On January 19th, 2023, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, a press conference was held. It was hosted by Uplink, a platform linking startups to investors and experts, and opened by Olivier M. Schwab, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum. He said:
“We all know that we need 4,5,6, 7 trillion dollars per year, to reach the UN SDGs. What if some of that investment went to the thousands of entrepreneurs around the world, working on tackling ocean degradation, education, deforestation, various levels of pollution?” (1.40 minutes in, in this clip)
Then, a number of just this sort of entrepreneurs presented their businesses.
In my previous posts (this one and this one), I explored the role of companies in reaching the SDGs, both by avoiding violating human rights and environment in their value chains, and striving for a sustainable business model. But, as the above mentioned press conference is an example of, companies or investors wanting to “do good” can also invest in solutions other than their own.
One of the eight people on the panel in Davos was Lindiwe Matlali, CEO of the organisation Africa Teen Geeks. She spoke passionately about how her organisation uses coding as a way to open new opportunities for marginalised youth in South Africa. This blog post will explore how key principles from the academic literature on Information and Communications Technology for Development, ICT4D, are applied by the Africa Teen Geeks. It will also explore how ICT4D narratives are used by the organisation and its CEO. Since the CEO is a very public figure, often appearing on TV and panels, some of my analysis will be based on what she says about her organisation. Other parts come from the Africa Teen Geeks website.
Development paradigms and ICT – an extremely brief overview
As described by Emile McAnamy, the so-called modernisation and diffusion paradigm dominated development discourse in the 1960s. The characteristics of this paradigm is the belief in science, technology and mass communication, often top-down, as a key enabler for development and social change. (McAnamy, 2012: 27) James T. Murphy and Padraig R Carmody follow up by arguing that the ICT for development meta-discourse is a version of the modernisation diffusion paradigm, “coupled to neoliberalization in ways that are meant to lead to new materialities of market-led growth and development” (Murphy and Carmody, 2015: xxiii).
As Richard Heeks writes, while ICT for development does not have its own paradigm, it does connect to paradigms “that perceive a new world being created partly or wholly as a result of digital technologies”. He explains three main terminologies; information society, knowledge society (ICT used to create knowledge) and network society (ICT enabling new social structures) (Heeks, 2017: 26). He also describes his views on why many ICT projects fail, providing an overview of ICT strategy and how it may be used in different development areas (Heeks, 2017: 91, 107).
Africa Teen Geeks – exposing South African youth to tech
Africa Teen Geeks, or ATG, was founded in 2015, with the mission to “educate, inspire and equip young people with the skills, resources and experience to pursue STEM careers”, STEM being an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Among the activities on their repertoire are online classes, training sessions for teachers and tech summits for girls.
The organisation refers to data saying that only 5 percent of South African schools offer computer science – leaving many children, especially from poorer communities, out. In addition, gender norms tend to exclude girls from the STEM sector. Africa Teen Geeks may therefore contribute to many of the SDGs, among them SDG1 on No Poverty, SDG4 on Quality Education, SDG5 on Gender Equality, SDG10 on Reduced Inequalities and SDG16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
Africa Teen Geeks claims to have reached 3 800 schools and more than 2 million students in South Africa, working with 21 partners.
ICT4D – not just providing tech
To explain the ICT4D process Heeks lays out these parts of the ICT4D value chain (Heeks, 2017: 39):
- Readiness in the form of infrastructure, skills and policy.
- Availability and uptake: Making ICT available, and making sure it is also adopted by target groups.
- Impact
Looking at ATG, they do not just “provide tech” as Heeks warns of (Heeks, 2017: 107), but have a number of activities aiming to inspire and enable actual usage.
The organisation collaborates with both the Department of Basic Education and the University of South Africa, and they do Train the Trainer classes in coding and robotics, thereby increasing the skills of teachers. These activities would fall under the readiness part, since they approach policy and skills. During covid, ATG provided the so called STEM Digital Schools – online classes via social media and TV and they do holiday coding and robotics classes. These activities help increase the availability of ICT.
Heeks explains the Technology Acceptance Model, and stresses that a number of factors other than the technology itself need to be in place for people to start using it. Some aspects of this model may be used to understand the thinking behind the Africa Teen Geeks Knit2Code programme, where knitting is used to explain the basic principles of coding, which in turn enables older family members to assist children’s learning. Heeks outlines how effort expectancy (ease of use), performance expectancy (perceived benefit), social influence and demographic factors all influence the use of applications. (Heeks, 2017: 121-122) Seen from this perspective, the focus of the Knit2Code programme reduces effort expectancy (since knitting is expected to be perceived as easier than computer programming) and increases social influence by involving the main target groups’ grandmothers in the programme.
At the press conference and in interviews from the World Economic Forum 2023, CEO Lindiwe Matlali speaks of how talent and skills is just one part of the success – one thing just as important is social capital. (21 minutes in this clip, and 1.40 minutes in this one)
The perceived need for networks is met by ATG by organising the Girl Geek Summit, which has reportedly allowed more than 150 000 girls from marginalised communities to be exposed to or meet female leaders working with science, technology, engineering or maths. The focus on social capital and networking connects to the view on “network being seen as the dominant form of human organisation”, and ICT as enabling the formation of new social structures, as explained by Heeks (2017: 26).
Coding in Africa by Africans – for Africans?
Abeba Birhane stresses that stereotypes influence what we regard as problems, and therefore shape the technical solutions developed to help us solve them (Birhane, 2019). Amy O’Donnell and Caroline Sweetman also discuss bias in tech, where men have (most of) the jobs and develop (most of) the tools, causing tools for women to be slower to be developed. (O’Donnell and Sweetman, 2018: 221) And while there is a gender gap in access, there is an even greater one in production, affecting who ICT is produced for, and what norms are reproduced (O’Donnell and Sweetman, 2018: 217).
I would argue that this view is applicable not only to gender, but also to geography, and it is clearly adopted by ATG’s CEO Lindiwe Matlali. She underlines how teaching children how to code benefits not only the individual child, but also the community, and perhaps even the whole continent, surrounding it:
“If we say we need to change the trajectory of Africa when it comes to innovation, where we can start creating our own technology or system that works for us, that are built by us, for us, we need to start creating a generation of young people that know that it is possible” (around 55 seconds in this clip)
Gender, digital divides and ICT
Both Heeks and O’Donnell and Sweetman address the digital divides, stressed by Heeks as actually being a plural, where multiple divisions, such as income, gender, age, education, ethnicity, geography and disability, all influence people’s access to digitalisation (Heeks, 2017: 85-86). Narrowing the gap between those who are connected and those who are not, then becomes crucial for the central commitment of the SDG Agenda: to Leave No-One Behind (O’Donnell and Sweetman, 2018: 219).
But for this gap to close, we have a long way to go. O’Donnell and Sweetman state that mobile ownership is at 87 percent in Europe, but only at 50 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa (O’Donnell and Sweetman, 2018: 219). They also discuss gendered aspects of ICT, stating that for ICTs to “reach their full potential as a force for change, a feminist and social justice approach is needed” (O’Donnell and Sweetman, 2018: 217).
ATG attempts to close the digital divides in a number of their activities. The Knit2Code programme addresses the digital divides of both gender and geography. Linking coding – a highly male associated practice – to knitting which is primarily associated with women, is a way of transgressing gender norms influencing the tech business. Meanwhile, the usage of balls of yarn allows children to practise the basics of coding although they may lack internet access.
With their Girl Geek Summit, where girls are exposed to successful women of the tech industry, ATG attacks the male domination of the industry. The profiling of their female CEO is another example of how the organisation challenges gender norms (although the rest of the team is male, according to the website).
But there are also signs of adaptation to current norms in the narratives used. In an article on OECD Forum, Lindiwe Matlali writes that online learning may increase girls’ possibilities to learn, since it can be combined with their “responsibilities at home”. Does this kind of narrative really pave the way for transformative change when it comes to gender inequalities?
The tech optimism section or “Can cheap books cure illiteracy?”
The ambitions of Africa Teen Geeks must be described as very high. The front page of their website states that they are a “dream factory” helping children imagine the future, “and then we teach them to embrace it”.
“Thank you for the opportunity to learn to code. Without Africa Teen Geeks I would not have had an opportunity to learn how to code. I now believe that with technology, I can change the world”, says a quote from a former student on the website.
In the article published on the OECD Forum, the CEO Lindiwe Matlali, writes of the potential to reduce poverty by teaching girls to innovate.
The fact that educating girls leads to positive development for whole societies might be one of the least controversial in the development sector. Meanwhile, this focus on girls as innovators risks shifting the focus from structural change and justice, to individual achievements – illustrated by this quote from the article: ”What is also needed are programmes that focus on developing girls’ leadership skills, critical thinking abilities and problem-solving skills, so we can empower them to take charge of their own lives and to innovate themselves out of poverty.”
Many of those who write about ICT4D warn us of “tech optimism”. Murphy and Carmody discuss how ICT discourse in the development community has been one of great optimism and belief that the spread of ICT in itself will spur positive development in a number of sectors such as education, poverty and gender equality (Murphy and Carmody, 2015:10-11). Murphy and Carmody quote Wade who states that the belief that ICT will enable marginalised communities to “leapfrog over the more familiar development problems” is like “saying that cheap books can cure illiteracy”. (Murphy and Carmody, 2015:13)
ICT tools can help people learn how to absorb knowledge generated elsewhere and combine it with local needs and local knowledge, and they can help raise real economic returns on investments; but they are being touted in the development community as though they can leapfrog over the more familiar development problems. This is like saying that cheap books can cure illiteracy
Wade, 2002: 443
Murphy and Carmody write that while ICT is presented as a way to cure poverty, it is in reality primarily used to “promote capital accumulation” (Murphy and Carmody, 2015: 44) ATG lists a number of partners, among them multinational companies such as Amazon and Facebook, but have not published an annual report listing their funding channels, making it difficult to determine the interests of their stakeholders.
We identify the unicorns and provide them with what they need
Africa Teen Geeks CEO Lindiwe Matlali
In an interview with Newzroom Afrika, CEO Lindiwe Matlali says that “We identify the unicorns and provide them with what they need” (2.34 in this clip) This indicates that the organisation’s goal seems to not only be to reach all kids from marginalised areas with quality education and access to ICT, but also to identify very talented kids among marginalised groups – and thereby increasing the access to talent for companies.
A perhaps cynical question to ask would be: are the main target groups of ATG the children they teach to code – or the global companies looking for new talent?
What did I learn? Concluding reflections on the blogging exercise.
In my professional life, I write quite a lot – but very rarely the personal format that blogging allows. The blog exercise has therefore been an interesting means for me to challenge and develop my writing, by attempting to apply personality to the text, both in opinions and format.
A key challenge has been to, at the start of the project, decide on one topic to elaborate on through all three individual blog posts. I had seen Apple’s Mother nature video and I was aware of the upcoming EU legislation on corporate sustainability due diligence, which has spurred a lot of debate. I therefore wanted to explore how corporate social responsibility connects to corporate communications, and the SDGs. But I had not yet come across the Africa Teen Geeks. Initially, I had intended the final post to explore how ICT might be used to scrutinise companies that violate human rights or the environment, to close the circle on ICT and corporate social responsibility. But I never managed to find a solid enough example, with enough information published online. So in the end, I gave up on this idea.
From my perspective, our group work has functioned very well. Most of us are used to collaborating, setting up plans and following them from our professional lives. These are experiences that we have now applied. We have had a couple of online meetings and a very lively ongoing discussion on WhatsApp. In the WhatsApp thread, we have managed to uphold a good spirit by supporting and helping each other, even at times when deadlines have been tight. Since we share a common interest in communication for development, but have different professional backgrounds, we have all seen the blogging project as an opportunity to develop and learn from each other.
Literature
Birhane, Abeba (2019): The Algorithmic Colonization of Africa, Real Life Mag, 9 July.
Heeks, Richard (2017): Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D). 1st ed. Routledge Perspectives on Development Ser. Taylor & Francis Group. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.mau.se/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,url,shib&db=cat05074a&AN=malmo.b2227599&site=eds-live&scope=site
O’Donnell, Amy & Caroline Sweetman (2018): Introduction: Gender, development and ICTs, Gender & Development, 26:2, 217-229, DOI: 10.1080/13552074.2018.1489952
McAnany, Emile G. (2012): Saving the World: A Brief History of Communication for Development and Social Change. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/malmo/reader.action?docID=3414195&ppg=1
Murphy, James T., and Padraig R. Carmody (2015): Africa’s Information Revolution: Technical Regimes and Production Networks in South Africa and Tanzania, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/malmo/detail.action?docID=1926539
Wade, R. H. (2002): Bridging the Digital Divide: New Route to Development or New Form of Dependency?. Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, 8(4), 443-466. https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-00804005