Telecentres the effective tools for community development through ICT

Telecentres the effective tools for community development through ICT a. Name of the Grant Telecentres the effective tools for community development through ICT b. Name of the proponent organization Gedaref digital city organization c.proposed Implementation Region (Europe; East Asia; Latin America and the Caribbean; Middle East and North Africa; Oceana ; South Asia) Middle East and North Africa d. Main contact person, indicating title or position ahmed mahmoud eisa,, chairman of GDCO e. Alternate contact person MANHAL GAFAR ALTAYIB f. Authorized signatory (Project Leader) for documents ahmed mahmoud eisa g. Full mailing address: Street address, city, postal code, and country. Please note that street address is required for Courier Service alamarat post office,, Khartoum 2,, box 15021 zip 12217 sudan h. E-mail address, Phone numbers, and Fax numbers ahmed22digital@gmail.com,,, 00249123031155 i. Web site of the organization http://sudantelecentreacademy.org/ http://gedaref.com/ http://www.dse.nl/~gedaref/archief.htm http://knowledgenets.net/gedaref/ j. Type of organization: Indicate whether it is a private company, government agency, university, NGO, or other (specify) NGO k. Date of submission of the proposal 10TH JUNE 2010 m. Total cost of project (in US dollars, US$) 46.000 US $ n. Amount requested from GKP Secretariat (US$) 21.000 US $ o. Amount contributed by the proponent (US$) 25.000 US $ p. Amount contributed by third parties (US$), if any CONTRIBUTED TO ABOVE 1

Introduction http://gedaref.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=412&itemid =1 http://gedaref.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=413&itemid =1 Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. It is 2,505,800 square km. Sudan has boarders with 9 countries (7,687 km) with more than 10 rivers including the Nile (the longest river in the world)., the climate ranging from tropical in the south to desert in the north. Sudan population (April 2009) is 39.15 million. Gedaref mechanized agriculture corporation (GMAC) is the biggest rain-fed mechanized agricultural scheme in Sudan. This scheme has a high potential of building a national food stock and provide hard currencies, which improve the economy of the country. GMAC is managing more than 10 million feddan (1 feddan = 1.038 acre) which require a lot of work to improve the crop production yield (both quality and quality) in a depleted soil. Most of the farmers are illiterate and the agricultural staff lack ICT experiences and skills. Gedaref digital city organization (GDCO) http://gedaref.com, a nongovernmental and non-profitable organization (Gedaref Sudan), established in partnership with The Digital City of Eindhoven (DSE) in Netherlands. GDCO is part of the global Telecentres movement where it is using ICT for community development. GDCO is the founder of the first Telecentre academy in TC-MENA and the thirteen in world (Sudan National Telecentre Academy -SuNTA- ) http://sudantelecentreacademy.org/. GDCO is the winner of information for development award i4d 2007 awards (e-india 2007) for the inclusion of the disabled, GDCO is the winner of i4d 2008 awards for the best innovations at the grassroots Telecentres and the winner of i4d 2009 for the initiatives of civil society for development for the e-agriculture project. The Digital City of Eindhoven (DSE), the well-known partner of GDCO in Netherlands donated 750 computers and more than ten projects were established using ICT for community development and utilizing the public private partnership (PPT). These project include 1- e-agriculture 2- Speed up e-education including Gedaref university support, Telemedicine, out of schoolchildren and Sudan National Telecentre Academy. 3- Inclusion of persons with disability through ICT). GDCO works hard to achieve its objectives which include using of ICT for community development to bridge the digital divide in Gedaref state and then Sudan. GDCO works very hard to tackle these problems through ICT with the support of its partners (public private partnership PPP). The targeted groups are Gedaref state community including farmers, Telecentre mangers and operators, community leaders, People with special needs (disabled), medical students and staff, out of schoolchildren. Objectives of these projects 2

GDCO projects are public (government), private, nongovernmental and nonprofit organization partnership. We develop the partnership according to our objectives and start our initiatives according to the community needs and we consider the 8th MDGs as priority criteria. GDCO works as organizers, facilitator, fund raiser, provides technical support and provides basic ICT infrastructure (computers) to the project. GDCO objectives are:- 1- Best utilization of ICT for community development 2- Improve the quality of community training to enhance capacity building, quality skills and certification. 3- Knowledge exchange, sharing experiences and best practices through public private partnership (PPP) 4- Bridging the digital divide especially within persons with disability and marginalized communities to include them in the society 5- Agriculture development through ICT specially GIS & GPS 6- Development of national and global crop marketing to help the farmers and traders sell and buy online 7- Achieving the millennium developments goals (8th MDGs) 8- Speed up providing of e-services to the community or who need it. 9- Co-ordination between the working organizations and institutions in the field of Information Technology to achieve the shared goals and participate in establishing and new Telecentres and support the operating Telecentres Implementation Telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills. Telecentres movement is a newly developed global initiative. The global Telecentre networks, consist of more than 5000 members, they speak four different languages. They share knowledge, experiences and best practices for community development online in an innovative ways. ICT is not part of the culture and not a priority in developing countries. Disabled individuals are completely excluded in many ways of life specially ICT. GDCO uses Telecentre networks as an effective tool to implement its projects. 1- e-agriculture projects implementation 1- GDCO and DSE established a Telecentre in GMAC and Gedaref farmers unions (more than 60 computers). These Telecentres used in training agricultural engineers, staff of GMAC and their families and farmers the basics of computers courses, GIS and GPS at 30% of the normal cost. The trained agricultural staff improved the existing Gedaref state digital map, which helps in decreasing the tribal conflicts between the farmers and shepherds, between farmers and forest department. Also helps in solving the Interactions between farmers in fields (farms), 2- GDCO develops a software for GMAC farmers database (more than 10.000 farmers was included in the system of GMAC) with 7% (seven) of the normal cost guaranteed for 20 years for maintenance and software development. This database helps in speed up transaction between GMAC and farmers. 3- Under designed an agro-mobile service, in partnership with Drishtee organization (India) is in process. http://202.71.128.176/mobile/sudanmobapp which provides 6 e-services includes the daily weather forecast, Crops prices, 3

animal prices, fertilizers applications, agriculture news break and online support (help desk). 4- Design of a web portal for gedaref crop markets (A lot of information about the quality and quantity for more than 17 crops and animals are available online) www.gedaref.com/markets 5- uses of available 80 rainfall meters (gauges) in different farms to measure the rainfall in all directions. 2- Bridging digital divide projects implementation Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. It is 2,505,800 sq km. Sudan has boarders with 9 countries (7,687 km), the climate ranging from tropical in the south to desert in the north. Sudan population (April 2009) is 39.15 million. Bridging the digital divide is one of the main objectives of GDCO. In Gedaref state there is a big digital divide; it is very clear between rich and poor, women and men, rural and urban area, able and disabled communities,. The main reasons for this digital divide are poverty, climate change, and Sudan culture. According to statistic, there are more than 3 million out of schoolchildren in Sudan. In addition to this, more than 15% of the community are persons with disability who are excluded in many ways of life specially ICT. Although ICT is not part of the culture and not a priority in Sudan but GDCO work very hard to bridge this digital divide in the eastern part of Sudan (Gedaref state) through many ICT tools (projects) including a- Speed up e-education technology E-education (e-learning or distance learning) is the use of technology to enable people to learn anywhere at any time or it is the virtual delivery of training courses or education to anyone who needs them through ICT where participant rarely or never meet face-to-face. Gedaref university (IT and computer college) like other Sudanese university has a deficit in computers equipment and other practical equipment and this why the students when they are graduated they are very week in practical and application. GDCO and its well-known partner the digital of Eindhoven (DSE) tackled this problem. This partnership provided Gedaref University (IT and computer college) with two computer lab or Telecentres (each one has 50 computers) for Gedaref university, faculty of IT and computer science, one computer lab or Telecentre (20 PCs) to Gedaref university, community college (women). The national telecommunication corporation (NTC) provides Gedaref University through GDCO with two units (20 square meters each) as an e-library fully equipped with computers and networking to support e-education. This helps a lot the quality of training and courses. NTC donated a 480 square meters Telecentre unit to GDCO and it is constructed as a telemedicine unit in the faculty of medicine and Gedaref hospital to treat the sick people over the net and train the medical students and medical staff online. b- Foundation of Sudan national Telecentre academy Telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills. In June 2008,, GDCO hosted the 5th east African Telecentre leaders forum in partnership with Ugabytes and its partners,,, 27 international participants from 4

17 countries attended the forum. On the 11 th June, Sudan national Telecentre academy (SuNTA) was declared as the first national Telecentre academy in Africa and the Middle East and it is the 13th in the world. In august 2008 at the Telecentre forum in e-india 2008 the vice chancellor of Indaira Gandhi national Open University (IGNOU), telecentre.org, Gedaref state minister of education, CSDMS and GDCO chairman launched SuNTA website. SuNTA as a part of the Global Telecentre academy (GTA) committed to the best utilization of ICT for community development in Sudan and improve the quality of training to enhance capacity building of Telecentre mangers, operators and the community leaders and provide them with quality skills and certification. The Sudan information funds constructed through NTC 1250 school Telecentres and 250 community Telecentres fully equipped with computers, printers, plasma TV, copy machines and faxes to train the students in the morning and the community in the evening. GTA developed more 15 modules of certification for normal certificate, BSc, MSc and MPA online through Indaira Gandhi national Open University IGNOU with support of national universities in each country to provide certification. c- Inclusion of marginalized community through ICT. Include the excluded projects are a public private partnership for marginalized community development. Disable individuals are still excluded from many areas of life including information technologies (IT) so ICT training is an important key qualification and the Standard ICT trainings are insufficient for the handicapped. In addition to that 1/ more than 99% the disables are very poor. 2/ they are considered a useless community and no one care about them. 3/ show the people that challenges and ICT can create a great things, also to show the other that learning computer is not that difficult 4/ Create a new source of revenue for them. 5/ have an equal access to ICT. 6/ Fighting against poverty within the disables through ICT. 7/ Help the deaf to communicate with their families, friends and have another way of communications instead of the sign language through chatting and e-mail all over the world instead of one place. 9/ improve their skills through the computers (ICT). 10/ Sharing knowledge and experience and best practices to help the disabled. GDCO established many Telecentres (more than 150 computers) in disabled unions, Alamal School for deaf and mute children in Gedaref and Khartoum (capital of Sudan), NGOs working with persons with disability, also provide more than 60 deaf and mute children computers to keep at home. Training of ICT skills to out of school children (illiterate) is another project to these marginalized community. According to statistic there are more than 3 millions out of school children in Sudan.. The UNICEF with the ministry of education, GDCO and Ahfad University started a project of e-learning in the in 3 villages in south part of Gedaref state. They develop a curriculum and modules of training through the laptop for each child. The same problem was severe in northern rural area of Gedaref state where many children due to the climate change during the rainy seasons go with their families looking for pastures and grazing area for their animals and there are no schools and they miss their classes. So GDCO will start to replicate the project in the rural area for the nomad s children and in the city for the deaf community (poverty problem) with the support of DSE and the curriculum and modules of training 5

of the ministry of education. The UNICEF is targeting 100.000 children all over Sudan (14.700 children in Gedaref state). The project idea is teach out of school children (8 17 years) using laptops with solar energy and after two years of training the children 8 12 years old will be settled in the normal Sudan education system class rooms. The projects achievements (values) 1- GDCO builds a huge database for more than 10.000 farmers in the system of GMAC which ease and make quick transaction between the farmers and GMAC to get their document (renewing,, agriculture reports etc.) 2- Improvement of the electronic (digital) map of Gedaref state natural resources which contains all the information about the agricultural area, pastures, forest and rivers in Gedaref state with clear points and demarcation of the animal routes, farms edges forest boarders which helps in decreasing the tribal conflicts between the farmers and shepherds, between farmers and forest department. Also helps in solving the Interactions between farmers in fields (farms), 3- Development of web portal for the crop markets (A lot of information about the quality and quantity for more than 17 crops and animals are available online) www.gedaref.com/markets. 4- Reduction in the cost of agricultural planning and determination the geographical coordinates (demarcation) of the farms 5- Under design in partnership with Drishtee (India) the agro-mobile information system, which will provide six e-services to the farmers, traders or companies (http://202.71.128.176/mobile/sudanmobapp) These e-services include daily weather forecast, Crops prices, animal prices, fertilizers applications, agriculture news break and online support (help desk). These services are provided in 4 ways a- SMS b- voice messages c- internet d- through a 3rd party for illiterate people and in rural area. (This party will also sell many e-services to community e.g. mobiles prepaid card, electricity prepaid card, and help farmers to sell their crops. 6- ICT for disaster control, where GDCO used the available information on the Internet for disaster control 7- Donation of 480 square meters Telemedicine unit in partnership with NTC to Gedaref faculty of medicine and hospital to treat the sick people, train the medical students and medical staff online 8- Donation of 120 computers in partnership with DSE to Gedaref University faculty of IT computer science and community college 9- Donation of two fully equipped e-library units in partnership with NTC to Gedaref University 10- Donation of 150 computers in partnership with DSE to the disabled unions, deaf schools and NGOs working for persons with disability 11- GDCO donates more than 60 computers to mute and deaf students to keep at home helping them communicate with their families and friends. GDCO maintain these computers or change them if they are broken. 12- GDCO founded the first national Telecentre academy in Africa and the 13th in the world (Sudan national Telecentre academy SuNTA) to support training and capacity building. 6

13- GDCO Starts e-education project for out of schoolchildren in partnership with the ministry of education, UNICEF, Alhafad University and Gedaref University. GDCO will replicate the project in the urban area for the deaf and mute community (poverty problem) and in the rural area with the nomad's children who forced by the climate change to leave the school and follow their animals looking for grazing area and water resources. The UNICEF is targeting 100.000 children all over Sudan (14.700 children in Gedaref state). 14- Achievement some of the millennium development goals (8th MDGs) 15- GDCO provided Brail printer, 60 boxes of brail holly Quran and early deaf discovery instrument. (sheik zayid ins., and Tamkeen) to the persons with disability. 16- The Sudan celebrates the World Telecommunications Day May 17, 2008 at GDCO Telecentres in Khartoum and 70 deaf and mute students, 80 physical disabled are graduated 17- Training deaf and dump as trainers TOT (free) which help in shortening time and reduce the cost of training from 6 months to 21 days. Also paying the cost of the internet for the disabled in the commercial internet café to demonstrate to the community how easy to access and how important the net. Also establishing permanent computer labs in the deaf schools and Inclusion of the disabled in the community through many national and international conferences (Abu Dhabi exhibit for disabled, KITEX Khartoum, scientific innovation exhibit in Khartoum, Telecentre Cairo) 18- Training more than 4.000 of Gedaref community different ICT courses. 19- GDCO promote the inclusion of the disability dimension in many conferences and GDCO presented more than 10 papers on disability and chaired the session in WHO and ITU which ratify Cairo declaration for using ICT for disabled. 20- CAIHAND (Syria) developed an Arabic encyclopedia (1200 pages, 10 volumes, 10 CD) for mental retarded disabled and GDCO is going to support CAIHAD to print it. 21 -Establishing permanent computer labs in the deaf schools (Amal schools in Gedaref and Khartoum) GDCO AND INNOVATION Gedaref digital city organization (GDCO) http://gedaref.com/ is a nongovernmental and non-profit civil society organization in Gedaref State, East Sudan where ICT is not part of the culture and not a priority and disabled are completely excluded in ways of life. It is the first and the only digital city in Sudan. GDCO is part of the global Telecentres movement (Telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable them to gather information, create, learn, and communicate with others while they develop essential digital skills) where ICT is used for community development. GDCO is a member of Telecentre leaders in north Africa and middle east (TC-MENA), also east Africa Telecentre leaders (EATLF), UN-ESCWA, Ugabytes, and many others GDCO is the winner of information for development award i4d 2007 awards (e-india 2007) for disabled inclusion, the winner of i4d 2008 awards for the best innovations at the grassroots Telecentres, the winner of i4d 2009 for the initiatives of civil society for development for the e-agriculture project and other e-services. GDCO is the founder of the first Telecentre academy in 7

Africa and Middle East and the thirteen in world (Sudan National Telecentre Academy SuNTA) http://sudantelecentreacademy.org/. As we mentioned early GDCO is part of the global Telecentres movement where it is using ICT for community development. The inoviative way GDCO it uses its partnership with many ICT networks to develop its project where it shares knowledge, experience and best practices. This sharing save GDCO a lot of time and money in a country where ICT is not part of the culture and not a priority. Also GDCO works in innovative ways to achieve many of the 8 th MDGs. GDCO include the excluded project helps the deaf and mute to communicate with their families, friends and have another way of communications instead of the sign language through chatting and e-mail all over the world instead of one place. Also they improve their skills through the computers ICT. Development of national resource map with clear-cut between the agriculture, forest and pastures and many conflict between those parties are solved. The e-agriculture project at the end will achieve all the 8 th MDGs. 1-This project will increase production (crop yield), decrease the crop cost of production and improve its quality and nutritional value (poverty and hunger) 2-The increase in production will lead to increase farmer s income in rural area which improve the quality of education 3- Improving agricultural production will improve household food security and nutrition which reduce children mortality and Improve maternal health. 4- A telemedicine and tele-health are added e-service in rural area for serious diseases (malaria, typhoid, HIV). This project gives the farmers the opportunity to be medically treated online using information technology to reduce the cost and provide the patients with high quality of treatments. 5- The project ensure environmental sustainability by preventing over exploiting the resources and preventing the eradication of forest and these can be taken through GIS monitoring of agricultural resources. It provides farmers with best practices for best management of resources. 6- E-farmer project is a great partnership (PPP) project,,, where partners (farmers unions,, NGOs,,, governments and private sector) from different parts of the world share experiences, best practices, knowledge to make the life more comfortable for farmers communities (the end users). GMAC started replicating this project in southern Kordofan state and project will be replicated in south Darfur and another five (5) states in Sudan. Who are the beneficiaries of GDCO projects 1-Telecentre mangers, operators, and community leaders 2- People with special needs (disabled) 3- Medical student, medical staff, farmers and agriculture staff 4- community specially the employee for quality training with minimum cost. 5- GKP name and logo will be on the crop market web portal, GDCO and SuNTA web sites, brochures, conferences, presentations, posters and on cover of the encyclopedia. 6- GDCO Telecentres (sustainability). Sustainability and expected business models 8

GDCO is a member in the economic and social committee for west Asia (UN- ESCWA) knowledge centre's working on development of marginalized community through ICT. GDCO changed it centers from training centers to knowledge centre and now to investment centers without changing its objectives. GDCO expecting to get a profit when its national Telecentre academy starts in july through training and certification, also get a profit from the telemedicine units and the agro-mobile services. All these will help in developing a business models for GDCO and sustains its Telecentres. In the past GDCO projects faces many challenges include:- Challenge 1 ICT is not part of our culture and not a priority in Sudan Solution Continuous training with the cost price and using our partners in the universities staff as volunteers to train in our Telecentres in the summer vacation (it is free for disabled) so more than 4000 members were trained. Challenge 2 Cost of infra structure and high running cost Solution 2 Partnerships which allow GDCO uses schools and clubs for training to avoids renting and using universities staff to train in GDCO Telecentres in the summer vacation free. Also on call teachers (temporary staff) helps in reducing the cost of training. Challenge 3 Quality of training and certification Solution 3 The global Telecentre academy curriculum and certification through Sudan Open University, Global Telecentre academy and IGNOU Challenge 4 Absence of clear strategic plan Solution 4 This can be solved through MoU and writing proposal for the projects with the role of each partners Challenge 5 Financial sustainability Solution 5 - Training revenue - Crop market web portal (selling prices information) -Telemedicine (percentage from the patient registration fees) - Partners support - Agro mobile SMS (40% of the traffic ) Challenge 6 Poverty and the digital divide Solution 6 GDCO started training in the poorest area with the cost price and training the disabled, poor students and orphans free. 9

Challenge 7- low speed and high cost of internet Solution this problem tackled by the government through breaking the monopoly of telecommunications companies (4 internet service provider) we have 4 competing companies. Why we need the GKP grant? As we mentioned all our projects are mult-steps project and we move from one-step to another depend on the available resources and priorities. We the grant for part of three projects 1- agro-mobile service (e-agriculture) project This part of the project is very essential to provide farmers with 6 important services (daily weather forecast, Crops prices, animal prices, fertilizers applications, agriculture news break and online support (help desk)) we need to develop the software of the mobile by Drishtee organization ( india) and by 30 mobile for demonstration to install the software in. ( 8.000 US $) 2- to buy 40 children laptops to be used for deaf and mute (out of children) and nomads children. (8.400 US $). 3- Printing the encyclopedia (1200 pages, 12 books and 1000 CD) for the intellectual disabled (5.000 US $) We expect GKP to pay the cost of the software (5.000 ) and 30 mobiles (3000 US$) to our staff in the fields and the rural area. Where the mobiles (10.000 US$) (hardware) after we install the software will be sold to VIP to support our projects. The out schoolchildren laptops will be divided between the two groups. The 5000 US$ spent for printing the books will be sold to tc-mena countries government and organizations to support our projects. Budget project GKP Contribution (US $) GDCO and its Partners (US $) agro-mobile service 5.000 (software) agro-mobile service 3.000 hardware 10.000 hardware out of children 8.000 hardware 10.000 hardware and curriculum Printing the encyclopedia 5000 printing cost 5000 printing cost Total (GKP) 21.000 Total GDCO + Partners 25.000 Total GKP+GDCO 46.000 10

http://sudantelecentreacademy.org/index.php?option=com_content &task=view&id=31&itemid=1 http://www.telecentre.org/main/search/search?q=gdco+sudan http://www.telecentre.org/video/gdco-wcit-2010-sudan http://mogtamaa.ning.com/video http://gedaref.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=412&itemid =1 http://gedaref.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=413&itemid =1 http://www.telecentre.org/photo/albums/gdco-nic-sudan-exhibit-inwsis http://www.google.com/search?q=gdco+sudan&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:ie- SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GPEA_en 11