LRIT4AE · ICT in Low Resource Settings: Innovating for Africa and Europe through Living Labs

The implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in developmental contexts presents relevant social and technical challenges. Understanding of lessons learnt and best practices under extreme conditions such as the ones found on the African continent can provide valuable insights for ICT deployment in developed countries. At the same time, the experience in use cases and technical know-how of developed countries can help regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa in harnessing the full potential of ICT for social and economic development.The proposed exchange program between Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK, Italy), Fraunhofer FOKUS (Fraunhofer, Germany), Rhodes University (RU, South Africa) and the University of Fort Hare (UFH, South Africa) aims at establishing a transnational cooperation to define and experiment a set of guidelines, tools, technologies and standard artifacts to facilitate the implementation of ICT solutions to address social inequalities through a Living Lab approach. All the partners have gained extensive experience with ICT for Development (ICT4D) projects in sub-Saharan Africa and have competences in project management, technologies for rural development, user-centric design and infrastructures.Activities will be carried out within the context of the Siyakhula Living Lab (SLL) in Dwesa, a rural area in the former homeland of Transkei, in South Africa. Like many African rural realities, Dwesa is characterised by endemic poverty and lack of services and infrastructure. It has been the site of extensive ethnographic research since the end of Apartheid in 1994. Since 2005 it has been the site of ICT for Development (ICT4D) activities involving the deployment and support of telecommunications infrastructure, internet connectivity and ICT training.""