ICTs in Telecenters... page 1 2 3 4 5


Financial Services
Financial services, those that enable financial transactions either to individuals or to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), microfinance programs or remittance services for example, are not often found integrated into a telecenter's operations. One notable exception is from Cooptions Technology in Andhra Pradesh. Through its Karshaka Pragati program, the company is using customized software to provide convenient banking, trade, and agricultural services to the Indian state's farmers. Also, both the Bayanloco Community Learning Center in Nigeria and the National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management's (MANAGE) Information Kiosks in Andhra Pradesh, India, support women's microcredit programs.

Healthcare
The majority of telecenter-enabled healthcare activities are found in multipurpose community telecenters, including those in Ghana, Suriname, Bhutan, Benin, Vietnam, India, and South Africa.

Radio
Some telecenters are using the Internet to enhance the "old" technology of community radio. In Sri Lanka, the Kothmale Internet Community Radio team browses the Internet for information requested by the audience, translates it into local languages, and then broadcasts it in a daily program. In parallel, local communities are provided with free Internet access through the radio's own Internet Café and through two free Internet access points at community libraries. Through the RURANET project, the African country of Niger has initiated a seven-year program to build a network of 160 self-managed, solar-powered, rural radio broadcasting stations that will provide access to ICTs. UNESCO is also establishing Community Multimedia Centers in several countries that will bring together community radio and multipurpose community telecenters.

Empowerment of Women
Throughout much of the developing world, gender discrimination makes it especially difficult for women to access and benefit from ICTs. Recognizing this, some telecenters offer programs specifically aimed at empowering women. The Bayanloco Community Learning Center, the 2001 APC Africa Hafkin Prize winner, trains women in rural Nigeria to use information technology for peace and poverty alleviation. In Uganda, the Women's Information Resource and Electronic Services (WIRES) is helping women entrepreneurs and women's organizations that promote enterprise development to explore ways of exploiting ICTs for community economic empowerment. The National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) in Andhra Pradesh, in coordination with local cooperative credit societies, has set up a network of kiosks aimed at empowering female cooperative members. Banking system software has been developed and installed at these kiosks in order to maintain members' loan details. Additionally, the Starfish Initiative is using IT to educate underprivileged girls who are at risk. Through centers in India and Malawi, the girls learn water, childcare, nutrition, and disease control information, as well as literacy improvement.

Youth
Telecenters located in schools naturally focus on youth, but they aren't the only ones that do. VAANCHA's Narrowing the Digital Divide project is focused on empowering socially and economically disadvantaged youth with ICT skills through solar-powered broadband wireless ICT centers. The training will place a special emphasis on income generation, small enterprise development, and education for the workplace. Project Clicar in Brazil and the Street Children's Telecenter Project in Ecuador and Colombia have both set up telecenters that use the Internet to help street children solve their problems and create opportunities for a better life. The Connecting Youth Project in Bolivia has developed a youth Internet café that offers subsidized Internet access and training in the use of computers and Web site development. The Internet Information Club in Cameroon, and the Kidlink Khouses in Brazil and Mexico are also helping to empower youth through IT.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The projects highlighted in this article represent only a portion of what is available in the Digital Dividend Project Clearinghouse. You can search the Clearinghouse for more than 250 Telecenter projects yourself... click here!

For WRI-sponsored case studies on El Salvador's Infocentros and India's n-Logue, TARAhaat and e-Choupal, click here...

For Telecenter Resources from Digital Dividend's Resource Marketplace, click here...

For UNESCO's "International Community Telecenter Resource Site"click here...

For Development Gateway's "Community Telecenters: Assuring Impact & Sustainability," click here...

page 1 2 3 4 5