Cluster III. Good governance: where the strategy aims at developing structures and systems of democratic governance that are participatory, representative, accountable and inclusive and
4.6 Sampling procedures
4.6.1. Sampling of telecentres (cases) to be involved in the study
Telecentres involved in this study were selected based on the purposive criteria outlined in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Criteria for the selection of the telecentres Criteria Condition used
Location The telecentres involved in this study were those located in rural and peri-urban areas. They were mainly villages or district headquarters
Service offered Telecentres involved were those offering a full range of ICT services beyond telephony such as internet, email, photocopying, computer training, faxing and scanning of documents
Telecentre maturity The telecentres selected were those which had been in operation for a period of at least one year, to justify some kind of successful evaluation
Mode of operation The selected telecentres had various modes of
ownership/operation, in order to see the performance of these telecentres on the basis of various modes of operation, for instance privately owned, NGO owned or community owned.
Similar criteria were also used by Ellen (2000), Etta and Parvyn-Wamahiu (2003: 11) and Maepa and Mphahlele (2004).
All the telecentres in Tanzania listed in section 2.6 of Chapter Two were subjected to scrutiny using these criteria as a framework for selection. A thorough desktop research of all the telecentres was made between March and July 2006. An email communication was established with managers of two of the telecentres (FADECO and Magu telecentre), to clarify some of the information provided on their websites. The researcher visited three telecentres that is, Bagamoyo, Dakawa and Kilosa, in January 2006, to get first-hand information on how these telecentres worked. All the information collected was carefully studied to establish which telecentres were to be included in the study.
It was concluded that, out of the nineteen telecentres, four met all the criteria and that they collectively would make a suitable sample for the study. The researcher was satisfied that these would yield relevant information relating to the aims and objectives of the study. The selected four telecentres were Magu (CROMABU) telecentre, Sengerema Multipurpose Community Telecentre, FADECO telecentre and Ngara telecentre. A short description of each of these telecentres is provided in the next subsection.
Other telecentres were omitted because they did not meet all the criteria set out in this study, as listed in Table 4.1. For instance, Mwanza City/University of Dar es Salaam Community Telecentre and Dodoma Environmental Network were omitted because they were not located within the rural areas. Several telecentres, most notably Bagamoyo, Lugoba, Hanang, Dakawa and Kilosa, had fewer services than were required for sampling in this study. Some did not have internet connections, whilst others did not have computer-training services. Eight telecentres were left out because they did not have telephone or internet services. These were Bagamoyo telecentre, Lugoba telecentre, Hanang telecentre, Dakawa telecentre, Kilosa telecentre, Mpwapwa Multipurpose Telecentre, Kinampanda Multipurpose Telecentre and Mtwara telecentre. By and large, the selected four telecentres were located in the rural areas;
they were more than one year old and reliably operational within the period; they had internet, fax and telephone connections.
The One Village Rural Community Telecentre, in Arumeru district, Arusha region, and the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN-EA), in Shinyanga district, were omitted because they were relatively new initiatives, less than a year old. Kasulu telecentre was omitted because it had the same mode of operation as that of Ngara telecentre. One of these had to be left out for the purposes of representation in the study. They were all located within the refugee camps. They both received funding from ITU, UNESCO and UNHCR, with COSTECH as a local executing agency.
4.6.1.1 Magu telecentre
Magu telecentre is located in Magu district, Mwanza region. The facility is located at the district headquarters. The operations of this facility started in 2001. The telecentre is operated
by the Crop Marketing Bureau (CROMABU), in collaboration with the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA) and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) (CROMABU2006; Menda 2004). The focus of Magu telecentre is the agro-information systems aimed at enabling producers to access market opportunities and farm inputs such as fertilisers, seeds, production techniques and packaging.
The facility has an internet connection and offers a range of other ICT-related services to the community. Other services offered were computer training services, photocopying, printing, faxing and scanning of documents (CROMABU 2006).
4.6.1.2 Sengerema Multipurpose Community Telecentre
The Sengerema Multipurpose Community Telecentre is located in Sengerema district, Mwanza region. It is a development-oriented, multipurpose community telecentre, which was established in 2001within the ITU, IDRC and UNESCO framework. The three organisations constitute the international partners. At the national level there are COSTECH, TCRA, TTCL, Tanzania Library Association, TCCIA, and Tanzania National Commission for UNESCO.
Sengerema district council is the partner at the local level.
The telecentre focuses on ICTs and ICT-related services as its core business. The Sengerema Multipurpose Community Telecentre provides ICT equipment, connectivity and training to the community (Sengerema MCT project 2003). The centre has also developed a variety of ICT-related services designed to benefit the community as a whole. This is one of the most developed telecentres in Tanzania and it offers a range of ICT services, including computer training to the community (Sengerema MCT project 2003). The telecentre started its operations in 2000.
4.6.1.3 Family Alliance for Development and Co-operation (FADECO) telecentre
FADECO is a non-governmental organisation located in Karagwe district, Bukoba region.
FADECO has a well-equipped information resource centre which was upgraded into a telecentre in November 2004. FADECO acquired internet connectivity with assistance from the Regional Agricultural Information Network (RAIN) (FADECO 2007a). The telecentre is stocked with offline electronic resources such as CD-ROM libraries and audio-visual materials. It offers a range of services, including public access to the internet and computer
training. FADECO telecentre is managed by an executive board, which is composed of a chairman, vice-chairman, a secretary, treasurer and two committee members. Supervision of the daily activities of FADECO is done by the project manager (FADECO 2007b). The focus of FADECO telecentre is agriculture and post-harvest food preservation techniques.
4.6.1.4 Ngara telecentre
Ngara telecentre is located in the remote northwest district of Ngara, Kagera region, close to the borders of Rwanda and Burundi. This telecentre was established in 2003. Ngara is a district with a number of camps hosting refugees who fled civil wars in Burundi and the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Ngara telecentre was established as a unique project that offers an opportunity to bring synergy between the communication and information needs of the local communities, the relief organisations working to help refugees and the refugees seeking to communicate with their families and friends (ITU 2004b; Swopnet 2007).
The telecentre is funded by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). At the local level, the executing agency for the project is the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) (ITU 2004b). Ngara telecentre offers a range of ICT services, including public access to the internet, computer training services, photocopying, printing and faxing services.