Members of the international community are hearing a series of proposals this week during The World Bank's Innovation Fair, taking place April 12 -14 in Cape Town, South Africa. The conference's theme is "Moving Beyond Conflict," and one of the projects invited to present combines kiosk and self-service technology to meet this challenge.
The Rural Internet Kiosk (RIK) program, presented in conjunction with the BOSCO Uganda Relief Project, proposes a system for installing self-contained Internet kiosks in locations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
"The digital divide…symbolizes the largest difference between developed and developing countries: the opportunity to obtain and utilize information," states the RIK program in its conference proposal. "The real heart of the digital divide is that those without access to information resources often suffer needlessly while the solutions to their problems are floating in the air."
The RIK described in the presentation is a self-contained weatherproof structure that houses three industrial-grade computer terminals and a manned administrator panel. Solar arrays on the roof power the kiosk, and 12V DC hardware means that the RIK can function without any external power supply. In addition to providing Internet access through the built-in computers, the kiosks also provide wireless broadband Internet for the surrounding area.
The power of the RIKs lies not in their technology, but in the opportunities they present to the communities that deploy them. In a 2007 pilot program, BOSCO installed a RIK in a camp for Ugandan refugees from the 20-year war in the northern part of that country.
"These camps were developed with the intent to provide safety in numbers," reports BOSCO on its Web site, "but the conditions in these camps are inhumane, with no provision for food, water or communication without international aid.
"This technology is linking people to the outside world and is allowing them to articulate their own needs and find solutions to local community development problems."
Simply put, RIKs allow residents of developing countries to access information that the developed world often takes for granted. California-based Inveneo, which supplies Web connectivity for projects such as RIKs, reported that a Web access deployment in Sierra Leone gave lenders the ability to more efficiently offer loans to entrepreneurs working to rebuild that country after its vicious civil war. Along a similar vein, Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development reports that pilot deployment of RIKs have increased local crop yields; farmers have been able to go online and learn more effective farming techniques.
The BOSCO Uganda Relief Project has obtained a license with the Ugandan government to deploy RIKs at 61 locations throughout the country. And both BOSCO and Voices of Africa for Sustainable Development are working to educate residents near RIKs on computer and Internet use.
Communication technology by itself can't directly solve the political and economic crises that plague this part of the world. But the knowledge disseminated through RIKs could produce grass-roots solutions to these problems. One day, this ground-up approach could indeed bring more equality to Sub-Saharan Africa.
