Matti Sinko sent a recorded lecture to us on-line from the UN-ECA, UN African headquarters in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. I didn't know that years there have 13 months, and that clocks show their own time.
Africa is a big continent, and there is many countries, but in general people there have gotten themselves mobile phones, but there is still areas out of network. As well as wealth connectivity differs from area to area, and specially between urban and rural areas.
A few terms that came up and that I want to present are: "Leapfrogging" and "Fast-tracking". "Leapfrogging" means that countries jump over technology generations, like going directly to mobile phones, instead of first installing land lines. "Fast-tracking" means speeding up certain developments to accelerate economic growth. Both held back by the level of education, and it takes time to reform an education system and implicate it. Coveredge of primar education is relatively good, but secondary and tertiary education lacks resources. Also the lifelong learning should be looked into, as also there ITC could provide help.
Two videos about ITC in Africa:
The World Bank - Towards 2020: ICT in Action in Rwanda
Africa Goes Digital
References & further reading:
-UN 2000. Millennium Declaration and The Millenium Development Goals.
-UNCTAD 2010. Information economy report. 2010.
-UNECA / ITCA 2010. African e-Learning Initiative
-UNESCO. 2000. Education for All.
-Fredriksson, Torbjörn 2010. UNCTAD’s Information Economy report 2010 launch. Powerpointpresentation. http://www.unctad.org
-ITU 2010. ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database.
-Nokia 2009. Affordable mobile communications, TCO study 2008. Nokia - Expanding Horizons
Links:
Kiva - loans that change lives
Measuring-ict.unctad.org - Measturing the information society
lördag 18 december 2010
söndag 5 december 2010
On: Workshop: Transportation
Antti Ruotoistenmäki from Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli, Aalto University gave a workshop in transportation.
We pared up to come up with ideas for new personal transport. My group chose the question private car vs. shared car and came up with Super carpool, a on-line application and a company that takes care of rental cars, electric cars. The idea would be that everyone having a profile in the application could offer their car for carpooling or ask for a ride, if no-one that wants to go the same distance has a car one person would pick up a company car and then the other people for the ride. The service could be used both for daily commuting and work- and leisure trips, it would be geographically fixed, but could span a network over many countries and in multiple languages, so that also visitors to a country could use it. The users would pay by km through the application and the ones offering their cars would get discount for less polluting cars.
Gimme a ride! There are cars driving here and there all the time. And quite some uses of them have been invented. Hiching a ride has decreased in popularity as cars have become more common, but it's still possible to get anywhere you want, if you dare to try. In some places any car is a black taxi, in others drivers look for possible passengers. Some people that go the same way to work might carpool, The amount of rides parents give their children should not be underestimated, take me to trainings take me to school.
Hichwiki - How to hichhike
Mitfahrgelegenheit - Arrange a ride, big in Germany
Carpoolworld - Get around
CityCarClub - Laina-auto pääkaupunkiseudulta
Aalto EcoMobility Initiative - Liikkumistarpeen vähentäminen
We pared up to come up with ideas for new personal transport. My group chose the question private car vs. shared car and came up with Super carpool, a on-line application and a company that takes care of rental cars, electric cars. The idea would be that everyone having a profile in the application could offer their car for carpooling or ask for a ride, if no-one that wants to go the same distance has a car one person would pick up a company car and then the other people for the ride. The service could be used both for daily commuting and work- and leisure trips, it would be geographically fixed, but could span a network over many countries and in multiple languages, so that also visitors to a country could use it. The users would pay by km through the application and the ones offering their cars would get discount for less polluting cars.
Gimme a ride! There are cars driving here and there all the time. And quite some uses of them have been invented. Hiching a ride has decreased in popularity as cars have become more common, but it's still possible to get anywhere you want, if you dare to try. In some places any car is a black taxi, in others drivers look for possible passengers. Some people that go the same way to work might carpool, The amount of rides parents give their children should not be underestimated, take me to trainings take me to school.
Hichwiki - How to hichhike
Mitfahrgelegenheit - Arrange a ride, big in Germany
Carpoolworld - Get around
CityCarClub - Laina-auto pääkaupunkiseudulta
Aalto EcoMobility Initiative - Liikkumistarpeen vähentäminen
torsdag 2 december 2010
On: E-Lecture: Transportation
Dr Khan Rahaman, Assistant Professor, Urban and Rural Planning Discipline
Khulna University, Bangladesh. The lecture on transportation was a on-line lecture live from Canada, and can be rewatched from this link. In the lecture he compared transport solutions of Asia, Europe and North America. He is very keen on developing public transport and doesn't own a car, even if it makes it hard to get around in Canada.
Some main points about urban transportation planning:
1) Etablishing a vision, what does the community want
2) Understanding, how to reach the vision
3) Assessing opportunities and limitations, how to reach the system performance
4) Identifying short- and long-term consequences, what are the different alternatives
5) Relating the different alternatives, likns between goals, objectives and so on
6) Presenting the plan, to decision makers
7) Helping decision makers, to establish priorities and develop an investment program
(Urban Transportation Planning, a decision-oriented approach / Michael D. Meyer, Eric J. Miller. New York, 2001)
Urban transport planning is about all means of getting around in the city. Passanger cars are responsible for 75% of passanger kilometres travelled, and less than 10% of journeys are made by pyblic transport and less than 5% by bike. As car occupancy is close to one it means that cities fill up with cars, a need for sustainable urban transport planning is awakening.
Sustainable Urban Transport focuses on access and mobility rather than the movement of vehicles. It provides access for all groups of the society, keeps within the environmental carrying capacity and is affordable to both providers and users. Sustainable Urban Transport allows generation of economic growth, without compromising economic and social dimensions, to a point beyond repair. Sustainable urban transport is a pre-condition for improved quality of life and the SUT sustems combine technological and non-technological measures to enhance the sustainability of transport systems.
I think it's hard to compete with the private cars, but the struggle is still easier in the tight urban areas where parking is a much bigger issue than on the countryside, where distances are lond and you can park anywhere. As looking for parking takes time walking or biking short distances is much handier. Walking and biking can also be combined with public transport. The questions are how far would you walk and do you want to own a bike or rather borrow one on the fly?
Khulna University, Bangladesh. The lecture on transportation was a on-line lecture live from Canada, and can be rewatched from this link. In the lecture he compared transport solutions of Asia, Europe and North America. He is very keen on developing public transport and doesn't own a car, even if it makes it hard to get around in Canada.
Some main points about urban transportation planning:
1) Etablishing a vision, what does the community want
2) Understanding, how to reach the vision
3) Assessing opportunities and limitations, how to reach the system performance
4) Identifying short- and long-term consequences, what are the different alternatives
5) Relating the different alternatives, likns between goals, objectives and so on
6) Presenting the plan, to decision makers
7) Helping decision makers, to establish priorities and develop an investment program
(Urban Transportation Planning, a decision-oriented approach / Michael D. Meyer, Eric J. Miller. New York, 2001)
Urban transport planning is about all means of getting around in the city. Passanger cars are responsible for 75% of passanger kilometres travelled, and less than 10% of journeys are made by pyblic transport and less than 5% by bike. As car occupancy is close to one it means that cities fill up with cars, a need for sustainable urban transport planning is awakening.
Sustainable Urban Transport focuses on access and mobility rather than the movement of vehicles. It provides access for all groups of the society, keeps within the environmental carrying capacity and is affordable to both providers and users. Sustainable Urban Transport allows generation of economic growth, without compromising economic and social dimensions, to a point beyond repair. Sustainable urban transport is a pre-condition for improved quality of life and the SUT sustems combine technological and non-technological measures to enhance the sustainability of transport systems.
I think it's hard to compete with the private cars, but the struggle is still easier in the tight urban areas where parking is a much bigger issue than on the countryside, where distances are lond and you can park anywhere. As looking for parking takes time walking or biking short distances is much handier. Walking and biking can also be combined with public transport. The questions are how far would you walk and do you want to own a bike or rather borrow one on the fly?
lördag 27 november 2010
On: Workshop: Waste Management
This workshop on sanitation was given by Viivi Hakanen, she gave first a general presentation about Overview of sanitation challenges in developing countries and presented the area we would focus on, Soweto East in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. In the workshop we imagined that we were participants of a UN conference on sanitation and small talked with each other of different questions on sanitation. After every topic people were asked to write down some thoughts and key words, and stick them to the wall at the question. When all the topics were through we divided into groups that looked deeper into the different answers and then presented the results for the rest of the conference audience.
I was in the group about solid waste management. My suggestion for Soweto East would be to educate children to educate their families about waste management, at school waste would be minimized, sorted in the classrooms and recycled. The children would also be asked what kind of trash they have at home and what they do about that.
At the same time a mapping of current recycling workers and litter pickers would be made, that would also look at how solid waste is managed in the rest of the city and if Soweto East could link to that wit a few collection points. If that would not be possible it would be good to try to reuse as much as possible of the waste, sort organic waste and compost it or produce bio gas, reuse paper for new paper and find ways to use plastic bags and bottles.
Entrepreneurs in upcycling could show how waste gets value and motivate others to sort their waste, that way plastic bags would not even end up laying around in the mud. My grandma made carpets out of plastic milk bags, that we still have in use at our cottage. I think plastic bags still could be used like that, or form thread for knittings or crocheting.
Some friends of mine in Berlin, Germany and Asturias, Spain are working on a upcycling handbook, I guess spreading these ideas also inspire to action. These are some ideas, for a good project that would go further that the start a lot of community commitment is needed. Some how I feel like a lot of studies should be made, and then the implications, but on another hand it feels like now is the time to act.
Further reeding:
Sandec Training Tool - Version 1.0 - Module 4: Sanitation Systems & Technologies
I was in the group about solid waste management. My suggestion for Soweto East would be to educate children to educate their families about waste management, at school waste would be minimized, sorted in the classrooms and recycled. The children would also be asked what kind of trash they have at home and what they do about that.
At the same time a mapping of current recycling workers and litter pickers would be made, that would also look at how solid waste is managed in the rest of the city and if Soweto East could link to that wit a few collection points. If that would not be possible it would be good to try to reuse as much as possible of the waste, sort organic waste and compost it or produce bio gas, reuse paper for new paper and find ways to use plastic bags and bottles.
Entrepreneurs in upcycling could show how waste gets value and motivate others to sort their waste, that way plastic bags would not even end up laying around in the mud. My grandma made carpets out of plastic milk bags, that we still have in use at our cottage. I think plastic bags still could be used like that, or form thread for knittings or crocheting.
Some friends of mine in Berlin, Germany and Asturias, Spain are working on a upcycling handbook, I guess spreading these ideas also inspire to action. These are some ideas, for a good project that would go further that the start a lot of community commitment is needed. Some how I feel like a lot of studies should be made, and then the implications, but on another hand it feels like now is the time to act.
Further reeding:
Sandec Training Tool - Version 1.0 - Module 4: Sanitation Systems & Technologies
Understanding Small Scale Providers of Sanitation Services: A Case Study of Kibera Water and Sanitation Program - Africa, World Bank, 2005
Living in the Bucket - video
Pictures from Kibera - Matleena
torsdag 25 november 2010
On the papers on: Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries
Municipal solid waste is a growing problem. Due to rapid urbanization, specially with the growth of slums waste management is not keeping pace, and often it is seen more lucrative to provide richer neighbourhoods with good waste management, instead of making any efforts for poor communities. In general the priorities to avoid solid waste should be avoidance, minimisation, reuse, recycling, recovery, treatment and disposal, but is big investments are made for treatment and disposal the eager of making efforts in the first four steps diminishes.
Insufficient solid waste management leads to environmental and health problems. It may pollute air, water and soil while providing food and breeding ground for rodents and vector insects. "Studies have shown that a high percentage of workers handeling refuse, and individuals residing near or on disposal sites, are infected by gastrointestinal parasites, worms and related organisms." (Solid Waste Management, p.8)
In my opinion a key issue is to separate organic waste from non-organic and find a good solution for handling that, the scale can vary between a household compost, or a small biogas plant on the backyard to a municipal composting or biogas plant. Depending on the toilet solution the faeces could be processed in the same municipal plant. If the organic waste and the dirt is separated it becomes easier to handle and recycle rest of the waste, that could either be divided at the source, or picked up daily and collected at a recycle plant.
An interesting project that I got to know about concerning solid waste, and activating people to clean up their surroundings in Let's do it world. The first clean up of a whole country in one day was done in Estonia, where illegal dumps had first been mapped and were during one day taken to collection point were they were picked up to be recycled and disposed. This year actions have been made in New Delhi, India and in May 2011 the campaign will be carried out in Finland.
Pre reading: Solid Waste Management, Sandec Training Tool 1.0 - Module 6, Sandec: Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries, Eawag - Aquatic Research, 2008
Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries, Chris Zurbrugg, SANDEC / EAWAG
Insufficient solid waste management leads to environmental and health problems. It may pollute air, water and soil while providing food and breeding ground for rodents and vector insects. "Studies have shown that a high percentage of workers handeling refuse, and individuals residing near or on disposal sites, are infected by gastrointestinal parasites, worms and related organisms." (Solid Waste Management, p.8)
In my opinion a key issue is to separate organic waste from non-organic and find a good solution for handling that, the scale can vary between a household compost, or a small biogas plant on the backyard to a municipal composting or biogas plant. Depending on the toilet solution the faeces could be processed in the same municipal plant. If the organic waste and the dirt is separated it becomes easier to handle and recycle rest of the waste, that could either be divided at the source, or picked up daily and collected at a recycle plant.
An interesting project that I got to know about concerning solid waste, and activating people to clean up their surroundings in Let's do it world. The first clean up of a whole country in one day was done in Estonia, where illegal dumps had first been mapped and were during one day taken to collection point were they were picked up to be recycled and disposed. This year actions have been made in New Delhi, India and in May 2011 the campaign will be carried out in Finland.
Pre reading: Solid Waste Management, Sandec Training Tool 1.0 - Module 6, Sandec: Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries, Eawag - Aquatic Research, 2008
Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries, Chris Zurbrugg, SANDEC / EAWAG
söndag 21 november 2010
On: Work shop: Electification and motivating sustainable energy solutions
In this work shop we were divided into four groups of four persons. Every group got a case to solve, then they had to present it to one other group, and hear a presentation from another grup trying do find new suggestions to the propositions that then were presented for the whole group. The themes of the cases were: Electrification of a school in a notorious urban slum in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, Alternatives for a large hydro power project in Congo, Electrification of a remote town, Munsyari in a hilly region i North-India and Wells and electrification in rural areas of Burkina Faso.
I was in the group planning electrification of a school in Addis Abeba. We happened to have an Ethiopian guy in our group, so we asked him about weather conditions and what the schools are like. Our plan was to equip the school with solar cell panels, and have a back up generator that could run on bio fuel made locally from faeces and biodegradable waste collected at the school and from the community. The bio fuel could be sold to people in the community for cooking, and they could take advantage of lights at the school by having evening classes there. We also thought a guard would be needed to safeguard both the school and the solar panels. A nice komment was that our plan is a bit overkill, some solar panels would be enough, and if there is cloudy days, then you wouldn't have any lights.
This work shop was nice, since the team worked commonly for one goal, not as in some previous work shops that everybody has an own role to represent. The whole group is also getting more familiar, which makes it easier to joke about things. We were laughing long about micro hydro power stations, that would be so small you would need a microscope.
I was in the group planning electrification of a school in Addis Abeba. We happened to have an Ethiopian guy in our group, so we asked him about weather conditions and what the schools are like. Our plan was to equip the school with solar cell panels, and have a back up generator that could run on bio fuel made locally from faeces and biodegradable waste collected at the school and from the community. The bio fuel could be sold to people in the community for cooking, and they could take advantage of lights at the school by having evening classes there. We also thought a guard would be needed to safeguard both the school and the solar panels. A nice komment was that our plan is a bit overkill, some solar panels would be enough, and if there is cloudy days, then you wouldn't have any lights.
This work shop was nice, since the team worked commonly for one goal, not as in some previous work shops that everybody has an own role to represent. The whole group is also getting more familiar, which makes it easier to joke about things. We were laughing long about micro hydro power stations, that would be so small you would need a microscope.
lördag 20 november 2010
On: Workshop: Energy II
In the Energy lobbing workshop Jukka Paatero divided us into groups and gave every group a task that had to do with introducing electricity in different places. The scales of the places were quite different, our group had the case of electrification of a school, while other groups had whole towns or countries to think about. The hardest quest was to present alternatives for a large hydro power project in Congo.
Our task was to, as energy consultants and planners, try to solve the problem of electrification of a school in a notorious urban slum in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. There was funding for building the school, but the funders demanded that the school would be electrified. The local power company refuces to build electric lines to the school, in the middle of the slum, as it fears excessive misuse of the line.
Our suggestion was to equip the school with solar panels, for which there would be a battery keeping the energy until use in the evening, if there would be access energy it would boil up water for the morning porridge. As a back up for rainy periods there would be a generator that could be run on bio fuel generated at the toilets (there would be both toilets for the school kids and others for residents of the area) and from collected biomass from the neighbourhood. Some of the bio fuel could be sold to the community as well as the fertilizers that arise as bi-product. Other benefits for the community from an electrified school would be that they could have evening classes there. Still we thought the school would need a 24/7 guard to keep an eye so that no-one would steal the solar panels. But maybe this person could concentrate more on care taking and maintenance if everyone understood how good it is for the community to have electricity at the school.
First we precented for another group, that got some time to make suggestions of how to make our system even better, and then we presented to the whole group. Our presentation got the comment that it was "overkill" and we were asked if we ever thought that on rainy days there just would not be any lights. The bio fuel plant was seen as a good idea, it would probably be popular if the toilet was good and if people would get benefits from bringing their bio waste there.
I liked this way of doing the workshop, as everyone in the same group worked tor the same goal, with kind of the same background. Presenting to the other group there was also more questions than normal at the end presentation.
The background reeding material for this workshop:
Reliable Electric Power for Developing Countries, Alfredo Vaccaro – General Editor, Humanitarian technology Challenge
Off-grid electricity for developing countries, A Doig, IEE Review, 1999
Our task was to, as energy consultants and planners, try to solve the problem of electrification of a school in a notorious urban slum in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. There was funding for building the school, but the funders demanded that the school would be electrified. The local power company refuces to build electric lines to the school, in the middle of the slum, as it fears excessive misuse of the line.
Our suggestion was to equip the school with solar panels, for which there would be a battery keeping the energy until use in the evening, if there would be access energy it would boil up water for the morning porridge. As a back up for rainy periods there would be a generator that could be run on bio fuel generated at the toilets (there would be both toilets for the school kids and others for residents of the area) and from collected biomass from the neighbourhood. Some of the bio fuel could be sold to the community as well as the fertilizers that arise as bi-product. Other benefits for the community from an electrified school would be that they could have evening classes there. Still we thought the school would need a 24/7 guard to keep an eye so that no-one would steal the solar panels. But maybe this person could concentrate more on care taking and maintenance if everyone understood how good it is for the community to have electricity at the school.
First we precented for another group, that got some time to make suggestions of how to make our system even better, and then we presented to the whole group. Our presentation got the comment that it was "overkill" and we were asked if we ever thought that on rainy days there just would not be any lights. The bio fuel plant was seen as a good idea, it would probably be popular if the toilet was good and if people would get benefits from bringing their bio waste there.
I liked this way of doing the workshop, as everyone in the same group worked tor the same goal, with kind of the same background. Presenting to the other group there was also more questions than normal at the end presentation.
The background reeding material for this workshop:
Reliable Electric Power for Developing Countries, Alfredo Vaccaro – General Editor, Humanitarian technology Challenge
Off-grid electricity for developing countries, A Doig, IEE Review, 1999
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