Telecentres, Access, and Development: Experience and Lessons from Uganda and South Africa

This 176-page book analyses the experience of South Africa and Uganda in their quest for universal access, with particular emphasis on the role of shared access centres (public telephones, cybercafés, telecentres, business centres, etc.) and the factors that affect their performance. The book examines shared-access centres, the goal of universal access, and strategies for sustainable development. According to this publication, universal access is a policy goal in which 100% of a population is able to make use of a publicly available resource, such as information and communication technologies (ICTs), including telephone, fax, and internet/email. Universal access to ICTs has, in recent years, become a policy goal for many national governments, international development agencies, and intergovernmental agencies such as the United Nations.

The key findings from this report are presented as 11 lessons, each with specific recommendations:

• Lesson 1: Access centres are generally not adequate by themselves to build local demand. Policy makers should focus on creating an enabling environment for access centres, especially by focusing on liberalisation of the national telecommunication market. They should also recognise that, with the use of computers and the internet, people need time and space in which to learn basic skills, and that fee-based access is not a viable way to achieve this.
• Lesson 2: Because access to ICTs is difficult to achieve in rural areas through market means, and may not by itself be a primary development goal, it should, where relevant, be carefully harmonised with larger rural development strategies. Stand-alone access centres should be pursued as an option only where local markets have demonstrated capacity to support them. Otherwise, ICT access should be integrated into other development activities.
• Lesson 3: Any attempt to implement ICT access centres will be strongly constrained (or enabled) by the national telecommunication market. This lesson reinforces the need for national telecommunication market liberalisation and regulation. It also suggests that government should not consider direct implementation of access centres without addressing these issues.
• Lesson 4: Universal access for telephone requires strategies different from those needed for other ICTs (especially computer-related), since the former usually enjoys immediate demand, while the latter does not. Telephone access and use are issues best considered separately from internet access and use, especially since Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular networks have contributed broadly to the spread of the former. Nevertheless, policy makers should maintain a holistic view that considers the possible relationship between the two.
• Lesson 5: ICT access centres are an important but politically weak part of the access chain. Regulators should consider encouraging or supporting preferential telecommunication service rates (and possibly electricity rates) to agencies, whether public or private, which provide public access.
• Lesson 6: Affordability is still a major barrier to accessibility in both countries. Since much of the affordability problem relates to lack of competition, the highest priority is to liberalise the market, and especially to allow different technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Independent regulation is obviously crucial. This may be aided in turn by the presence of organisations that can represent and advocate for the interests of consumer and small business organisations.
• Lesson 7: The popular view of ICTs casts computers as a tool for the educated only. This limits spontaneous appropriation of ICTs even where physical access is provided. Assumptions about how people will choose to use ICTs should be avoided; any policy that depends on people's interaction with ICTs should be based on evidence.
• Lesson 8: Where ICTs are available and used, not all uses yield financial returns for their users or their communities. Since national universal access strategies are motivated by a desire for development and equal opportunity, they should be monitored through indicators which, going beyond mere access, are tied to national development priorities. Affordability of ICT services also needs to be defined by the national regulator according to national conditions.
• Lesson 9: The relationship between the market and initiatives set up by external funders varies according to factors such as infrastructure and local economic activity. Market factors are often not well assessed or understood before a project is implemented. Any agency involved in implementing a not-for-profit access centre needs to assess the current and likely future market situation in the locale where the centre is to be located.
• Lesson 10: Sustainability implies managing costs and complexity. Embedding ICT services within, and building upon, existing institutions is one of the best ways to do this. That strategy can also help maximise the development impact of services. Those who implement access centres should consider collaborating with and, where possible, working within existing organisations in communities. Policy makers should consider ways to encourage such organisations to provide public access to their own ICT facilities where they exist.
• Lesson 11: One of the biggest impacts of ICT use appears to be the maintenance of links between geographically dispersed family members. This may help to equalise other inequalities implied by the introduction of ICTs, since family members with better education, ICT skills, and related job opportunities usually share economic benefits with extended family members who would otherwise be unable to benefit. The role of within-country migration and international diaspora communities in maintaining and contributing to rural development, and the role of ICTs in supporting it, is an area requiring greater attention from both policy makers and researchers.

The publication concludes that “one side of universal access that cannot be overlooked is the potential for giving local people opportunities to provide ICT services and profit from that entrepreneurship. When this factor is included, universal access becomes a double-edged tool for community development. Otherwise, if the profit generated from ICT services is sucked out of economically poor communities and these services do not lead to local economic benefits, universal access is potentially a tool for further impoverishment. Universal access policy aims to maximize benefits and understand and minimize risks to public interest. Early policy, for example in South Africa, was sometimes overly optimistic in identifying potential benefits. Experience now reminds us that positive development outcomes do not spontaneously emerge from access, although the potential is there.”