Dear Elsa, It looks very impressive, although your supplied link was not active.
It would have been very helpful if the following was provided, by either HP, a partner or the community: What did that community do differently to get such a project, e.g., is there any documentation in regards to their peoples participation project? Did the community have a brainstorm / strategic planning session and then decide that an international call centre is what was needed....who does the cultural language conversion so the people speak with American or whatever country accents? What is the population size of the community? How many people are jobless, and how many jobs were created? What was the cost per job created? What was the asset value created? How does the community share in this, do they have an cooperative that owns the electricity supply, telecom, or water, etc. Also if you look at the partner list it is all "big shot organizations", very little or no CBO's; Community Based Organizations are mentioned, so NGO's maybe, but no Grassroots organizations. Are there no group mobilizations? Are the people that work in the call centre represented by any of the major unions, and is Southern Africa telecommunication costs conducive to such ventures. Also with the partners there seems to be some agricultural component, is there any processing of agricultural products, and do they export, and how does ICT facilitate that process? What is the sustainable agricultural lot size in that area? What do those people do to pay for municipal services, (and if they do then they are not rural but urban)? How does your organization network into this program and how does it help other communities? I suspect there are probably hundreds of municipalities that would love this methodology, but all can't have call centres. What job creation capabilities exist? There was a group from the USA that brought/built a whole mini city, it even included earthquake-proof housing....but they got special incentives from the Government, which is weird because often Governments give more and better incentives to foreign investors than to those who really need it, the entrepreneurs in their own country? All of this sounds like service jobs, and what multiplier do you have with services in general....it is usually a one-for-one, (e.g., farmer produces oranges, and the merchant sells it. Yet with textile manufacturing you have an endles interdependence of various levels that all have associated jobs....1 - 17 depending on the technolgy use. Look at the modern giants of the world, India and China, they manufacture and that is where their power lies, is it not ? How is Africa going to hang in or grow, keep up with them....it does not look very good. Or does it look good? How do you take such a project to Zimbabwe, or can the whole project be wrapped up in a containable unit and then after a major disaster (e.g., Darfur, a Tsunami, etc.), roll out an sustainable micro community that can facilitate kick-starting a sustainable municipality. How does this ICT fit in with what Local Economic Development Model/system/matrix? Take for instance PMI: Project Management Institute has several Special Interest Groups that deal with Urban Development. With regard to Municipalities, how does their methodology flow into this project? Somehow it seems this topic is very serious, and no poor person will be heard, perhaps because some computer virus has shut down his access at the local telecentre? What happens when the local phone wires or electricity wires get stolen, and are taken to the recycling centre? Does it happen for real? What is the role of TV in all these centres? Denzil On 7/25/05, Elsa Kruger-Cloete wrote: > I'm responding to the query by C Wendy Olpert on examples where > communities are shaping the use of ICT development and applications. > First, let me introduce myself. I'm exploring innovative solutions to > the development challenges we face in southern Africa. > > I would like to mention an ICT project - the Mogalakwena HP i-community > - a partnership between HP, the Limpopo Province and the Mogalakwena > Municipality in South Africa. The project is aimed at building local ICT > capacity and starting a sustainable livelihoods initiative to address > the challenges faced by the community in a sustainable manner. > Building municipal ICT capacity enhances local ICT infrastructure, > builds staff ICT capacity, and improves service delivery to the public. > Multi-purpose centres are created to build sustainable service solutions > to the community. A major focus is communicating the vast potential that > ICT holds to improve government electronic service delivery. A > demonstration room showcases innovations in e-service delivery from > around the world relevant to the municipality and communities. > Transforming the project into a global model for a multi-purpose centre > and establishing a centre of excellence programme through schools. ..snip... ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
