12 April 2001

U.S. Program Helping to Bridge Digital Divide with Africa

(Education for Development and Democracy Initiative)
By Charles W. Corey
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The Education for Development and Democracy Initiative (EDDI) is strengthening the education, democratization, and development partnership between the United States and the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, bringing new skills and technologies to the continent and helping to bridge the digital divide -- the gap in the use of computer technology between developed and developing nations.

Dr. Sarah E. Moten, who coordinates the program, told the Washington File in a recent interview that EDDI is especially important because unlike many other U.S. assistance programs, which are conceived of and directed from Washington, EDDI is an Africa-led initiative.

"We try to lead at the direction of the Africans," Moten said, while explaining that the program, which was founded in March 1998, has as its primary focus the education and training of girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa.

"On the African continent, education of the female has not been the priority. With this initiative," she added, "we have been able to make that a priority."

EDDI promotes partnership on a broad array of levels: school to school, university to university, and university to community. In addition, it fosters democracy partnerships between professionals and technology partnerships. EDDI also helps establish community resource centers and build entrepreneurial skills while enhancing female empowerment.

Moten said EDDI conducts training and education through the use of information technology, sponsors partnerships between educational institutions in the United States and Africa at all levels, and provides comprehensive scholarships for African girls. Those scholarships, she said, not only pay school fees but also provide funds for school uniforms, school supplies, and transportation costs.

As part of the scholarship program, which operates at the primary, secondary, and tertiary education levels, there is also a mentoring program to help scholarship recipients, Moten added.

Many of the scholarship recipients, according to Moten, are girls who have never been to school or girls who have only been educated to the third grade before being pulled out and made to go to work. Young girls are often withdrawn from school at a very young age by their families, she said, because families often think that only boys should be provided with a long-term education.

Conventional thinking, Moten said, very often favors educating only boys, because families frequently think that boys will help support the family while girls will just "get married and have babies."

What is so special about the EDDI program, she said, is that it has allowed its development professionals the ability to meet some of the continent's changing developmental needs and goals by being both flexible and creative.

One way that is being done, she said, is through the establishment of six "multifaceted" resource centers across Nigeria. These centers, according to Moten, will educate and train women on information technology; host community meetings and HIV/AIDS education sessions; and provide a resource center and training in accounting, marketing, and pricing for market women. The first center will be in Abuja, she said.

Entrepreneurial skills, Moten said, are also being taught to EDDI students from throughout Africa at the Ron Brown Institute in Johannesburg -- which was named in memory of the late U.S. secretary of commerce.

"This is to give additional training and hands-on experience to young people who are working in business and young entrepreneurs who would benefit from additional training and experience," which would come from working with participating U.S. corporations in South Africa, she said.

Some of those participating companies in South Africa, Moten said, are Xerox, Kodak, and IBM.

To further illustrate how the U.S. private sector is helping in Africa, Moten cited an EDDI program in Angola which is being operated in cooperation with the U.S. oil company Texaco. With Texaco's assistance, Moten said, EDDI helped establish a training and education academy for girls. That institution will train 100 girls each year in skills such as information technology, sewing, and poultry farming and will hopefully keep them from being forced by their economic plight into prostitution, she added. In Swaziland, Moten said, Microsoft is helping train Swazi girls in information technology in a similar program.

Detailing EDDI's school-to-school partnership program, Moten cited one such program now operating between the Fred Lynn Middle School in Woodbridge, Virginia, and St. Michael's School in Swaziland. Thanks to EDDI, she said, the schools are now linked via computers, which enable the students and faculty to talk daily with one another.

"We put these two schools together," Moten pointed out. "They are now communicating, teachers and students, via the computer ... and videoconferencing. To me, that is working to bridge the digital divide."

Concluding, Moten said, "What this EDDI program demonstrates is that there are positive things taking place in Africa that U.S. government funds are making happen."

Moten acknowledged that EDDI programs are operating at varying levels in many African countries. "I equate it to a tree with roots. We are able to go deep in some countries and put significant monies in, but also, with the branches, are able to reach far and wide."

What is most important about the program, she said, is that "we insist upon sustainability" and coupling with the private sector to ensure that the program has a long lifespan to help generations to come.

EDDI is coordinated by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Peace Corps in consultation with African Education ministers and the U.S. and African private sectors. The U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, and Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency also support EDDI.

The countries in which EDDI is operating are Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)