DBMCT Newsletter

Editorial

This issue of the Debre Birhan Multipurpose Community Telecentre (DBMCT) Newsletter is a special issue for its inauguration. In this issue, we would like to share our ideas in establishing this centre with the prospective users of the Debre Birhan Multipurpose Community Telecentre, in particular, and players in the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Ethiopia in general. We also aim to build among the community and stakeholders in ICTs a better understanding of the purpose of a Telecentre and its role in socio-economic development and governance.

The British Embassy has been a principal funder for the establishment of the Debre Birhan Telecentre.

We are happy to invite all communities in Debre Birhan to utilise the massive number of information sources available on the Internet and the modern information and communication technology facilities, in their day-to-day communication both locally and world-wide.

For further information, please contact:
Abebe Chekol
Head, Information Services, and Project Manager, Telecentre Project
The British Council,
P.O. Box 1043, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
E-mail: Abebe.Chekol@bc-addis.bcouncil.org
Website: http://www.britishcouncil.org/ethiopia

Message from the British Council

Realising the great potential of ICTs both for economic and social development and for improved governance, the British Council, as part of its agenda in promoting global knowledge and information society in Africa, has initiated a project to establish Multi-purpose Community Telecentres (MCTs) in selected secondary towns in Ethiopia.

One of the most common reactions to rural problems is the migration to low-income urban settlements in major towns, aggravating unemployment, and straining educational and social services, and creating economic and social problems. Therefore, solutions directly targeting rural societies and secondary towns will benefit major urban regions as well. Modern information and communication facilities have, thus, the potential to contribute considerably to resolving the problems of development in countries like Ethiopia.

Multipurpose Community Telecentres (MCTs) can offer basic telecommunication and office administration services such as telephone, fax, e-mail, Internet access, word processing and photocopying, along with all needed user-support and training. They can facilitate access to library and information services, exploiting local document holdings and national and world-wide electronic information banks. They can support literacy campaigns, basic and non-formal education, government programmes, and other public service activity.

MCTs can also, particularly through culturally sensitive interfaces in the vernacular language, facilitate citizens’ feedback to local and national government on policy and development problems, the generation and exchange of community-based information, and forums for participatory democracy. MCTs can link to “traditional” rural media for outreach activities, and may, for example, provide access to radio and television production facilities as complementary community information means.

A fundamental criterion for (and determinant of the success of) a community telecentre project is the participation and co-operation, both in establishing the facility and in developing “content” and applications, of a wide range of local organisations: the private sector, NGOs, the public and the government at all levels. The private sector may contribute in many different ways, ranging from the supply of equipment and services, to operational responsibility under franchise, but an essential element of an MCT is its support for community development and for public services.

A Message from the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission

Development efforts can only succeed with the participation of society at the grass-roots level. One of the ways that it can monitor its environment and exploit economic opportunities is by getting relevant and appropriate information, augmented by the necessary training and information resources. Lack of accessibility to relevant information, at the required time, will have a negative impact on the development of self-confidence, productivity and competitiveness of the people. Thus, the possibility of setting up community information services was explored at the ESTC around mid-1997, and officially aired on the 7th National Information Day in November 1998.

ESTC is cooperating with the British Council in implementing, in Debre Birhan, the second Telecentre. The Telecentres Initiative will be further strengthened and expanded to a third site at Aksum on the basis of the outcomes and recommendations of the experience at Debre Birhan. It goes without saying, that the Federal and Regional Governments are giving serious attention to this initiative. The Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation, for its part is seeking to expand Internet access, and to implement a digital data network which will open up a wider opportunity for such community support services.

The ESTC will also continue cooperating with groups who are interested in supporting such programmes.

The Telecentres Initiative

As in most of the developing world, in Ethiopia access to and the distribution of information and communication technologies is widely skewed towards the urban centres. Ethiopia's telephone network consists of slightly more than 156,500 connected lines, resulting in a telephone density of 0.26 lines per hundred population, one of the lowest in the world. More than 95% of the total lines are in the urban areas.

Ethiopia's Internet service, run entirely by the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC), operates in a 1 Mbps connection and serves about 2,600 subscribers. Internet connectivity in Ethiopia is still in its infancy and access to the Internet is also highly skewed to the urban areas. Internet subscribers per 10,000 inhabitants is around 0.37.

To bridge the gap between rural and urban areas in terms of accessing Information Communication Technology (ICT) facilities, there have been a number of initiatives to establish central access points to the communities. Such facilities, which are known by different names in different places: "Virtual Village Halls, "Multi-purpose Community Information Centres", "Telekottage" etc. are now most commonly known as Multi-purpose Community Telecentres (MCTs).

MCTs aim to provide computers and telecommunication facilities for the local community in remote, rural regions and low-income urban settlements, in a way that makes them accessible to all. The term ‘Telecentre’ describes a broad range of services including commercial call centres, satellite offices and facilities (e.g. fax, telephone, computing, Internet). A Telecentre can be defined as a fusion of telecommunications, information, multimedia and computing functions to help address a variety of community problems and needs.

It has become a global truism that ICTs can no longer be seen as a luxury for the elite but as an absolute necessity for the masses. In response to this The African Information Society Initiative (AISI) is a response to this trend. AISI aims to support and accelerate socio-economic development across the region by creating the essential infrastructure that ensures access by the community to the wide range of information sources.

AISI's vision is to realise, by the year 2010, a sustainable information society on the continent where every man and woman, school child, village, government office and business can access information and knowledge resources through computers and telecommunications. This means making access available to the international, regional and national “information highways”, providing “off-ramps” in the villages and, in the area of information, catering specifically to grass roots society.

The telecentre project initiative, therefore, compliments the AISI's call for voluntary organisations (NGOs) to play a catalytic and co-ordinating role with government and private sectors to ensure universal access.