[Telecentres] Sustainability and Scaling-Up Concerns

Fri Oct 8 10:02:33 BST 2004

e.g. Klaus' recent comments were very insightful - his comments encouraged
me to post this message, which is a request for input.

I am presenting next week at a conference in Chennai India. Conference is on
"ICT for Poverty Reduction" and my subject is "sustainability and scaling-up
concerns". Would anyone on the list like to have their concerns/comments
raised? If so, send you notes to me and I'll use them if I can.

If you can contribute, please KEEP IT VERY BRIEF, dot points, and I am
looking to mostly RAISE and DISCUSS ISSUES rather than argue very strongly
for particular conclusions.

I need comments within the next couple of days.Travelling this evening, but
have all day to kill tomorrow in Singapore airport, so comments within the
next 24 hrs would be great.

Apologies for using the list for my own purposes - for this thread, lets
keep the subject heading as per above, so that those who aren't concerned
with the thread can easily identify and press the DEL button. How about I
post a summary message at the end? - you never know, it might form part of
our "inputs" for WSIS process.

Thanks folks

Stuart

------------------------------------
Stuart Mathison
Program Manager, Information Society & Development
stuartmathison at fdc.org.au
The Foundation for Development Cooperation
Level 2, 283 Elizabeth St
(PO Box 10445 Adelaide St)
Brisbane  QLD  4000
Australia
tel: +61 7 3236 4633
fax: +61 7 3236 4696
www.fdc.org.au
------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org
[mailto:telecentres-bounces at wsis-cs.org]On Behalf Of
klaus at chasquinet.org
Sent: Friday, 8 October 2004 03:51
To: 'Karin Delgadillo Poepsel'; telecentres at wsis-cs.org; Don Cameron
Subject: RE: [Telecentres] RE: [Telecentre's] Basic Telecentre Items

Dear Don

Let me add my 5 cents worth regarding your reply to Karin.

On 7 Oct 2004 at 20:01, Don Cameron wrote:

> A difficulty I have in providing input into this question of "What is
> a Telecentre" is exactly as you suggest; there is no single model.

There are no telecenter models there are only specific local community based
telecenter dynamics as real community based telecenters reflects the
specific needs
of a community and the individuals that make it up. As every community is
different
the telecenter dynamic that develops is different. Only yesterday we where
sitting
with some community members and NGO's in the office thinking over a plan for
the
implementation of 10 telecenters in a very small region in Ecuador. And
guess
what, each community expressed different needs and conditions and
subsequently
each telecenter will be different in its implementation, runing and
functions.

> Your post also leads to awareness that my input to date might be
> construed as suggesting that all Australian Telecentre's are funded
> and fundamentally the same. As you rightly suggest they are not and my
> apologies if I gave this impression. Many of our Telecentre's are
> located in comparatively affluent towns and communities and received
> start-up funds from Government. A great many others are located in
> impoverished remote indigenous towns and villages working with the
> very poor and illiterate. Like your example, many of these remote
> "Telecentre's" (usually not named as such) do not have computers or
> telephones other than perhaps a single donated satellite phone and
> exist with no Government support whatsoever. The reason they lack this
> support is because they were ineligible for funds lacking as they do
> in capacity to prove a potential for financial sustainability to Govt
> grant providers. This was identified by many practitioners as one of
> the fundamental flaws of our early grant processes - the fact
> recipients had to prove a capacity for sustainability before any funds
> would be provided. Those who could not prove this capacity did not
> receive any support.

Here we are again on the subject of telecenter sustainability.

I fully agree with Karin that Telecenter sustainability is not just based on
financial
sustainability but that the understanding of sustainability in the context
of
telecenters has to include social, political, technical, organizational and
cultural
sustainability to name just the main ones. All these also have a financial
value that
can been determined. Just one simple example: a socially and culturally
"healthy"
telecenter has a direct effect on the health of a community. But lets stay
with the
Financial sustainability. I confess, I was one of the India Joneses, hunting
for years
after the holy grail of financial telecenter sustainability and many have
seen the
paper trail of articles I left behind me. In the end I have to say it where
the
telecenters that gave us the answer themselves. Those telecenters that
responded
to the real development needs of its user community and applied a "holistic"
definition of sustainability simple survived, whilst those who failed to do
so died.

Another example here. I recently visited a town where there where two
telecenters.
One build up first by a church organization was empty whilst 20 meters down
the
road flourished a community telecenter, full of users. What happened?. The
church
thought that chat is a dangerous thing ( you can not control with whom the
kids
might talk, it could be a protestant :-) and banned it from its
telecenter,but the
community has a very high percentage of migrants in the US and Europe. One
of
the main needs of this community was to keep in touch with their families
and
friends abroad through chat, VoIP, and mail. As the church did not give in
on that
point the community decided to put their money together and build up their
own
telecenter.  Now the Telecenter is also dealing with the tranfer of goods
and money
between North/South/North (in connection with a local credit union) and is
an main
factor in the development of small and medium enterprises in the town. The
telecenter itself is a very profitable community business for the community.

In short, what I think we need to do is NOT to implement telecenters but to
provide
adequate training, support structures and the best possible conditions
(connectivity
options, rules and regulations and so on) for communities to develop their
specific
community telecenters. Community Telecenter Networks like Somos Telecentros
in
Latin America also play a vital role in that process because they provide
the support
networks that enables the telecenters to be sustainable in every sense. The
secret
here is that it is the communities themselves that support other
communities, and
they only know what works and what does not. Experience and hands on support
is
priceless.

> I'm not sure I completely agree that all Telecentre's are just "tools
> for community" because in many remote communities the Telecentre is
> the community. These are the type of Telecentre where the facility is
> often someone's home; where all the planning, management and resources
> are provided by the community; where gatherings are the community
> coming together for a common purpose. A tool describes a device or
> instrument; community describes a group of people associated by
> interest or purpose. In my experience of remote Telecentre's the term
> usually describes the people more than the tools or technology - i.e.
> "We are the Telecentre"; not "Here is the Telecentre". I'm not sure I
> have properly expressed this culture so I hope my words make sense.

 I still think that telecenters are just the "tool" used by the community
but the
community does not define itself through it. "We are the community and we
are
using the telecenter to sustain and develop ourselves".

Yours

Klaus

Klaus

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