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The current moment is a particularly challenging one for the continent of Africa. Following in line with the global economic crisis, growth in Africa is now expected to be only 2.8 percent in 2009, following five years of consecutive growth above 5.5 percent. Yet no time is more important than now to bolster Africa’s investments in technology that can boost regional economic growth.
On September 28-29, nearly 300 business leaders and government officials gathered in Nairobi for the Third EU-Africa Business Forum to discuss a positive way forward towards improving the economic climate in Africa. The event, themed “Africa and Europe: On the Road to New Win-Win Partnerships,” discussed the issue of increasing regional integration and the notion of creating an EU-like entity “to achieve prosperity, well-being of the people, and development in the African region.”
In keynotes and discussions, a particular emphasis was given to the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a critical backbone of economic growth and regional integration—among other factors like trade, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and energy. Expressed through our Unlimited Potential initiative, Microsoft has long believed that the power of ICT to encourage regional economic development is critical in the 21st century, so this topic was particularly encouraging to witness being addressed at such a substantial level among key African stakeholders.
Representing Microsoft’s viewpoint at the Forum, as well as serving as its Co-Chair, was Dr. Cheick Modibo Diarra, the company’s Chairman for Africa. Dr. Diarra explained how an economic climate of scarcity and challenge can actually benefit the use of ICT as a solution: “A lot of people still don’t realize that in fact when you are called upon to be more productive, to be more effective, more efficient, especially during this time of crisis, that is the best time actually to call on ICT to help you actually meet those challenges.”
(You can see coverage from the event, including quotes from Cheick Diarra, in a CNBC Europe World Business report here).
Broad support for the topics discussed during the Forum has been extremely encouraging—the EC has pledged €5 billion in funding, out of which €1.5 billion is designated for regional integration. Further, the European Commission is calling on private companies to contribute expertise for ICT applications and interconnectivity.
As always, it’s our hope that the ongoing progress of events like the EU-Africa forum that bring together stakeholders from across the world to help solve regional and global issues, including the furthering of ICT, will continue to make a positive impact for communities, governments, and people across Africa and the globe.
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The 1994 genocide in Rwanda devastated the country’s economy and its education sector – the backbone of economic and social development. Since overcoming the tragedy, the government has focused on education as a means of reducing poverty and restarting the country’s growth. In recent years, it has increased the enrollment rates in primary education to 97% and has expanded the number of universities from just one in 1994 to 18. However, with such impressive advances, building the supporting infrastructure to manage education remained a challenge for educators and government officials.
To address this, in 2007 Agile Learning Company – a Microsoft partner – worked with the Rwanda Ministry of Education to develop and implement the Education Management Information System (EMIS). Whereas before schools received questionnaires to fill out by hand about the number of students, grades, etc, which were then collected physically in each district and brought to the ministry for the annual report, the EMIS platform digitizes this process by allowing teachers and administrators to input directly into a database. Other stored data includes information on the need for teachers and infrastructure, which serve to ensure that resources are well distributed according to local requirements. The program has been launched to provide the country’s 5,000 schools with EMIS and relevant training by 2011.
Microsoft is providing additional technical expertise and in-kind support for the EMIS project, including Unlimited Potential curriculum and training, while local schools are responsible for implementing the policies. James Curry, the CEO of Agile Learning Company, explains that, “the idea behind is it push down all the decision-making to the lower levels so that the Ministry of Education is basically monitoring and evaluating the policies that they set. The districts, the sectors and the schools are responsible for implementing those policies.”
Romain Murenzi, ICT Minister for Rwanda, stresses the importance of building the country’s capacity for effectively managing the education system. “In Rwanda we now have more than 2.6 million students – a quarter of the population – in school. This is very important,” he says. “This has a huge impact on peace. Education becomes the catalyst for peace.”
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UNESCO celebrates World Teachers’ Day today on the anniversary of the 1966 signing of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers which addresses teacher policies, rights and responsibilities.
There are over 59 million teachers around the world. They work tirelessly, often against barriers, to provide quality education for the 1.4 billion students around the world. Education is the cornerstone of economic opportunity, so any efforts to help young people realize their full potential must begin there.
All too often, schools and educators lack the resources to provide quality education to their students and prepare them for careers in the 21st century. That is why we work to create technology solutions for educators and students that are affordable, accessible and relevant. Through programs like Microsoft’s Partners in Learning, which has reached over 135 million students and educators worldwide, we strive to create education experiences that remove limitations and give students the opportunity to experience the benefits of technology.
We want to take a moment and thank teachers around the world for their dedication to their students and the future of our society. Thanks!!
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Bangladesh, Rwanda and New York City may not seem to have a lot in common but they are all currently showcasing an innovative program to help refugees in remote camps with limited electricity supply to gain access for the first time to information and communications technology (ICT) education and resources.
The Community Technology Access (CTA) program is supported by UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Microsoft and PricewaterhouseCoopers, to enhance livelihood and employment opportunities at refugee camps through ICT access and training.
The program was announced this week by President Bill Clinton, during the ‘Harnessing Innovation for Development’ plenary session of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City.
So far, CTA projects are in place, two in Bangladesh (at Nayapara and Kutupalong camps) and one in Rwanda (at Kiziba camp). In each camp, a classroom is equipped with computers, a server, a WiFi connection and projector, productivity and life skills software and an education curriculum.
Because the camps are isolated and located outside of reliable electricity supply, UNHCR, Microsoft and implementing partner Inveneo developed a sustainable solution including the building of the standardized solar-powered computer classrooms and use of ultra-low-power computers and servers to further reduce energy requirements.
In Rwanda’s Kiziba camp, the lack of affordable local Internet access has required using long distance WiFi to connect to a regional provider.
The partners decided to tap into a WiMAX network, which has brought broadband connectivity to a rural area previously untouched by the Internet.
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This week the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting is taking place in New York. The CGI website describes this event as a meeting that “brings together a diverse group of the world’s most distinguished leaders from government, business, and civil society to examine today's most pressing global challenges and transform that awareness into tangible action.”
In an opening plenary session, three young women from Kenya had a chance to tell their story of social and economic empowerment to conference attendees. The story starts with a program called Global Give Back Circle which was founded by international banking consultant Linda Lockhart in 2006 to help disadvantaged girls further their education and improve their circumstances. Read more about these woman, Khadija Abdulla Said, Caroline Macharia and Mary Mwende, here.
Khadija Abdulla Said, Caroline Macharia and Mary Mwende pose with Microsoft’s Pamela Passman.
Microsoft met with Lockhart this time last year and a partnership was formed. Now Microsoft is honored to provide funding and donated technology for a computer lab in Kenya. Microsoft employees in Africa also volunteer to act as mentors for the students.
An interview with Lockhart can be found here, and more from Pamela Passman at CGI can be found on the Microsoft on the Issues blog.
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We’ve blogged a fair bit on the launch of OneApp, but I wanted to give some insight into how I’m actually using the local service, called mibli, here in South Africa, where we signed up our first partner, Blue Label Telecoms.
My day goes something like this:
I use my (quite old, actually) feature phone and log into mibli using my Windows Live ID. I browse to the What’s New applet to check on the latest headlines and friends’ updates. Using the IM function, I respond to a few comments and click straight into the call option to check up on a friend who’s status says he’s still feeling under the weather.
Driving to work, I stop to fill up with gas and while I’m at the counter, I buy a uKash voucher too to redeem with my mobile wallet. That means while I’m sitting in traffic (keeping one eye on the road, I promise, Officer) I manage to pay for both the download of a new song to my phone and respond to my son’s request for an airtime top-up via mibli.
Then somewhere between conference calls and more meetings than I can count, I keep an eye on the mibli powered by OneApp user commentary on Twitter and upload 10 photos of last week’s launch event in Johannesburg to my Facebook page. Not such a dumb phone now, eh?
Before the afternoon winds down, I log in briefly to the location-based technology app, miLocate, to check if my son made it home from school. Glad that he’s made it home safely, I check in with the family for the evening’s plans. I’m in charge of cooking dinner. Unfortunately, there’s no app for that … yet.
Ian Puttergill
Business Development Manager
Unlimited Potential Group, Middle East and Africa
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Today in Johannesburg, our first OneApp partner, Blue Label Telecoms, officially launched its mibli powered by OneApp service. This new service provides customers with basic feature phones in South Africa with over a dozen new mobile apps, including a Mobile Wallet. Visit the website below to learn more about mibli!
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At Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, doctors and staff have developed one of the country’s most advanced health facilities with the help of journals and research made available through an innovative online platform – HINARI.
Part of the Research4Life program, HINARI provides scientists and policy makers in developing countries with access to international medical journals from over 100 leading publishers including Reed Elsevier, Springer Verlag and Wiley-Blackwell. The program is supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Microsoft, which provides the platform’s access and authentication technology.
Creating a well-stocked and high-quality biomedical library can cost an institution millions of dollars per year. Doctors at the Bach Mai Hospital say HINARI provides a base of information for a hospital that would otherwise not be able to purchase the journals.
“The quick access to information is very important because it is a question of life or death for our patients. It is very important to us because the country and the hospital are very poor. This is a very good base of information for us,” said Dr. Do Doan Loi, one of the hospital’s cardiologists.
Benefitting from a free annual subscription to HINARI’s resources, the hospital now employs 800 doctors and supports over 2,200 patients. With just a click of the button, HINARI’s electronic library searches key words or symptoms providing constant updates and new methods of diagnosis and treatment in the fast-changing medical field.
HINARI has not only improved but also expanded the boundaries of access to medical information, resulting in better trained medical personnel giving many of the world's poorest citizens better treatment and a better life.
-- Claudia Toth
Microsoft Global Strategic Accounts
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Wow. The interest in OneApp has been phenomenal – thank you! A great start to a very busy week.
The most interesting part of releasing a new product is the valuable feedback that follows. With OneApp, we’ve seen such a positive and constructive response from industry analysts, mobile luminaries and…you – from all over the world! Our Twitter feed (@MicrosoftUP) and Facebook (/MicrosoftUP) has been alight with great feedback and conversations.
The feedback from the community reminds me that this week’s announcement is just the first step on an exciting journey to extend OneApp to people with feature phones in many emerging markets around the world. We’ll be sure to let followers know about any updates to the broader release of OneApp outside of South Africa. I can’t wait to see us shift from product release to hearing about the variety of ways people are using and experiencing a feature phone powered by OneApp.
Meantime, if you are looking for a deeper peek at OneApp, I invite you to check out this animated demo of the product:
More information about OneApp can also be found at www.microsoft.com/oneapp
Tim McDonough - Senior Director, Unlimited Potential Group
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Of all of the work we do on the Unlimited Potential team, our efforts in the mobile space probably excite me the most. Why? Well, the last decade has seen mobile phone adoption skyrocket – over 50% of the world’s population owns a mobile device – and it is exhilarating to think that the mobile solutions we’re working on have the potential to make a difference in the lives of a massive number of people.
Our focus on emerging markets leads us to concentrate on the standard feature mobile phone. These models don’t have all the whiz-bang of a smartphone, yet the people that use them still want applications and services that address their every-day needs – things like mobile payments or connecting on social networking sites.
Today we are thrilled to announce a product that will help address this need. Microsoft has developed Microsoft OneApp, a new software application designed to help bring mobile apps and services to the many people who currently own feature mobile phones.
We’re particularly excited about the opportunities OneApp provides to our partners. In the coming weeks Blue Label Telecoms in South Africa will be the first to launch their consumer mobile service using Microsoft OneApp. OneApp will be a part of the release of their service called ‘mibli, powered by Microsoft OneApp’ which provides customers with over a dozen new mobile apps, including a Mobile Wallet. These customers will be able to download and install mibli for free. They have plans to offer more locally developed apps which would be available over the next year.
Combined with feature phones, we know that this technology has the potential to provide communities with better apps and services for their every-day needs – from healthcare and education to just accessing useful information.
The video below gives a brief overview of OneApp, and if you are interested in learning more take a look at the OneApp website!
Tim McDonough – Senior Director, Unlimited Potential Group
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On the Unlimited Potential team we work with the common understanding that education is the cornerstone of economic opportunity and I am always amazed at how far my team will go to make sure that the benefits of technology are extended to communities worldwide, year-round. One of our global initiatives for education is called Partners in Learning (PiL). We’ve talked about PiL on World Updates before, but just a reminder that the goal with this initiative is threefold:
1. Help schools gain better access to technology.
2. Foster innovative approaches to pedagogy and teacher professional development.
3. Provide education leaders with the tools to envision, implement and manage change.
Much of this work continues in the summer when teachers have a little more time on their hands. For example, as the school year came to a close in Armenia we welcomed more than 150 Armenian teachers, school principals and education officials to an interactive conference to discuss the use of technology in education. See a couple pictures from the event below:
At the conference we celebrated the launch of the the new Armenian Innovative Teachers Network, a virtual community for teachers who want to transform their classrooms into technology-rich learning environments. In addition to active discussion forums where teachers can connect directly with each other, the network includes a wealth of information, content, tools, and resources that can help educators use technology more effectively in the classroom.
Many thanks to all of the attendees at the event for sharing their experiences. Looking forward to hearing more about how some of the ideas are implemented when the school year starts!
-- Kristine Gyonjyan, Partners in Learning Manager for Microsoft Armenia
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At the Centre Africain d'Etudes Supérieures en Gestion (CESAG), a prestigious regional school of management for West and Central Africa, Microsoft introduced an ICT training program for government leaders and decision makers.
CESAG is located in Senegal, a country making headway in the ICT field. Senegal has been increasing its investment in ICT, jumping 11 spots between 2002 and 2007 in the International Telecommunications Union’s ICT Development Index.
The CESAG ICT training aims to provide officials in the region with the knowledge required to design and implement successful ICT policy to promote social and economic development. Courses provide an overview of technology trends and key policy areas like the impact of ICT on privacy and intellectual property rights.
Trained officials in turn become trainers to their peers, working with Microsoft to update the technology policy curriculum. The program follows a ‘train the trainer’ model designed to increase scale and impact.
“I now have the opportunity to help decision makers understand better how internet works today, what changed, why they must take into account these elements in their political decisions,” says Ndeye Nainouna Diop Diagne, Director of ICT in the Senegalese Ministry of Information, who participated in the training.
“In Senegal, ICT constitutes a pillar for development. We are putting in place policies to develop technology as a tool for development, not as development of ICT per se, but to use ICT in education, in health, in the economy, in agriculture.”
Microsoft’s support fits into its belief that countries seeking to deepen the role of ICT as a development strategy should also increase investment in skills training and ICT literacy among their citizens.
Building on positive feedback and impact, CESAG will expand the training to government officials from across West Africa, becoming a regional hub for ICT policy training.
Watch a video on CESAG and Microsoft’s ICT capacity building support at:
Feb 09, Capacity Building Programs in Africa 4'16" Lowres 35 MB
Feb 09, Capacity Building Programs in Africa 4'16" Hires 189 MB
-- Claudia Toth
Microsoft Global Strategic Accounts
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Last week in Paris close to 100 ministers of education, senior education officials and policy advisors attended the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education (WCHE) followed by the Microsoft Education Leaders Forum. The WCHE is focusing on critical issues around reduced funding for education globally as a result of the economic crisis and the need for governments to find affordable measures for short-term skills training and work force enhancement in support of economic recovery and growth. Many delegations in attendance from developing regions emphasized the longer-term challenges of sustainable higher education reform and capacity-building.
To help mobilize critical strategic resources to better assist ministries of education worldwide, UNESCO and Microsoft announced a joint task force called the UNESCO-Microsoft Task Force on Higher Education and ICT. The taskforce will analyze the findings and recommendations of the WCHE, in addition to feedback from global higher education experts, to identify initiatives that will promote more effective use of ICT in post-secondary teaching, learning and research.
Just a few of the ways UNESCO and Microsoft are working together - applying technology to help transform education!
-- Claudia Toth
Microsoft Global Strategic Accounts
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This just in from Cairo...a big congratulations to team COSMIC from Universiti Sains Malaysia!
At tonight’s Imagine Cup closing ceremony staged in front of the Pyramids, Jasy Liew Suet Yan, Loo Wan Koe, Mathew Phiong Yoon Kheong, Ooi Keng Siang were awarded the 1st place Unlimited Potential Design for Development Achievement Award for their project Virtual Health Connect, a web based immunization registry allowing local health workers, doctors, and nurses to manage immunization records and send vaccination reminders to patients via SMS.
Also, well done to Lin Shen, Zhe Wang, Yuanchen Zou, Weichao Qiu of China’s Unique Studio, these Huazhong University of Science and Technology students took 2nd place!
The 3rd place award went to another Universiti Sains Malaysia team – Capricorn! Congrats to Lim Kian Long, Marilyn Lim Chien Hui, Steven Lim Jun Liang for all of their hard work.
Poland anyone?
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The Imagine Cup finalists for the Unlimited Potential Design for Development Award competed in Cairo yesterday. Early feedback suggests that the judges were deeply impressed by all of the creative thinking and passion that went in to the projects, designed to help solve one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Below you will find a quick overview of the teams that are anxiously awaiting tonight’s Imagine Cup winners announcement.
Team Name: Unique Studio, China
MDG: Reduce Child Mortality
Challenge: In rural clinics, childhood pneumonia can be difficult to diagnose both due to the lack of qualified physicians, as well as its semblance to the common cold.
Solution: CoDoc, allows for doctors to remotely diagnose childhood pneumonia using an embedded device which consists of a stethoscope connected to a basic mobile phone. Using the CoDoc embedded device, rural doctors can send auscultation data from patients to remote experts who can make diagnosis and treatment recommendations via an online application.
Team Name: development++, Uganda
MDG: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Challenge: Currently farmers face a variety of challenges to their crop harvests such as unpredictable weather, low yielding crop varieties, and a dearth of quality agricultural advice. In addition, limited access to external markets and prevailing market prices prevents farmers from attaining the highest price for their crops.
Solution: e-Farmer, allows for traders and farmers to buy and sell crops through a SMS based auctioning system. In addition to the agricultural e-marketplace, the e-Farmer system allows for farmers to query weather forecasts, market information, and seek expert advice on day-to-day agricultural questions via SMS.
Team Name: COSMIC, Malaysia
MDG: Reduce Child Mortality
Challenge: Paper-based vaccination records and in-person visits to remind mothers about missed vaccinations is a costly and ineffective system which results in a high number of vaccination defaulters.
Solution: Virtual Health Connect, a web based immunization registry which allows for local health workers, doctors, and nurses to manage immunization records and send vaccination reminders to patients via SMS. Along with the reminder service and records management, the Virtual Health Connect system will inform patients of free vaccination campaigns, provide them with educational content about immunizations and allow them to retrieve their immunization records via SMS.
Team: Capricorn, Malaysia
MDG: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Challenge: Existing communication channels between agricultural cooperatives and farmers rely heavily on loud-speaker announcements and word-of-mouth. As a result, communication of important information between the two parties is costly and does not always reach the intended recipients in time.
Solution: GreenEve2Peace, an online and offline application that allows for agricultural cooperatives to broadcast agricultural information and alerts to farmers via SMS. In addition to SMS broadcasts of weather forecasts as well as harvesting and seeding schedules, the GreenEve2Peace system allows farmers to report crop diseases and insect attacks via SMS to the agricultural cooperative so that broader alerts can be issued to nearby farmers.
Team Name: pedjoeang, Indonesia
MDG: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
Challenge: Current Tuberculosis (TB) treatments require patients to take a rigorous 6 month course of treatment in which patients may experience unnerving side-effects.
Solution: La Tansa, a Tuberculosis information portal and monitoring system which sends TB patients medication and treatment reminders as well as disease information all via SMS. In addition to reminders, the La Tansa system allows for patients to receive answers to questions about everyday TB-related problems via SMS.
