Engendering communication: a perspective on ICT access and usage in Africa

Info ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Milek ◽  
Christoph Stork ◽  
Alison Gillwald
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Understanding ◽  
Education And Employment

PurposeInformation communication technologies (ICTs) are widely seen as having the potential to contribute positively to economic growth and development and to improve the livelihoods and quality of life of individuals and households and yet access to ICTs and usage of them remains highly inequitable. This paper aims to identify areas of inequality in access to ICTs between men and women in Africa.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the Research ICT Africa (RIA) household and individual ICT survey conducted in 17 African countries between 2007/2008 the paper provides an empirical basis for assessing gender dimensions of ICT access and usage. Additionally, focus group studies were conducted in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda to gain a greater qualitative understanding of access to and usage of ICTs from a gender perspective.FindingsAlthough the results confirmed in many countries the widely held belief that men have greater access to ICTs than women in some instances more women than men owned mobile phones such as in South Africa and Mozambique. In Cameroon women were found to have greater knowledge of the internet than their male counterparts. Most significantly perhaps is the finding that when women have similar income, education and employment status they have comparable access to ICTs as their male counterparts. However, as women generally do not have the same access to those core factors that enhance ICT access and usage, their access to ICT is generally lower.Originality/valueThe quantitative as well as focus group results of this study confirm gender differences in access to ICTs, raising important questions about the points of policy intervention to redress such imbalances.

scholarly journals Refugee access to information in online and offline environments: results from focus group discussions

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-95
Author(s):  
Maria Jimenez-Andres
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Migrant Integration

In today migration processes, Information Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasingly important for refugee experiences and mobilities (Gillespie, Osseiran and Cheesman, 2016). In this light, there is a call by institutions such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2016a; 2020a) and researchers in the field of refugee integration (Abujarour et al, 2019) for initiatives employing ICT to cater for refugees need for information and communication. This article discusses some information seeking practices of asylum seekers and refugees, in online and offline environments. The data was gathered by means of nine focus group discussions with refugee communities in Greece, Italy, and Spain, involving a total of 41 participants of 13 different nationalities. Issues relating to the languages and the accessibility of the information that is available to them are discussed. The results of this research will inform the subsequent phases of REBUILD, a project funded by the European Comission whose aim is the creation of a user-centred ICT-tool to promote refugee and migrant integration in Europe.

Facilitating Consumers' Adoption of E-Government in South Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 243-265
Author(s):  
Richard Shambare
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Supply Side ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Governance Systems ◽  
The Government

This chapter examines the diffusion and adoption of electronic governance systems (e-government) in South Africa. The purpose of the chapter is to determine how the supply side in South Africa has facilitated consumers' adoption of e-government. To achieve this objective, an extensive review of the literature encapsulating e-government, South African public services, information communication technologies (ICTs), and commerce was conducted. Findings revealed interesting results. First among many was that e-government is viewed by the government as a panacea to a plethora of socio-economic problems facing the country. It was further revealed that e-government initiatives at the municipality level are quite instrumental in driving the e-government agenda in South Africa. Of note, municipalities have rolled out various e-government programs. As a result, the country's overall e-government rankings were observed to have significantly improved in the recent past. The chapter concludes by highlighting several opportunities through which e-government could be further strengthened.

Rethinking Information Privacy in a “Connected” World

2017 ◽  
pp. 268-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ufuoma Akpojivi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Privacy ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Emerging Democracies

The emergence and usage of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) by states, institutions and individuals has challenged and created a shift in the normative idea of privacy from rights to solitude. Consequently, this chapter sought to ascertain if emerging democracies and economies such as South Africa and Nigeria have privacy frameworks that adequately guarantee and protect the privacy of their citizens in this globalized era. Using policy analysis, this chapter argues that although the privacy provisions in South Africa are comprehensive, the privacy framework fails to address the privacy leak associated with the usage of these ICTs. Whereas, in Nigeria, it was observed that the privacy framework is inadequate as there are no specific privacy provisions, thus the assertion that Nigerians have no privacy in this globalized era of connectivity.

Developing Information Communication Technologies for the Human Services

2011 ◽  
pp. 627-641
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martin ◽  
Elspeth McKay
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Human Services ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Scenario Development ◽  
Work Requirement ◽  
Standards Of Practice

This chapter introduces a design process for developing useful information communication technologies for the human services. Key to the success of the design process is an in-depth knowledge and understanding of user needs and requirements. The stages involved in the design process are presented in this chapter and include: user and task analysis, persona and scenario development and the establishment of measurable usability goals. A case study illustrates the application of this design process to develop a Web enabled electronic work requirement awareness program (e-WRAP) for people recovering from mental illness seeking employment. The challenge for social workers is to use these new technologies to improve service provision and enhance quality of life without compromising ethical standards of practice; particularly in relation to client confidentiality, privacy and self-determination.

NetTel@Africa

2005 ◽  
pp. 518-522
Author(s):  
Matthew Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Human Resource Development ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication

NetTel@Africa (NetTel) is a transnational capacity development program focused on improving the policy and regulatory environment for the information communication technologies (ICT) and telecommunications (telecom) sectors. Originally, NetTel was developed as a programmatic response by USAID’s Leland Initiative to a request for human resource development by the Telecommunications Regulators Association of Southern Africa. NetTel is aligned with the USAID. During the development of the program, it became evident that an expansion of NetTel beyond the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region would greatly improve the quality of capacity development in formulating policies and regulation. Recently, NetTel has expanded to priority Western and Eastern African nations.

Conceptions of digital libraries: an African perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-247
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Owusu-Ansah
Keyword(s):  
Digital Library ◽  
Digital Libraries ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Global Digital Divide ◽  
Library Development

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to explore African conceptions of digital libraries from the perspective of the historical literature. This paper argues that the concept of digital libraries is a western creation and that there was a need for developing societies to develop their own conceptions to guide their own digital library development agenda. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a literature review. The paper makes use of publicly-available literature on the theme of digital libraries from both the Western and African perspectives. The search terms used were “digital libraries”, “Africa digital libraries”, “electronic libraries”, “information communication technologies/libraries” and “institutional repositories”. A total of 89 publications were examined for this purpose. Findings The analysis revealed that most of the initial digital library initiatives in Africa emanated from the west with African countries benefiting from international initiatives to expand access to information resources to bridge the global digital divide. However, due to a number of contextual challenges such as lack of sustainable funding and inadequate capacity and strategy, the development of digital libraries was hampered. Thus, even though digital libraries enjoy considerable goodwill, there remain negative conceptions of digital libraries in Africa. Practical implications Information institutions in African countries must evolve a unified conception of digital libraries as this would largely drive the direction of digital library development towards achieving the developmental goals of the continent. Originality/value The study applies the attributes of innovation to explain contextual factors shaping African conceptions of digital libraries.

scholarly journals Variable selection via the adaptive elastic net: mathematics success of the students in Singapore and Turkey

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Kadriye Hilal Topal
Keyword(s):  
Variable Selection ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Elastic Net ◽  
Quality Of Education ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Regression Methods ◽  
Adaptive Elastic Net ◽  
Mathematics Success

The quality of education is crucial for its competitiveness in the developing world. International tests are organized at regular intervals to measure the quality of education and to see the place in the ranking of countries. The surveys on these examinations have provided a large number of variables that can be effective on the scores of the tests, including family, teacher, school and course equipment and information communication technologies, etc. The important question is which variables are relevant for the students' achievement in these tests. We investigated the barriers of mathematics success of Turkish students in the TIMSS exam and compared their status with Singaporean students who took part in at top of the ranking in the exam. For this, we employed the adaptive elastic net which is one of the regularized regression methods to dataset and compared their prediction accuracy according to three different alpha levels [0.1; 0.5; 0.9] to determine the model that has high variable selection ability with optimal prediction. The adaptive elastic net with the alpha level [0.9] was selected as superior to others. As the findings, a technology-oriented education system can help to success of the students in Turkey and the countries having similar experiences in international tests.

Developing Information Communication Technologies for the Human Services

2010 ◽  
pp. 152-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Martin ◽  
Elspeth McKay
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Human Services ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Scenario Development ◽  
Work Requirement ◽  
Standards Of Practice

This chapter introduces a design process for developing useful information communication technologies for the human services. Key to the success of the design process is an in-depth knowledge and understanding of user needs and requirements. The stages involved in the design process are presented in this chapter and include: user and task analysis, persona and scenario development and the establishment of measurable usability goals. A case study illustrates the application of this design process to develop a Web enabled electronic work requirement awareness program (e-WRAP) for people recovering from mental illness seeking employment. The challenge for social workers is to use these new technologies to improve service provision and enhance quality of life without compromising ethical standards of practice; particularly in relation to client confidentiality, privacy and self-determination.

Development of Students' Research Competency in the Frames of Continuing Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 409-431
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Egorkina ◽  
Mikhail Ivanov ◽  
Natalia Ivanova ◽  
Nadezda Vladimirovna Uchevatkina
Keyword(s):  
Continuing Education ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Research Competency ◽  
Research Competences

In this chapter, we will pay the special attention to the use of information technologies in the two-level educational process (bachelor-magister), which contributes to the effective formation of scientific-research competences with the direct interconnection of science and production. The main features of forming scientific-research competences are described. The experience in students learning to develop these competences on each grade of education is shown. There are recommendations how to provide the properly quality of scientific-research competences, including using the information-communication technologies.

Consumer Adoption of E-Government in South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 2082-2110
Author(s):  
Richard Shambare
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
South African ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Extensive Review ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Governance Systems

This chapter examines South African consumers' patterns of adoption of electronic governance systems. Three elements related to e-government adoption are examined. Firstly, the development of e-government in South Africa is explored. Secondly, the chapter investigates the barriers constraining the public's utilisation of e-gov. Thirdly, suggestions on how e-government initiatives could be better aligned to the Principles of Batho Pele, or people-centred governance, are proffered. To achieve the first objective, an extensive review of the literature encapsulating e-government, South African public services, information communication technologies and commerce is conducted. To achieve the second objective, a survey of 349 consumers from two South African provinces was conducted to explore barriers associated with e-gov adoption. Findings show that although the Batho Pele Principles are pronounced in public sector organisations' missions, their implementation within e-gov still remains a challenge. A plethora of challenges were observed to retard e-government adoption.

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