Discussion Summary: How to make grassroots telecentre operators more active members of the global telecentre movement?

The discussion on “How to make grassroots telecentre operators more active members of... elicited a very good response from telecentre and network leaders, telecentre managers, and ICT4D advocates mostly from Asia and Africa.

Many of the respondents emphasized that, to be able to get the grassroots telecentre operators actively involved in the global telecentre movement, there is a need to take a careful look at the following:
• the needs of grassroots telecentre operators in terms of knowledge, information, products and services;
• the reasons for lack of involvement and what motivates them to become active members in the global scene; and
• the problems or hindrances that prevent them from sharing in spite of the motivation.

Among the reasons cited for lack of involvement are language difficulties and connectivity and access issues. The lack of motivation may be due in part to not feeling that they are getting much out of it and to the lack of confidence about contributing probably because of the language barrier according to Polly Gaster.

Some telecentre-rooted challenges were also mentioned as affecting the lack of involvement of grassroots operators: low telecentre users and therefore low income for the telecentre; and minimal opportunities for grassroots telecentre users and telecentre operators that result to low impact to communities. Sulah Ndaula adds: “To me, within these challenges lay the true motivations. The global telecentre movement and its partners should thus be deliberate on addressing these issues both strategically and tactfully.” Hopefully, addressing these challenges will eliminate hindrances to sharing.

Grassroots telecentre operators should be able to find value in becoming actively involved in the global movement. Their needs must be met, which is equally important in sustaining their interest in it. This can be achieved through the following:

o Massive Awareness and Advocacy Campaign
Build awareness on the global telecentre movement, services offered and benefits that can be derived from getting involved. Strategies for this, according to Elizabeth Yumul-Manugue, are best carried out through the networks. Motivational activities in particular should be implemented at the local levels as these are closer to the ground.

Pump up advocacy efforts targeting governments and international practitioners, highlighting the importance of telecentres. Robinson Wikana Mukangayi suggests that existing members should serve as TCF ambassadors in their respective communities to help promote the telecentre cause and spark the interest of more individuals and organizations especially at the local levels.

The advocacy campaign should include widespread dissemination of telecentre impact on society and environment, best practices and success stories; providing links to national and regional network websites in the telecentre.org online communities; and branding.

o Relevant Content and Services in Local Language
As language is a major barrier, content and services should be made available in a language that grassroots telecentre operators can easily digest to make it easier for them to connect globally according to many of the respondents including Tareq Ahmed. As such, resources must be allocated for this.

Access to a telecentre knowledge base in multiple languages especially in agriculture, environmental science and medicine or health is also very important says Anuradha.K.T. Content should be available online as well as “offline” in digitized or printed form (CDs, printed materials, community radio, etc) so that resources can be accessed even by those having connectivity problems.

As to the online platform, more language sites should be created to cater to telecentre.org’s member nations and more value-added services should be made available to sustain members’ interest. Ahmed Sudan further suggests to focus on e-education with multilingual curriculum and also e-health and e-agriculture.

Online opportunities for interaction to facilitate exchange of learning with global counterparts should likewise be provided (e.g. webinars, consultation sessions with leaders and experts, etc). Establishing an online support group (e.g. helpdesk) will also encourage telecentre operators to be more active in the movement.

o Capacity Building
Build the capacity of grassroots telecentre operators - through the regional networks or academies - on knowledge sharing and the platforms and tools for such. Many telecentres have lots of local content but do not share probably because they lack the know-how. Provide training opportunities and other technical support mechanisms. A readable toolkit on how grassroots operators can make a great impact on their communities will also be valuable.

o Regional and Local Exchange Programs and Events
Regional and local exchange programs, as cited by Mahmud Hasan, are seen as a good way of reaching out to grassroots workers and getting them involved in the movement. There is also the possibility of producing new leaders from these exchanges.

Holding local events or small gatherings will enable TCF to touch base with grassroots workers and emphasize their significance to the movement. Also, such gatherings enable more active participation from grassroots workers. A suggestion was also made to explore the conduct of workshops, meetings, etc through online channels given the technologies that are now available.

o Community Content Facilitators Presence
More community content facilitators are need at the regional and telecentre levels since these are where stories and actions that need to be documented usually take place and they can interact directly with grassroots workers to facilitate the sharing of success stories, best practices, experiences and challenges.

Furthermore, for wider reach and greater acceptability within the community, involving grassroots leaders such as village elders, chiefs, and sub-chiefs in influencing grassroots telecentre operators to get involved was also mentioned by Isutsa Shileche Moses and Damas Ogwe, but the latter adds that “we should first sell the entire telecentre concept to them and use them as agents” and do the same thing to government officials and policymakers.

Ahmed stresses the need to work on public-private partnerships or PPP and get the government and private sectors involved in the movement since they can help a lot in furthering our goals.

Many of the replies posted also point to national networks as a channel for getting across to telecentre operators at the grassroots. Needless to say, this calls for the establishment and strengthening of networks at the national level and utilizing them to implement programs that will have an impact at the grassroots level, a view shared by Jacob Baiden Odame and Ananya Raihan.

Connecting the telecentre workers within a national boundary and structuring the sharing of ideas among these workers is perceived as a good way of getting them more involved. Because grassroots telecentres take part in the movement through local organizations, a combination of top-down, bottom-up approach is recommended.

Polly Gaster stresses the need to strengthen the national communications network, “both technically in terms of providing user-friendly tools, website, mailing list, etc; and practically by working with the operators, giving training and encouraging confidence, promoting horizontal mutual aid and exchange of experience relationships between centres in the same province or region...” She sees this as an important starting point towards a more global involvement later on.

Promoting and supporting national level initiatives (e.g. national level competitions and other related activities) focused on local telecentres where such initiatives address real needs of people at the grassroots especially in the areas of education, health and environment is deemed necessary if we want to bring in more active grassroots workers to the movement.

Another important suggestion raised was the conduct of a baseline survey in all the regions covered by telecentre.org in order to establish facts in terms of telecentre locations, infrastructure, existing government policy, technologies deployed, management structure, population served, challenges faced, community response and involvement, etc. According to Cleopa Timon Otieno, “This, among other things, will create a link between the grassroots telecentres and the [TCF] through its supported networks; it is this link and baseline research findings that will allow for major transformations at grassroots level.” It will also provide a sound basis for planning initiatives that will best meet the needs of each region and deliver desired results.

Other respondents like Niranjan Meegammana and Jimmy Calata have more to add: because of the volatility and dynamism of the local telecentre scenario, survey results quickly get outdated. As such, it would be good to strengthen the telecentre.org research pillar and put in place an online monitoring and reporting system to be updated by local partners and consolidated at the global level.

Aside from this, we need a good monitoring and evaluation process to assess telecentre impact and return on investments and a database of impact assessments, best practices and success stories as well as pitfalls and failures experienced by telecentre operators to serve as a valuable tool in decision making. Results should be disseminated widely as part of telecentre advocacy.

Lastly, there are concerns that are beyond the direct control of TCF such as connectivity and “this is one area where tc.org influence is needed in the formulation of policies that will push for greater and wider scope of infrastructure”, shares Elizabeth Yumul-Manugue. Speaking of policy influence, TCF should also provide consultancy services to governments to align national telecentre initiatives to global goals.