Sharkeya, Egypt-The best way to introduce the vast world of information technology (IT) may be to demonstrate its potential. But it is not easy to take a concept like the World Wide Web to a land which, in many places, is still tilled by the power of man and beast and where the word Internet is an enigma to most people.

Creating an environment "where the poor in developing societies can be given a hand to become participants and not bystanders in the information revolution is fundamental to any programme aimed at achieving sustainable human development in the new Millennium," says Edmund Cain, Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Egypt.

In Sharkeya, one of Egypt?s 26 governorates, Technology Access Community Centres (TACCs) sponsored by UNDP are introducing IT to people who do not have access to computers because of income, education or location. A TACC is similar to an Internet cafe in that it has a phone, fax, computers, printers and Internet service, but there is a dramatic difference: the telecentres train civil society groups, the private sector, low-income groups and individuals about information access. This includes long-distance education, telemedicine, e-commerce, assistance to small businesses, environmental management and women and youth empowerment. In addition, the TACCs are hubs for electronic content creation, especially in Arabic, responding to community needs and interests. 

"The whole point of the programme," says Cain, "is to open the world of IT to those who would otherwise not have an entrance. If you just access the haves you are not going to be hitting the real numbers."

The TACCs pilot project in Egypt is part of a series of similar ventures in which UNDP is involved in Africa, the Arab States, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Egypt?s three centres opened in March 1999 and are located in Zagazig and Tenth of Ramadan cities, both roughly 80 kilometres from Cairo in the Nile Delta region. The centres? clientele use them to access information that can improve their livelihoods. Ahmed Atef grows wheat, beans and vegetables on his land near Zagazig and says that he is using new and better methods of fertilization that he discovered on tacc.egnet.net. The website was designed by the centre?s personnel and offers information about health, agriculture, education and civil society. It also provides links to community pages, including those created by the local Rotary Club and TACC clients.

To date, Egypt?s three TACCs, with a mere 15 computers, have provided training for 2,000 people. "TACCs have a strong development role," says Sherif Hashem, advisor to the new Minister of Communication and Information Technology in Egypt. "But it is not easy for the centres to become self-sufficient. They need some support."

Currently, the TACCs have a two-year total operating budget of about US$800,000, with UNDP contributing $326,000 and the remainder provided by various local entities, including the Governorate of Sharkeya, the Chamber of Commerce and the United Nations Volunteers (UNVs). "By working with other UN system partners, the reach and impact of the programme can be greatly enhanced under the TACC umbrella," says Cain.

Overcoming the language barrier

Though the project has a large target audience-the 4.2 million inhabitants of Sharkeya-and ambitious goals, it also has colossal challenges. According to UNDP?s 1999 Human Development Report, 80 percent of Internet content is in English. This is one of the obstacles facing Sharkeya, where most of the population speaks Arabic.

The project is "good for society, especially the educated," says Aly Basset Aly, professor at Zagazig University. He thinks the centres should focus on people literate in English because the "uneducated still don?t know what the Internet is, and it is dependent on English content," which many cannot read.

"In a society like Egypt, with 65 million people, if only the haves have access, disparities will grow and UNDP?s target group, the poor, will not be on board the information age train," says Cain. "There is clearly a demand from different segments of society. This is a very positive development, which we are happy to influence. But our project is not just another cyber net service-in fact you might call the TACC project cyber cafes for the poor," he adds.

This is why a strong grassroots outreach movement is necessary and where the UNVs come in. UNV reports to UNDP and works through the agency?s country offices around the world. Assigned to the telecentres is a team of national and international UNV specialists. They help communities to use the communications facilities and devise ways to reach non-English speakers, as, for example, by developing Arabic content.

The volunteers not only promote the TACCs, but also specialize in the major information areas the website offers. "People may not realize they can get information on health issues, for instance," says Sean Osner, UNV and manager of the volunteers in Egypt. "We cater to the needs of a community and show people how technology can help."

IT is needed to sustain a village

Back in February 2000, the volunteers coordinated the first village visit to educate the people living in El-Ghar about IT and to discover their needs. El-Ghar was chosen because it is close to a TACC. It sounded easy enough, but less than 24 hours before the planned demonstration of the centre?s main resource, the Internet, permission for the volunteers to use the village?s only phone line was revoked by the owner.

"Imagine, people in a village of 100,000 using one phone line," Osner says. "To have accessibility to this technology you need basic telecommunications infrastructure." But the volunteers did not have time to wait. They downloaded the saved Arabic pages from the TACC website to show the villagers how Internet information can be useful, grabbed their laptops and headed for El-Ghar. Following the demonstration the villagers were invited to Zagazig the following Friday to use the centres for free. As more come, a small fee will be charged.

Mariz Iskander, a health specialist for the TACC website, sat with a small crowd against a roughly fashioned brick storehouse in El-Ghar and scrolled through health information saved on his laptop. The older women were not convinced that some electronic contraption would have sound advice about how to prevent diarrhoea and dehydration in infants, but others were interested in what the volunteers had to offer.

Before the laptop-toting volunteers showed up in El-Ghar, 20-year-old Mourad Abd El-Kamel said that he had heard about the Internet but did not know exactly what it was. He says the presentation sparked his interest. His friend, Samah Gharib agreed.

El-Kamel and Gharib were in fact among the five El-Ghar residents at the centre the following week. Gharib stayed all day. Osner remembers the young men?s surprise at the Internet?s capabilities: "They didn?t believe you could write to someone in the United States and that person would respond right away."

The UNV programme and the private sector are only two aspects of UNDP?s partnering efforts with potential contributors to the TACCs. While TACCs need hardware, software, service providers and awareness building-they also need commitment.

Egypt?s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is expanding the concept of TACCs to include 1,200 more centres around the country based on the model UNDP developed, says Hashem. Though the expansion is independent of UNDP, the agency is helping the process. Cain says UNDP is busy partnering with major companies "to make this kind of service available at every governorate level."

Present funding for the TACC programme in Sharkeya is only for two years-too short a period to complete the goal of becoming a catalyzing force throughout Egypt. "I don?t think we?ll have our feet fully planted in two years. It took Starbuck?s longer than that to fully establish itself, and with a lot more resources," Cain says, "We hope to convince donors, which includes the private sector, that TACCs are an innovative ?development franchise? which will yield huge social as well as economic dividends."

Tetiana C. Anderson is a freelance journalist living in Egypt and a professor of journalism at The American University in Cairo. She is a news editor for Bayt.com, an online porthole to the Middle East. Her work has appeared in media outlets including Vatican Radio, The Middle East Times and Cairo Times.