Afrikadag 2008

The IICD debate

Nicholas Negraponte’s brainchild, the XO laptop, hits the headlines in a way that has most marketing departments drooling with envy. Kicking-off with a short presentation of this highly controversial XO laptop, this debate will be looking into how to successfully make use of 'innovations', like the laptop, in a development context. Is it simply a case of throwing it out there as MIT seem to be suggesting? At it’s launch, Negraponte expressed his feeling that further investment in teachers wasted resources. Can that really be true?

Not entirely due to these views – though not helped by them - the XO laptop has been harshly criticised by a number of key organisations working in development sector. Re-igniting the “top-down” versus “bottom-up” arguments that have bounced back and forth for decades, concerns over approaches to development are again buzzing throughout the development community.

Two major challenge areas concern sensitivity to cultural diversity and the need to prepare solid foundations.

How do you develop a tool to be compatible with a diversity of different local cultures? Are there processes in place to enable it to be developed locally? Is there capacity to support, maintain, rebuild and replace it? Will it replace a global divide with a localised divide? Is it for Mexico or Malawi? How can it be an answer for both? What are the consequences for those who don't directly benefit from it? Or those proximate to it who will be excluded from its potential?

The debate will be drawing on the views of four people actively involved in the development sector to discuss these questions, and the audience will also be invited to challenge these assertions via a Q&A at the end.

About the participants

Professor Gerd Junne holds the Chair in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam. His current research interests include the dynamics of changes in the international division of labour, especially in North-South relations, the impact of new technologies on international relations, and the challenges of postconflict development in countries that have passed through protracted periods of civil war. He founded The Network University (TNU) and is a Board Member of IICD. Professor Junne is Chairperson of this Afrikadag debate.

Ineke Aquarius is Program Director at Butterfly Works, which designs concepts for small starts and big changes with a long term perspective; specialising in innovating development practices, equal partnerships and sustainable projects. Originally trained as an urban planner at the University of Amsterdam, Ineke focussed on planning processes in Africa and Asia.

Prabhu Kandachar is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Design Engineering, at the School of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE), Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. After a stint of 5 years (since 1975) at the Materials Science and Technology department at Delft, he worked for 15 years for Fokker, in various technical & management positions. His teaching and research interests at IDE are focussed on materializing design ideas. He also addresses manufacturing technology related to product design and materials, technology and materials selection in design.

Stijn van der Krogt has worked at the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) since 1998, first managing Country Programmes in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Jamaica and Bolivia, then in his current position as Director Country Programmes for which he is responsible for overseeing over 130 ICT for development programmes and policies in nine countries in Latin America and Africa. Through the programmes he has gained extensive experience in the use of ICT in agriculture, education, governance and health.

Petra Wentzel is an educational designer and an an consultant working at Atos Origin. She is interested in the concept of mobile learning and asks herself the question in what way mobile technology can be used in remote areas. She had the pleasure of attending a session by Mary Lou Jespen on the $100 laptop project at the mLearn 2007 conference in Banff, Canada.