22133 Uganda: Information Technology and Rural Development The Nlakaseke Multi-Purpose Telecenter t is often said that modem technol- Current activities include computer ogy tends to bypass local communi- applications training, and Internet, e- tics found in remote regions. How- mail, telephone, fax, library, and photo- _ ever, some recent technological ad- copying services, an Open Learning L vancements in communications have Center (for outreach), topical video begun to blur geographical distances showvs and audio recordings and com- and infra-structural bottlenecks. Lo- munity listening and newspapers, as cated 50 kilometers north of Kampala, well as leisure and sports activities for Uganda, in a remote village, the young people. Nakaseke Multi-Purpose Community While the Telecenter aims at serv- Tele-center has introduced new infor- ing the entire communities of mation and communication technolo- Nakaseke and Kasangombe, it focuses = gies to this rural area. In three years, on the followving core user groups: the Telecenter has catalyzed a number women, youth, children, medical, work- of development activities in the region. ers, teaching staff, farmers and local Nakaseke sub-county has a popula- leaders. The content and programming tion of over 36,953 of which 16,017 for the Telecenter is therefore tailored are women. Nakaseke town itself has a towards meeting primarily the needs population of 3,000 people, most of and aspirations of these groups. whom are the Baganda - the biggest tribe in central Uganda. The commu- Implementation strategy nity is largely oral and does not have a established reading culture. Till the The participation and involvement of Telecenter started in 1997, newvspapers the communitv is central to the imple- No. 27 were onlv available in the next town 16 mentation of the Telecenter's activi- December 2000 kilometers awvay and connected by a rough road. The Nakaseke Telecenter is part of a IKVNotes reports periodically on Indig- enous Knowledge (IK) initiatives in chain of five donor (UNESCO/IDRC/ Sub-Saharan Africa. It is published by ITU) supported Telecenter projects ini- the Africa Region's Knowledge and Learning Center as part of an evolving tiated in Benin, Mali, Mozambique and IK partnership between the World Tanzania. The overall objective of the Bank, comrnunities, NGOs, develop- project is to stimulate rural develop- ment institutions and multilateral orga- ,S\'~>'Sh,4 ' , , nizations. The views expressed in this ment bv facilitating access to informa- article are those of the authors and tion, learning resources and communi- should not be attributed to the World 0: \\<7<=X5l cation technologies by the Nakaseke Bank Group or its partners in this ii- and Kasangombe communities and tiative. A webpage on IK is available at g;