E-terview
 

Njideka Ugwuegbu Harry is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF), an international non-profit organisation founded in 2000. YTF spearheaded the community technology and learning centre (digital village) movement in Nigeria and has partnered closely with big corporations such as Microsoft to achieve this. When Njideka met IT Edge in Tunis during WSIS II, there was no time to discuss amidst the flurry of WSIS activities. Now, in this eTerview, the Reuters Digital Vision Fellow and Finance & International Business graduate tells IT Edge that techno-centric social entrepreneurs that seek to change people in rural areas without addressing the economic and social challenges faced by the people would not go far. It underscores her vision for her initiative in eastern Nigeria where YTF is active. http://www.youthfortechnology.org


There are no shortcuts to building human capital

What would you regard as the thrust of your NGO?
Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF) began the digital village “movement” in Nigeria. We have a people-centric approach to development with focus on rural and underserved areas. While we believe that community-led technology initiatives are powerful mediums for overcoming the digital “canyon” between developed countries and the developed world, YTF also realises that technology and its’ related tools are only a means to an end, not the end.
YTF was established knowing that the growth of Nigeria is impacted significantly by the progress and development in the rural areas. Given that Nigeria is still a predominantly rural society with over 60 percent of its total population living in small, remote communities, it makes sense that there is still an opportunity to improve these communities so that the families and their children have a chance to excel and reach their life-long goals.

YTF believes that to break the poverty chain in developing countries, it is essential that effective programmes are developed in rural areas so that young people have a reason to stay in their rural communities. This “reverse migration” concept will encourage young people to stay in the rural areas and create or participate in programmes designed to create self-sustaining communities while avoiding the urban vices of overpopulation, unemployment, disease and crime.

Since you started, would you say you have achieved any significant achievements in terms of radically changing the lives of people using ICT within the area(s) you have operated in eastern Nigeria?

Our programmes are unique. Rather than start with technology, YTF programmes start by identifying a community need and then using technology to address the concrete realities. This approach has positioned YTF to quickly change the lives of people in the region for the better.

YTF operates primarily in South Eastern Nigeria. When YTF began its work in Nigeria in 2000, a big part of the decision was where to begin and develop our work. We knew that we wanted to work in an underserved area that, over the course of Nigeria’s history, has often been neglected in terms of resources; including jobs and economic vibrancy.
YTF’s Owerri Digital Village (ODV), the first community technology and learning center of its kind in West Africa is an actualisation of YTF’s vision to create learning communities where the appropriate use of technology unlocks opportunities for marginalised people, especially youth and women. Since programmes began at ODV in 2002, over 4000 people have benefited from the after-school programmes YTF offers. These young people have very often gone back into their communities as change agents and have helped coach their schoolteachers, family and friends on the information they have acquired. Also, youth in a specific YTF programme, the Young Nigerians Science and Health Tele-Academy collaborate with youth in other global regions, including Armenia, South Africa, the United States and India.

To quickly meet the needs of beneficiaries in the region, YTF has partnered with progressive grassroots organisations in Nigeria to deliver training in their communities. This approach has been very successful and has enabled YTF’s programmes to have a greater reach and impact.

What have been the challenges in terms of funding and support from public and private bodies?
When YTF started working in Nigeria with a special focus on rural youth and ICTs, there was hardly any discussion on this topic in Nigeria. Today, several NGO’s state as part of their mission their efforts with empowering youth to use technology. While it is a positive trend that a lot more organisations are getting involved, it also makes it more competitive for funding.
YTF has a track record. We have been able to implement our programmes successfully and reach as many people as possible despite our shoestring budget. A major supporter of YTF is the Imo State Government, representing the public sector. YTF has also received funding from development agencies like UNIFEM and the World Bank. In 2004, YTF received a grant from Google, Inc.
Over the years, YTF has learned that forging partnerships with the private sector can be a little bit more difficult, particularly because these companies are usually interested in the partnership not only for the social responsibility component, but for the profit-making potential of the venture. This can cause social enterprises to change focus, which in most cases is detrimental.

What is your assessment of Nigeria’s ICT situation? Would you consider it on a progressive path or a function of rhetoric and less action?
Nigeria is on a journey, somewhat of a progressive one, but we still have a long way to go to reach our destination. Comparing India’s progress to Nigeria’s, though, is like apples and oranges – not the same; at least currently. When the Indian government identified ICT as a sunrise industry about a decade ago, they took concrete and measurable steps to ensure an investment-friendly environment. It would seem that the primary lessons for Nigeria will be to open the sector to local and international players with minimum barriers; to provide incentives to all players to compete in the global market; to invest in human resource development; and to generate competition in the telecom sector.

Two decades ago, India decided to focus on IT, software and telecom. Several Indian Institutes of Technology were set up with a clear understanding that engineering talent is needed to build institutions and infrastructure in the country. What is strikingly clear is that it takes a long time and there are no shortcuts. You need to make investments in human capital and this process takes several years (in India’s case it has taken as many as 20).
Another area where Nigeria needs to work on is in that of open and distance learning (ODL), not as a cost saving device, but rather as a means of increasing access to education. Electricity problems, poor telecommunication facilities, sub-standard postal systems, poor economic situations and ICT penetration have impeded the proper implementation of ODL. Training and developing the ICT skills of the teachers - then enhancing the experience had by their students – will create sustainable models for the transformation of technology’s role in the Nigerian education sector.

Do you think WSIS II (Tunis) really has anything to offer developing economies like Nigeria, Ghana etc in terms of ICT development?
The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) provided a learning space for all three actors of development; government, civil society and private sector and was supposed to give an answer to unresolved issues that emerged during the first phase of the summit held in Geneva in 2003.

Four themes dominated WSIS: financing, internet governance, human rights and the $100 laptop. These overshadowed the main issues developing countries have that are critical to the future direction of ICTs and development.

The best part of WSIS was not the demonstrations of “tomorrow’s technology today”, the booths run by aid agencies and NGOs, or the panel discussions on an array of topics. It was the personal interactions with people from all over the world. It was people communicating across borders, not just the technology crossing borders.

What role can NGOs like yours play in practically joining other efforts at addressing Africa’s digital divide?
The absence of basic information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in most parts of the developing world is known to be the fundamental stumbling block that prevents a good part of humanity from becoming aspirants to the promise of the information age.
It is time to focus not only on technology but on content and access of content developed. Given that the majority of Africa’s population does not have access to technology, there are several steps required to provide the necessary access. It will take more than just Youth for Technology Foundation. It will take collaborating with other progressive and like-minded NGO’s on the continent to mobilise the government and private sector to work together to make this happen. Most developing countries are at a great disadvantage specially when it comes to developing programmes suitable to conditions of their respective societies as to language, script and in particular friendly and no-cost Operating Systems.

More often, passing passion and less altruistic goals to address society’s fundamental challenges such as ICT under-development drives NGOs, why should anybody including governments believe that yours is different from the rest of the pack?

YTF was established based on my personal and lifelong experiences. I recall how I struggled through my freshman writing class at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for two main reasons. I could not type and I could not use a computer (had never seen one as a matter of fact until I came to the United States). The challenge remained - I was in a class full of my digital peers, and somehow I had to keep up with the pace. In my seventh year of living in the United States, I felt the need to “give back” to my community. I feared to think of how far behind young people in Nigeria would have been.
YTF is unique for several reasons:
An explicit effort is made to listen to and learn from the people, especially youth and women whose voices are otherwise not heard.

Youth workers from the community are used as change agents and are trained to provide services to the ‘under served’ and the “unserved”.

We adopt a bottom-up approach to development. Rather than begin with technology, our programmes first identify a real community need and then we teach participants how to use technology to address that need.

What are the next steps you are looking at working on in 2006?
YTF is working on various initiatives in 2006. Some of these include establishing a West Africa Telecentre Network, developing a training programme that includes a CD-ROM that will be used to train women in 3 LGA’s on how to start a small business (grant received from UNIFEM/UNDP) and to create a stronger Nigeria-United States base, by working with other civil society and non governmental organisations that share YTF’s vision.

Would you say in the short time you have been operation, you feel fulfilled or drained?
Yes definitely fulfilled, and maybe drained, but determined to complete the journey. In 1999, I approached Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington, and asked them to invest in Digital Villages in Nigeria. This was long before Nigeria was “on the map” for Microsoft and there was no Microsoft office in Nigeria yet. I remember being asked, “Why Nigeria”, and my response being “because it is the right thing to do”. Several due diligence trips later, draft proposals and tons of communication, the rest is history. Today, Microsoft has invested in three digital villages in Nigeria and as I look back to all the challenges, the disappointments, the successes of this “movement”, it was worth the wait. Six years from then, I see my vision, YTF’s vision, unfolding, I see young people benefiting, I see potential.

 

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