New Internet Technology to Spur African Development
March 21 2008 / by Marisa Vitols
Category: Technology Year: General Rating: 9
Despite its density of natural resources, the African continent
(generally) is in a deep socio-economic rut. Instead of spurring
desired growth and development, the aid and resources being poured
into Africa have only fueled increased debt and vulnerability. The
region is obviously in need of an effective new growth strategy.
I argue that, more and more, it’s looking like this solution must be an internet infrastructure. While that may initially sound a bit insane, considering that many African nations can’t even afford to feed their own children, prevent basic diseases and fight off core corruption, there are more than than a few good reasons for laying down internet cable, hooking up satellite and dotting Africa with wi-fi hotspots. Some of these include:
1. Education: Getting kids online will afford them access to information and virtual learning. Some will even attend school via the web. As opposed to many physical African schools, the web actually has resources, cutting-edge information, and teachers who are up-to-date with current technologies.
2. Economic Infrastructure: Getting adults online is like getting them to a job – and one that actually pays. Imagine how many people could work in virtual worlds or do some of the more-or-less simple administrative tasks already being outsourced to developing nations? Their price points would certainly give them a competitive advantage when pursuing labor opportunities.
(cont.)
3. Transparency: African bloggers are increasingly advancing transparency by exposing unjust actions by governmental or non-governmental entities. Mobile phone technology is also enabling the geo-tagging of crimes against humanity for the world to see, as proven recently in Tibetan protests. The participatory panopticon seeds need to be scattered further and internet infrastructure will accomplish just that.
4. Conflict: Blogging and social networking is capable of fostering cross-cultural, cross-boundary understanding – a problem at the root of much internal African conflict.
5. Health: As Future Blogger juldrich recently pointed out, mobile internet technology provides hope for the future of rural health care by enabling better medical treatment and diagnosis. The Global Viral Forecasting Initiative is another example of how bringing internet to Africa could vastly improve health care, in this case by forecasting future plagues and diseases.
Wiring Africa isn’t impossible. In fact, wealthier African countries are naturally seeing a boom in internet use. And if you combine cheap, intuitive, energy-efficient laptops designed specifically for the under-developed world (like those from OLPC shown in the picture above) with the amount of money pouring into Africa already, this option becomes increasingly viable. The growing prevalence of cell phones and lowering cost of mobile tech is another example of the many ways to wire rural areas.
Why do we need a new solution? Over the past 4 decades, Western governments have loaned/given Africa more than half a trillion dollars. So, intuitively, Africa must be turning around by now, right? Wrong. Here are just a few reasons why, despite all our efforts, African development initiatives have proven mostly counter-productive.
When it comes to aid and loans, one would assume that by basic economic principle, increasing a country’s money supply would trickle down and spur growth. However, the “trickle down” part is often impossible due to debt, poor economic advice/decision-making and sometimes corruption. And the repayment of these loans requires stable infrastructure to fuel an economy that can support the out-flow.
After the success of micro-payment schemes in other underdeveloped areas, many such schemes have been implemented in Africa to spur the development of markets. However, these initiatives only work in areas with at least a baseline of human capital and economic infrastructure. Other noble at heart, alternative, bottom-up initiatives that claim to be sustainable rarely ever work and usually come from NGOs that lack the money to sustain them. Also, most NGO budgets, unless well-established, are subject to governmental cuts at any time. One recent example of this was the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy by President Bush in 2001, which drastically cut funding to NGOs that in any way promote family planning or abortion rights and resulted in a resurgence in the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Another example is education. In theory, raising baseline education should increase human capital, spur markets and enable science and technology programs to take root, etc. But how many children will go to school if they’re starving? If the school is 10 miles away? If there’s conflict in the area and traveling even a short distance is unsafe? If your teacher has no books? If you need to help take care of your siblings or make money on a daily basis? Even those that do succeed in negotiating this maze of variables to cobble together an education often can’t even find jobs and must travel to find work that suits their skills and interests, resulting in a brain drain effect.
Granted, no solution is foolproof. Sure, people could easily steal others’ laptops, just as they steal their sewing machines or burn their schools. Yes, getting money earned into the hands of a worker could be problematic in states that lack a basic financial infrastructure. Still, I am convinced that a comprehensive internet and web infrastructure that systematically integrates Africans into the workplace, serves as a learning tool, and builds networks, plus the supporting organizations that can support this endeavor by facilitating its application (most likely for-profit) is what’s needed.
Many have argued, including economist William Easterly who spent 16 years as an economist for the World Bank, that developed nations have only worsened Africa’s plight for rejuvenation. So instead of pumping money into the same old development well, isn’t it high-time we began shifting the bulk of those resources to a new strategy like information systems and communication infrastructure?
