Moutse LL:Project Overview

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Contents 1 Background and Contact 2 Vision 3 Mission 4 Location 5 The Community 6 What problem is being addressed? 7 Proposed Solution 8 Technology Explained 9 Social Challenges 10 Technical Challenges 11 Equipment Ownership 12 Intellectual Property 13 Robustness and Sustainability

Background and Contact

The Ndlovu Care Group (NCG) resorts under the Ndlovu Medical Trust, a trust established in 1999 to initiate, administer, control and implement community health programs, initially in the Moutse area, Limpopo, South Africa. At this stage NCG works in three provinces, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

Liesje and Hugo Tempelman, a Dutch professional nurse and a doctor, arrived in South Africa in 1990. Hugo worked for the Department of Health in KwaNdebele for four years, first as a medical officer and later as the Assistant Superintendent of Philadelphia Hospital in Dennilton. He worked at the Department of Health as head of Paramedical Services and was responsible for the development of primary health-care facilities. In 1994, Liesje and Hugo built their own medical clinic, Ndlovu Medical Centre (NMC), in Elandsdoorn, Moutse, Limpopo province), an area with about 150,000 rural inhabitants. About 80% of the (medical) care is HIV/AIDS related. For their outstanding results, Hugo and Liesje were honoured with two CPSI-Awards of the South African government in November 2008. Moreover, in November 2009, they were awarded the prestigious EURIADE Martin Buber Plaquette, previously awarded to for example Michael Gorbatsjov, Richard von Weizsäcker and Helmut Schmidt.

NMC started off as private practice and soon Hugo and Liesje realized the limitations of working in a resource poor setting where people cannot afford their own health care. The Moutse area, in rural Limpopo, is a very underprivileged area with little existing community infrastructure. Therefore they created a trust for community health projects (Ndlovu Medical Trust) and a trust for community development projects (Elandsdoorn Development Trust), both registered as NPO’s with the Directorate of Non Profit Organizations. NCG Elandsdoorn was the first NGO in the country creating a formal partnership with the Department of Health (1996) around Tuberculosis Care. In 2003 they were also frontrunners in the implementation of an HIV/AIDS Treatment program in the ‘political hot days’ around the provision of Anti Retro Virals in a free roll out program to the community.

Presently NCG Elandsdoorn employs around 320 people in medical and community development programs, has initiated over 2500 patients on Anti Retro Viral Treatment and provides lots of services to the community (Elandsdoorn Bakery, Johan Cruijff Sportgrounds, The Miracle Theatre, Nutritional Units, Preschools, School Dental Services, Waste Removal Project, etc) NCG has modeled its work into the Ndlovu Concept (read the NCG Strategic Plan 2008-2012) and tries to implement NCG’s all over the country in cooperation with the relevant Governmental Departments and with Corporate Sponsors in a true Public Private Partnership. Currently the two sites that are up and running are NCG Elandsdoorn (Limpopo) and NCG Lillydale Bhubezi CHC (Mpumalanga). The third clinic under construction is NCG Utah in the Boshabelo District (Mpumalanga).

The NCG model is based on a community approach to a holistic development program:

• Integrated Prevention, PHC/TB/HIV/AIDS and Adherence Management.
• Childcare.
• Community Development and entrepreneurial Skills development.

On top of this, recently a small wireless network was established with the support of Intel, connecting NMC with the four nutritional centres, the computer centre and the OR Tambo Highschool school in the area. Intel donated 50 PCs and 30 ClassMates, a server and content from Intel’s School Project to OR Tambo Highschool. The Meraka Institute placed a Digital Doorway unit at OR Tambo Highschool. Moreover, a direct wireless link to the Meraka Institute will be established. With this emerging ICT infrastructure in place, the Meraka Institute will research community driven ICT enabled quality improvements in health, education and entrepreneurship. Implementation of research results will depend on further partners/funders. The concept of Living Labs was introduced in the Moutse Project in 2006. In essence, Living Labs are systemic initiatives, which focus on creating multistakeholder collaboration in different stages of the research, development and innovation (RDI) processes. In Living Labs, users or citizens are seen as a source of new innovations, as co-creators of new services and products, typically linked to the creation or application of ICTs or ICT-enabled services. Living Labs are platforms for exploring these opportunities in various areas; for instance in healthcare, education, e-commerce, job creation, transport, tourism development, energy production, etc.

The Moutse LL is managed by Henry Marnitz of the Ndlovu Care Group (NGC).

• Phone: 082-883-5617
• Email: mailto:henry@ndlovu.com
• Web: http://www.ndlovucaregroup.com

Vision

• Empowering Towards Wellness, driven by community priorities.
• Creating platforms that are accessible by the community, enabling them to create a better life in a poverty stricken area.

Mission

The purpose of the LLiSA network is to create capacity for all the Living Labs in Southern Africa, understanding, establishing and developing Living Lab activities, support pilot projects and to facilitate local and international collaboration and linkages. It will link interested developers, research organisations, industry and government bodies together for advancing regional Living Lab initiatives.

Location

Elandsdoorn – Moutse District, Limpopo Province (as for now).

The Community

The Community is very poor, 85% of the community relies on government grants for income. Currently employment opportunities only exist at small government offices, farms, the Ndlovu Care Group and at the Moutse mall (recently constructed). The tribal authorities are eager to participate in the project but caution should be taken not to create the wrong expectations. A very large portion of the community is PC illiterate and therefore the need to rectify this was identified some years ago and the NCG computer school was established to try and fill the gap in this area. In general women are more active in this community than the men and therefore should be targeted for involvement. The NCG employs a community liaison officer designated to negotiate and communicate with the community. No proper community and NCG-wide base-line study was carried out yet.

What problem is being addressed?

• Health: as for now, the ICT infrastructure is only used to improve communication between nutritional centers and the clinic as there are still issues regarding telemedicine and local government.
• Education: we hope to provide 5 more local schools with connectivity to have access to an intranet and internet and also e-learning.
• Jobs: by enabling the community to use the mesh we create a platform where entrepreneurs could find innovative ways to earn a living and create jobs. For this to succeed ideas should come from the community as this skill can’t just be taught.
• Communication: the mesh offers a cost effective way for the community to communicate locally with services such as VoIP.

Proposed Solution

The Meraka Institute developed a general Living Labs Research Strategy (link to uploaded and updated document will be provided soon).

The Meraka research is aimed at enabling the manufacture of user-driven innovative products and services which, when applied to the real-life problems, can result in positive change and learning for the people. The project entails establishing a platform where affordable ICT infrastructure can provide access to information, education, and healthcare. Through developing and evaluating innovative applications and services, contribute to social inclusion, local economic development and ICT innovation. As seen in the European living labs this approach has led to socio-economic development that is driven primarily by community participation; long-term innovativeness powered by joint but equal partnership between government, business, civil society and academia. Thus from a research point of view the following key objectives should standout:

• To establish a centre of gravity enabling interdisciplinary community-academia-industry-institution interaction that has influence on the national agenda for innovation.
• To build a critical mass consisting of infrastructure, R&D, students and leadership.
• To support the build up of a Southern Africa network of living labs.
• To leverage existing interests from around the world (such as involvement of C@R EU rural living lab, digital doorway infrastructure, Intel, COFISA, SAFIPA, Motorola, etc.).
• To develop new technology solutions and innovations, capable of solving societal issues in the South African context.

Based on their general Living Labs Research Strategy, specifically with respect to the Moutse LL, the Meraka Institute is in a process of identifying priority subjects, also based on a planned community interaction process.

In the mean time, the following developments can be reported:

• The NCG and the Limpopo Government – also through the Finnish/Limpopo INSPIRE programme - are working on a collaboration agreement between the Limpopo Living Labs programme and the Moutse Living Lab in areas of health, education and entrepreneurship.
• The Moutse area has been selected as one of the priority areas for Meraka’s Broadband for All/Village Operators (BB4ALL/VO) programme. Apart from identifying and training young potential entrepreneurs at five schools in the area, it will also lead to connecting those schools to the existing wireless mesh and providing PCs and further necessary ICT infrastructure to those schools (link to the BB4ALL project will be provided soon).
• A substantial funding proposal has been submitted to SAFIPA to assist with the development of the Moodle resources (teachers), fund students for their masters degree as well as technical expertise from CSIR developers and maintainers of the mesh network in the area, establishing a grass-root educational component of the Moutse Living Lab.
• A Digital Door unit was deployed to the OR Tambo Highschool.
• Twelve teachers of the OR Tambo Highschool received basic PC literacy training, facilitated by Intel and the Moutse District Education Department.
• The Principal of the OR Tambo Highschool will soon give feedback on priority needs from the school’s perspective with regard to further training of the teachers in order to implement ICT4Education in the school.
• Cynthia’s Orphanage in Elandsdoorn received two of the by Intel donated PCs and will soon be connected to the local wireless mesh network.
• The Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA) of the Department of Education of the University of Pretoria have expressed their interest to get involved in the Moutse Living Lab educational activities. Their areas of expertise comprise base-line studies, monitoring and proposals for necessary interventions when introducing ICT4Education at schools.

Technology Explained

The Connectivity Concept

The Local WiFi Mesh

Present situation:

The WiFi Backhaul Network

(Picture still to be included)

Digital Doorway

For further information about the Digital Doorway and connection to the local mesh technology see:

• http://www.digitaldoorway.org.za
• http://wirelessafrica.meraka.org.za/wiki/index.php

The Digital Doorway consists of one server, two fat clients, and one mindset satellite receiver. In future DD's will be connected to a local MESH network as shown in the diagram below.

Social Challenges

Like stated before, the community is poor, most people don’t own a PC. Solutions to this might well be having a number of centers in the area offering computer services at reasonable prices. NCG currently operates a computer school that offers basic PC literacy training. We are also working on getting this center SETA accredited. The school also operates as an internet café. Other than this NCG plans to transform the Nutritional Centers Into Life Skill Centers where PCs may also be provided for use to the community. Currently people in the area are fighting to get Moutse reincorporated into the Mpumalanga Province, while others are fighting to stay in Limpopo Province. This situation resulted due to Government not consulting the community before incorporating Moutse into Limpopo. People argue that there is poor service delivery under Limpopo governance and as a result several strikes have occurred in the area, forcing local businesses to close while the strikes were in progress.

Technical Challenges

• Technical knowledge regarding the mesh still needs to be transferred.
• Better user interfaces should still be developed and implemented
• The cost of hardware is still high, considering the average income in Moutse

Equipment Ownership

The equipment was donated to the Elandsdoorn Development Trust (EDT), now part of the NCG. This means that the equipment ultimately belongs to the people of Elandsdoorn, but will be managed by the NCG.

Intellectual Property

The NCG only requires that existing research lines be protected, for example “Impact of aid awareness programmes on prevention of HIV”. This should be kept in mind when doing research on the health aspects.

Robustness and Sustainability

Some people may argue that in South Africa the tendency is to focus on developing IP and business models in order to protect and promote local products. In the Living Lab however, much more emphasis is on 'evidence-based policy formulation' due to high interdependence between people and the environment in which they live. At the same time projects should be aligned to but not dependant on government. Past experiences show that allocating too much money in the beginning can result in failure. Therefore in order to avoid a possible negative influence on ownerships it is necessary to distribute reasonable amounts of funds over a period of time. Human capital building is essential to build and use of volunteers or champions has shown to be a successful model. Stakeholders should be involved from early on in a project to build partnerships but sustainability can only come over a period of 7-15 years. Also impact assessment is important to ensure sustainability over along period of time.

Nevertheless, funding will always remain an issue, as this project currently generates no income. Connecting the mesh to a service provider from a commercial point of view still requires funding from external sources. Introducing the BB4ALL Village Operaors/Infopreneurs might see this outlook change if we can get the buy in from government.