Dutch IT company Altran supports ICT projects in Tanzania and Zambia

Although the final agreement still needs to be signed, the first Altran consultants have already been dispatched to their new assignments.

It is the first time that Altran in the Netherlands has entered into a partnership with a non-governmental organisation and sent its employees to developing countries to work on projects that encourage sustainable development. The Dutch subsidiary is part of the French Altran Group, which has 17,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide. The participating consultants will mainly work on projects with a strong focus on eGovernance, although projects linked to other sectors might also be supported by Altran consultants at a later date. The interventions that took place in November and December 2007 focussed on how specific technical IT solutions, such as participatory mapping systems, could be used to strengthen the Tanzania Telecentre Network and how a mobile network could be used to improve the dissemination of various types of information among members of the Organic Producers and Processors Association of Zambia (OPPAZ).

So far, the work of the consultants has been mutually rewarding for both Altran and IICD’s local partners, as summed up recently by John Honings, a consultant on the OPPAZ project in Zambia: “I was asked to help out with a project run by OPPAZ in Zambia called “Integrating ICT for Quality Assurance and Marketing”. Its objective is to collect data on production methods and international quality standards for organic produce after which the data on the production of the organic producers will be collected per season and published on the internet for international partners who would like to buy their produce. OPPAZ was faced with a lot of difficulties as they were unable to upload the data onto their website. I have been able to help them by developing a prototype for a new website which can be further developed by the local Open Source Network team. The end result will have to be an application which can be uploaded on a mini-laptop or even PDA and then fed into a wireless database. We hope to release the first model this year, after which it can be tested and refined early next year. It is really rewarding to help on assignments like these as you know that the work you have set in motion will be taken up by local partners and, with some coaching and monitoring, they will be able to bring the project to a good end. If a similar problem occurs in the future, they will know exactly how to solve it and will have the capacity to do it themselves. That is what I call ‘enrichment’: I was challenged to use all my knowledge and expertise under circumstances that I would never have come across in my current working environment, it has really widened my horizon and the knowledge I have been able to ‘transfer’ is now being shared by several people who can make good use of it in within their development projects”. 

For Altran in the Netherlands, the partnership with IICD fits in with the company’s strategy to make its knowledge and expertise more widely available. As a private sector company, Altran feels a social obligation to work on a non-profit basis on social issues that can help to improve the lives and well-being of large numbers of people. By sending out its own employees, Altran’s consultants will become more aware of the needs of society outside their own scope of work while at the same time widening their own horizons and developing a greater understanding of, and deeper sensitivity towards, other cultures.

Altran is not the only partner from the Dutch private sector that works alongside IICD and its partners on ICT projects in developing countries. IICD also has ongoing partnerships with a number of other private sector companies such as Atos Origin Learning Solutions, Ordina and Inter Access. Each of these companies adds specific value to IICD’s work in various sectors. Multi-stakeholdership is one of the key principles of IICD’s approach towards ICT for development activities, and one that makes its work more successful.

It is in the private sector that most innovations take place, particularly innovations in the field of technology that could be used to solve many of the persistent information and communication problems that afflict developing countries. On its own, IICD has neither the resources nor the capacity to keep up with the latest developments in this field. This is why it often solicits support from private sector partners and invites them to pass on their knowledge and expertise directly to local partners and their projects in developing countries in the spirit of Millennium Development Goal 8: develop a global partnership for development.

The contract between Altran and IICD will be signed during a formal ceremony in January 2008.