Originally scheduled to end on Friday, December 9th, after twelve days of intense talks, the COP17 climate change meeting went into overtime until negotiators eventually came to an agreement in the early hours of Sunday, December 11th 2011. Governments the world over are lauding the progress made on the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, the [...]
The telecentre movement is nothing new. As an effective service for improving the livelihoods of rural communities, it is a model which exists the world over. Picture a telecentre in Africa, and the image of a small building where people can go to get access to a computer, phone, fax, go online or charge a [...]
When the 650 million dollar Seacom undersea cable was hauled ashore on Kunduchi beach near Dar es Salaam, its high-capacity bandwidth offered Tanzania the glittering opportunity of becoming a knowledge-based economy. But the country needs more than just fast broadband from the 17,000 km of largely African-owned fibre-optic cable that has linked South Africa, Tanzania, [...]
Old computers are piling up in Africa and the developing world. Electronic waste, eWaste, eScrap or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) contains deadly contaminants like lead, cadmium, beryllium and poisonous flame retardants. UN officials say the developing countries face the spectre of mountains of hazardous waste damaging the environment and threatening public health. The [...]
In Zambia, eLearning is very much a pocket initiative according to Professor Thomson Sinkala, one of the country’s most experienced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts. The Zambian government now has an action plan for eLearning. Professor Sinkala is involved in carrying out tailor-made programmes for training in mining and in the rising and increasingly [...]
By James Waititu and Reuben Kyama, Nairobi, Kenya Three years ago at a rural school in Kenya, students gathered in a lab to admire with awe newly installed computers. The arrival of the new technology generated great interest and expectations – thanks to a generous firm which donated the machines.