Burkinabe telecentres: 'United we stand'

The telecentre network, which is supported by Burkina NTIC (the country’s national ICT for development network), telecentre.org and IICD, presented its 3-year strategy at a national seminar in Ouagadougou in May 2008. This 2009-2011 strategy addresses cross-cutting issues such as training for telecentre managers, sharing experiences within and beyond the network, and creating and sharing local content.

Ninety percent of Burkina’s population consists of farmers who wish to improve their production yields, food-processing abilities, conservation and packaging skills, and who need to know the market price of their crops. In turn, teachers and students also need to have up-to-date education materials, while parents wish to know how to prevent diarrhoea and other diseases. The information is available, but most Burkinabe cannot access it. Telecentres could play an important role in closing this information gap in rural areas. They are development-driven, fulfilling a public service, which distinguishes them from the more business-driven cybercafés. Starting in the nineties, donor organisations began installing telecentres in rural areas in developing countries. After getting financial and technical support for several years, the centres were supposed to move on independently, but this turned out to be difficult. In Burkina Faso too, telecentres are struggling to survive.  

Training farmers to increase production

The seminar in May 2008 brought together telecentre representatives, agricultural organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), government officials and donors to address both the challenges and opportunities faced by the telecentres. Apart from financial sustainability, connectivity and technical support, responding effectively to information needs turned out to be a major challenge. Among the best practices presented, there were many stand-alone examples of relevant local content. 

FEPPASI, a farmer organisation, trains farmers in production techniques, using multimedia tools in the local language, Moore. The farmers who now know how to use the information provided by the telecentres managed to triple their production. Korotimi Douamba of FEPPASI:

‘Through our telecentres, we train about 200 farmers per year. However, other telecentres can use our materials too, so more farmers can benefit.’ 

For telecentres it is vital to build partnerships with local organisations to identify the information needs within their community. The telecentre network can play a key role in sharing the stand-alone examples of local content with a larger public, so more Burkinabe can benefit from them. 

Telecentres as partners in development

In an earlier interview, Malick Sawadogo, Coordinator of the telecentre network, stated that telecentres play an essential role in development. Organisations such as Sahel Solidarité use telecentres to get access to information that can help them to prevent diseases due to poor hygiene. On a higher level, telecentres can be a suitable partner for governments too who want to introduce ICT in society. Malick Sawadogo:

“Take the implementation of the national ICT strategy for example: the Regulatory Agency of Telecommunications (ARTEL) through the Universal Service Fund wants to provide ICT training in rural areas. Telecentres would be the perfect partners to take care of training…The importance of telecentres is also well illustrated by the ’10,000 young people and 5,000 computers’ programme of the Ministry of Youth and Employment. This programme has also involved a few telecentres on the ground; it underlines the importance of these centres for training purposes. Because of their experience, the telecentres involved in the programme are now also able to help the youth organisations to manage and maintain the equipment. The Ministry for Youth and Employment could not have found a better partner on the ground to bring this vast program to fruition than the community telecentres.” 

According to Sawadogo, telecentres play an active role in the fight against poverty and in reaching the Millennium Development Goals.

“In agriculture, telecentres help to improve the quality and production of crops by providing information on market prices, production techniques, food processing and packaging. In education, telecentres assist in improving the quality of education, by providing education materials and exchange opportunities with schools throughout the world, from which both teachers and students benefit. In health, telecentres play a major role in providing access information on diseases and prevention.” 

United we stand

If there is one thing Sawadogo has learned in the past two years through the exchanges between telecentre leaders, it is that all telecentres encounter practically the same problems and challenges but on varied levels. These difficulties are of a financial, technical and human nature. Collaboration between the community telecentres is no more than logical to him to help each other to overcome these challenges. Sawadogo:

“There is an expression that goes ‘L’union fait la force’ (‘united we stand’) and we believe that this is applicable to telecentres too.” “If we connect and organise ourselves better, we will be stronger and can make ourselves heard. If we form a telecentre group it will be easier to lobby and plead with the government or other actors, such as the telecom operators, to get for example better rates for connectivity or other advantages that help telecentres to become more sustainable.” 

Telecentre strategy 2009-2011

The major needs of the telecentre network are addressed in the 3-year strategy presented at the seminar, which focuses on providing training courses in technical and management skills to the telecentre leaders, sharing experiences within and beyond the network, creating and sharing local content that responds to the information needs of the Burkinabe, engaging the public in determining the services provided by the telecentres, and awareness-raising on the importance of telecentres for development. 

Many partners have shown their interest in the telecentre network. The seminar was presided over by the Ministry of Postal Services and ICT, under the patronage of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Communication, and supported by IICD, Telecentre.org , ADEN Burkina, Oxfam Quebec, Commission Nationale pour la Francophonie, @link Telecom and the ICT4D network Burkina NTIC. The telecentre network should therefore not have difficulties in finding support for its triennial plans. 

Read also:

• Malick Sawadogo : "Les cybercentres communautaires jouent un rôle de service public"

• Le groupe TIC et Télécentre adopte son Plan stratégique triennal