Related Dangers:
The
issue of Development and Security for Marginalized Groups in South Africa
Consultant
for ARTICLE 19: The Global
for Free Expression,
This paper seeks to clarify why the relevance of certain information and communication technologies(ICTs) is wanting, why the importance of context is crucial to progress, and why mapping technologies from one place to another is no guarantor of success. Disconnects between theories and realities are illustrated, emphasizing the need to challenge and address factors that cannot be leapfrogged by technology: namely, education and training, basic human and service infrastructure, and the importance of human interaction.
This paper seeks to examine the
rationale, relevance, and ramifications of a global push to fund technologies
inappropriate to the context and capacity of marginalized population
groups. If developing countries are the
true litmus test for any serious evaluation of sustainable development policies
and their real practice on the ground, the international community must look
carefully at what is happening within countries rather than solely between
countries. This then should inform the international debate on development
reform and realistic, meaningful action. The research for this paper, supported
by ARTICLE 19: The Global Campaign for Free Expression, was motivated by the
World Summit on Information Society Phase II, held in
Consumed by efforts to deliver speed and volume to developing countries and to bridge the famed ‘digital divide’, many ignore the key factors necessary - connectivity, education, and capital resources - to implement and sustain these technologies. In large part, these essential ingredients remain unavailable, or in limited supply, to the poor and marginalized. While the Millennium Development Goals—including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; the achievement of universal primary education; the promotion of gender equality and empowering women; the reduction of child mortality; the improvement of maternal health; the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, etc.--are certainly on target for most of the developing world, achieving these lofty aims will continue to be a different story.
ICTs
are viewed in a variety of ways. They are seen as sources of information and
knowledge; as enablers of productivity and lowered transaction costs; and, as
facilitators of social networks, strengthening ties between various segments of
society. There exists the
“…ability
of people to connect, mobilize, organize, overcome their isolation, and share
their experiences and idiosyncratic information… [and] yet, developing countries
are characterized by high transactions and logistics costs, and by the
isolation and disempowerment of large parts of the population” (Hanna 2003).
The
availability of broadband and wireless connections, computer centers, and cell phones, then, is no guarantee that the
isolated will have a voice, the poor will become rich, the marginalized will
participate, and that the dispossessed may become productive. Access to
technology does not promise that governments will permit greater Freedoms of
Information and Expression, or that communication rights will be strengthened,
or even that citizens will participate when given the opportunity to do so.
The rapid
evolution and expansion of technologies has not caused a divide between rich
and poor countries, but rather developed a frightening gap between technology
and development. This phenomenon has furthered disconnects between rich and
poor people and the communities in which they live because technologies are
unaccompanied by factors that cannot be leapfrogged: namely, education and
training, basic human and service infrastructure, and human interaction
essential to development and security.
It is not
merely enough to fund ICTs in developing countries.
Introducing an ever-expansive information and communication technology to
societies that are still seeking the dawn of an industrial age, never mind
grappling with the relevance of how ICTs can increase
the volume of and speed by which they obtain their daily bread, is
irresponsible; if not extremely dangerous to the very objectives ICT policy
purports. For
Technology
cannot promise development or security. It remains merely one instrument, out
of many, that may allow an individual or a community to grow or, just as
easily, self-destruct. If technology’s purpose is to enhance the efficiency and
effectiveness of basic services rendered to people and their individual
production capacity, the information society should be one in which individuals
(and therefore, communities) are not merely surviving but rather building upon
a previously established foundation.
Through over
sixty interviews conducted in the three poorest provinces in South Africa,
namely Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal
and Eastern Cape, marginalized groups illustrate socio-economic realities that
need to enter into discussions on development, no matter the angle. The depth
of reflection lacking in the international debate over what exactly it will
take to bridge the technological divide and the reticence to be informed about
what people actually need is disconcerting, at best. We speak of ICTs and yet the art of communicating with other human
beings, and listening to both the truth of their lives and their perception of
development and security, is lost among those trumpeting the information age.
‘Quick fix’ promises are not new to the poorest of the poor. They have been
promised clean water and sanitation in every village; employment and housing
for all; and now, the ability for everyone to connect. While elites around the globe discuss ways to
close the ‘divide’, the desperate will carry on as they have for centuries:
waiting for change, and in the meantime, surviving. They have no faith that
connectivity and access will improve their lives; and, rather, believe that ICTs would best be used to reflect to the rest of the world
information on the reality of their dire straits.
Meanwhile,
Most South
Africans, including the most marginalized, are neither information nor
communication starved. Most people in
ICTs can connect individuals, small companies or groups of farmers
and artisans in the poorest and most isolated areas of the world and bring them
to the attention of national and even global markets. It makes it possible to
leapfrog poor transport infrastructures so that distance from markets is no
longer a drawback. ICTs can also improve governance
by giving a voice to people who have been isolated, or have been invisible and
silent, allowing them to speak out regardless of their economic status, their
gender or where they live. - ITU
Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi, 2003
The research from
ICT penetration and
connectivity must be context-specific and oriented towards the most vulnerable communities
within a country’s borders, but married as well to initiatives that encourage
participation and knowledge-sharing from every community feeding out into a
global society. South African society illustrates displacement across and
within its borders, vulnerability to environmental hazards as well as disease,
and often tenuous relationships to the local and national political system. As
such, people pick and choose what technologies may be relevant to their
existing, immediate needs. ICTs under such
circumstances adapt to, rather than dictate, societal action and reaction; and,
sometimes the imposition of inappropriate tools provides instruments of a
greater, more divisive dissatisfaction, if not despair. South Africa therefore
depicts the socio-economic dilemmas that the ICT-development vision must
confront as a preponderance of its communities are burdened by the effects of
poverty, conflict and health crises that render people desperate for reliable
sources of information and trusted methods of communication dissemination.
In the northern province
of Limpopo, in and around Musina,
a predominantly agricultural based economy finds white farmers and black
(mostly) Zimbabwean farm workers sharing a space with limited cellular
coverage; vast distances to cover on un-tarred roads between farms and the
nearest city; and little to no access to newspapers, never mind computers. The
International Organization for Migration estimates that there are some 60,000
Zimbabweans in the Limpopo area (IOM 2004); it is the
largest influx to be seen in years and believed to represent the human despair
of those affected by the recent repression of rights, mass destruction of
dwellings, unemployment, devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar, lack of food,
and scarcity of petrol within President Mugabe’s
borders. As with most border frontiers, security is a pressing issue for those
enforcing the law and those, with little recourse, seeking to defy it.
Farm workers have been
crossing the border between
Believing they are
without rights encourages migrants to act without responsibility towards law or
authority. Despite access to radios and televisions in
“I
receive news about
Farm workers are not dependent, by and large,
on ICTs to gather information or communicate with
their families. Many own or have access to cell phones. Those without cell
phones themselves, borrow airtime from other workers, or use the public
telephone; the latter consisting of a cell phone charged to a generator that is
transported by wheelbarrow to an open wooden stand on the main road of the farm
each day. Landlines, the Zimbabweans said, are far cheaper to use when calling
Interaction with those
living outside the farms is rather limited for Zimbabweans. There is a mobile
clinic, organized by the Department of Health, which makes frequent visits to a
number of the farms around Musina. The clinic offers
primary health care and dispenses condoms to the workers. The nurses test for
HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, yet many workers complain that
they are never given the results of these tests. Deficiencies in providing
feedback leave the farm workers suspicious of medical personnel, and reinforce
the belief that it is useless to know about diseases when there is no help
available in
Computers have no
relevance for these farm workers. Some know there is an Internet café in Musina. Yet many claim that they have never seen a
computer, as computers were never available as part of their education. They
will listen to explanations of the Internet, or a system by which a person can
send a message through cyberspace.
However, there appears to be a general consensus and disbelief that a
computer could improve the current state of their lives. As one farm worker
said,
“We do not spend time looking for something or worrying about something we cannot use. If the people we know and trust do not have emails, and the information we need is available elsewhere, why do we need a computer?”(Farm B 2005).
His opinion was voiced equally by a white farmer who communicates with his community by cell phone or CB radio, but has never used a computer.
“Why
would I learn how to use a computer? Most of the people around here have never
used a computer. I go into [town] a few times a week and see the computer in
the post office. I have never, in my years of living here, seen someone using
that computer. It is a waste to even have it, as it serves no purpose to the
lives of people here” (Farm C 2005).
The sentiment of those
living in rural areas in
It is not technology that
district and municipal leaders will say they need; it is water (Esikelo A 2005). A water purification plant stands,
ironically, atop the nearest hill overlooking one village. Yet the village
collects rainwater in metal bins during the rainy season, or walks several kilometers
in order to haul water for washing, drinking and feeding their gardens. The
area is intensely dry in winter and community development is hindered by a
scarcity of resources with which to invest in a bore-hole, as well as an
inability to overcome municipal politics sufficient to receive clean water from
an access point people can see, but are not permitted to use. The reality in
these rural villages makes discussion on ICTs seem
rather absurd. Connectivity and Internet access cannot assuage the dearth of
water or the threat of HIV/AIDS. Talk to people and they will tell you that
they are not denied rights to communicate, or to be informed, or to express
themselves. Communication and interaction is at its most relevant for them at
the local level, and that is where they believe they have a voice. What they
are being denied is a fair chance to live.
Information flows freely
between homes, through traditional healers and community educators (religious
leaders, teachers, nurses, and wise elders). Young people form drama clubs or
sing in village choirs to express themselves. Many villages do not have access
to a newspaper, but they listen to the radio and acquire information through
family members living in urban areas. Ask them what they need, and they will
not mention ICTs. What they need is more accurate
information about specific issues affecting their community and the practical
means to then act upon this information (Esikelo-Embobeni
2005). Access to a better education with knowledgeable teachers and greater
material resources in schools, many believe, would help combat the cycle of
poverty and ignorance. The local nurses are weary of fighting the dangerous
rumors circulated by people who believe ARV medications murder people, or that
HIV and other opportunistic infections are the result of bewitchment, or that
sleeping with virgin girls, even months old, will cure men suffering from the
virus (Bizana A 2005). Old grandmothers sit,
surrounded by the sick, and consumed with battling nutritional deficiencies and
HIV. They spend their pensions on small children (oftentimes not even their own
flesh and blood), abandoned by young misinformed parents who believe these
children will die sooner rather than later (Esikelo B
2005).
There are a few places in
these rural areas where computers can be seen occupying dark, dust-filled
corners; seldom, if ever, turned on. Sometimes, these computers attract bandits
who will steal them, making money from selling the hardware parts. Other times,
they provide an element of despair. When the computer malfunctions, there is no
way to fix it or pay the cost of transport to haul the computer to
Government nurses working
at clinics throughout the Mbizana municipality have
never accessed the government web site and do not use the Internet for
information about HIV/AIDS. They rely on the official information trickling
down from the Department of Health, despite the frequent contradictions of that
information with the reality being experienced in the rural villages. In fact,
they struggle under the burden of misinformation being spread to communities
about HIV and similar infections (Bizana A 2005). One
government nurse estimates 40% of the population she serves is infected with
HIV, though it is difficult to document this since, even when confronted,
patients are fearful of subjecting themselves to tests or medication.
Several villages, in
order to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, have developed volunteer home-based
health care initiatives, as those who are sick cannot access distant hospitals
and clinics. In communities losing their middle generation to disease and urban
migration, young people are organizing to travel from home to home charting
sickness and disease and opening discussions about HIV/AIDS. The information
these door-to-door health care volunteers gather is critical to local clinics
and area hospitals that have no time or resources to record formal statistics.
In Mbizana, while the Manager of Development Planning
will hand out brochures regaling visitors with dreams of building cultural
villages and adjoining accommodations to bring rich people to the area, her
staff neither knows how to access documents on a computer nor where to go or
whom to ask for statistics on employment, literacy, health or education (Bizana B 2005).
Thus, it is not ICTs, available at the
government level, helping people survive in the rural areas; it is, rather,
community development workers on foot who are providing accurate information to
address the concerns of their populations.
Among those who are
employed and educated in the townships, there is a growing sense of
disappointment. Many of them have fourteen years or more of education, and work
long hours to provide for their families with no hope of advancement or further
training in a specialized skill. One woman, who works at McCord hospital, in
Durban, has access to a computer on a daily basis.
“Wherever there is work, there is a computer. There is a real need for people in business to have knowledge how to operate a computer” (Umlazi A).
She first encountered a computer ten years ago
when she began working as an administrative assistant. No one was able to train
her how to use the computer, but she spent time teaching herself how to make it
function for letter writing and invoice purposes. The computer represents a
tool of employment, not a source of information. When discussing her voice in
the community, she cites her immediate difficulties with trying to access the
local council and the provincial minister regarding a housing issue.
“I
went to the local government official after a reconstruction and development
program [“RDP”] house had been assigned to me then retracted at the last
minute. The house had been given to a friend of the local councilman. The
officials would not listen to my complaint and sent me to appeal to the
provincial minister. I sent the provincial minister a letter, as I knew he
would not respond to an email. He responded by letter and directed me to his
secretary, saying he was too busy dealing with more important issues than to
have time for my nagging. Access, you see, is not a problem. It is corruption
that must be dealt with first; otherwise, access will not mean anything.
Technology is not the real issue. People would choose houses with running water
and electricity before computers or cell phones. Living in shacks with leaky
roofs, people catch colds too easily. Our people cannot get warm, they are
getting sicker; this is making the situation worse for those living with HIV/AIDS.
This is why housing is in such demand. Computers, cell phones and satellite
dishes do not build homes and patch roofs” (Umlazi A
2005).
A young man with fifteen years of
education, managing a cell phone container in Umlazi agrees
with his female counterpart. He believes he has access to information, and
certain rights, but that these mean nothing to people because they are waiting
on promises made by elected officials.
“Our
government is corrupt. This is the biggest problem in South Africa. We are
still waiting for what we were promised. We were promised jobs in companies,
earning a living. We were promised houses. We have none of these” (Umlazi B 2005).
He
has access to the Internet, but rarely uses it. He collects his information
through newspapers. Each morning he buys at least ten newspapers, storing them
in a crate inside the container. On average, per day, he claims at least
fifteen to twenty people come to him to ask about world news, or borrow the
newspapers. He says he discusses the news with those who are illiterate to
inform them about what is happening in the world. He says this dissemination of
information reaches grandmothers, businessmen and women, and young people.
People trust him, he confides, because he has visibility in the community and
communicates with people about information pertinent to their lives.
“I
think computers are useful because they exist all over the world. But computers
will not solve the problem of HIV/AIDS, or corruption in government, or the
problems of unemployment that are affecting our communities. You must have a
certain level of development and security before technology will cure
suffering” (Umlazi B 2005).
Still
another educated young woman, seeking to sustain her livelihood through her
art, says ICTs are important to those seeking to
expand their small businesses. Yet, she acknowledges the limitations of ICTs when discussing the more local community concerns
surrounding HIV/AIDS.
“We
are trying to educate people through music, or just by talking with them. When
I know someone is sick in the community, I try and talk to them, instead of
ignoring them as much of the community still does. The way computers are used
here does nothing to help spread accurate information about HIV/AIDS to local
people. We still have difficulties communicating directly with our communities
about health and education” (Umlazi C 2005).
Parents
allow old women to counsel girls on sex, and perform virginity testing even
when there are clinics within walking distance. Traditional healers and shembe priests in
Inanda claim HIV can be treated, blood can be
purified and the dead resurrected through herbs, water and faith. In the guise
of tradition, young girls, especially, are becoming increasingly susceptible to
abuse, assault and the spread of disease because they are discouraged from
accessing modern health facilities (Umlazi G and Inanda 2005).
The rationale behind funding ICTs in developing countries is one which links connectivity and access to development for all (UNGA 2002). As policy-makers struggle with progress towards greater global development and security, technology policy as it stands today holds little purpose for many of the marginalized. Technology needs a relevant social structure and context in which to operate to have purpose. Employment, housing, water, and HIV/AIDS are primary concerns among migrant farm workers and those living in informal settlements, urban townships, and rural areas. These issues are relevant to the discussion on ICTs, because if there is no understanding of how people are living, the technology will be an empty vessel, wasted.
The purpose of this paper—perhaps—is not to decry the complete irrelevance of ICTs or to preach to the choir about the expected hierarchy of development needs in Africa. Rather it is to underscore the importance of context (not even national, but local) as crucial to progress, and why the blanket schemes of theorists may unwittingly create bottlenecks in resource-scarce and high security-risk areas. In South Africa, there are initiatives, certainly, that offer promise. These are most often projects developed in response to a direct need, rather than technologies mapped on to vulnerable communities. ICTs accompanied by affordable education and training, long-term investment strategies, and hybrid approaches linking traditional, trusted methods of expressing and disseminating information are better suited to actual implementation and sustainability. As partnerships are formed between countries and within countries to share knowledge and to financially support ICT-led development initiatives, there is urgent need for greater understanding of peoples’ realities at the local level, as well as increased accountability for the successes and failures of strategic decisions mandated by international and national leadership.
The research and content
of this paper were part of a more comprehensive report prepared by Amy R. West
for ARTICLE 19: The Global Campaign for Free Expression for the November 2005
WSIS discussions. The author and ARTICLE 19 express sincere gratitude to a
number of Zimbabwean migrants living in Limpopo, and
residents of South Africa living in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape who face grim challenges
with enormous courage and resourcefulness. The author would like to acknowledge
the support and assistance of John Barker, Tracey Naughton,
Audrey Selian, Innocent Myeni,
Sarah Mahlungulu, Blair Rutherford, Edward Lahiff, Tina James, Monty Thomas, Sister Regina, Patrick
Taylor, Steve Wigg, The Caversham
Centre for Artists and Writers, and her family.
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[1] In 95% of the interviews
conducted in both rural and urban areas, in each of the three provinces, much
time had to be devoted to explaining what was meant by ‘digital divide’,
‘information society’, as well as the use and function of the Internet and
email. In fact, upon further probing, many people are unaware of international
organizations such as the United Nations and its role in development or
security.
[2] The thugs and thieves
roaming the Zimbabwean side of the Zimbabwe-South African border.
[3] Large metal shipping
containers are recycled for use and sold by companies within
[4] Local pub or tavern