Training the Trainers to Bridge the Urban-Rural Divide

Below Harry Hare Reports on a Workshop for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Trainers From Throughout Tanzania

In March 2003 fifteen trainers from more than seven regions of Tanzania received training through the capacity development programme of the International Institute for Communication Development (IICD). The trainers, mostly from non-governmental ICT training institutions, were taken through several presentations and practical work sessions, which culminated in a hands-on International Computer Driving License (ICDL) test.

The objective of the course was to train the trainers in strategic roles and responsibilities such as preparing and delivering awareness-raising seminars on topical ICT issues and carrying out training needs assessments. “We have an excellent group of trainers from about seven regions. This is very good because the programme will have a wider geographical impact,” said Dr Arjan de Jager, Programme Manager for Capacity Development with IICD.

For ICT to enable development in Tanzania, there must be a deliberate effort to decentralize ICT activity from urban centres to the rural areas where the majority of the population lives. The participants in this course were drawn from Kigoma, Mwanza, Arusha, Dodoma, Bukoba, Dar es Salaam and Morogoro. Through a train-the-trainer approach the course attempted to address the major imbalance in ICT access and capacity between the urban and rural populations. One participant at the workshop, Joseph Sekiku from Bukoba said people in his region have little choice when it comes to Internet services. “We have only one conventional ISP in our region and sometimes to connect to the Internet you have to make a dial-up connection through a trunk call to Mwanza some 800 kilometers away,” said Sekiku. “This has made connecting to the Internet expensive while we are still dealing with unreliable communication infrastructure,” he continued.

Sekiku's experience is confirmed by a recent study by UNDP, the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology and the German-based Institute of African Affairs. The study showed that most of the ICT activity in Tanzania is concentrated in the capital, Dar es Salaam. The potential impact of ICTs on poverty reduction and business excellence in developing countries can only be achieved if there is a shift in focus from the centre to the periphery.

The workshop was held in collaboration with Soft Tech Consultants of Dar es Salaam, one of IICD's National Training Partners.