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Introduction Uganda is home to close to 29 million people in East Africa. The various urban areas and cities of Uganda are densely populated but Uganda is primarily an agricultural country and rich in natural resources. The seventeen year conflict in the north of Uganda has displaced between 1.3 and 2 million people. This has had devastating consequences for education especially in primary schools, technology, and development in the northern regions, but has also taxed the entire country. For the East African region, only about .3% of the population owns a computer (Akst & Jensen 2001) and the percentage for all of sub-Saharan Africa is less than 1% (Chinn & Fairlie 2004; World telecommunication indicators database 2006). It is however imperative to not that much less than 1% of children below 15 years have had a chance to operate a computer in their entire life. Ugandan education takes places in a country comprised of more than 20 ethnic groups (my colleague Kayiwa Fred briefly talked about them) where the common language of instruction is English. Though presented with a number of technical and developmental challenges to education in addition to those mentioned above, 69.9% of Ugandans over the age of 15 are literate. President Lt. Gen. Yoweri Museveni created a system of free Universal Primary Education (UPE) for children age four and up in 1997, in response to the global call for Education for All (EFA) (Murphy 2003). This has had some success, though truly universal, quality education is a daunting and difficult task faced with specific challenges. For example, fifty percent of the population is between ages zero and fourteen and the pupil to textbook ratio is four to one. I guess this can create a rough picture of the importance of ICTs in the lower levels.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is emerging as an important medium for communication and exchange as well as a tool for development, including at the local and community levels. However, this potential is yet to be effectively leveraged. In part this is the result of an ICTD “affordable infrastructure and related service delivery and capacity deficit” that many rural and peri-urban areas continue to experience and in part because of the “development-policy and experience divide” that hinders the effective mainstreaming of ICT in development (ICTD) interventions. Through a combination of research, policy support, advocacy partnerships, networking and capacity building, this programme component of OLPC’s making ICT work for the poor service line aims to contribute to enlarging the policy options for enhancing pro-poor access to communication tools, development information and services and exploring the potential for strengthening community and local development through the use of ICT. The ubiquitous term “digital divide” is used to describe a wide range of disparate outcomes demonstrating a gap in technology resources, information, and education. Perhaps nowhere is this divide more apparent, or more discussed, than in sub-Saharan Africa (e.g., Langmia 2006). Policy makers in Africa and elsewhere have put forth technology, technical competence, and computer and information literacy as solutions for many of these problems. Indeed, ICT solutions may help to solve problems related to education such as teacher shortages, low achievement, high drop-out rates, lack of opportunity, and lack of materials. In response to these opportunities, organizations from around the world have implemented projects across the spectrum of ICT delivery. Now the developments of OLPC in Uganda will greatly bridge the “digital divide” gap that Uganda is currently facing.

Despite the best of intentions, many of these projects ultimately fail. There are many reasons for this: technology may not be the appropriate solution in the first place, projects may be poorly-implemented, equipment may be improperly used, there may be a lack of follow-up, stakeholders may not receive adequate training to support the program, ICTs not being recognized as an important thing for children in primary schools, or it may simply be difficult to create and sustain a project within a shifting social and political context. If successfully Implemented, OLPC Uganda is planning to put all these challenges into consideration. New, small, and/or foreign organizations face specific challenges in the delivery of ICT solutions for education in an international development context. The purpose of this document is to prepare OLPC Uganda to succeed in these efforts, and to examine the challenges that might be faced by that organization, and to extrapolate lessons learned from similar organizations. This intends to contribute to the dialogue concerning ICT, education in primary schools, and development and aims to expose some ways to build bridges across the so-called digital divide. The OLPC Uganda project May build on insights from the research and explore the concrete potential of a few emerging policy and implementation options that might be effectively deployed to address some of the current network and access gaps depending upon the particular national and institutional contexts. Providing access in rural areas is a big challenge. On the supply side, limiting factors include infrastructure, maintenance, equipment supplies, staff capacity and transport. On the demand side, several things are lacking: money, awareness, client transportation to the centers, and clarity/focus (sometimes on the part of the centre itself) about how the services can be used to improve livelihoods. The experiences of access centers in this study suggest that user fees are major barriers in popularizing services. In past response patterns to ICT in poor and disadvantaged communities, it has been observed that: • Most use of ICTs are primarily for social reasons although in many instances economic factors come into play (like when contact with a relative working outside the rural locality results in economic assistance). • Participation in local governance processes increases through information sharing and engaging in debate of topical issues. • Community facilities are embraced when available, relevant and affordable. • Enthusiasm for ICT education and/or enhancing education is enhanced through use of ICT because children education is close to most parents’ heart so parents usually support it. Another reason this gets good response is its community-based nature which makes it more affordable. In the current regulatory environment, there are very few situations of infrastructure sharing and there is no definite regulatory requirement for infrastructure sharing or open access. It is generally acknowledged that one way of lowering the risks of providing universal service access is through collective, community or cooperative ownership. Experiences of community ownership in ICT have mostly occurred in three forms: 1. Service and content disseminated via telecentres; 2. Local infrastructure (mostly in developed and emerging economies in order to serve both rural and urban underserved areas); 3. Hybrid forms (community ownership that involves commercial and public interests). For the Uganda study, a participatory gender-sensitive approach should be used to assess the case for and the potential of community-driven local ICT networks and services. Questionnaires should be developed and a features workshops to be conducted. These targets the people playing community leadership roles that focused on social and development issues as well as people who were either access centre staff or technical stakeholders and were focused on technical and business model issues. The study should target selected areas in some districts. The primary factors in distinguishing the feasibility of a community wireless model in the three areas should be found to be: • Cost of establishing the network infrastructure • Ability to assimilate the community ownership concept • Ease with which such a network would be linked to the national backbone With its strong history and experience of a healthy cooperative movement, relatively rich communication infrastructure and opportunities to link to the national backbone, as well as greater dynamic range within the economy, one district should then be selected as the site for further investigation and consideration as the pilot site for a community-owned and networked telecentre model for pro-poor access to ICTD.

Emerging gender dimensions for pro-poor community-driven networks It has been widely shown that poverty is highly feminized implying that the females form a dominant section of the poor. Similarly, any initiative that is pro-poor has to necessarily target women as key in addressing poverty. In relation to ICTs, there is a wide range of literature that articulates gender issues which have to be addressed if ICT initiatives are to reduce and not worsen gender gaps. Uganda has a national ICT policy framework which recognises gender mainstreaming as integral to a delivery mechanism that addresses the needs of women and men. The policy rationale emphasizes the need to “stimulate industrial growth, commerce, infrastructure and linkage of rural and urban communities as well as uplifting of disadvantaged groups, while taking care of gender balance” (Section 2.3). Policy objective 4.2(x) aims “to ensure gender mainstreaming in information and communication programmes and in ICT development.” Furthermore, the policy pledges to “ensure that facilities for communication are provided at levels of cost, which match the ability of their users to pay, so as to reduce gender and spatial disparities in information access.” Some of the salient issues emerging from the Uganda study are: • A contributory factor to high infrastructural costs is the failure of private companies to share certain common infrastructure raising the concern that a pro-poor community-driven model may not be feasible. • Many of the current ICT initiatives have not focused on how the services can catalyze social transformation and change gender relations to achieve equality. Often men and women’s specific needs are not taken into account in the design of policies such as the RCDF or specific ICT projects. • While available data shows significant gains in universal access for Uganda, such access has not been pursued within a gender sensitive framework nor is there a gender sensitive monitoring evaluation framework. There is need to include gender targets and monitoring and evaluation indicators in any pro-poor ICT initiatives. • A community ownership model has the potential for more social exclusion, especially if not informed by gender considerations in the design of especially the “human” based networks. • In-depth field assessments in some Districts may indicate that women have development information needs that are similar to but different from those of men and this may directly or indirectly affect the implementation of OLPC programmes in Uganda. Thus if ICT initiatives have to be implemented in a gender sensitive manner, it is important to take into account the different needs of men and women as well as the social-cultural context. • Women play a significant role in existing community networks especially the civil society organizations (CSOs). This provides a useful potential to build on. Women are also critical in the informal business sector. There is need to ensure participation of women’s organizations and the informal sector in rural and peri-urban areas.

The Government’s stand on ICT development The Ugandan government recognises ICTs as a tool for social and economic development. This includes: reforming government service delivery; achieving transparency, accountability and credibility; providing effective access to information; broadening public participation and promoting democracy; facilitating and promotion of research especially from the grassroot level (Children) and development; and enhancing competitiveness in the global economy (NRM,2006). The government has a strong belief that ICTs will improve itsrelationship with the country’s business sector and citizens, and withits own employees (Uganda e-Government, 2006).

CONCLUSIONS

From the above scenario, we can conclude that the required environment for the development of ICTs in Uganda is in place. This includes policies, legal and regulatory frameworks, political will, and public participation. However, implementation has been hampered by several challenges. What is important is that these challenges are being acknowledged. Given the prevailing political and public will, OLPC will gladly be welcomed in the Country. It is important and indeed incumbent upon government that civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders are able to fully participate in the planning and rolling out of ICT programs for development projects. In this way, the most effective and sustainable steps can be taken to ensure that basic communications services of acceptable quality are accessible at affordable prices and at reasonable distances by all people in Uganda.

Jude Wabwire. PO BOX 21481 KAMPALA-UGANDA Mobile +256 (0) 772 691117 E:mail, jwabwire@gmail.com