ICTs in Tanzania: donor optimism or democratic development?

Increasingly, donors view information and communication technologies as a means of achieving economic growth and strengthening democracy. Such optimism, as the case of Tanzania shows, neglects the contexts in which technologies may be used by government and civil society.

Donors have been promoting the idea that the connectivity derived from information and communication technologies (ICTs) promotes democratic and economic development. They claim that ICTs allow poor people to express themselves, overcome cultural and linguistic barriers, provide unrestricted access to information and make governments more accountable.

A paper from the University of Leicester in the UK describes how Tanzanian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the cities of Arusha and Dar es Salaam make use of email and the Internet in their daily operations. The paper examines the role of ICTs within the wider context of liberalisation in Tanzania and the ways in which ICT usage among local NGOs reinforces specific relationships with Northern NGOs and donors.

Tanzania’s state-controlled telecommunications agency has been restructured and privatised. Network coverage is geographically variable and heavily focused in a few urban areas. Only four percent of NGOs have email access, often exclusively used by senior management and poorly managed. Interviews with staff of local NGOs show that for the most part it is the simple fact of having access to ICTs, rather than the quality of use, which is valued. Tanzanian NGOs see ICTs primarily as symbols of modernity and professionalism with which to impress donors.

The author finds that:

• The limited amount of locally generated online information is authored in English: there are few Swahili web pages as local NGOs are aware that their target groups in rural areas would be unable to access them.
• Online NGOs generally maintain better contact with regional and international counterparts than they do with local people.
• Much electronic development-related information that reaches Tanzania has been customised by Northern NGOs for their client NGOs.
• Most interaction with international networks is passive – Tanzanians read information generated in the North, but rarely post messages themselves.
• Tanzania’s two most active e-networks – focusing on gender and poverty reduction – allow elite NGOs to communicate with donors while remaining almost totally disconnected from the local populations they are supposedly helping.
• Local NGOs generally only use email to convey information needed for funding proposals or donor reports.

The author recommends that donors:

• realise their enthusiasm for ICTs has further widened the gap between elite urban NGOs and rural organisations, instead of promoting inclusiveness and participation
• ask themselves if it is realistic to try to initiate local NGO networks externally
• understand that emails are not effective for communicating in a society that values its oral culture, social interaction and hierarchy: Tanzanians prefer face-to-face meetings or phone calls
• support the daily administrative costs of small, struggling NGOs, rather than continuing to invest resources in workshops and training seminars for selected, established NGOs
• recognise that although Tanzanian NGOs are young and inexperienced, they do not lack skills and resources and should not be encouraged to imitate Northern NGOs.

Tanzanian NGOs, like their counterparts in much of the developing world, are under-resourced in terms of access to ICTs. The digital divide is a reality that donors are right to address. However, it is not just a question of widening access to the technological objects themselves. It is time to seriously consider the social, political and cultural relations that shape their use.

Source(s):
‘Engineering civil society: ICT in Tanzania’ by Claire Mercer, Review of African Political Economy, no 99, pp 49-64, March 2004

Funded by: Nuffield Foundation

id21 Research Highlight: 25 July 2005

Further Information:
Claire Mercer
Department of Geography
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester
LE1 7RH
UK

Tel: 44 (0) 0116 252 3631
Fax: 44 (0) 116 252 3854
Contact the contributor: ccm2@le.ac.uk

Department of Geography, University of Leicester, UK

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'Women, ICTs and rural development'

'Can ICTs fight poverty in Africa?'

'How appropriate is software for developing ICT literacy in Africa?'

'Avoiding irrelevant information: strengthening information and knowledge networks for the poor'

'Getting the poor connected – can public-private partnerships help to overcome the information divide'