Digital Reach

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HE MOST ESSENTIAL

element in addressing the digital divide

is the job of democratizing access to information and

communication technologies (ICT). Developing countries

are still in considerable need of widespread access to these tech-

nologies. Indeed, in some remote areas there is no access to ICT

at all. The task of ensuring an evenly distributed access to ICT

among developed and less developed countries demands both

the deployment of infrastructures and the promotion of access

patterns that fit into the local environment.

The French Department of Foreign Affairs (Directorate-General

for International Cooperation and Development, or DGCID) is

fully aware of this double imperative, and is running the

Appui

au Désenclavement Numérique

(ADEN) project, funded with

EUR6 million, between 2003 and 2007. The ADEN project is

currently active in 13 African countries: Angola, Burkina Faso,

Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique,

Nigeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the

Congo, Senegal and Tanzania.

This project is structured around three objectives. First,

around 60 centres of public access to the Internet will be

installed and connected in remote rural and peri-urban areas.

These will be managed by local organizations, in most cases

associations, local authorities or educational institutions.

Secondly, around 40 training sessions for network administra-

tion, financial and administrative management will be provided

for the managers of these centres. The third objective is to foster

the local production of software and contents and the publi-

cation of original content online. It is worth noting that

currently, less than one per cent of online content is African,

and that most software applications are produced in developed

countries.

About 30 ADEN centres are now open. Some of them have

achieved financial self-sustainability after only 12 months of activ-

ities, despite the cost of the bandwidth, which is still much too

high. These centres are already extending professional opportu-

nities to local students in computer science, who are finding work

as interns and, in some cases, as employees.

All of the ADEN centres are to work together. They will share

experiences with each other and will confront issues together.

The list of countries included in the project emphasizes its multi-

lingual nature: French-speaking, English-speaking and

Portuguese-speaking countries are involved, and this diversity

demands careful consideration. Some language-based networks

can be formed in order for ADEN centres to relate to each other

more easily. And in the case of Mozambique and Angola, a

connection with centres of public access to the Internet in Brazil

is currently being developed.

The ADEN project’s website

and the mailing list

are used

to facilitate the networking of ADEN centres. The DGCID is also

organizing a round table at the second phase of the World

Summit on the Information Society, to be held in Tunis in

November 2005. The Summit will consider the issues surround-

ing public access to the Internet, and is an opportunity for the

ADEN network to strengthen the ties between its members, to

meet other actors involved in this field, and discuss its experi-

ences with others.

In order for ADEN centres to run efficiently and in a sustain-

able way, the DGCID and the French company Mandriva Linux

are working together to conceive and produce a package of open

source software. The ADEN pack is a simple and effective soft-

ware solution to enable Internet centres to organize their

administrative and financial management. It will evolve accord-

ing to the centres’ needs, thanks to the suggestions and

contributions of open source software users and developers.

This illustrates the commitment of the French Department of

Foreign Affairs to being involved in multi-stakeholder initiatives

that associate civil society (in the management of ADEN centres)

with the private sector (in the production of a needs-tailored

management tool). The pack is available in French, English and

Portuguese. It is supported by a rich documentation available in

all three languages, which facilitates the understanding and

management of all steps in the installation and maintenance of

networks for ADEN centres.

In order to improve knowledge about how well points of

public access to the Internet are performing their everyday activ-

ities, the French Department of Foreign Affairs is also supporting

the Venezuela-based NGO Columbbus: it has conceived an open

source software pack enabling the tracking and evaluation of

these activities. This pack can be installed in any structure offer-

ing public access to the Internet, which in turn can attract

investment.

A further partnership is coming into being between ADEN

and the Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF). The DSF is an African

initiative that has been proposed by the President of Senegal,

Abdoulaye Wade, and has been welcomed within the WSIS as

an innovative financial mechanism to reduce the digital divide.

This fund associates local authorities, nation states, private firms

and non-governmental organizations in an original pattern, in

order to fund the democratization of access to ICTs in areas

where the private sector cannot operate alone. The DSF has

been endorsed by the 60th session of the United Nations

General Assembly in the World Millennium Summit outcome

document (A/60/L.1).

France is a founding member of the DSF. The fund focuses on

community-based projects so as to foster the appropriation of

ICTs in places where the market does not have incentives to inter-

vene. It is based on an innovative financial mechanism: the

voluntary commitment of vendors to a one per cent contribution

on public ICT procurement contracts, paid by the vendor on his

profit margin, in all ICT public calls for bids.

Fostering digital inclusion

Appui au Désenclavement Numérique