Fighting Poverty and the Administration of Development Work

In 2000 the United Nations Development programme launched a project to eradicate poverty by 2015. While poverty itself may be relatively defined by individuals, the UNDP specified the symptoms of poverty as hunger, disease and lack of education (ignorance). These are truly the most basic problems that poverty brings with them. Now, more than half-way into the programme, it seems that progress is only slowly being made especially in Africa. The main reason for this is that there is an inherent resistance in social structures to change. There are several barriers to the realization of the UNDP vision. Infrastructural problems cut remote areas off from centralised focused action (hence the term Marginalised Rural Areas - MRAs). Governments themselves are to blame with policies that often support monopolies or that reduce available funds through fraud and corruption. The UN itself is a hardly flexible establishment bringing expensive expertise in from outside and not alleviating the problem locally by involving and training the community appropriately. But these are just indicators for a deeper problem, which is that very few working and living in the areas believe that the problems of the rural areas can be solved. In fact, most persons living in the rural areas believe themselves to be helpless and that they cannot change any of the problems. This situation often leads to migration into the cities.

Living Conditions and Problems of the MRAs

It is this point of view, which makes any attempt to assist such MRAs (in which significant portions of Sub-Saharan Africans live) so difficult, and it is this point of view which must be changed together with the actual physical problems of infrastructure, misgovernance, etc. We believe that people are innately curious, creative and proud of their achievements. In completely impoverished MRAs ravaged by hunger, disease and lack of all basic amenities and services, these natural qualities are untaught by the school of life, which is the only functioning school there. The school of life has very few educated role models in store, because most of the members of the communities have no education apart from teachers, nurses and police men. These professions, as a rule, do not require a university degree. A few years at a training college suffice.

Development workers in such areas are met with open arms and a seemingly positive attitude. But the locals are mostly scared by rapid development: “Why change? Why move into an unknown situation where old rules no longer apply?” Although they speak the same language as the development workers, they do not understand the message. It is simply not within the scope of their experience. Further, reassurances about the course of development stop when the development worker leaves, leaving fundamental questions unanswered and undermining the development work.

The scope of this document is to explain the concept of the Village Scribe Association to a person unacquainted with ICT4D concepts, so that they can understand the goals of the programme, how these are to be attained and what Village Scribe can do about it. The reader should be able to, using this text, follow-up premises, case studies and facts in order to ascertain for themselves whether the concept is feasible. The target audience is Western European.

IT Technologies and Internet as an Opportunity

We see that modern technology brings unprecedented opportunities to rural remote impoverished areas and the possibility of breaking the web of problems that hold these areas down much faster than would be possible with other methods. Besides the fact that computers bring access to the world's knowledge and communication with the rest of the world, they also are a powerful symbol for progress, possibility and power. In this latter sense, they are motivators for entire communities to feel empowered and able to tackle problems. Why is it that especially children are attracted to modern technical tools, such as cellphones and computers? Their tendency toward curiosity and creativity are not yet completely unlearned and these tools address their imagination in a very direct manner. They are still seeking for alternatives and for new solutions to the old problems. If this generation of African citizens can grow up not only with the belief that they have the power to enable change in their regions, but with some of the most basic necessary tools for this task, viz. the ability to learn and the ability to communicate, then a change from the status quo will finally be implementable (in contrast to many prior efforts   which have noted only limited success despite their great cost in terms of money and time). With the help of the internet and the knowledge of how to use it, the above mentioned relapse into old behavioural patterns after project hand-over to the community can be stopped - even though reassurances of the development workers are missing. The reward obtained through use of the new tools is sufficient to reinforce the new learned behaviour. Follow-up visits should occur nonetheless, but these may be infrequent.

What is required at this juncture is an understanding of exactly how computer technology and methods can best serve the developmental needs of the children in these areas. Studies have shown that left to their own devices, children will learn computer based systems themselves and that they will pass on their knowledge within their group . What kinds of computer software have the best chance of eliciting the most effective learning in the children has not yet been tested extensively. We believe that multimedia based software combining play, communication and a system of goals and awards which may be tangible only within the group or may be external to the group are the best way to gradually introduce children to new ways of perceiving themselves and their environment. Such a software addresses the different senses of the children (reading, writing, contemplating pictures and listening to read out text or music) and animates to explain newly learned skills to classmates (repetition of knowledge).

Foreign language teaching (e.g. English in Southern Africa) can be reinforced through interaction with peers in other mother tongue areas. Such software can lighten the load for overburdened teachers by using intelligent technology to non-invasively monitor conversations (called chats in the on-line world) and to automatically present children on their own homepages. Such devices can bolster pride and motivate children to come to school and learn that they can change things.

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