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New Mine Lab New Media in Education Lab

Università della Svizzera italiana Via Giuseppe Buffi 13 CH – 6904 Lugano, Switzerland

(w) http://www.newmine.org/ (t) +41 (0)58.666.4674 (f) +41 (0)58.666.4647

Community Multimedia Centres in Mozambique: a Map Edited by:

Isabella Rega, Lorenzo Cantoni

Researched by:

Sara Vannini, Salomão David, Alexandre Baia, Gertrudes Macueve

Executive Summary

Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) in Mozambique have been setup for a

decade and represent the most common model of public access to Information

and Communication Technologies (ICTs) venues in the country. This report briefly presents the history and typologies of CMCs in Mozambique,

as well as an updated map of their current number and location. Finally, it casts

a closer look to a sample of 10 CMCs, one per each province of the country, describing their context, cluster of services, technical instruments, group of

people who manages CMCs and people who access them.

The information provided on the paper has been collected mostly in March –

April 2011 within the field work of the project RE-ACT: social REpresentations of community multimedia centres and ACTions for improvement, a research

and development project run by the NewMinE Lab: New Media in Education

Laboratory of the Università della Svizzera italiana, University of Lugano, Switzerland, in collaboration with the Centre for African Studies and the

Department of Mathemathics and Informatics of the University Eduardo

Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique.

This report is addressed to researchers and practitioners in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) field, as well as to policy makers working in the area.

December 2011

Ver. 1.0

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ACRONYMS

CAICC Community Information and Communication Support Centre

CIUEM Center of Informatics of Eduardo Mondlane University CMC Community Multimedia Centre

FORCOM Mozambique National Forum of the Community Radios

ICS Institute of Social Communication

ICT Information and Communication Technology MCT Ministry of Science and Technology of Mozambique

MEGCIP Mozambique eGovernment and Communications Infrastructure Project

NGO Non-Governmental Organizations PAV Public Access to ICTs Venues

RE-ACT Social REpresentations of community multimedia centres and ACTions for improve

ment

SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SNSF Swiss National Science Foundation

STIFIMO Programme of Cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation between Finland

and Mozambique TDM Telecommunications of Mozambique

UEM University Eduardo Mondlane

UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNDP United Nations Development Programme UTICT ICT Policy Technical Implementation Unit in Mozambique

Along the paper prices are expressed in Mozambican Metical (Mzn).1 Mzn corresponds to about 0.037 USD or to about 0.027 EU (currency last converted on the webpage www.ec.europa.eu on 21 November 2011).

CURRENCY CONVERTER

3

This white paper is based on field trips throughout all the provinces of Mozambique conducted to

collect data in the context of the project RE-ACT

(social REpresentations of community multimedia centres and ACTions for improvement - www.react

-project.ch), funded by the Swiss National Science

Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for

Development and Cooperation (SDC). The aim of RE-ACT is to investigate how

Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) in

Mozambique are perceived by different actors: initiating agencies, associations owning and

managing them, local staff, users and non-users.

According to the results of this investigation,

different actions, aimed at improving performances of the CMCs involved in the project, are to be

designed, implemented and measured.

The project is a collaboration between the Università della Svizzera italiana (NewMinE Lab –

New Media in Education Laboratory) and the

University Eduardo Mondlane (Department of

Mathematics and Informatics and Centre for African Studies); it started in November 2010, and

it ends in October 2013.

The researchers who took part into the above-mentioned field trips are: Dr. Alexandre Baia

(Centre for African Studies, Universidade Eduardo

Mondlane), Dr. Gertrude Macueve (Department of

Mathemathics and Informatics, University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique), Dr.

Isabella Rega, Sara Vannini and Salomão David

(NewMinE Lab, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland).

In March and April 2011, the RE-ACT team

undertook three different trips: to the Southern

provinces of the country (Inhambane, Gaza and Maputo), to the Central Provinces (Tete, Manica,

Sofala and Zambezia), and to the Northern

provinces (Cabo Delgado, Nampula and Niassa). This report briefly introduces the history and

typologies of public access to Information and

Communication Technologies (ICTs) venues that

currently exist in Mozambique. Then, it provides a map of the CMCs currently present in the country

(as of August 2011) and, finally, it provides a closer

look to a sample of 10 CMCs, one per each province.

INTRODUCTION SETTING THE SCENE

In this section a definition of telecentre, public access ICTs venues, Community Multimedia

Centres, Millennium Village and a brief summary

of Mozambique CMCs is provided. TELECENTRES AND OTHER PUBLIC ACCESS VENUES

A telecentre is a public place where people can

access a number of different ICTs (computers,

internet, faxes, photocopy machines, etc.). Their common focus is on giving access to ICTs to

support educational, social and economic

development of the communities they serve, by reducing isolation, promoting education, health

issues and creating economic opportunities.

Telecentres came onto the international

cooperation scene around 25 years ago and only recently they started to attract the interest of

academics (Rega, 2010). Over the years and around

the globe they have been given different names, including: public access points, infocentres,

community technology centres, community

multimedia centres, multi-purpose community

centres, public access ICTs venues (PAV), etc. Community Multimedia Centres (CMCs) are a

particular type of telecentres that combine the

facilities of a telecentre with a community radio in the same venue. The radio broadcasts in the

languages used by the community where the CMC

is located, as well as in the official national

language: in our case Portuguese. This concept aims to create an information chain that can reach

all the levels of the population, and to bring other

services that meet local needs (UNESCO, 2004). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO) created the CMC model in

2001. The program got off the ground with the

support of SDC, with 40 CMCs set up in over 15 developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the

Caribbean during the pilot phase.

The scale-up phase of the CMCs began in 2004 and was implemented in three countries in Africa (Mali,

Mozambique and Senegal): those countries were

selected for the development of a national network

of 50 CMCs each in the following years. (UNESCO, 2004).

4

Community Radios (FORCOM) and the ICT Policy

Technical Implementation Unit (UTICT). FOR-COM, together with CAICC is active in coordinating

and organizing courses for Community Radios;

UTICT, instead, is a unit created by the Ministry of

Science and Technology, with the mandate to over-see the implementation of the ICTs policies, and

the rolling out of the eGovernment related services.

Since 2009, the Institute of Social Communication (ICS) implement the program of CMCs in Mozam-

bique.

Recently a new model of CMC, under the supervi-

sion of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), will be implemented thanks to the funding

of STIFIMO program (programme of Cooperation

in Science, Technology and Innovation between Finland and Mozambique), and the World Bank.

According to the MCT, 45 new CMCs will be in-

stalled in the next 3 years. The final goal of this

policy is to provide access to ICTs to all the 128 dis-tricts of the country in the following years.

In the meantime, UNESCO is still supporting the

“old” CMCs by donating some technological mate-rial (computers, printers, etc.).

AN UPDATED MAP OF PUBLIC ACCESS TO ICTs VENUES IN MOZAMBIQUE In this section a map of the CMCs and other PAVs currently operating in the country is provided.

To determine their existence and location, only

official information retrievable in Mozambique (government sources, business registers, online

material) has been considered. Since several cyber-

cafés that are in the country do not appear in offi-

cial registers (as a consequence of the registration taxes imposed to entrepreneurs in this kind of

businesses), cybercafés in Mozambique are a quite

ephemeral reality, opening one day and closing the day after to open in another place. Therefore, they

were not taken into consideration in the map.

The total number of PAVs in the country amounts

to 42 venues and is divided as follows: 34 CMCs, 6 Millennium Villages, and 2 Telecentres, as shown

in the following table.

Another relevant type of PAV in Mozambique are Millennium Villages, an initiative that explores a

model for helping rural communities lift

themselves out of extreme poverty, combining sustainable local means with the new advances in

science and technology (MCT, 2009).

The history of CMCs in Mozambique is tightly connected to the appearance of Community Radios

in the country and dates back to the end of the ‘90s,

when the first feasibility study for the installation

of telecentres in 2 districts (Manhiça and Namaacha), in the Maputo province was

conducted. The consequence of this study was 2

telecentres opening in 1999, as part of an initiative of Center of Informatics of University Eduardo

Mondlane (CIUEM) (MCT, 2009).

The ‘90s saw the appearance also of the first

Community Radios in the country, which were installed by the Institute of Social Communication

(ICS), by the Catholic Church, by UNESCO and by

a number of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). In 2000, the concept of the CMC started

to gain ground, and Community Radios were

installed in already existing telecentres; while in

2001, 4 more telecentres were installed in the provinces of Manica and Gaza, and their

management was delegated to local associations

(UNESCO, 2004). Since 2004, Mozambique joined the scale-up phase of CMCs promoted by UNESCO

(Moiana, 2007).

In 2006 the Community Information and

Communication Support Centre (CAICC) was created with the economic support of UNESCO and

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

CAICC is a pilot project managed by the CIUEM with the goal of coordinating, supporting and

contributing to educative initiatives for CMCs and

Community Radios. CAICC is now supported by

telecentre.org, which is a global programme that supports the establishment and sustainability of

grassroots level telecentres.

Other important players in the history of CMCs in the country have been the National Forum of the

CMCS IN MOZAMBIQUE

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South: Chókwè, Chicualacuala, Manjacaze,

Mabote, Massinga, Morrumbene, Bairro Bagamoyo, Manhiça, Matola, Moamba, Na-

maacha, Xinavane.

Centre: Catandica, Sussundenga, Dondo,

Chitima, Macanga, Mutarara, Alto Molócuè,

Milange, Quelimane.

North: Chiúre, Muidumbe, Nacedje/

Macomia, Mpharama/Balama, Angoche,

Ilhade Moçambique, Iuluti, Monapo, Ribáuè, Cuamba,Mandimba, Mecanhelas, Metangu-

la.

After drawing a map of the existing CMCs in the

country, a sample of 10 CMCs (1 in each province) was selected, to conduct RE-ACT fieldwork. To

have a sample as much representative as possible

of the country situation, the CMCs have been se-

lected by crossing the following factors: location, ownership, year of foundation and variety of ser-

vices offered.

The following table presents the number of com-puters, radio signal coverage, internet availability

and staff members working in the 10 visited CMCs.

It is interesting to notice that out of 10 CMCs, only

2 CMCs offer internet access to the public, the CMCs in the South have higher number of comput-

ers, the CMCs in Centre have a higher number of

staff members and the CMCs located in the North have a better radio coverage.

Table 2– CMCs in Mozambique number of Computer, Radio Coverage, internet and staff

Table 1 - PAVs in Mozambique and their distribution

Below a map of the existing CMCs in Mozambique

and a list of their location are provided.

Picture 1 - Map of CMCs in Mozambique.

The map shows all the CMCs in Mozambique: the ones pinned

in red are the ones selected for our sample. The map is available

at the URL: http://g.co/maps/mhjp and it is updated to August

2011.

A CLOSER VIEW TO 10 CMCS

6

room, 1 at the secretary’s office (used also by the

public to type documents), 1 in the radio and 1 for the coordinator.

The Operating System used is Windows 2000, with

office 2003. Multimedia CDs as health encyclope-

dia, atlas and vocabulary, donated by the CAICC, are available for consultation.

A number of CMC volunteers were recruited re-

cently because previous volunteers switched to Rádio Comunitária Gwevhane.

Most of the users are young students, who are tak-

ing photocopies, teachers from the surrounding

school, who are attending computer courses, and adult men who view television in the reception. CHOKWE (GAZA) Chokwe is a rural town and capital of the Chokwe

District in the Gaza province. It is located about

230 km North of Maputo (the capital city), and it has a population of approximately 183’531 inhabit-

ants (2007, INE). Chokwe lies in the farming zone

on the Southern side of the Limpopo River. Migra-tion is a regional issue: most of the men from the

district tend to leave the city in quest for better op-

portunities to sustain their families.

The Associação Rural de Ajuda Mutua has been managing the Chokwe CMC since its inauguration

in 2005. It is based in another town, at a driving

distance of 40 minutes ca. The Chokwe CMC offers basic computer training

(Word, Excel, Power Point), which costs 600 Mzn

and lasts 3 months, 2 hours per day (Monday to

Friday). The Community Radio covers one third of the city

and works from morning to night.

Picture 3 - The CMC of Chokwe

XINAVANE (MAPUTO) Xinavane is a town in the Manhiça District of the Maputo Province and it is located about 80

kilometres North of Maputo. The Manhiça district

has approximately 157’642 inhabitants (2007, INE).

Picture 2 - The CMC of Xinavane

Xinavane is famous for its Sugar Factory managed

by Tongaat Hulett Sugar. The factory is an

important partner for the CMC, as some of its workers benefit from the CMC services, in

exchange of electricity and other facilities.

Apart from the Community Radio of the CMC, Xinavane district receives Radio Moçambique and

Rádio Gwevhane, the latter being a local radio

perceived by the CMC staff as a competitor.

The Xinavane CMC was founded in 2005 and entrusted to the Associação Juvenil para o

desenvolvimento da Comunidade.

The CMC of Xinavane is located in the enclosure of a school; it offers basic computer training (Word,

Excel, Power Point), and it charges 2600 Mzn for a

month and a half of classes, 2 hours a day (Monday

to Friday). The Community Radio transmits in Portuguese and

Xichangana, it offers public information service,

announcements, lost and found services, and works from morning to night.

Other services like photocopies, printings and

document typing are charged per page. At the

entrance of the venue there is also a TV (transmitting news, sports and soap operas), which

the community can watch for free.

The CMC has 4 working computers in the training

7

Other services such as printouts, photocopies, fax

and document typing are available. The CMC has 6 computers: 3 desktop computers

and 1 laptop are in the computer training room, 1

desktop computer in the radio station and 1 in the

front office, used by the secretary. It has recently shifted management: presently, the

CMC is managed by 1 coordinator directly involved

in the radio and telecentre, 1 secretary, 1 security guard and 4 volunteers for radio and telecentre.

The users of the CMC are mostly students and

teenagers; adults visit on random basis, most of all

to have documents typed. MORRUMBENE (INHAMBANE) Morrumbene is a small village in the district of the Inhambane Province, approximately 450 km north

of Maputo. It has a population of approximately

124’436 inhabitants (2007, INE), and it is located

on the National Road N1. Its main sources of in-come are agriculture, fishing and tourism.

The Morrumbene CMC was founded in 2010 by the

MCT, it is entrusted to the Associação Juvenil a Chama, and it is part of the “new model” CMCs in

the country.

Picture 4 - The CMC of Morrumbene

The CMC offers basic computer training (Word,

Excel, Power Point, Access and Internet) at a cost

of 800 Mzn, which lasts 3 months, 2 hours per day (Monday to Friday).

The Community Radio transmits in Portuguese and

Xichangana, and covers the entire district.

Information services like newspapers, seminars, cinema during weekends and the internet café have

been created. The CMC offers basic computer

training (Word, Excel, Power Point, Access and

internet) at a cost of 800 Mzn, for 3 months, 2 hours per day (Monday to Friday).

New computers and software have been recently

installed: the CMC has 16 computers, 12 of which

are in the computer training room, 2 are available for the internet browsing and multimedia infor-

mation, 1 is in the radio station and 1 in the coordi-

nator’s office. The Operating System used is Windows XP, with

Office 2003. There are multimedia CDs as health

encyclopedia, atlas and vocabulary.

The CMC has a total of 14 volunteers. The volun-teers and the coordinator are members of the Asso-

ciação Juvenil a Chama.

Users are mostly students and government officers.

DONDO (SOFALA) Dondo is a District of the Sofala Province and it has

a population of approximately 77’532 inhabitants (2007, INE). The main income source of the dis-

trict is agriculture.

The CMC of Dondo was founded in 2004 and is being managed by the Associação dos Serviços Co-

munitários de Sofala.

In March 2011 the CMC was on the process of start-

ing basic ICT training course as it had recently re-ceived 3 new computers from UNESCO.

Picture 5 - The CMC of Dondo

The CMC provides radio information services, ne-

crologies, announcements, it rents antenna time

and it is directly involved in acquiring and facilitat-

ing information to provincial and National radios. It offers also other services such as photocopies at a

8

reasonable price compared to the local merchants.

The CMC has 30 volunteers. Users are mostly students, who make use of the

photocopy service at the CMC: 1 student repre-

sentative for each class at Escola Secundaria de

Macaroque is responsible to make copies for his classmates.

SUSSUNDENGA (MANICA)

Sussudenga is a district of the Manica Province: it

has a population of approximately 128’866 inhabit-

ants (2007, INE) and its main income source is agriculture.

Picture 6 - The CMC of Sussundenga

The CMC of Sussudenga was founded in 2001 and

its management is entrusted to the ICS. The telecentre provides basic computer training

(Word, Excel, Power Point) which lasts for 2

months, 2 hours per day (Monday to Friday).

The Community Radio broadcasts in Portuguese, Chiuté and Chimanhica from morning to late night;

The Radio provides public information services,

announcements, rent of antenna time, civic educa-tion, awareness on sexual related diseases and so-

cial issues.

Furthermore, it also broadcasts the National Radio

Station and National Television Channel. Other services like photocopies, fax, catering, and

brochures for students are also provided. The CMC has 8 computers, 6 of which are used for

basic computer training; the remaining 2 are in the

radio station and in the manager’s office respec-

tively.

Permanent staff members are 6, they are on aver-

age 30 to 40 years old and they are employed by the INCS: 4 of them are technicians and 2 security

guards. Apart from them, 30 volunteers work in the

venue.

A different range of people visits the CMC due to the heterogeneity of services provided.

CHITIMA (TETE)

The CMC of Chitima is located in the province of

Tete, in the Cahora Bassa district, not far from the

Cahora Bassa lake, Africa's fourth-largest artificial lake and an important producer of electricity of

Austral Africa. The district has a population of ap-

proximately 86’641 inhabitants (2007, INE) and its major economical activities are production of elec-

tricity and agriculture. The CMC of Chitima provides Community Radio services that work from morning to night, in inter-

vals of 2 hours, and it broadcasts in Portuguese and

Nhongue; the radio covers only the Chitima valley. During the radio intervals photocopy service are

provided, while when the radio is on air the elec-

tricity in the venue is not sufficient for both ser-

vices. The CMC also provides clean water for the commu-

nity. In the CMC there are 4 computers which

where donated by UNESCO; anyway, in March 2011 they could not be used, due to electricity oscil-

lation.

Picture 7 - The CMC of Chitima

The CMC has 13 volunteers working at the radio

station.

9

Users are mostly students from the community

searching for the photocopies.

QUELIMANE (ZAMBEZIA) Quelimane is the administrative capital of the Zam-

bezia Province and and it is the fourth largest city

of Mozambique. It lays 25 km from the River dos Bons Sinais, it has a population of 192’876 inhabit-

ants (2007, INE).

Picture 8- The CMC of Chiure

In 1998 the Catholic Church founded the radio; in

2006, in cooperation with UNESCO, a telecentre

was established in the same premises and its man-agement was entrusted to the local Cathedral.

The CMC of Quelimane is located on the first floor

of the Primary School São Carlos Luanga: 2 class-rooms of the school are used as radio and telecen-

tre.

The CMC offers basic computer training (Word,

Excel, Power Point), which lasts for 2 moths, 2 hours a day (Monday to Friday). Radio training is

also given, covering radio journalism, interview

techniques and report writing. The CMC has 5 computers, 4 of which are allocated

to training, and 1 to the radio; the computers use

either Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

The CMC has 2 coordinators and 12 volunteers, one of which comes from a CMC of a near province. The

Catholic Church manages the CMC and 2 religious

nuns are in charge of it. Mostly young people who graduated from high

school and wait for a university placement attend

computer courses at the CMC.

CHIURE (CABO DELGADO) Chiure is a district of the Cabo Delgado Province, in Northern Mozambique, and it has a population of

230,044 inhabitants (2007, INE). The town is lo-

cated along the road that comes from Pemba, capi-

tal of the province. The town is known for its rich-est amount of mineral resources.

The CMC offers a basic computer course during the

evenings (Word, Excel), which lasts 3 months, 2 hours a day (Monday to Friday): Power Point is not

taught because the staff is not able to use the pro-

gram, yet.

Picture 9 - The CMC of Chiure

The telecentre part offers computers for people to

type documents, and the staff supports people with

no surcharge on the price. The CMC also offers photocopies and printing facilities.

The Community Radio of the CMC transmits in

Portuguese and Emakhuwa: it provides announce-

ments, necrologies, advertisements, and rents time of antenna. Also the CMC hosts the antenna for the

national television.

The CMC has 6 fully working computers for the public, plus 1 computer in the studio. The Operat-

ing System used is Windows XP.

The CMC has 9 permanent staff members, aged on

average 35 to 45 years, plus 19 volunteers, mostly teenagers and young people.

Farmers, students and government officers are the

categories of people that mostly use the telecentre part of the CMC.

10

ILHA DE MOÇAMBIQUE (NAMPULA)

The Island of Mozambique lies off Northern

Mozambique, between the Mozambique Channel

and Mossuril Bay. It has a population of around 14’000 people (2007, INE) and is part of the Nam-

pula Province. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

and it is quite well known by international tourists. The island is rich in history, as it was the former

capital of Mozambique. It attracts international

NGOs and associations as well as people who want

to open up activities in tourism (especially restau-rants). It is well provided with good accommoda-

tion, transport means to Nampula (private taxis)

and eateries.

Picture 10 - The CMC of Ilha de Moçambique

A number of associations are based in the island and many of them offer basic computer courses to

the community: the Millennium Village, both in

land and on the island; “Projecto Oceano”, target-ing young people; SAMANI, an Italian NGO; and

Telecommunications of Mozambique company

(TDM).

The CMC was founded in 2007 and it is managed by the Associação dos Amigos da Ilha de

Moçambique.

During RE-ACT fieldwork no working computer was available: the coordinator was using his own

laptop to type documents and sometimes to write e

-mails for the community, for CD burning, graphic

works, video and pictures editing. According to the coordinator, the CMC has been without computers

for community usage for 2 years.

The CMC offers photocopies, typing and scanner facilities, access to multimedia content. Their tele-

phone line has been cut because they could not

afford to pay the bills, so fax facilities are not there

anymore. The Community Radio of the CMC (On'hipiti)

transmits in Portuguese and Emakhuwa from

morning to night in intervals of 2 hours.

The CMC has just 1 working computer in the Radio. The radio computer has Windows XP Operating

System. UNESCO donated 3 more computers, one

of those will be placed at community disposal. The CMC has a total of 16 volunteers working in

the radio.

The users are mainly students or other people of

the community in need of photocopies.

CUAMBA (NIASSA)

Cuamba is a city in the district of the Niassa Prov-

ince in Mozambique, at the North West of Mount

Namuli. It lies on the junction of the railway line

from Nacala Port (the main commercial harbour in the North of Mozambique) and the city of Nampula

(the biggest city in the North of the country) on the

one side, and the branchline to Lichinga, the capi-tal of the province on the other; this makes the city

an important node for commerce and people move-

ments.

It has 56’801 inhabitants (INE, 2007). The town is home to the School of Agriculture of the Catholic

University of Mozambique. A part from the CMC, 2

telecentres are in town, belonging to the TDM and the Catholic Parrish.

The CMC was founded in 2006 and the Associação

da Rádio comunitária de Cuamba was entrusted its

management. The CMC offers basic computer courses (Word,

Excel, Power Point and internet) which costs 1000

Mzn, lasts for 3 months, 2 hours a day (Monday to Friday).

The Community Radio transmits in Emakhuwa,

Cinyanja and Portuguese, from morning to night,

the radio offers radio journalism training for its staff members and hosts the signal for the national

television and radio.

Other services offered are photocopying, printing, bookbinding, and faxing facilities. The CMC also

offers language courses, as a way to financially sus-

tain the Community Radio.

11

Picture 11 - The CMC of Cuamba

The CMC has a total of 5 computers, 1 in the recep-

tion, 1 in the coordinator’s office, 2 in the training room and the last 1 in the radio.

1 computer is connected to the internet: the staff

explained that this is to avoid students loose their focus during the courses.

The CMC had received some equipment from

UNESCO and CAICC, but they had not started to

install it, yet. The association president is a Swedish woman, liv-

ing in Cuamba. All the other people of the associa-

tion and the staff are Mozambicans. Users of the venue are mostly students and teach-

ers from the local and surrounding towns.

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), aims to provide 1 CMC for each of the 128 districts

of Mozambique, to do so, the MCT is cooperating

with the Ministry of International Affairs of Fin-land and the World Bank.

The joint cooperation program in Science, Technol-

ogy and Innovation between Finland and Mozam-

bique (STIFIMO) aims to create 25 CMCs through-out Mozambique.

The MCT cooperation with the World Bank,

through the Mozambican eGovernment and Com-munication Infrastructure Project (MEGCIP), in-

stead, plans to create 20 CMCs.

These 45 CMCs will be part of the New Model

CMCs: apart from the Community Radio, they will have a telecentre with at least 15 to 20 computers;

they will provide ICTs courses of Word, Excel,

Power Point, MS Access and internet, with a lower cost compared to the existing CMC model, ICTs

courses will last for 2 months, 2 hours a day

(Monday to Friday); they will also have a room for

public access space, with libraries, conferences, eGovernment services, and an extra room with 2

computers for internet and multimedia access.

The CMCs visited vary consistently in resources

and services they offer. The table below summariz-

es the services currently available at each of the presented venues:

Community radio and photocopies are al-

ways present;

ICTs courses are also very present, except, at

the moment, in Chitima, Dondo and Ilha de

Moçambique;

Each venue, then, differ for a number of dif-

ferent service specific to the place, ranging

from scanning, printing and fax facilities, to television signal, language and civic educa-

tion courses, cinema and local newspaper;

Finally, the Internet is available for the pub-lic just in 2 out of the 10 CMCs.

Table 3 - An overview of the offered services

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

CONCLUSION

12

International Monetary Found. (2005). Republic

of Mozambique: Poverty Reduction Strategy, Eco-nomic and Social Plan for 2005. Report No.

05/312. International Monetary Fund: Publication

Services.

Instituto Nacional de Estatistica. (2007). III Re-

censeamento Geral da Populaçao e habitaçao. Ma-

puto. INE . CD-ROM.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Develop-

ment policy: Implementation of development co-

operation. http://formin.finland.fi/Public/default.aspx?contentid=202035 (2010, Dec 10 ).

Moiana et all. (2007). Missão de Revisão Triparti-da da Iniciativa de Expansão de Centros Multimé-

dia Comunitários em Moçambique .

Ministerio da Ciencia e Tecnologia. (2008). Pro-grama Nacional De Centros Multimédia Comu-

nitários . 4. eds. Maputo.

Ministério da Ciencia e Tecnologia. (2009). Pro-grama Nacional de Centros Multimédia Comuni-

tarios.

Rega, I., (2010). What do local people think about telecentres? A key issue for sustainability. Doctoral

Dissertation, Università della Svizzera italiana,

Lugano, Switzerland.

United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

Organization. (2004). Scale up Initiative for Com-

munity Multimedia Centres in Mozambique. Pro-

ject Document.

REFERENCES

13

Dr. Gertrudes Macueve holds a Master and

PhD in Information Systems from the University of Oslo.

She is lecturer and director of

the Master course in Informa-

tics at the Department of Ma-thematics and Informatics of

the Faculty of Sciences at the

University Eduardo Mondlane (Maputo, Mozam-bique). Her research interests are in e-government,

e-health, and in the use of ICTs for development

and gender related issues.

Dr. Isabella Rega holds a Ph.D. in Communica-

tion Sciences with a thesis on the role of tele-centers in socio

-economic development and

an executive master in Inter-

cultural Communication from the Università della Svizzera

italiana (University of Lugano,

Switzerland). Dr. Rega is the executive director of the NewMinE Lab (New Media in Education Lab),

of the Doctoral School CROSS-FIELD, she has been

project manager of two projects dealing with the

introduction of ICT in teacher training for disad-vantaged teachers in Brazil and in South Africa,

and she is now project manager of the project RE-

ACT. She also worked as researcher and instructor in telecentres in Latin America and Africa. She has

co-founded the non-profit organization Seed.

Sara Vannini graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature at the Universi-

ty of Bologna, Italy, with a dis-

sertation focused on the lin-guistic and anthropological

facets in the rescue of the Ma-

puche aboriginal culture, in

collaboration with the Univer-sidad Católica de Temuco, Chile. After graduation

she has been working in the Web industry, where

she developed her interest in online communica-tion, participative web and eLearning. She is now a

PhD Student at the Università della Svizzera Italia-

na (University of Lugano, Switzerland), where she

is working on the RE-ACT project.

AUTHORS

Prof. Alexandre Baia, holds a PhD in Human

Geography and he is special-ized in Urban Geography; he is

senior researcher at the Centre

of African Studies and lecturer

in the Faculty of Arts and So-cial Sciences of the University

Eduardo Mondlane (Maputo,

Mozambique). He is interested in the urbanization processes in Mozambique involving subjects such

as tourism, social inequality, urban poverty and

socialization of information and communication

technologies.

Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni holds a PhD

in Communication and Educa-tion; he is full professor at the

Università della Svizzera ita-

liana (University of Lugano, Switzerland), Faculty of Com-

munication Sciences. He is

Dean of the Faculty and vice-

director of the Institute of Public and Educational Communication. He is also scientific director of the

laboratories webatelier.net, NewMinE Lab (New

Media in Education Lab), and eLab (eLearning Lab) at the Università della Svizzera Italiana. His

research interests lay where communication, edu-

cation and new media overlap, ranging from com-

puter mediated communication to usability, from eLearning to eTourism, and from ICT4D to eGo-

vernment.

Salomão David acquired his Bachelor Degree in

Computer Application and his

Master Degree in Computer

Science and Information Tech-nology at Osmania University

(Hyderabd, India). He worked

at the University Eduardo Mondlane (Maputo, Mozam-

bique) as Software Analyst and Database Adminis-

trator. Currently, he is a PhD Student at the Uni-

versità della Svizzera italiana (University of Luga-no, Switzerland), where he is involved in the RE-

ACT project. His research interests range from di-

gital literacy, eLearning, ICT4D, co-design inter-vention to participatory design.