As I announced a few days ago, Lesotho is looking into how ICT, information and communications technology, can be introduced into the country successfully. More Basotho than not should welcome the move, whose driving force is centred in the desire to improve Basotho lives through technology. But where are we today? And will the project be a success?

Lesotho isn’t the only country considering e-governance and e-administration, as well as other e-things such as e-learning and e-surgery. France for example is right in the midst of implementing its e-gouvernement and téléservices programs. In that direction, France has already done more than Lesotho, but less than the United States, for example. On a French e-administration site a nota-bene says,

Cette rubrique vous donne accès à des services en ligne qui vous permettront d’effectuer, sans déplacement, tout ou partie de votre démarche auprès d’une administration.
Then the page goes on to list the services involved: Documents, Taxes, Employment, Family, The Civil Service, Justice, Housing, Retirement, Social Security, Non-governmental Volunteers, with each of these headings having the relevant links below it. It seems to me that such a list would be decorative in Lesotho if efforts are not first directed at basic considerations, like first supplying the material in order to better place that ubiquitous “e” in front of the word “population.” It stands to reason.

Basotho will not use technology to pay their taxes if they don’t already use it to order pizzas. Technology has to be popularised first; and for that to happen, the government and its friends have to put their hands in their pockets to extend the broad-band network to the remoter towns and villages, make sure schools have computers and teach information technology, but wait… even before then, the government has to make sure that everybody can get electricity and have a telephone in their home, because without them nobody will be able to run a computer or hook a modem to it. Unless using newer technologies, such as WiFi, can be a short-cut to this ideal.

Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for “Wireless Fidelity”, is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications. New standards beyond the 802.11 specifications, such as 802.16 are currently in the works, they offer many enhancements, anywhere from longer range to greater transfer speeds.

Wi-Fi was intended to be used for wireless devices and LANs, but is now often used for Internet access. It enables a person with a wireless-enabled computer or personal digital assistant to connect to the Internet when in proximity of an access point called a hotspot.
[ Source… ]

In May 2000 I went home to Lesotho after an extended absence of ten full years. I had initially run away in 1980, then visited in 1990, and was then visiting again. I was astounded at the high number of people using “cells,” or mobile phones. Everybody just seemed to have one, and in many homes, there were still no fixed-line telephones. And I seem to think there never will. Basotho had in fact jumped a step, going from no phone to mobile phone, without having to first cable the country for fixed-line networks. We’d jumped a step and saved us a lot of money and headaches. How do you network a mountainous country if you’re not Switzerland? You don’t. You find an alternative technology. Could this approach help Basotho get accustomed to using computers and the Internet, much as the GSM technology has provided them with cheaper and faster telephoning technology?

Can we really “e” everything? E-learning? E-justice? E-voting? E-bar? E-sex? By the e-time we’re e-through, e-very E-nglish e-word will e-begin with an “e.” If we can’t really do that with words, perhaps we can with actions. In practice, therefore, we’re able to study by means of WBT, or web-based training, and call it e-learning. In some countries, votes can be cast through a web-browser in an undertaking known as e-voting. We use “e” because it stands for electronic. That’s great for Latin-oriented folks like speakers of English (Yes) and French and Spanish and Italian and so on. How should non-Latin oriented people like speakers of Urdu and Sesotho and Swahili and Amharic and so on tackle the situation? That initial letter, however, is slowly dissociating itself from its mother word, and is moving toward full independence, in which case we, too, can stick it in front of any of our words and know exactly what it means.

What’s E-justice? Here are some of the objectives of Lesotho’s E-justice Group: “To facilitate putting in place an efficient and effective case management system that will avoid loss of court records and dockets, misfiling, misplacement of records and dockets and coordinate the police, prosecution, the court and prisons officers in handling court cases and administering justice; to facilitate provision of an Intranet system in the court of Appeal, High Court and all Subordinate Courts. All ten districts of Lesotho will be provided with a computer network system in order to facilitate information flow on matters of administration of justice, decided cases and improved communication on legal issues by the legal fraternity and the public; to facilitate training of personnel in Law Enforcement Agencies, including Judges, their Secretaries, their Registrars and all Judiciary Staff that uses computers on case tracking, downloading of case information and general intra communication among courts.”

The goals are convincing enough but I expect the group, as well as other e-government departments, to come up against obstacles, or at least an obstacle. Traditionally, Basotho live in such and such a village, not at such and such a number on such and such a street. Some people live on streets, to be sure, but the vast majority of Basotho live in villages. That compromises the issue of technological identity to a considerable extent. Where do you send a bill? Where exactly does the bearer of an identity card live? Where does the pizza delivery person take the double-cheese order? And what hut will the police swat-team target?

In short, most of this e-stuff is more than welcome, but aren’t we flushing money down the loo by not preparing deeply enough for such a change? Let’s identify everybody first, let’s name the streets and number the huts first. By making it possible to analyse and classify legal documents, by making it simpler for common folk to access such documents, and by encouraging communication among legal authorities, an E-justice system can actually reinforce the rule of law. So, thumbs up, Lesotho, go for it. But please do so only when potential trouble spots, like the above-mentioned identity issue, have been duly identified and eliminated.

When you look at it hard enough and long enough, introducing ICT into Lesotho successfully is as simple as ABC… D. In other words, the procedure must go from A to B to C to D before we can say we have successfully reached E, or the e-world, with its e-learning, e-government, e-voting and so on.

The Lesotho government must first provide ADSL for all. That’s the first step. ADSL stands for "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line," which just means a fast method of moving data over regular telephone lines. We say it’s asymmetric because downloading (theoheliso) is accorded more bandwidth than uploading (nyololiso). If the people for whom the ICT program is intended have no phone lines in their homes, the rules of the game require the program manager, hence the government, to first connect them. We may indeed have to start not with A for ADSL but with T for telephone.

The ICT program in question must necessarily be for Basotho, the people of Lesotho. That seems obvious, but what I mean is that it must not be for show or for the IMF or for whatever body but the body of the citizens of the Kingdom of Lesotho. Any such endeavour that is not based on the requirements of the Basotho people is doomed to failure even before it begins.

The C may be the most important piece of the puzzle, because a puzzle it is. The intended users and beneficiaries of the ICT program must be able to afford it. I’m afraid that means it must be dirt cheap. If it isn’t, then the B part remains unfulfilled. Only the rich would then access the eventual services. And we would have wasted energy and resources in providing a service to people who can afford to buy it or who have already bought it. Let the ICT program be accessible to the entire population of Lesotho. Find ways of making it cheap. Dirt cheap.

With its 30,355 sq km, Lesotho is a small country. But the distance between two points can actually be farther because of mountainous terrain and lack of speedy transport. Any ICT program worthy of the appellation must first proclaim, as one of its aims, the bridging of the distance between Basotho and services. For example, distance education would be a good thing to shoot for. It suddenly becomes easier to take the classroom to the village square, instead of transporting the village into the classroom. E-voting is another aim. Take the voting booth to the remotest parts of the country, and even all over the world. Allow all Basotho to vote. Being one of the those who live abroad, I fall into this category, but see no difference between a villager on a mountain-top in Lesotho and me. We both just need to vote, full-stop.

And only then can we start talking about e-this and e-that. We cannot reach that stage without going from A to B to C to D. Getting an ICT program to function and be beneficial to Basotho and Lesotho is as simple as ABC… D.