[Telecentres] Sustainability and Scaling-Up Concerns

[Pamela McLean]

Ref Stuart Mathison's interest in "ICT for Poverty Reduction" ... 
"sustainability and scaling-up"

My experience in Ago-Are and with CawdNet suggests that
~ Telecentres are hybrid organisations - a mix of social and commercial
~ Social entrepreneurship often produces this kind of hybrid
~ Traditional thinkers from both sides (social/charitable) and 
(business/commerce) find this confusing.
# How can it be social/charitable if it is making money?
# How can it be business/commerce if it is driven by "do-gooding" 
instead of the bottom line.
~ I suggest a ruthless clear separation - with a charitable/donor link 
that enables "buying into the future" i.e. behaving as if the future we 
believe in has already arrived:.
~ "Buying into the future grants" mean that the social aspects are paid 
for externally and the InfoCentre/telecentre can charge a commercial 
rate, and perform as if it was functioning in a more affluent area.
~ These grant are different to some other "pump priming" grants in that 
they fill a particular funding gap which there is some obvious way of 
filling in the future.
~ If the commercial side makes good profits it can make contributions to 
the charity providing the grants.
~ Examples:
# Teachers being enabled to afford ICT awareness training from the 
InfoCentre at a fair price (as if their government funded their 
inservice training as it does in the UK)
# The community being enabled to make a grant to the InfoCentre for 
running its digital library and other community services (as it will be 
able to afford to do once some of the capacity building results bear 
fruit) NB It is part of local culture that the community fund raises in 
this way. Last year for instance its projects included building a wall 
around the grounds of town hall which it had built in previous years. 
and it also provided the partitioning inside the InfoCentre.
# Individuals (or small businesses, or whatever the funder favoured) 
being enabled to use email as if the charges were similar to charges in 
the developed world....

If you use these ideas i would very much appreciate feedback.

Pam

Pamela McLean - Cawd volunteer and CawdNet convenor
CawdNet – Networking in rural Nigeria and in the virtual communities of 
the Internet.
For an introduction to CawdNet www.cawdnet-intro.blogspot.com
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