rural Zambia and rural Zimbabwe, the presenter introduces some general observations that require attention in education for innovation, especially supported by the use of ICTs.

1 Introduction The BBC Clicks’ documentary on Macha Works [1] shows where I have been residing the last 10 years. I recall the quote: “in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) for Development 10% of your time and money should be focused on the technology, with 90% invested on people, process and politics” [2]. This proposition was validated in the development of a great African internet application: Ushahidi [3]. Of course, this insight is not new to you as ICT practitioners and policy makers. However, engineers are known to be engrossed in the great technologies they develop: they can easily forget this [4, 5]. This paper is based upon a long term experience in ICT. I started work with building up strategies in telecommunications since 1987. The work was in countries like Swaziland, Belgium, Netherlands and culminated in working with telecom leaders in South Africa during during the mid 90’s. All this was instrumental during 12 years full time living in (deep) rural Africa - 2 years

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here in Zimbabwe (Murambinda), and then 10 years in Zambia (Macha). There I learned that sensitizing, implementing and harvesting of all the benefits that ICT access brings, hinge mostly on leadership issues, so, I am surely at the right venue today!

2 Some Experiences As you experience in daily life, realities of Africa are extreemly complex, and Zimbabwe is not exempt. It appears that the problems this world faces elsewhere do exist in Africa in an amplified way. I am sure you have lists and lists of issues to deal with, most of whom might not be understood when reviewed from other contexts or cultures, but I challenge you to review whether your lists include the issues I present from my twelve years of experience engendering ICTs, especially in rural areas. First of all, why do we need development anyway? Well, we triumph great reasoning for economic development and bridging a divide here or there. Assumptions like ‘Private Sector can do it’, or ‘innovation and Internet will do it’, and others are now being questioned [6]. All agree that an understanding of the current, and urgent, local needs should lead. The government has given a guiding framework of the generic challenges and proposed ways forward in the ‘Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation’, or ‘Zim Asset’ [7]. The needs become particulary alive at the local, rural African perspective; I propose the findings of my wife Janneke van Dijk. She is a researcher in paedriatic HIV, who did lots of research just 180 kms from Victoria Falls, in rural Zambia. Paedritic HIV is a field in which we do experience real joy and extreme sadness. HIV affects children much more severely than adults, and since 2007, of the 700 children living with HIV/AIDS she studied 100 children have died. For us, each of these children has a face, a name, and a life extinguished before fruition. To reduce mortality and hospitalisation of children due to HIV/AIDS, it is imperative to increase access to early infant diagnosis (EID). For rural Macha access to EID means sending batches of samples to a centralized laboratory in Lusaka, more than 300 kilometres away. A study of this process in 2010 and 2011, measuring the average times from the visit of the infant at the rural clinic to the confirmation of HIV infection status of the caregiver. The results of this study showed [8]: – the average time between collection of specimen in the rural area and arrival at the central laboratory in Lusaka is 13 days – the time from arrival at the central laboratory in Lusaka to return of results to the rural clinic is 23 days – the time from arrival of the results at the rural clinic to informing the caregiver is 46 days So, the total time from getting the specimen from the infant to return of the results to the caregiver was 82 days, of which more than half was taken in

Experience in rural communities

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getting the result from the rural clinic to the caregiver in that rural area! This 46 days represents the communication time within the rural community itself. This is almost 2 months, and that a long time in a child’s life and constitutes precious time lost when potentially treatment is needed. I am not yet sure what the situation is in Zimbabwe, but undeniably, there is a direct correlation between the access to communications and ICT in rural areas and children’s lives saved. This is just one distinct reason why the provision of ICT infrastructure and utilities and social services like education are part of poverty eradication. An example from our research in Zambia quantifies the need for internet access for a rural community; we found that 54% of the internet messaging is between local users, in the village. And, when we asked, we found that a stunning 71% of the users in the village do use the Internet for learning [9]. So, it is being used, but what are the hurdles to overcome?

3 To Overcome Here I present the lessons learned in rural Zambia, just at the other side of the Zambezi. The first issue in bringing ICT and enhancing education to rural Zambia was the issue of housing [10]. There are just not enough buildings for, for instance, the ICT operations and the experts involved. Of course, this problem is not unique to ICT, so when we solved the issue of housing for the ICT and education activities and experts, we brewed a new problem: one of jealousy of other players in the community, who had not succeeded in gaining the same sort of access to resources to increase the amount of housing. Although at the start of the ICT implementation, there were no facilities whatsoever available for ICT activities, and although we succeeded in producing new housing for this purpose, this generated much trouble as the local institutes in health and education did not succeed in providing housing for their (growing) staff corps. And, I tell you, such disparities are not easily ironed out. I expect such issues to simmer and wreack havoc for isolated deployments when we do not address developments in a holistic manner. Then the issues with electricity. Although not a given in our urban areas, certainly in rural areas, electricity is known to be – not there – sometimes there, or – ’bad’. However, have you seen these issues quantified? Do we really know what ’bad electricity’ is? In rural Macha we tried to find out, and implemented (very expensive) measuring equipment. Ironically, the measuring equipment blew up twice with replacement needed before we really got going. We found electricity was ’out’ on average 15% of the time, and when ’on’, there were frequent ’brown outs’, transients, and other nasty events that equipment just do not like [11]. And, as with housing, when an electricity back-up was implemented, the issue of community priorities and sharing showed up, given rise to much contention,

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to say the least. Luckily the back up systems blew up, so at least the network had no electricity when the others had no electricity either! It is clear that the digital divide is becoming more and more applified by the power divide. Or what about human capacity? We found that the rural way of skills training is quite removed from the ’western way’ of doing it. We have been operating a rural ICT training centre in the village. This center trained 588 persons up to now [12]. We even graduated plenty of A+ certified persons to work in the rural areas. Of course, there are huge technical difficulties to overcome too, both on the ICT hardware and on the ICT software side. On hardware, we found that if it is not cheap equipment, then it just cannot be replaced when it blows. And it will blow. For instance, we got over 40 great UPS systems, all but five blew within weeks or months. Or expensive computer systems - poof! - they do not last in the onslaught of dust, heat and ’bad electricity’. The cheap old stuff remained, and continued working. But, most stuff just came - and went. I hardly dare to deal with the issues of costs, but let me briefly touch on it. In the USA, the FCC propagates free WIFI countrywide. We in rural Africa pay through the nose. The ITU showed that the cost of broadband in Africa is 1,000% of the average income of a person [13], and, no doubt, those figures are derived from towns only. Again, an example from around the corner: In rural Zambia we have seen the cost of bandwidth go up over 50% during the last eight years (still going at prices over USD 5,000 a month, e.g for a 2 Mbps). In the mean time, the average size of a website has exploded hundredfolds [14]. You see, generic figures might show a shrinking digital divide, but in practice the digital exclusion continues to widen, in my experience.

4 Some Observations I recall the quote“that only 10% of your time and money should be focused on the technology, with 90% invested in people, process and politics”. I certainly found the people side the most rewarding [15]. And, yes, people in rural areas live different lives from people in urban areas, with sound reasons. So, what are the differences that we have observed (and documented), but found to be poorly understood, or even ignored, by people living with tarred roads, shops around the corner, and settled in Western paradigm? Let me share them briefly as I think they much influence the content of African education for African innovation. There are four characteristics I would like to highlight, these are: – – – –

Orality Ubuntu Relatio, and Dominatio.

The context of Orality is little understood, and difficult to grasp for Westerners daily operating in an environment that thinks conceptually and operates


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within the confines of literacy, but not most Africans in this room. The preferred method of the oral communicator for learning, remembering, and conveying is receiving information through stories. For instance, in my experience, real sustainability has been achieved when the local community has found the stories and wordings for the activity its the own, local language. Actually, I am trying the oral method today, and I hope this way of presenting impacts you more than if I had used lots of words on lots of slides. But how do engineers (and policy makers) normally approach work and the dissemination of information? Through particularisation, and through guides, and manuals. Obvious, we need to tell the stories, especially while educating. Or what about the great, African tradition of Ubuntu? I am because We are [16]. How to incorporate this epistomology, this way of thinking, into systems? The legal system of South Africa has some notable examples, in the laws for traditional leadership [17] or in court [18]. However, in education, like ICT, we tend to have systems developed within a western mindset, that might benefit certain individuals over others, that work according to long enshrined colonial practices [19]. These systems do not often align with the indigenous cultural systems that exist and sustain the social fabric and cultural heritage of our African society. However, when we include ’Ubuntu thinking’ in our systems, policies and education, than I would hope our efforts support the traditional African values. Relatio, have you ever heard of it? You know what ’ratio’ is, but what is ’relatio’ ? I am sure you actually know it in your heart! Relatio is the amount of relationship, and that is currency, the currency of the traditional society [20,21]. My experience in rural Zambia (and Zimbabwe) is that the western view on money is not readily understood in rural areas, where the practice is a ’relatio economy’, the economy of giving. And that implies that for sustainability, one needs to understand that kind of economy and work alongside it; for instance facilitating the process of oral budgeting [22]. When we focus on a western definition of entrepreneurship only, we run the risk of individualizing too much, dispensing assets to raise the standard of certain individuals in the community only. And, then, that individual runs a huge risk of being excommunicated, or worse. Now the fourth one, and this one is even more contentious; the one of ’dominatio’. It is the issue of how we ’frame our world’. These are the enshrined teachings of colonialism, the issues of race, and how we ’view each other’ [23]. Both sides of the cultural divides are guilty of pre-conceived ideas. These are often not helpful, certainly they are not in most rural areas I have dwelled. My experience is that African leadership involves everyone close to the action, is based on sharing, seeks balance, and so on. And, change is fueled by the young persons [24]. We call the them ’local heroes’, and figured out a holistic model of interaction where one balances views on reality through, for instance, ethnographic study. We wait for the local talent to emerge and then support vigorous activity when the time is right [25]. It is all about love and people. However,

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we often find our rigid models, based upon western worldviews, do not cater for that kind of more lucid traditional African behaviour.

5 For Policy There are many more experiences to share, more then time allows. Most of them concern the apparent difficulties of aligning the paradoxes due to the differences between African and Western worldviews. But also about the wonderful discoveries that can occur when we research and implement. For instance, we forged innovation in education through eLearning in music [26], in nurses training [27, 28], and engineering [29, 30]. In my view, the complexities of the African society are not easily compressed into cause and effect descriptions. Further, the issues encountered, and the open society we are entering more and more, present frankly unsolvable paradoxes. Those paradoxes can be mitigated by reconciliation of dilemmas [4]. Currently, the Western system with its message of individuality, its praising of the winner who takes it all, and its spirit of selfishness, is under pressure. Therefore, there is a window of opportunity for modernized African models utilizing the potential of the continent [31], that aims on fellowship, humanity, a spirit of compassion. In my experience, we have plenty of talent. However, this talent is often not empowered to contribute to the development its community. To assure peace and stability, synchronized development is needed, like the manner as proposed in Zim Asset. To assure progress, development processes must aim to guide rural communities from a closed mental attitude, through the arrested state, to an open view of circumstance. Such necessitate the right policies, that incorporate state-of-the-art of thinking and practice [25]. In my experience, then there can be great progress that keeps and grows local talent in the urban and rural areas. A respectful implementation of ICT provides a facilitating infrastructure that helps in all of this.

6 Conclusions The plural character of the positioning of ICT in Africa affecting the challenges in our education and innovation systems, stem from two different and often competing paradigms: an African indigenous paradigm and a Western paradigm. The paradigms diverge in terms of values, definitions of social aspects and realities, and cultural approaches. At the heart of this plurality are these inherently different worldviews, which in practice lead to a number of barriers to interaction, implementation, and even antagonism. In my view, these issues can be overcome by focusing on social innovation [32], in this case developing the appropriate means for ICT access together and education, to be ready for real, contextualized and indeginous innovation. Undeniably, ICT provides the tools that support people in any area. The challenge is for ICT to be introduced and utilised in the right manner, and with the right timing.


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This balancing act, in my opinion, is an act of reconciling dilemmas. The strategy thus derived will facilitate, and not denigrate, the modernization of existing and long enshrined structures in our areas. Kenneth Kaunda, the first President of Zambia, once said: Westerners have aggressive problem-solving minds; Africans experience people. His wise observation reveals two complementary priority structures. In the past, emphasis has been placed solely on the development of Africa on Western terms. We must support policies that aim to trancend this historical legacy, reconcile and begin to experience people. The process to achieve sustainable progress is an exchange not only of physical capital, ICT equipment and funding, but also of values and culture. Development of education for innovation therefore must be informed by the African way. This process requires a shift of priority from front-loaded, formula-obsessed, pre-packaged development tactics towards more loving, spiritually enshrined, decentralized, inclusive, engaging, patient, tolerant and balanced set of programmes that invest genuinely, not merely at a financial or technological level, but on a relationship level as well. In my view it is by integrating and reconciling knowledge of the traditional African context and culture in systems and policies, that the vibrant complexity of Africa can be released from the shackles of traditional rationality, and be appreciated as an valuable force of African development, and true sustainability.

7 About the Presenter Gertjan van Stam (47) was born in the Netherlands. He and his family have lived in the rural village of Macha, in the Southern Province of Zambia up to 2012. Before that he stayed for 2 years in rural Murambinda, Zimbabwe. He has been involved with strategic developments in ICT in Africa since 1987. Currently he is a Foreign Research Fellow at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC) in Harare. His goal is to identify and inspire local talent and introduce appropriate technologies to build the necessary capacity for activities that yield sustainable human development outcomes. His quest is for a logical framework for understanding dynamics of change in African communities and engendering leadership capable of inspiring, initiating, implementing, operating, and scaling up sustainable progress and the use of technology in the local community. Since 2011, Gertjan has volunteered in strategy-making at the IEEE, the largest professional institute in the world. He is part of IEEEs Ad Hoc Committee for Humanitarian Activities, working on Social Innovation and leading ’thought leadership and advocacy’. His activities in Zambia were featured in IEEE The Institute, and his career was documented in an award-winning IEEE video at TryEngineering. The activities in Zambia were documented worldwide though BBC Clicks. Gertjan authored the book Placemark, and has published over 30 articles on findings and lessons learned in rural Africa.

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BBC Clicks. BBC Clicks - Macha Works, 2011. Tony Roberts. ICT for Social Justice: hype debunked!, 2013. Chris Blow. Allocation of Time: Deploying Ushahidi, 2010. Gertjan van Stam. Is Technology the Solution to the Worlds Major Social Challenges? In IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, Seattle, USA, 2012. IEEE. Gertjan van Stam. Information and Knowledge Transfer in the rural community of Macha, Zambia. The Journal of Community Informatics, 9(1), 2013. Tim Unwin. Ensuring that we create an Internet for All. In Stockholm Internet Forum 2013, 2013. Government of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) Towards an Empowered Society and a Growing Economy. Government of Zimbabwe, Harare, 2013. Catherine G Sutcliffe, Janneke H van Dijk, Pamela Sinywimaanzi, Felix Manyani, and William J Moss. Turnaround times for early infant diagnosis of HIV infection in rural southern Zambia. In 4th International Workshop on HIV paediatrics, Washington DC, USA, 2012. David L Johnson, Elizabeth M Belding, and Gertjan van Stam. Network traffic locality in a rural African village. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development, pages 268–277, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2012. ACM. Gertjan van Stam, David L Johnson, Veljko Pejovic, Consider Mudenda, Austin Sinzala, and Darelle van Greunen. Constraints for Information and Communications Technologies implementation in rural Zambia. In Karl Jonas, Idris A Rai, and Maurice Tchuente, editors, Fourth International IEEE EAI Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2012), Yaounde, Cameroon, 2012. Springer. Consider Mudenda, David L Johnson, Lisa Parks, and Gertjan van Stam. Power Instability in Rural Zambia, Case Macha. In Fifth International IEEE EAI Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2013), Blantyre, Malawi, 2013. Consider Mudenda and Gertjan van Stam. ICT Training in Rural Zambia, the case of LinkNet Information Technology Academy. In Karl Jonas, Idris A Rai, and Maurice Tchuente, editors, Fourth International IEEE EAI Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2012), Yaounde, Cameroon, 2012. Springer. ITU Statshot. Who Can Afford Broadband?, 2012. Gertjan van Stam. Observations from rural Africa: An engineer involved in ICTs and critical ethnography in Macha, Zambia. In UCSB Center for Information Technology and Society Lecture Series, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 2012. UCSB. Gertjan van Stam. Placemark. Gertjan van Stam, Macha, 2011. Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness. Doubleday, New York, 1999. Government Gazette of Republic of South Africa. Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Amendment Act, 2003. J. Lamont. Afri-Forum and Another v Malema and Others, 2011. Paul Dourish and Scott D Mainwaring. Ubicomps Colonial Impulse. In UbiComp’ 12, Pittsburg, USA, 2012.


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20. Kevin Sheneberger and Gertjan van Stam. Relatio: An Examination of the Relational Dimension of Resource Allocation. Economics and Finance Review, 1(4):26 – 33, 2011. 21. Mandiyamba Rukuni. Leading Afrika. Penguin Books, Johannesburg, 2009. 22. Gertjan van Stam. Oral Budgeting in rural Macha, Southern Province, Zambia. Anthropological Notebooks, 18(3):41 46, 2012. 23. Gertjan van Stam. Towards an Africanised Expression of ICT. In Karl Jonas, Idris A Rai, and Maurice Tchuente, editors, Fourth International IEEE EAI Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2012), Yaounde, Cameroon, 2012. Springer. 24. Gertjan van Stam and Gerard van Oortmerssen. Macha Works! In Frontiers of Society On-Line, Raleigh, NC, USA, 2010. Web Science. 25. Jasper Bets, Gertjan van Stam, and Anne-marie Voorhoeve. Modeling and Practise of Integral Development in rural Zambia. Case Macha. In Karl Jonas, Idris A Rai, and Maurice Tchuente, editors, Fourth International IEEE EAI Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2012), Yaounde, Cameroon, 2012. Springer. 26. Kristin Shoemaker and Gertjan van Stam. ePiano, a case of music education via internet in rural Zambia. In Frontiers of Society On-Line, Raleigh, NC, USA, 2010. Web Science. 27. Jo M Vallis, A C Mason, K Afari-Dekyi, E Ansotinge, J Antwi, L Chifwaila, F Fraser, P Moyo, Consider Mudenda, C Turner, Gordon Urquhart, Gertjan van Stam, and A. Wales. Building Capacity for E-learning for Nurse Training in Zambia and Ghana: Appropriate Computer Technologies? In Appropriate Healthcare Technologies for Developing Countries (AHT 2012), London, United Kingdom, 2012. 28. Julie Schurgers, Gertjan van Stam, S Banda, and M Labib. Opportunities and challenges of E-learning in Zambia : Experiences and Reflections. Medical Journal of Zambia, 36(3):119–124, 2009. 29. Jacqueline Mpala and Gertjan van Stam. Open BTS, a GSM experiment in rural Zambia. In Karl Jonas, Idris A Rai, and Maurice Tchuente, editors, Fourth International IEEE EAI Conference on eInfrastructure and eServices for Developing Countries (Africomm 2012), Yaounde, Cameroon, 2012. Springer. 30. Jonathan Backens, Gregory Mweemba, and Gertjan van Stam. A Rural Implementation of a 52 Node Mixed Wireless Mesh Network in Macha, Zambia. In EInfrastructures and E-Services on Developing Countries (Africomm 2010), pages 32–39, Maputo, Mozambique, 2010. Springer. 31. Reuel Khoza. Let Africa Lead: African Transformational Leadership for 21st century Business. VezuBuntu, South Africa, 2005. 32. Gertjan van Stam. Towards an IEEE Strategy in Social Innovation. In IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, Seattle, USA, 2012. IEEE.