Building community wireless connectivity in developing countries

The book, Mainstreaming ICTs: Africa lives the information society, is a contribution towards efforts to bridge the “policy-practice” divide. It is aimed at development practitioners and ICT innovators interested in inventive technology applications for social justice and development. APC contributed to the section “Building community wireless connectivity in developing countries”.

The book contains ten case studies reflecting on the innovative and creative ways information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been used to promote people-centred development in a number of Sub-Saharan African countries. The ICTs for development handbook is a practical user guide, covering case studies of projects in the areas of ICTs in education, gender, environment, health and e-democracy. The book is a useful guide for positioning non-profit organisations to contribute effectively in meeting select MDGs and other development imperatives, through the use of ICTs.

The collection also features five toolkits which offer useful resources for civil society groups wanting to utilise ICTs for developmental initiatives. The toolkits centre on technology planning, open source migration, information security and privacy, gender evaluation methodology, and community wireless networking.

The book was compiled and edited by Women’sNet with the assistance of a Southern African editorial group including Toni Eliasz, Ria Greyling, Benter Okello, Muroro Dziruni, Ashraf Patel, and Natasha Primo. The project was supported by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)”.