In Western Europe, computers generally have a short life-span as technology changes at a rapid pace. Computers are traded in for new models like they were yesterday’s newspaper. In developing countries the situation is noticeably different as resources to buy ICT equipment are often very limited. To help developing countries bridge the digital divide, the international NGO Close the Gap collects and refurbishes used computers and distributes them to organisations in developing countries that lack the resources to buy the hardware themselves.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool for transferring knowledge and making it easily and widely accessible to the masses. However, while the West is now exploiting ICT to the full and reaping the economic and social benefits in the process, developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia are still struggling to put their human knowledge and ICT training to work.

The international NGO Close the Gap, which was founded three years ago at the University of Brussels is, in keeping with its name, trying to close this gap by collecting used computers from Western companies, refurbishing them, and then distributing them to developing countries. Not only does this fulfil the need for ICT equipment in developing countries, it also helps to lengthen the natural life-span of ICT equipment that is still in good working order.

Only recently, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Close the Gap and IICD to ship computers to a select number of local organisations in Uganda: one of the developing countries in which IICD is supporting a number of ICT-driven projects. Most of the organisations in Uganda that have been earmarked to receive a consignment of computers are currently using ICT applications either to improve the livelihoods of local people working in the agricultural sector, or to enhance different areas of governance. During the course of the next three years, hundreds of computers will be shipped to Africa. The first shipment of 257 computers has already arrived: it was dispatched in September 2008 to the Uganda Institute of Information and Communication Technology (UICT) - an ICT training centre in Kampala which implements a national ICT capacity development programme for local ICT-driven projects that IICD is currently supporting in Uganda. The institute is now distributing the computers to various organisations throughout the country.  

One of the first organisations to receive a consignment of computers was the Uganda Commodity Exchange Limited; a company whose founding shareholders include entities such as the Uganda Cooperative Alliance, Uganda Coffee Trade Federation, Uganda Farmers’ Federation and Commercial Farmers’ Association. They will distribute the computers among several communities to help them in their efforts to exchange market and price information with (farmer) producers. This information will help the small-scale producers to make informed decisions about when to sell their produce and at what price, which in turn will help them boost their income. Another IICD partner in Uganda that will receive computers is the Ministry of Local Government. It will use them for the benefit of the DistrictNet project: a project that was set up to help improve communication between district headquarters, central government agencies and others working with the districts of Mbarara, Lira, Mbale and Kayunga. All this will help to improve public services.

Based on the experiences with the first shipment to Uganda, more computers will be distributed among IICD partners in Uganda and in other countries too in due course.