ICT4D in Zambia and Ghana

Computers at Basic and Junior high school to improve teaching in Northern Ghana

2012-02-13T07:37:00.000-08:00

Over 2000 students of three basic and junior high school Savalugu and Tamale District, Ghana get better access to educational information with this project by using computers. Computers are placed in the school and teachers are trained to use these in their courses. Students become better educated and therefore have more chances to go to senior high school. Teachers benefit as well because by using computers, it will take them less time to prepare classes and they are better equiped to teach. To support this project!

Improving teaching and Learning with ICT in Nkwanta District

2012-02-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Start of the ICT programme to improve teaching and learning in Nkwanta District (volta Region, Ghana) through ICT in three Basic & Junior High Schools, by Wadep a local NGO with support of Connect4Change (IICD, Edukans)

Saboba Medical Centre

2012-02-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

In November 2011 I visited Saboba medical Centre. They are selected as pilot hospital by CHAG to digitilize their currently manual patient record system. The video shows the situation on the ground why this really will bring added value. Challenges they are facing at the moment include:

• Lack of space for archive
• Many patient records get lost
• Many patients forget cards, new record made without medical history
• Many manual entries at every department (Lab, Pharmacy, Theatre, Ward, Consulting, NHIS)
• Every minute less at bed saves a lot. Only 1 doctor, 70 – 90 beds
• Staff is interested in computerized system
• Data entry once, filling reports to others automatically without additional actions
• In proposal wards not mentioned, should be included to make it more relevant / no double system

The Connect4Change programme from IICD and Cordaid will support CHAG and Saboba Medical Centre in implementing a hospital management information system that will improve the medical care of Saboba Medical Centre.

CIC managers Bimbilla & Yendi share Lessons Learned

2012-02-13T02:13:00.000-08:00

During my trip of November 2011 I visited the Community Information Centre of Bimbilla and Yendi in Northern Ghana. GINKS Assistant Coordinator Joseph made both videos. The interviews with both CIC manager shows the lessons learned on the ground with the CIC in both remote parts of Ghana

ICT for Reproductive Health

2011-11-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Catholic Family Reproductive Health Project (CFRHP) in WaleWale uses ICT to improve their Community Health programme for example with their Mobile Cinema (trycycle, beamer, laptop, mobile screen and small generator) to educate rural villages about reproductive health issues

ICT improves the Communityy Health Programme at Garu Health Centre

2011-10-31T04:26:00.000-07:00

At the Garu Health Centre in Northern Ghana ICT is used to improve the Community Health Programme. Reproductive Health materials could donwloaded, created and printed to use them in the reproductive health programme.

IICD starts new way of fundraising for her projects

2011-10-24T05:09:00.000-07:00

Until now it was not possible to directly fund projects of IICD in Africa and South America. But that has changed. On the AKVO platform, just like IICD one of the partners in the Connect4Change Alliance, you are now able to select your own project and donate directly to this particular project! An example is the Computers for education in Northern Ghana
of Savana Signatures for a better education for children in schools in Northern Ghana via computers. You can donate NOW

Over 1000 students of a basic and junior high school Savalugu District, Ghana get better access to educational information with this project by using computers. Computers are placed in the school and teachers are trained to use these in their courses. Students become better educated and therefore have more chances to go to senior high school. Teachers benefit as well because by using computers, it will take them less time to prepare classes and they are better equiped to teach.

Pong Primary ICT Club

2011-10-20T01:56:00.000-07:00

Interview with Baako Alhassan Nabila, Secretary of Pong Primary ICT Club

Kajelo Youth Training Entrepreneurs (KYTE) Ghana

2011-10-06T04:40:00.000-07:00

Interviews with a passionate Youth Group in rural Ghana close to the Burkina Border who educate the youth about reproductive health in an environment where they have little resources to do so: Who will support them further? They need books, educational community health materials, internet access. Contact mkoopman@iicd.org or kenkubuga@boltstepsghana.org for further information

Female ICT Teachers Association

2011-04-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

An interview with Chairperson of the Female ICT Teachers Association Ms Angela Serwaa Boateng. FICTTA, based in Tamale Ghana, wants to improve the capacity of female ICT Teachers and promoting more female participation in ICT The video is produced by IICD, a Dutch NGO that supports ICT4D

The ESNET Project: Creating, packaging and sharing teachers' notes online in Zambia

2011-01-12T05:36:00.000-08:00

The Education Support Network pilot project set up by One World Africa in Zambia provides poorly resourced schools with teaching materials. Today 38 teachers from 9 different schools digitise their own personal teachers' notes and share them via the ESNET website at http://esnet.oneworld.net for the benefit of 1,400 pupils. Over 50 teachers' notes for English, Geography, History and Civics are shared. Face-to-face meetings with the schools aim to assess the usefulness of the materials.

For more information contact: Kelvin Chibomba - kelvin.chibomba@oneworld.net

Reflections on the CCLE Livelihoods in Tema Ghana

2010-12-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

I had heard a lot about CCLEs from colleagues and last year I had a brief participation in the CCLE Gender in The Hague last year, but now I would actually be part of a CCLE from the start. Denise, Annemiek and Ibrahim from GINKS had spent already a lot of time in the preparation of the event. The Visas were a nightmare especially for the South American participants. Participants changed, flight schedule even the location changed during the preparation. But on the 27th November Denise and me flew to Ghana. On Sunday we managed to meet Eddie, the co-facilitator. He had been out of town so we could not discuss the programme and facilitation earlier. Late afternoon we travelled from our Accra Hotel to our CCLE hotel in Tema. We had time to discuss with the translators, who were setting up their boots. It was a tri-lingual event with simultaneous translation for all participants. One by one the participants arrived from Bolivia, Uganda, Zambia, Ecuador, Mali, Burkina Faso and from the Northern part of Ghana. Communicating with the people from Burkina, who travelled in a noisy bus, was difficult because both Denise and me don’t speak very much French. But they managed to arrive. On Monday morning we were all there but one. Cecilia from Ecuador had a day delay with her plain. The translation at first was tough to follow. You have to get used to the voices, you miss the emotion in the voice and have to concentrate more, but you get used to it and the added value that everyone could speak in their own language (although several spoke local languages as well) was good.

The first day was a day of introduction of the people and their projects. We learned about the meaning of each others name, about their personal stories of the impact of ICT on their work and how they were selling the one thing that everyone should know about their project. Clear was that many people were not really used to this elevator pitch and talked much longer about their project!

Day 2 we were digging deeper with a special session on market price information platforms with a special guest, Bernard, from Esoko. But mainly also the experiences of SEND Foundation (Ghana) and Prefectura Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Eddie our facilitator energized us after lunch with an impressive dry football exercise. The afternoon was much appreciated by the participants. AOPEB (Bolivia), Coprakazan (Mali) and NAIS (Zambia) presented their case to the three different language groups. I facilitated the Coprakazan and it was interesting to observe the difference between the French language participants, English and Spanish. They all had very valuable questions and recommendation, but a different approach.

Day 3 we reflected on key lessons in 5 years Livelihoods programmes. First at individual level and after that on Country level. All countries could present their findings. Some key quotes from that sessions: “Radio is a major tool to disseminate information in rural areas of Bolivia”, “In Burkina Faso sms is the most important tool to reach out to more farmers”. From Ghana they mentioned “High illiteracy rates under farmers is a major challenge for the fast development of the agricultural sector”. For Mali a major breakthrough was “the demystification of ICT has achieved in Mali that farmers are not afraid anymore for computers, this made it easier to disseminate information”. For Zambia an important lesson from the last five years was that “Linkages between research – extension and farmers in the agricultural sector made agricultural practices more visible in Zambia”. The common factor between most of our projects is according to Uganda “The effective dissemination of information to farmers”. The closing afternoon focused on networking and knowledge sharing on local and international level. Denise showed the new i-Connect Online platform and encouraged everyone to share their stories and blogs in the Livelihood group.

The last evening we had a stunning dance performance from a Ghanaian Dance group. The whole group did an attempt to dance as well. It was directly clear why all the dancers had a nice six pack, because it was hard work and a very high tempo. After the dance I left the group to go to Accra already, because I had a mHealth seminar the next morning and the traffic jam from Tema to Accra is huge. I really enjoyed the three day CCLE and looking forward to see everyone online.

Impression of mHealth Africa Summit

2010-12-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

mHealth Africa Summit
1st and 2nd December 2010 in Accra, Ghana

With reported mobile subscriptions to be over 379 million, Africa is home to one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world. Over half of the population in African countries (roughly 70% in Ghana) uses mobile phones. At mHealth Africa Summit around 80 professionals from the mobile industry, health care professionals, Government officials, academia and NGO professionals came together to discuss the potential and the challenges of the role of mobile devices in health delivery. But the real innovators on the ground the health care workers in the field who invent new ways of using the mobile phone were not invited.

After the key note speaker, the HE prof Peter Anyang Nyong ‘o, the Minister of medical Services of Kenya spoke about the future of mHealth the conference started during the day with several interactive panels. The presenters had each a few minutes to present the key issues and after a Q&A session you had more time to speak with them during the breaks. This way you had a quick overview of what is going on in Africa at the moment. My focus was mainly on projects that are on the ground in the countries that we work like MOTECH (mobile technology for community health) in Ghana , a collaboration between the Ghana Health Service, the Grameen foundation, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health that is working to determine how best to use mobile phones to increase the quality and quantity of antenatal and neonatal care in rural Ghana. This could be of interest for SEND Foundation and NAIS, because the use a mobile midwife application for pregnant women with audio messages in local language. They also have a mobile application for nurses with a $40 mobile phone including a patient information systems and sms reminders to patients for reminders of appointments for immunisation of their children. The nurses can see who missed these appointments on their mobile phones. At the end of the month a report is automatically created, which saved a lot of time for the participating nurses.

Management Science for Health (MSH) Director Piers Bocock gave some interesting examples about Malawi especially the Knowledge for Health (K4H) project that focuses on the dissemination of quality information and the connection of Community Health workers at district hospitals. The K4Health mHealth toolkit was also of interest as a good resource on mHealth and what role it can play in reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, Malaria and health data collection.

A third presentation of interest was from Dr Thomas Brennan of Oxford University about mobile medical devices that could be linked to a mobile telephone like a mobile stethoscope that can measure remote heart sound.

What was missing in the conference was an exhibition to see some of the developed projects. The time to present was short in order to show many different pilot projects. Most struggled in their efforts to scale up. This was one of the key discussions of the conference. How to scale up without loosing local ownership and a bottom up approach is difficult with culture as an important factor both in terms of acceptance and attitude towards change. Much efforts are also needed for Policy developments and to implement a business model that makes it sustainable. Open Standards, Government support (en not control) and further deregulation are key for further upscaling to create more impact. With a big hope for the access to glass fibre to make mobile internet better affordable, reliable. The Ghana Health Service is now building their own network to public health facilities in Ghana although maintenance is outsourced to a private contractor. In Kenya the Government also has developed their eHealth / mHealth strategy and are connecting all hospitals to glass fibre. Financial support in this is necessary but available in funds like the Africa Health Fund. Cultural and Policy changes have a higher priority.

Maggie Makulu , the Evergreen Zambian Nurse

2010-11-18T05:22:00.000-08:00

Ms Makulu “This is my beloved country where I was born and there could never be a better place than home with her other ICT health participants during a IICD supported Health workshop in Lusaka Ms Makulu with ZUNO colleagues during the health workshop

Times of Zambia 30th October 2010
By Darlington Mwendabai (darlingtonmwendabai@yahoo.com)

Maggie Makulu reflects on how she has managed to contain the wave of mass exodus by health personnel from Zambia to foreign lands. The health sector in most developing countries has suffered numerous setbacks due to brain drain and Zambia has not been spared although Government is making every effort to stop the trend as it was depleting human resource.

Qualified nurses are seeking job opportunities elsewhere all in the name of greener pastures, but one patriotic Luanshya nurse has defied all odds to make the pasture greener within as well as contribute to quality health care service delivery.

Ms Makulu who is self motivated has served Zambia as a nurse for the past 16 years and now she reflects on how she has managed to contain the wave of mass exodus by health personnel from Zambia to foreign lands in search of a better life style most of peers have done.

Ms Makulu could just be among a few dedicated health personnel who have resolved to remain in this country despite the unsatisfactory working conditions, low saleries and poor working conditions simply because she has a special calling and is committed and dedicated to what she is doing.

In the last decade, the country had been starved of professional health personnel who are being absorbed to provide clinic care in developed countries in Europe, America and Asia where better health care systems exist.

It is an open secret that most nurses who have left the country have done so because of low numerations, poor working conditions, absence of career development schemes. Simply put, lack of better health incentives in the sector.

Ms Makulu notes that better working conditions are important for motivating health workers if they have to perform their tasks diligently as they are vital workers responsible for saving human lives. She said this should be complimented by satisfactory working conditions comprising of clean and safe environment, innovative management, availability of medical equipment and supplies.

Ms Makulu who was born in the 1970s commenting on her present civil service salary which could be described as meager by certain critics, said what was important to her was not the money, but that she is driven by passion to serve Zambia in a special way and that is, nursing the sick in the community. Ms Makulu recounted that she tried to apply through many recruiting health agencies so that she could go and work abroad, but to no avail.

Now she feels that her nursing career is calling from God and that she is destined to work here in Zambia and nowhere else.

One might wonder who this nurse is who was spurned all overtures to secure a better paying job in developed countries, but has opted to serve Mother Zambia as a committed patriot. has refused to enjoy life in developed countries where milk and honey flows daily.

Well in the eyes of the ordinary person she is like any other mere citizen, but from her ordeal one could easily tell that she is geared to serve Mother Zambia alone due to her love for the country and passion to serve her people despite the prevailing circumstances.

Ms Makulu laughs at the thought harbored by some people that Zambia is not a land of milk and honey, she thinks it is. “This is my beloved country where I was born and there could never be a better place than home” she says.

Like many others, Maggie’s early childhood would be incomplete without explaining the hardships which she encountered considering that she was brought up by a single parent who is her mother since she was five years old. “I do not know up to now who my real father is, whether he is alive or not. I grew up in a family of four but now my sister and brother are dead we have just remained two of us with my brother,” she recalls. Her mother could not manage to look after her so she migrated to the tourist city Livingstone, where she was looked after by her uncle William Mbilitu who made sure that from 1978-1984 she did her primary school at Nansanga Primary School.

Thereafter, she did her secondary school at Linda secondary school from 1985-1989 however, all these years, she never dreamt of becoming a nurse instead all she desired was to be a tourist tour guard perhaps because she was influenced by life in the tourist capital city.

But the tide suddenly changed when Ms Makulu enrolled in the school of nursing in Livingstone from 1991 – 1993, then her dream as a tour guide would be aborted, instead a new era dawned of hope for her to look after the sick.

“I was happy when I completed my nursing course and was then posted to Copperbelt’s Arthur Davison Children’s hospital (ADH) in Ndola,” she says with a relief.

However, she was saddened at the loss of her mother who passed on upon completion of her nursing course, but she was lucky that her uncle Mr Mbilitu had to take over full responsibility as a parent.
Although this mum’s loss still lingers on in her thoughts, she was proud to mention that, she has “a heart for nursing” hence that did not her work in anyway in as far as caring for ailing children, who needed a tender nursing care was concerned.
“Despite the hardship I went through as child, I wanted a better future for the Zambia children hence I gave all my best to serve them and here I am doing the same thing,” she says. Ms Makulu despite working hard to nurse children with various afflictions and ailments at one point also needed a companion who could nurse and tender her as a wife, so she got married in 1998. She and her husband relocated to the mining town of Luanshya together, but has since continued rendering her noble nursing services unconstrained and she is also using her position in the nurses union to lobby improved conditions of service and salaries for nurses.

In 2004, she joined the then Zambia Nurses Association (ZNA) now Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation(ZUNO) and so she became Luanshya branch vice chairperson, but the Association had no teeth to bit since nurses were then not allowed to form a union in the health sector.

The transformation of ZNA to ZUNO 2007 saw Ms Makulu retain her previous position as vice branch person however she opted to stand amidst men at the provincial level for the position of vice secretary which was heavily contested but she managed to scoop it by a wide margin.

Ms Makulu said she does not regret working for 16 years serving under the Ministry of Health instead she was thankful to God that he has given her the chance to work in ZUNO as a union representative addressing the plight mainly of her colleagues and some positive changes have since taken place. ZUNO had since trained more nurses in the past three years in entrepreneurship to cushion negative impact of retirement after leaving employment. Members have also been exposed to leadership skills trainings. “Most importantly, we have been trained in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by Netherland’s Organization International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD),” she says. She says tertiary hospitals are not only few but far apart coupled with a chronic shortage of qualified staff, drugs and basic equipment, but she was quickly to mention that ICTs were bridging the gap as she and other nurses have to go to Ndola for certain medical consultations

Instead, ZUNO was addressing the shortage of brain drain in special way by ensuring that partners like IICD were training nurses and providing resources such as computers to them. ZUNO had since established ICTs resource centresat its head office in Lusaka, the Copperbelt and in Western Province where about 9000 nurses have now access to the internet and email facilities. “This had been one of greatest motivation. We have improved our health service delivery as a result of improving computer literacy to nurses however, we need more computers and better internet connectivity especially in rural areas,” she said.

Commenting on why women even after 46 years of Zambia’s independence are struggling to work together, Ms Makulu said it was sad most of the women seem to support men more as opposed to their own kind.

She advised young women to have goals in life adding that had she not had a goal as child, she could not have served the country in the manner she is currently doing.
As a member of the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) she loves God and her role in the church as a girls brigade officer who in a near future contemplates to run her own nursing home.

Reflection on two weeks writeshop Barefootguide 2 in Kalk Bay

2010-10-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

On Monday I arrived excited and full of expectations, but also with a feeling of despair: How can we make sense of all these first drafts. Because at arrival everyone received a big booklet with all the chapters. Most I had read already before and the styles and set up of the chapters did differ a lot. We were really missing Quang, Tripti, Alfred and Phillippa although new faces took their places: Kas (Spain), Aissata (Senegal) and Meg our illustrator.

The first week focused on feedback. I even had to present two chapters, also that of Quang. An inner and outer circle were created. With every presentation four people were in the inner circle to give you feed back. The feedback was very helpful, but meant of course a lot of re-writing. It felt also as a relief, after receiving the feedback. My chapter does make sense, but needs to be modified. I gave four people feedback my self in the inner circle. On Friday I had a long session with Doug, one of the Editors and Atieno, my writing Buddy to discuss both our chapters and how we should do the re-write. My feelings changed between “How will I really do that in such a short time” to more confidence about my writing abilities. This meeting was a turning point and very important for the writing in the second week.

In the weekend we had time to think and refresh. I went to Hermanus to watch whales. Beautiful to see them so close to the shores. So on Sunday I could start my re-writing with the ideas I had myself and the feedback from last week.

The second week had a different pace. I always started early in the morning (6.30) with a run along theWriting in Kalk Bay beach and a nice breakfast. The weather was ok, but mostly with a lot of wind. After breakfast you had time to write or talk with your editor. After lunch there was always a creative sessions, to stimulate your writing again. I painted, made a beautiful colorful collage and learned how to flash write. Great sessions which we should do more in workshops. The afternoon back to re-writing with feedback in the late afternoon. At 6 there were music sessions with Marimba lessons and drumming. Thursday we delivered our final draft to the editors with a nice Braai and Marimba performance from Doug and his band. Great dancing music.

BFG2Friday we discussed the Action Research. Next year the Barefootguide will be tried out by several organizations around a learning challenge they have to see how effective the Barefootguide is to support them. We closed with a poem and a nice new group photo of all our bare feet. And than it was time to say goodbye after two great, inspiring weeks. Writing, -re-writing and re-rewriting can be great fun and resulted in the end into a big booklet again with final drafts for the editing team. They still have to kill some of our darlings, but I am confident that an inspiring, relevant guidebook can be published and used by ourselves and our partners!

Looking back at these two weeks I also wonder how we could implement some of the creative sessions / methods within IICD, because I found out that writing in combination with creative sessions (left and write brain combined) really improves the productivity and the way you write. Also the focus on reflection was very valuable.

TEACHERS’ FORUM ON ICT INTEGRATION INTO TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SCHOOLS

2010-09-23T06:05:00.000-07:00

This blog is originally from Stephen Agbenyo's Blog

Friday, July 30, 2010

ORGANISED ON THE 15TH JULY, 2010 IN TAMALE, GHANA

The teachers’ forum which drew its membership from schools in the Tamale Metropolis and the Savelugu District in Northern Ghana was held at the GILBT Training Centre in Tamale. It was organised by Savana Signatures (www.savsign.org) with the support of the International Institute for Communications and Development (www.iicd.org)

Some of the schools which were present at the forum include Savelugu Experimental Junior High School, Pong-Tamale Senior High School, Bishops’ Junior High School, Darul Hardis Junior High School, Dakpema Primary and Junior High Schools many among others. Present at the forum were head teachers, ICT teachers and other subject area teachers. Also present were some selected students of Savana Signatures ICT Club, the media and other sister NGO’s such as Action Aid Ghana, CALID, Child Reach International, ISODEC, Grassroot Sisterhood Foundation, Youth Action on Reproductive Order (YARO) and Initiative for Integrated Development (IFID).

The chairperson, Madam Fati Alhassan, the Executive Director of Grassroot Sisterhood Foundation, in her acceptance speech urged participants to pay keen attention to issues that will be discussed at the forum since ICT has come to stay and the earlier we embraced this reality, the better it will be for us as a people and as a nation.

For full blog

ZUNO Resource Centre Mongu

2010-08-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

The Zambian Union of Nurses (ZUNO) have offices in every province. In Western Province Beatrice Mukambo is the chairperson and Martin Wabusa is the Resource Centre officer.

Nurses in Zambia have a need for up-to-date medical information. In this pilot project the Zambia Union of Nurses Organisation (ZUNO) will support their members with an Information and Communication Technologies resource centre in their head office in Lusaka and in their provincial offices in the Copperbelt and in Western Province. It will provide a group of about 9000 nurses access to the internet and email facilities. Furthermore this project gives access to professional nursing study materials, including opportunities for e-learning, and also provides an electronic library to members and the general public.

In Western Province the Resource Centre is based in the NAPSA Office building in a small room, between several other small companies. The resource centre provide training to nurses, but also office services like copying, typing and internet browsing to be more sustainable. At the moment the centre makes a small profit that is used to organise face-to-face meetings between nurses in the Western Province.

The centre is saving for a binding machine to increase their services and would like to set up a mobile library to distribute information also outside the Mongu area. They would like to use video more, because visualisation of nursing tasks makes it easier to understand. The materials could than also be used in the community.

Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ)

2010-08-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

OPPAZ is short form for the Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia which is a national organic movement operating in Zambia in the Southern African Region. OPPAZ was created in August 1999 by a group of farmers keen to promote and expand the opportunities of organic agriculture. OPPAZ is Zambia's leading organic association, ensuring quality and sustainability in the farms we accept as members. Zambia's naturally fertile soil allows for high quality produce, and enough yield to sustain export and a growing domestic market.

OPPAZ assists around 700 farmers to obtain international certification. The Integrating ICT for Quality Assurance and Marketing project helps to build an internal control system for the inspectors of Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ). The project is supported by IICD since 2006. With the open source database the inspectors are able to collect the necessary data (plot data, crop type, crop produce) on a handheld computer. The system will be tested at three pilot sites (Chongwe, Mongu and Mpongwe). The data collected will also be published on the internet. This publication can be viewed by international partners who would like to buy the produce of the member farmers. The system has therefore a double function as internal control system and as marketing tool.

Securing Financial Transaction Seminar organised by e-Brain

2010-08-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

e-Brain Forum of Zambia organised on the 29th April 2010 a seminar on Securing Financial Transactions. This seminar was part of their cyclus of monthly ICT4D events that they organise in Zambia. e-Brain is the ICT4D network in Zambia support by IICD.

During the event 30 participants (10 women) were listening to the two speakers: Mr Julien Shabana, cyber security specialist who, gave an overview of what cyber dangers there are that more and more people become victum of it. Think of identiy theft, but also hacking into your e-mail account.

The second speaker was Mr Shamambo Saasa of the Bank of Zambia. He gave an overview of what measurements the bank is taken together with other banks to prevent this. The Q&A session afterwards was facilitated by Mr Lee Muzala, the chairperson of e-Brain.

Interview about the preparations of eLearning Africa in Zambia

2010-08-06T06:50:00.001-07:00

Prof Enala Mwase was the coordinator of the 5th e-Learning Africa conference in Lusaka Zambia. She tells about the short preparation time and the activities she did to prepare for this conference.

Donor Information system at Zambian Bloodbank

2010-08-06T06:23:00.001-07:00

On the 4th of May I had a meeting with Agness Zimba, the data clerk of the Zambian National Blood Transfusion Services (ZNBTS) to talk about her experience with the Blood donor tracking system.

This project started in July 2008 and will develop and implement a computer based Blood Donor Tracking System. This system is developed for the staff of the Zambian Blood Transfusion Services (ZBTS) and will reduce the risks of incorrectly identifying donors and blood units. Repeat donors can effectively be tracked and a reliable pool of regular repeat blood donors is established. It ensures blood safety through accurate labelling and identification of blood units at every stage. The database will be developed with open source software (software without licence costs). More than 17,000 blood donators and patients in need of a blood transfusion benefit from the Blood Donor Tracking System.

In Zambia blood is collected differently than in the Netherlands. Most blood is collected during mobile field trips to for example schools or community gatherings. People need to be counselled before they provide blood in the field. They fill in forms and it is unclear if they have given blood in the past or not and if they have a higher risk profile. With this system the donor and his/her can now be traced from giving blood until the blood is received by another patient.

Agness demonstrates how it works after the forms have reached her, when she is doing the data entry of all information.

Radio Interview at Hone FM

2010-08-06T06:11:00.000-07:00

During Queensday 2010 (30th of April) I had my first radio interview. e-Brain Forum of Zambia sponsored a ICT series on college radio Hone FM. I was invited to talk about the IICD Country Programme and our participation in eLearning Africa. Watching a video about a radio performance of 20 minutes is a bit boring, so it only part of the interview with the summary of what was said by David the DJ and me.

Interview at Hone FM

Organic beekeeping in Kaoma

2010-07-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

In Kaoma we would meet at the bank. Clearly there was only one bank in Kaoma, so it was easy to find. I met Jonathan Mugandi and Justin Lunda and together we had a meeting at the Maranatha Grassroot Institute (MGI), a local NGO that helps to implement the bee keeping programme. The Beekeeping project is funded by the EU thru HIVOS, OPPAZ and MGI. It supports 500 families in rural villages (closest 50 km from Kaoma, which is also not a really big rural town) with 2000 bee hives. They work with modern bee hives, which are better for the environment that the tradional one, that was build on cut trees. And in the modern beehives, you do have a more consistent, better quality honey as well and it makes harvesting easier, so that more women are involved in the project, than would be possible with tradional beekeeping.

The families would get 4 beehives, protective cloth, processing equipment and capacity building to make it happen. The beehives are not given to them. They have given a revolving loan and pay back after there first harvest. They pay back in 4 seasons, to create already income from the first harvest.

The beekeepers want to promote organic honey and get international certificates. In July they will start with the OPPAZ Internal Control System, that will shorten the certification process, because records will be electronically and not on paper. This makes exchange between internal and external inspectors easier and shorten the time required for certification.

The beekeepers already started with the forms, that will be used for electronical entry on a quarterly base. This gives them more work, but helps them with proper record keeping. They have one laptop and one desktop, with internet access thru ZAIN GPRS modem. They have trained themselves, but will receive more training thru OPPAZ later. They are looking forward to this.

Zorga, Organic Rice farmers in Mongu District

2010-07-28T06:19:00.001-07:00

On the 4th of May I started of to Zorga, the organic rice farmers in Mongu. They are a member of one of our partners the Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ). I thought there office was in Mongu, but when I called again it was 15 km further in Sefula on the road to Senanga. After 6 calls where they explained me where to turn off based on my description of where I was, I managed to find them. I had a meeting with Chedrick, the chairperson; Nawa, the vice-chair; Munalula, the accountant and Yembe a committee member.

As organic rice farmers they have a major challenge: the market! The is not really a local market for organic rice. People are poor and what the cheapest food possible. Rice is not the staple food, that is Nshima (made from maize meal), so it is already a bit of luxury to spend money on rice. But the conventional rice is cheaper, because of subsidized fertilizer. So they can sell it locally, but for the same cheap price, while the organic rice gives a lower yield. There is a market for them in South Africa. But than you need to transport it in a container. To maximize the utilization of the container you need to transport 30 ton, but they only produce with all 74 members 8 ton. So they need more members to create a market, but without the access to this market no one want to start organic rice. Kind of a deadlock!

The other challenge is a lack of implements that would improve their yield in the field.

As an association they use computers for accounts, minutes of meetings and to write reports. There is no internet access, but the accountant is based in Mongu, and he can access internet and the Zorga e-mail account.

As organic farmers they need to be internationally recognized, therefore you need to be certified. This is still a completely manual process, but some of the members are trained in the use of the Oppaz Internal Control System the IICD supported. This ICS makes it easier to get internationally certified, because the information becomes digital available for both internal inspectors and external inspectors. This shortens the total time before a farmer is certified. But without the market this still does not improve the quality of live for the farmers, who are struggling. Oppaz want to help them further by building their market access capacity further, so that they are better able to access the right information and the right markets. This would provides them with better incomes and more benefits, which will attract more farmers to move from conventional rice farming with pesticides and fertilizer to organic, more natural farming.

Projects Node meeting.wmv

2010-07-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

An impression of the Ghana Projectnode meeting by Stephen Agbenyo

Road trip Accra (Ghana) - Nkwanta - Tamale for IICD

2010-05-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

On Friday 28th May I started a three day road trip from Accra via Nwanta to Tamale. Abukari, my driver for the journey had come all the way from Tamale on Thursday, because renting a car in Tamale is still cheaper than in Accra. Otherwise I would have to send the car back to Accra at the end, because I would stay in Tamale for the week and fly back to Accra on Friday the 4th June. Abukari came exactly in time so that we could leave Accra at 06:00 sharp. I wanted to test how the connectivity was under way, so my idea was to use twitter to test that by sending photos and short messages during the entire trip. It worked better than I expected. I did sometimes have to wait for 15 minutes to reach the next tower, but in general I could submit my tweets when I wanted them to submit. So I could tweet live about the trip in an easy way. The road thru the Volta region was better than I remembered, although the part after Nkwanta was for the first part bad, but afterward especially after Damanko, the road was fine. For Abukari it was also an interesting experience, because he had never been in that part of his country. I have made a compilation video of the photos I twittered to my followers combined with local music of Ohemaa Mercy that you can watch here

Impressions of Barefootguide 2 writers workshop in Egmond

2010-05-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

A short video to give an impression of the very inspiring week in Egmond with the Barefootguide 2 writers collective in Egmond from 17th - 21th May 2010

The creation of a new Barefootguide writers collective

2010-03-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

From 15th until 19th March I had a very inspiring writeshop in Kleinmond, South Africa. This was the start of a two 2 trajectory to create a new Barefootguide on organizational learning practices. With 10 participants from different countries it was a very divers group. There were 3 people from Holland: from PSO, Cordaid and IICD. 4 people from South Africa (3 from CDRA and 1 consultant), 1 person from Ghana (VSO), 1 from Belgium (but 15 year Zimbabwe, VVOB) and one New Zealander from The Red cross in Bangkok. The group had a 50% balance in gender as well. But most impressive were the experiences that everyone brought on the table working with southern NGOs and communities.

The environment of the workshop
We were located 2 hours from Capetown in the small town of Kleinmond. We stayed in a holiday home in small bungalows in a beautiful, inspiring landscape with mountains in front of us and the Atlantic Ocean behind us. What better place could you have to start a writing collective. The idea was not to write just another guidebook, but to bring in the vast experiences of the participating NGO’s to bring theory and practice together in combination with an action research next year in 20 Southern NGO’s to bring the guide as a tool for transforming organizations and Social change into practice.

To develop this we needed to know each other much better, but also to develop our own writing voice. One of the exercises we used for this is the technique of freewriting. In freewriting your pen, rather than your mind decides what to write; the hand leads and the mind follows. As simple as it sounds, it’s no easy exercise and takes real discipline to stick to this simple premise. We did several exercises with a start sentence and 4 minutes of writing. Afterward you had to underline the key sentences and share this with a small group to make a poem out of it. That sounds a bit weird, but actually the poems were quit powerful.

learning insights
Another method that we used was it always powerful storytelling. With the freewriting exercises we also had described two of our key learning moments. You could share the stories with one of the others, pick one and shared that story with the whole group. During the whole week we told these stories and distilled the general lessons out of these stories to use that to describe inside-out how we have gone through our own learning journeys. These general insights were stored on colored papers on the whole: a big collection of thoughts at the end of the week.

To look outside-in to organisational learning the core group of the writers collective (PSO, VSO and CDRA) had done a literature review on organisational learning, which we discussed to see what was most inspirational, fascinating but also to define areas for deeper research, missing parts and remaining questions.

The leading image
On day three we were on a quest for our vision. At 07.00 sharp we climbed in silence the mountain in front of were we stayed. At the top (a 30 minutes climb, through a beautiful landscape, one of the most diverse worldwide in terms of number of plans) we wrote our how we thought the Barefootguide would be used in the world in 5 years time as a free writing exercise. After a lovely walk down through a different path we brought all these stories together in small groups to design the leading image through a very creative drawing process. These three leading images were than shared and brought together into one picture with symbols, metaphors and key words.

The last day was the process that will lead to the development if the barefootguide. The next write workshop will be in May in Egmond (Netherlands). Before that time a needs assessment with some of the partners that will participate in the action research will take place (not at IICD partners) and a similar assessment about current learning practices should also be carried out under the organisations of the writers collective. In the next two weeks it will be more clear what that will mean for IICD. The action research for next year was also designed, but the key question for the next two year were the research areas which needed more deeper research. Also adding the voice of the south more. All of uMood paintingss will contribute more case studies like our thematic learning briefs, our Learn-Work trajectory and country learning reports. We concluded with a mood image of the whole week which was again an creative exercise to trigger your right brain. All in all a very inspirational, intensive and challenging workshop. Looking forward to continue this process in May.

“ICT & Education, a look at the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS)”

2009-11-20T07:00:00.001-08:00

Monday morning 09.00. GINKS is organising a seminar on “ICT & Education, a look at the Computerised Schools Selection and Placement System (CSSPS)”. Not many people have yet arrived, but at 09.45 we can start with the seminar with around 35 participants

In the panel are 4 people from a different background with Mr. Edward Addo-Dankwa, as the moderator for the forum (and a board member of GINKS). The panel consist of Mr. J.J.K. Baku, the DR/Head of the WAEC Research department, Madam Victoria Opoku, the Director of Secondary Education Division at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr. Samuel Ofori-Adjei, the headmaster of Accra academy, who is also CHASS president and Bridgit Sloan McMullen, Uniterra/WUSC volunteer on behalf of Child’s Rights International.

The most interesting part of the whole discussion was the insight in the difficulties of the Ghanaian School system. A system that is really different from the Dutch system. After Junior Highschool all Ghanaian school kids do a test: the BECE test. This test is the most important test for the future of most Ghanaian kids. It will determine if you are aloud to continue with your school and can go to Senior Highschool, but it will also determine the quality of the school you can go to.

If you have a score of more than 30 points you are not allowed to go to senior secondary school. But even with less than 30 points you are not sure of a placement, because there are not enough places in senior secondary schools. Last year 68,000 children were not placed, while 147,000 did found a placement. Ghanaian people also favour boarding schools over day schools.

Every kid can make a choice of 6 schools and these can be all over the country. The new CSSPS system makes than a selection, based on the number of points you have. So the choice you make in these 6 schools is very important. If you pick 6 top schools, but you have not a very low score, than you have the chance that no school have selected you. Than you have to wait if there are still vacancies afterwards after all selections have been made, to see if you can still be placed. But if you choose schools in different leves, you make a better chance.

This is how it works. If there are for example 100 places for a school at level 1, it will select the 100 best students who selected this school as there number 1. Maybe the cut off for this school is 9 points. If you have 15 points the system will than look at your second choice. It will look if there are in there selected list people with more than 15 points. If that is the case, you are selected. Otherwise it will look at your third choice. Etc until your sixth choice.

The system only looks at merits, with is a big advantage to the old system, that had a lot of corruption and favouring in it. But there were also disadvantages. The panel plead for the introduction raw scores (the percentage that you score for a subject) in stead of just the aggregate number. The other critic was about the online announcement that favours urban people. Although everyone receive the result per mail, some have earlier access, because the online announcement. The system has shown that smart kids from rural areas have now the opportunity to go to top schools, which was almost impossible in the old system without the right connections. But a question mark was there also to see if this was in the best interest of the child!

2009-09-15T09:31:00.001-07:00

Interview with Hon. Twumasi Appiah, MP for Sene "http://ping.fm/j4sOb

2009-09-15T07:44:00.001-07:00

Using http://ping.fm to integrate twitter in my social networks

Solar Chargers for Farming Cooperatives in Ghana

2009-09-09T05:41:00.000-07:00

Davy, from SEND foundation, would pick me up on Saturday morning 1st August at 06.00 and he was there on the dot. In clean white he thought that we would only go to Salaga to visit the field office. You could see the flooding along the road. In Salaga we picked up Wumpini, the senior officer of SEND at Salaga, to visit three farmer communities who tested a solar charger for mobile phones in the ECAMIC project. In February A-Solar, a Dutch company, donated 5 solar chargers to test in Ghana in 5 farmer groups.

ECAMIC is a project where farmers have access to market information through a mixture of channels: notice boards, field staff and mobile phone. All these communities have no access to electricity, although in one community the electricity cable was passing the village! The first community was a very big community with 700 families. 25 of them participated in the SEND farm cooperative. The ECAMIC project provided them with 2 subsidized phones, but now already 20 of them have phones. Mobile phones are booming in the Kalende community, but there is no electricity. No one else has solar power and there are no phone shops where they can buy credits. They are 6 km from Salaga, where everything is available, but that consumes a lot of time and commercial charging is expensive. The solar charger was a huge success. But it was not enough to even charge the phones in the group. With sunny weather the charger could charge 3 phones a day, with clouds only 2.

They would like to charge 30 a day. Now they have seen the advantages of phones all of them would like to have one. They not only use it for accessing market information, but all their crops (yams, maize, ground nuts, vegetables, etc) are in the system. If market traders visit the village they have a better negotiating position. They also have contact with market traders in Accra and Kumasi by phone.

The phone is also used to contact people in Salaga to bring goods if they will come to the village or to contact relatives in case of a funeral. The other two communities were smaller. Sogon 1 and Bondando had groups of 20 farm families. In both groups there were 8 phones. They both would like to be able to charge 6 phones a day and more phones for the group for a subsidized rate. All three groups would like to set up a small shop to charge mobiles. They would also charge other phones in the community for a small fee for the benefit of the cooperative, though the small chargers more are meant for personal use than for commercial use. But all have seen the benefits of the mobile phone and the impact it can make on their lives.

How even a little ICT can improve health care

2009-08-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

First stop: Langbinsi

On Thursday 31st July I was the guest of Norbert from ACDEP, a faith based ACDEP Longbinsidevelopment organisation in Northern Ghana. IICD supports, together with Cordaid, a project within ACDEP to set up 6 information centres at 3 livelihood members, two health members and at their headquarters in Tamale. I visited today the two health centres in Langbinsi and Nalerigu. The road was bad after the turnoff at Walewale. It had rained a lot in the morning, so the roads were muddy.In Langbinsi I was welcomed by David, a nurse and the local ICT champion. He was responsible for the small ICT centre at the clinic. At the clinic were too many patients for the old building and un undermanned staff. The catchment area is 28,000 people from communities as far as 40 kilometres away. The clinic is training community workers for the 15 different villages, but so far this has happened for only three villages. The archive is still
paperwork. ACDEP Longbinsi archiveAn according to David this was not even a busy day, I should have been here at a market day! The clinic was set up in 1974, but the current buildings were from the early nineties. They have small examination rooms and a lab, but no space to admit people. They have to stay with family or friends in Langbinsi. The closest hospital is an hour away, by ambulance.

The ICT centre is used in different ways. David, the nurse, has ACDEP Longbinsi 2diagnosed several skin and STD’s using a small digital camera and google health. He documents everything in dossiers, that he discusses with the doctor. The clinic tried to set up a link with other hospitals in the neighbourhood for the diagnosis via e-mail, but most are understaffed and are not willing to take on extra responsibilities without a big fee. So David has used the internet as best as possible. It is also used to store updated medical information for the staff. 10 of the 25 staff members are trained so far and are able to make reports, browse the net or sent emails. Community workersThe community workers are also trained in basic ICT and also with the help of the computer in basic community health working. One of the community health workers is also a pastor. He uses the computer at the centre now also to contact to churches in the US, who have now donated for the improvement of his church in the community. David has been very innovative using the internet in providing extra health care, but he is full of plans what he further wants to improve.
Nalerigu

After the stop at Lanbinsi the weather cleared and we continued further east to Nalerigu. At the public health clinic of the mission hospital we were welcomed by Dr. Flores Baba. Acdep NolerigaShe said that there was a programme in Nagboo, one of the communities not too far from Nalerigu. When we arrived at the square next to the small health clinic was full of youths. This was the community Youth programme. These youth were trained at the clinic in ICT, but were now performing a play for the community using different forms of ICT: mobile phones, computers were mentioned, downloaded material about HIV/AIDS laminated. Although I did not understand the
local language it was interesting to watch the crowd how they reacted to this Acdep Nolerigainfotainment. Because it was clear that a lot of information was distributed through this drama. Afterwards we discussed at the public health clinic the way forward. At the moment the internet was not working, because the modem was defect and it takes long before it is repaired. They had lot’s of plans to promote the use of ICT to many more youth and to the hospital staff. They were hoping for modules of continuous training for health workers, so that they were able to do that here without travelling too far.

2009-03-30T06:55:00.000-07:00

Advocacy & Policy Influencing
Last week (23-27 March 2009) I followed a very inspiring course at the International NGO Training & Reserach Centre (INTRAC) in Oxford in Advocacy & Policy Influencing.

It was inspiring both for the diversity of the participants as for the content of the course.

Participants
The participants were all very experienced in the field and came from a variety of countries: Niger, Benin, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, a Zambian stationed in Fiji, Moldava and Slovenia. But also from different types of organisations: Unicef, UNDP, a Farmer Organisation, a health NGO, an umbrella NGO in citizen's participation and two consumer NGO's.

Key concepts
Although it is difficult to share the practical experiences of the different participants, I am able to share the key concepts of the course:

* Advocacy is more than only public campaigning. It contains research to produce evidence, lobbying, media coverage, working with allies in combination with public campaigns. But for a successful policy change you don't need all strategies always for all issues.

* The opposition matrix: Analise the arguments of your opponent thoroughly and use this in your campaign. If you only use your own arguments, you only convince people who are already convinced.

* Use unexpected allies: Do not look only for like minded NGO's in your coalition, it is more convincing if you have for example local government, companies and international organisations on your sight if you want to change government policy

* Use parliamentarians to put pressure on ministers. If you can persuade people in parliament to ask questions in parliament, this could accelerate the decision making process, because the minister has to react on questions in parliament

* Planning for success: advocacy does not stop when the desired change becomes policy. Plan for that time! You have to monitor the implementation phase and keep the pressure on the government, because sometimes policy is never implemented. Governments are not always sure how to implement and you might be able to assist.

* An effective campaign should pass the TEA test: it it should Touch people. It needs to make a connection with its target to prompt a response, but that is not enough. It convinces its target that there is a solution for the problem that touched the people, so it should Enthuse them. But the third part is the most important: the target should Act based on your message.

* For a good campaign you need to have a clear message, a simple solution, clear outrage, use of the media, political support, have good allainces and get people to act. You should be able to summarize your key message in 15 seconds for your elevator pitch.

* Rich picture: Use Rich picture as a tool: it illustrate the key factors of your issue, it could show the situation in all its complexity in the form of a cartoon type representation.

* The importance of M&E: measure the success of your activities in terms of output, outcome and impact. Impact assessment is the most important and this should be participative to include the end users. But that is something what we at IICD already clearly understood and have incorporated.

* The fun to design a campaign: With a small group we had to present a campaign against illegal dumping in the rivers of Anylandia that causes health problems for our children

Links for further reading

* www.apc.org
* BOND (British Overseas NGOs for development)
* Communication Initiative
* The advocacy toolkit from Tearfund
* CEDPA
* Campaign Effectiveness Programme
* Advocacy Source Book Wateraid 2007

Educator an Zambia HIV/AIDS prevention game

2009-03-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

Who could support the conversion of the Educator HIV/AIDS prevention game into an online game?
During my last trip to Zambia in February 2009 I had a meeting with Mr Benson Mwembeshi, an enthusiastic advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention. He has developed a game that will help people to discuss taboo issues around HIV/AIDS during the game in their local language. Mr Mwembeshi is looking for support to reach a larger audience. His game is endorsed by the Ministry of Education in Zambia and the National AIDS Counsil. He would like to reach out to 30,000 students, he has an agreement with the minister of Education, but they don't have the funding. He also would like to convert it into an online game. The prototype looks fine and is well tested. Any ideas where he could look for funding?

See the video he produced about the "Educator"

GINKS Focus Grouop

2009-03-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Key results analysis questionnaires

Margaret Kyiu gave a presentation of the key results:

Annual review 2008 based on 115 questionnaires, 77 online and 44 filled on paper

24% who filled in were female (26% of the members of GINKS are women, this is almost same)

83% had education up to the tertiary level as against 100% in 2007 and 85% in 2006

45% live in the capital city as against 69% in 2007 and 75% in 2006

74% of respondents said the objectives of the network are clear

37% said they had not achieved their goals for participating

67% of respondents experienced awareness

Knowledge sharing is 69% (up by 19%)

Lobbying and advocacy and policy participation is 52%

Gender impact is 51%

More female (64%) see gender impacts than male (47%).

Group discussions

The participants were divided into 4 groups, with each group given a focus to deliberate upon and come up with recommendation which will form bases for the action plan.

impressions of the Focus Group meeting

Group 1 Lobby, Advocacy & Policy Influencing

In what areas should GINKS be able to advocate for or to influence policy?
How
members could be more involved in Lobbying, Advocacy and Policy influence?
In which ways could we engage policy makers the more?

On the first issue, the group said that GINKS must prepare and present paper (inputs) to parliament when passing a bill

On HOW MEMBERS CAN GET INVOLVED, the group came up with the following:

Build capacity of members in lobbying and advocacy
Constitute committee on lobbying and advocacy for the network
Team up with organisers with ICT skills
Use of educational institutions
Collate views from members in the communities in the rural areas

On WAYS TO ENGAGE POLICY MAKERS, the group said that GINKS should involve
them in GINKS activities

Interact more and more with them to ensure their commitment

Pick and follow up on their statements (for GINKS)

Seek
for their sponsorship (for GINKS)

Group 2 Low female participation in the network

Why is Female participation is still low in the network and How can we improve it; and
Why members feel that the viewpoint of men and women are not well integrated in activities and how it can we improve

On
why female participation is low on the network, the members of group 2 gave the
following reasons:

Non conscious efforts to involve women in ICT
Time of network activities
Socio-cultural factors
Techno
centric nature of ICT

They thus recommended the following as ways through which this can improve:

Conscious efforts to involve more women in activities of the network
Good
timing of network activities
Education / awareness creation
Practical
orientation on ICT tools
Activities / issues more beneficial to women

On why members feel that the viewpoint of men and women are not well integrated in activities, they said that it is due to Lack of effective participation in the network by women. They thus
recommended that

issues that concern and interest women should be raised; and
women
participation should be encouraged

Group 3 High educational level of members

Why there is a skew in GINKS towards tertiary education and how we can reach out to
people outside tertiary education (Secondary, primary,) in terms of membership
and services; and
How we should reach out to people who cannot read and write

On the first issue, the group held the view that there is actually no tilt but a decline in the tertiary level, but that the secondary and primary level is a national problem. They thus
recommended that:

Govt should build more conducive learning environments for secondary and primary schools
GINKS and other private stakeholders should advocate for ICT policies friendly to
primary to secondary schools, so that people that end up stopping at those levels will still have adequate e-literacy
Infrastructural issues should be dealt with also
GINKS
should advocate that the school authorities in primary and sec school to give the students more access to computer labs and for trainers to be provided for the schools
Contact
with organisations that work with SMEs (especially membership organisations) in order to set up trainings in the use of ICTs
Awareness is also necessary

On reaching out to the people who cannot read and write, the group recommended the repackaging of information through mediums and languages they can understand – e.g, pictures, video, radio

Group 4 Non achievement of goals

What kind of goals do members expect to achieve within GINKS?
Why do members don’t achieve their goals? How can we improve on it?
Why do so many people from rural areas not achieve their goals? How do we improve it?

In answering these questions, the group 4
members in analysing the fact that 37% of GINKS members are not aware of the objectives of the organisation, held that familiarity with GINKS objectives is a necessary foundation to whether or not the members achieve their goals. They based their assessment on the following thematic areas:

Information and knowledge sharing
Networking (through the networking, one can also meet his aspirations)
Knowledge and skills acquisition for local content development
Conferences and workshops

Mismatch objectives

Unrealistic expectations (people’s intention to attend many conferences, programmes etc.)
Awareness creation – Raising the level of awareness and objectives of GINKS
Practicing on the skills we have acquired and sharing those skills with others

Easy / regular access to ICT tools (infrastructure)

Low education level

Kalingalinga Youth resource Centre

2009-02-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

Visit on 6th February to Kalingalinga Youth Resource Centre. There I had a meeting with the director Mr Ben Sambambi, Mr Isaac Chanda (the trainer of Ndola Resource Centre, one of our training partners in this Youth Resource Centre programme) and a group of several teachers that have been trained by Isaac and his colleagues.

Situation on the ground

What was clear during my visit that the ICT skills were utilized in the several classes, although they would like to incorporate even more, by moving PC's to each class room. But what I did see were designs for carpernty and tailoring done in excel, an accountant that could do his accounts in Excel and Pastel, a foodproduction teacher who designed menu's for the catering services. They trained around 300 students in basic ICT. One of the brightest is now taken on as a staff to assist in webdesign.

Interview with Isaac Chanda, Ndola Resource Centre

The challenge is the number of PC's, so that not all skills could be practiced a lot. Connectivity is not there, so they have to go to an internet cafe and also the level of ICT literacy is not yet high enough. They require more training, because there is a high demand from students. The number of staff compared to students is still too low and in order to generate more funds they teach also students with more money. The idea is to subsidize training for the poor, but because of too little staff they train too many with some money and not enough without. More females are trained than males, because of the total number of studens (there are more females and the vocational centre)

Interview with Mr Ben Sambambi, Manager Kalingalinga Youth Resource Centre

Dream

Encourage students to use ICT in all classes with classrooms equiped with enough computers and teachers with enough ICT skills. And with an internet cafe that is used in the day time for classes and in the evening to generate some money. The internet cafe should also be a library.

Saskia Harmsen en Martine Koopman het social web en ontwikkelingshulp

2009-01-20T00:55:00.000-08:00

DOOR GUUS WIJNGAARDS

Welke technologie gebruik je?
Allerlei web 2.0-tools. Voor verschillende doelgroepen en doelen.

Waarom? Wat kun je ermee en wat doe je ermee?
Web 2.0-internetapplicaties zijn in principe voor iedereen toegankelijk en nuttig om te gebruiken. In principe, want we werken natuurlijk met landen die in ontwikkeling zijn en waar het internet wel steeds meer bereikbaar wordt, maar een goede bandbreedte nog vaak ontbreekt. Vanuit die beperkingen proberen we allerlei applicaties zo goed mogelijk in te zetten. Slechts enkele voorbeelden, zowel voor het internationale werk als het lokale:

•Dgroups (www.dgroups.org) is een internetplatform voor groepen en organisaties die zich bezighouden met internationale ontwikkeling. Dit platform vormt de basis van peer-exchanges en diensten als platform voor communities of practice en communities of interest, vooral vanwege de email listserv en het niet commerciële karakter van
het platform. Er is vorig jaar onderzoek gedaan naar de effectiviteit van dit platform; een samenvatting is te vinden op thegiraffe.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/dgroupsresearch-report.

•Del.icio.us wordt gebruikt door mensen in ontwikkelingslanden om door middel van deze social bookmarking tool relevante informatie en websites te vinden, te gebruiken en te delen. Westerse informatie is daarvoor meestal niet zomaar
geschikt, en door het gebruiken van zulke social bookmarking tools kan gericht informatie gezocht worden van bronnen die voor de gebruiker relevant and waardevol zijn.

•Het project Radio La Luna in Ecuador (www.radiolaluna.com/news.php). De website zelf is gebouwd rondom een blog, waar relatief veel commentaar wordt gegeven door lezers. Verder wordt de site ook door andere relevante blogs gevoed, maar ook met interessante video’s van YouTube. Gebruikers kunnen zich inschrijven voor de podcasts en vervolgens mp3’s en RSS feeds downloaden. Radio La Luna geeft gebruikers en luisteraars ook de mogelijkheid om zelf een blog op Radio La Luna aan te maken (zie http://radiolaluna.com/blogs)

•Het National ICT4D netwerk in Ecuador, door IICD opgezet en ondersteund, is InfoDesarrollo (www.infodesarrollo.ec). Vooral organisaties en individuen die met ontwikkelingsgerelateerd werk bezig zijn, worden gestimuleerd Web 2.0-technologieën te gebruiken. Tools om met deelnemers in het netwerk uit te wisselen en de informatieuitwisseling te democratiseren zijn bijvoorbeeld: Facebook,RSS en SlideShare om presentaties te delen: www.slideshare.net/Jubileo.Ecuador/web-20-ejemplos-desu-uso-en-africa-y-ecuador

• Curriki.org is een ‘open source’ website die de ontwikkeling en het gratis beschikbaar stellen van lesmaterialen wil bevorderen. In de naam ‘curriki’ worden de woorden curriculum en wiki samengebracht. Docenten zijn erg enthousiast.

Wat is er nu zo leuk en/of nuttig aan? Zou je het kunnen missen?

Web 2.0-tools zijn absoluut onmisbaar geworden. Wat vroeger niet kon, kan nu wel: mensen bereiken met informatie, op een manier die ze er ook actief bij betrekt. Waar het internet niet komt, worden cd-roms gebruikt die gedownloade informatie op lokaal niveau in de netwerken en bij individuen brengt. Het is prachtig om te zien hoe allerlei individuen zich gemotiveerd tonen en gesterkt weten omdat ze nu zelf ook een stem hebben gekregen...

Een belangrijke ontwikkeling in Afrika zijn trouwens de mobiele telefoons. Waar internetverbindingen en zeker de satelliet duur blijven, zie je overal mobiele telefoons die ook steeds meer worden ingezet. Een voorbeeld is een organisatie die lid is van het door IICD gesteunde National ICT4D Network in Uganda, I-network. Deze organisatie, BROSDI maakt via een landbouwsite informatie beschikbaar die door boeren, boerengroepen en extension workers zelf is gedocumenteerd.Op deze website kunnen informatie en podcasts gedownload worden om in het veld af te spelen, ook via
SMS. (www.celac.or.ug)

In Zuid-Afrika is een bedrijf, Mxit (www.mxit.co.za/web/company.htm), er goed in geslaagd om de mobiele telefoon in te zetten om mensen met elkaar te laten communiceren met de GSM als mobile instant messenger. Het heeft niet direct een relatie met ontwikkelingssectoren of leren, maar is breed in gebruik onder jongeren. Zij gebruiken dit platform via hun mobiele telefoons om met elkaar uit te wisselen over opdrachten voor school en roepen zo bijvoorbeeld ook hulp in van medestudenten etc. Leer je er iets van? Is het een instrument dat bij het leren en onderwijzen ingezet zou kunnen worden? Het zijn krachtige instrumenten bij het leren en onderwijzen, omdat je het leren interactief maakt en daardoor leraren en vooral studenten motiveert om goed mee te doen.

In het project TICE in Burkina Faso bijvoorbeeld (www.ticeburkina.bf), zetten leraren opdrachten in een blog en moeten leerlingen hun werkstukjes op de blog toevoegen. Zo wordt
het een gezamenlijk werkstuk, en kunnen alle leerlingen de inhoudelijke antwoorden van de andere leerlingen lezen. Wel moet je telkens blijven bestuderen welke tool in een bepaalde situatie goed zal werken, of er niet te veel bandbreedte vereist
is, of het gebruikersvriendelijk is en of het regelmatig gegevens opslaat en bewaart, zeker in situaties waarin de stroom regelmatig uitvalt. Je moet je uiteraard bewust blijven van het feit dat wij ‘user driven’ moeten opereren en ons niet alleen maar laten leiden door technologische mogelijkheden. Maar het zijn krachtige instrumenten voor leraren om te leren voor zichzelf op te komen – kijk maar eens naar de invloed van www.teachertube.com in Afrika – om materialen te vinden voor leersituaties en om je daardoor geholpen en gesterkt te weten in je functioneren. We blijven dan ook de ontwikkelingen goed volgen.

Saskia Harmsen is Officer Capacity Development en Martine Koopman Officer Knowledge Sharing bij IICD, International Institute for Communication and Development
(www.iicd.org). Een organisatie die zich specialiseert in het gebruik van ICT als instrument voor ontwikkeling in de sectoren onderwijs, gezondheidszorg, milieu, bestuur en levensonderhoud(landbouw). Beiden zijn op zoek naar praktische en duurzame ICT-oplossingen, die gedeeld kunnen worden met anderen. Waar Martine’s werk vooral gericht is op het zo goed mogelijk laten functioneren van de netwerken voor
kennisdeling in Ghana en Zambia, richt Saskia zich op programma’s, projecten en individuen in Zambia om die zo goed mogelijk te laten werken, en ondersteunt het delen van ervaringen tussen IICD’s verschillende landenprogramma’s.

Dr. Guus Wijngaards is lector eLearning bij Hogeschool
INHolland. Zie www.inholland.nl/elearning

New agricultural method helps farmers to improve their livelihood

2008-11-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

Wadep, an IICD supported project in Nkwanta, Volta region (Ghana) collaborates with Agricultural Extension oOficers to provide farmers with information on improved planting methods.

Take Mr Ingwanu Bale, he farms with his family cowpeas. I met him during my trip to Ghana in October 2008 accompanied by Mr Ibrahim Inusah (GINKS) and Mr Obed twabu (Wadep). He used to plant the traditional way, which is random planting of seeds.

Cowpea is grown mainly by peasant farmers who have limited access to purchased inputs for the crop. It is grown in marginal soils as intercrop with cereals
but a few farmers like Mr bale grow cowpea as sole crop. The soils are of low
natural fertility and the crop depends almost entirely on rainfall.

After a training from Wadep and the Agricultural Extension Officer from the Ministry of Agriculture he has changed his methods. He now plants in rows, which improved the harvest with 70%. This means that both his children are now able to go to school. He is convinced that this new method works and want to help to convert the other farmers in his community. The new method is more labour intensive than the traditional one, but because of the higher yield more profitable. Watch the video for more information from Mr Ingwanu Bale.

Mr Ingwanu Bale, cow pea farmer and Mr Obed Twabu, Wadep

Projectnode meeting with IICD partners in Tamale (Ghana)

2008-10-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

During this joint project node meeting, IICD partners from Northern and Southern Ghana met each other to share their knowledge and experiences. This time 6 new partners from the Community Information Centres in Salaga, Yendi, Bimbilla, Bolgatanga, Navrongo and Zebilla joint the project node meeting for the first time. So it was first time for an introduction. But the main theme was collaboration between CIC and project partner. The meeting was held on the 29th October at Radach Memorial Centre in Tamale (Ghana). The meeting was organised by the Ghana Information and Knowledge Sharing Network (GINKS) and facilitated by Mr Alhaji A.Y.M.B Ibrahima.

The meeting was with 25 participants very busy. The Managers from the IICD supported Community Information Centres joined the meeting for the first time and they were able to met with staff members from other IICD supported projects from the North: SEND Foundation from Tamale, , Mapronet from Tamale, PEPS-C from Wa, ACDEP from Tamale, WADEP from Nkwanta and from the South: Global Teenager Project Ghana and Ministry of Information and National Orientation (MINO). The Monitoring and Evaluation partner of IICD, DASF based in Tamale was also attending the meeting. From IICD itself Mr Olaf Erz, country manager Ghana and Ms Martine Koopman, Officer Knowledge Sharing were both present.

Interview with Maggie Kyiu, DASF

The meeting started with introduction of each other by presenting a short description of the project, the target groups that projects addressed and their link to other projects. The main theme was a brainstorm session how the CIC's could collaborate more with the IICD partners. Especally when CIC's are in the same town as project partners collaboration could be focused on sharing technical skills, shared connectivity, development of local content. Ideas were also shared how CIC's could become more sustainable. The main message was there: be creative, develop a range of services to attract people to your centre, know what the people in your community need. Eeven without connectivity, which is a major challenge in the rural areas you can train people in basic ICT skills, sell phone credits, become a Western Union centre, rent yiur venue to other organisations including catering, etc. Key is collaboration with other organisations and government officals like District Information Officers. So that you really create a COMMUNITY INFORMATION Centre.

Saira Qureshi gave a presentation on best practices on project management and writing for the web. A lively discussion afterwards followed especially about creation of own webpages or blogs for CIC's.

The last subject was an inventarisation of connectivity solutions and challenges that the projects were facing. In the North 3 options seems to prevail. GPRS modems are coming up, they seem cheaper and just as reliable as other options, but could not be connected with to too many computers. GT Broadband was the second option and VSAT the third. All projects were facing major problems related to connectivity like unreliable or no service, difficulties with technical support and high prices. The group agreed to finalize a table with an overview of all options, costs and pro's and con's of each option.

At the end of the meeting an action plan was made for 2009 discussing the topics for future meetings. After some networking after the meeting everyone went home with at least one idea that they could practice in their own project.

What makes a good project node meeting?

2008-10-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

by Martine Koopman — www.iicd.org

What determines the success of an IICD Projectnode meeting? Is it the number of participants? Is it the location? Is it the topics on the agenda? Or the vibrant discussions on practical subjects? What was clear on the 18^th and 19^th September 2008 at the Gemistar Lodge in Lusaka Zambia, is that it was a big success, because everyone went home with a feeling of satisfaction and belonging.

The project node meeting started almost on time with all IICD project partners in Zambia. With the new health project partners on board: Zambian Union of Nurses (ZUNO), Zambian National Blood Transfusion Services (ZNBTS) and Caritas Catholic Diocese of Mongu (DOM-HBC) who attended for the first time, a lot of time was spent on introductions. This was done in a special way. All projects were asked to make a short presentation, based on a template. These presentations were stuck on the walls. During the breaks people could walk around and read each others' presentations. Later in the day there was time to ask questions about eachother's projects.

From the presentations all challenges were clustered around four themes: Technical issues, Management issues, Logistical issues and Culture/Motivational issues. In three groups (Logistical and Cultural together) each theme was extensively discussed and potential solutions were presented to each other. Challenges were sometimes similar, but slightly different, and solutions for one challenge were generating more ideas for other challenges as well.

The challenges that came out was the difficulties to use Open Source software without proper training. This was an issue many of the projects had fased. The project teams had just received two CD’s called NGO-in-a-box (the base CD and Open Publishing) so the solution was easy. Some project teams had more experience than others. E-Brain, the national ICT4D network, has established a Technical Support group with techies from within the IICD supported projects (and other interested techies as well). On the D-group everyone can ask each other questions on Open Source Software or other technical issues. E-Brain will also organise some very practical Open Source Software training to project partners as well. Jennifer from ZUNO:

“I thought that we were the only one with Open Source Software issues, but now I understand that there were more projects with similar challenges who have now already more experience than we.”

Our Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) partner Kelvin Luputa presented the M&E system again especially for the new project partners, but also as a refresher for the others. A Question & Answer session started with a lively discussion. More partners are now enthusiastic about the M&E system and will go back to collect the necessary questionnaires for an End-user Focus group meeting at project level so that more can be learned about the impact of their projects.

The second day was much more practical. Lee Muzala shared several ways to get connected through GSM dongles and blue tooth connection with your GSM. Many questions were asked and answered.

The last presentation was a joint presentation from Lyson Chikunduzi from the Copperbelt College of Education and Gonzalo Portal from the Mpelembe Secondary School (ENEDCO project) on Local Content Development. Their presentation covered some challenges that both project were fasing, for example how to motivate the teachers. However, the highlight of their presentation was a demonstration of lessons that were developed with the help of Powerpoint and Scratch (animation software). Everyone wanted to do more hands-on training in order to work with it in their own projects.

Most participants went back to their projects with a lot of new ideas that hopefully will find their way to more project staff and end-users to continue the sharing of knowledge and experiences. To get an impression of the project node meeting watch the video