Notes from the talks of Africa Gathering taking place in London, England on 25 April.

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David Hollow – ICT4D Collective / RHUL
The $100 laptop in Ethiopia – A case study

ICT for Education:

How to assess impact? How can ICTs make an impact in such extreme poverty?

Why impact assessment?

• How do we know if our interventions have any benefit?
• Variety of approaches
• Operate in partnerships with people there
• Engaging in ICT 4 Education projects, but then stepping back and evaluating what was happening

XO laptop in Ethiopia

• What’s the educational challenges? Far not all children go to school, lack of textbooks & learning materials
• 5000 XO laptops in use
• Impact of the textbook reader on the XO laptop – monitoring and evaluation

Lessons learned:

• content: educational content would be useful
• teacher training: students are more advanced then the teachers – more training necessary
• integration: laptop is not integrated in courses
• frustrations: it’s not used for studying – a tyo rather than a tool; teachers have problems too, they don’t know how to use the laptops

what to do?

• text book reader: options to provide a bridge, pupils can use  them & teachers see the benefits
• technical challenges: mesh network & translating all the documents from textbooks to virtual
• teacher training (pedagogical & technical)
• plan for integration
• more communication to parents & community
• adjusting focus on secondary students
• government shifted their approach from authoritatian to a more collaborative one

wider application

• partnership requires transparency, expectations, communication
• there are unanticipated outcomes

reflection on own projects

• bring in self reflection
• do we asses the impact of what we’re doing?
• are beneficiaries engaged in decision making processes?
• what methods are used?
• are we conscious of power & aspiration in our projects?
• do we see ICT as our tool and development our objective?

Q&A:

difference between children and teachers?

• children were more willing to learn

what did children actually learn?

• main thing: how to take photographs, how to play tunes

development of Akili? in Etheopia?

• was developed in Switzerland

was there anybody responsible for translating the textbooks?

• large team of people

why secondary education rather than teachers?

• because of the volume of students – the sums involved

trying to connect to academics – you chose to work for a top-down orgaization, what could we have done better to make you work with a bottom up organization?

• there are many projects I wanted like to work with, rationale was to engage with a large scale project to better assess impact

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Nkeiru Joe – International Law department, Virije University Brussel
Staying connected to Africa: an ecosystem approach as a response to the “solutions temptation”

Law, Africa & development – international law can achieve linkage

There are myriad problems when looking at international law

Solutions temptations – always going for the simplest solutions

Connecting everybody to technology – is it really great?

Submarine cabels provide Africa with big amounts of information – the issues connecting the cabels (connecting Africa with other areas) cannot be addressed within the continent alone

Has to be addressed by international law – there need to be standards in place

Who is liable for damage of the cables? Who protects the cables? A system in international law has to be put in place

UN-convention is in place – there has to be influence influence to hold the parties accountable

Norms and law can create the framework to include everyone in ICT4D

Why solutions need law?

• There need to be capable agencies in place
• Solutions can only come from within – local people have to be incorporated
• International law = “watchful parents”

without addressing issues structurally = digging deep, sustainable solutions can’t be found

Q & A:

are landlocked states also addressed by the law of sea?

• yes, they are

landlocked – geographically disadvanteged states – is there any pressure on coast states to share infrastructure with these states?

• yes, e.g. Zimbabwe can lay a cable to the sea through any country as long as they are not causing any damage