The $100 Computer - What about information; analysis; solution
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Dear Lishan Adam
Thank you for your posting on the $100 computer. I am very much
in sympathy with what you have written.
When I first started work in the relief and development field I
was struck by the fact that the experts all had some specific
expertise and were all looking for a place where their expertise
could be used. Whether or not the expertise had any value in the
situation was a secondary issue.
Sadly, nobody seemed to have much expertise in problem solving
in the relief and development arena. As I see it, this is a
process that involves data, analysis, problem identification,
possible solution identification, solution selection, resource
mobilization and finally implementation. In a good process all
of the steps are monitored with real time management informa-
tion. This is what I did as a corporate manager, and it is what
I expected to find in relief and development consultancy assign-
ments. Sadly, it was not like that.
Twenty years later the rich countries have doubled their wealth
twice, and the poor countries are arguably twice as poor as they
were two decades ago. The official relief and development assis-
tance (ORDA) industry is huge, but the poverty problems remain
largely unaddressed. Big issues like the total lack of transpar-
ency and accountability in the ORDA institutions are not getting
the attention that is needed. The challenge is less about more
money but much more about how the money is used. There is little
that is easy to see about performance excellence in relief and
development, just a loud whine about how little money these or-
ganizations have for such huge problems. The problems are huge
because the organizations and their process just does not have
the ability to get the job done. Many ORDA publications report
on the sad status of the world's situation, but none seem to ad-
dress why it is that the ORDA organizations have failed to make
progress in spite substantial fund flows over the years.
It is time for these issues to be addressed aggressively. The
Transparency and Accountability Network (Tr-Ac-Net) is starting
to do this in a practical way, combining people and information
and communications and technology into a comprehensive program
to address these problem areas. Tr-Ac-Net is a consortium of
people and organizations committed to the idea that there should
be excellent transparency and accountability everywhere, and use
of relief and development resources that effectively addresses
the priority issues in remote rural and poor urban underserved
communities (where 80% or more of the population lives). Anybody
interested is invited to contact myself in New York or Kris Dev
in India. Last week I attended the launching of a new report
"Chad's Oil: Miracle or Mirage?" in New York with the report au-
thors, Ian Gary and Nikki Reisch. Thank you CRS and BIC for pro-
ducing this report. I like the report, but I am very disturbed
about the situation being reported. I asked how many people in
the room were accountants, and it turned out there were two: my-
self and Dobian Assingar from Chad's College de Controle et de
Surveillance des Revenues Petroliers. This is a huge problem.
The report was all about the failure of negotiation, of manage-
ment and control, of accounting and information... yet nobody in
the room had any accounting and management experience. It is no
wonder that the powerful oil companies and their insider benefi-
ciaries win, and the host countries, and especially the people
of the host countries lose. It is all totally predictable.
Bottom line is that accounting and management information has
had a VERY low priority in the World Bank, and all the other
ORDA institutions for as long as I can remember (some 30 plus
years). There is little or no expertise in accounting and man-
agement information anywhere in the ORDA world, and this is
God's gift to the corrupt. It is not a good situation, and I
would argue that the leadership of the World Bank and the other
ORDA institutions have done this either through honest incompe-
tence or because of dishonest intentions. Transparency Interna-
tional (TI)... now something over 10 years old... has put the
transparency issue on the agenda, but it seems that it is more
talk than action... and again, the reason is that TI has not em-
braced accounting and management information as the way to solve
the problem. At a recent conference in Europe organized by TI,
only one of 44 VIPs and speakers had any accounting background
in their published bios.
The $100 computer is interesting. But in the bigger scheme of
things, the challenge is to build a house, and the $100 computer
is similar to having access to an improved hammer. Not a bad
idea, but really not a big deal.
In the relief and development world, the situation is pretty
bad, and chances are that few communities are going to see a
hammer, let alone have the house built.
Sincerely
Peter Burgess Kris Dev
Tr-Ac-Net in New York Tr-Ac-Net in Chennai
peterbnyc@gmail.com krisdev@gmail.com
tracnet@gmail.com
Tel: + 1-212 772 6918
http://www.afrifund.com
http://Tr-Ac-Net.blogspot.com
In a message dated 2/23/2005 10:02:41 PM Eastern Standard Time,
lishan@citad.org writes:
> Subj:Re: [GKD] The $100 Computer: A Polite Scam
> Date:2/23/2005 10:02:41 PM Eastern Standard Time
> From:lishan@citad.org
> To:gkd@phoenix.edc.org
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I read Sam Lanfranco's message and subsequent postings a bit late
but
> with great interest. I share his suggestion for a reality check. We
have
> heard of experiments similar to the $100 computer before: "computer
in a
> hole," "simputer for the masses", "recycled computers for African
> schools", "cheap laptops for farmers selling coffee", but the
context of
> those for whom the $100 computer is intended seems to win over these
> "interesting" technology-driven attempts. No doubt that these
> experiments as well as PDAs will play a key role in development, but
> poor people have always reminded us that cheap computers are not on
top
> of their priority lists.
>
> Bottom line is that the majority of people who need information and
> communication the most do not have the skills, reason or money to
buy
> one. (Maybe a few new toy lovers, shop owners or some "high-end"
civil
> servants would buy and use a $100 computer, but their children will
> continue using PCs/Macs in the schools.)
>
> What about a $10 or less cell phone with basic features, or a $1
radio
> receiver with trained nurses and teachers in community programming
and
> community journalists trained in "how to find business opportunities
for
> a community"? I was in a remote African village recently, the farmer
who
> invited us for lunch asked whether I knew if a price of a goat is
equal
> to that of a cell phone. He was talking about a $25 cell phone!
>
> Price matters, the cheaper it gets the more one is tempted to buy a
> computer to take off the power supply and recharge her/his cell
phone.
> But cost has little value without content and context - take for
example
> sub-$200 Worldspace radio receivers that did not sell in mass
quantities
> in Africa as we expected; a good reminder of the link between
content,
> context and cost.
>
> It would be good if N. Negroponte sends a couple of the $100
computers
> to the universities in developing countries, especially in Africa
where