Millennium Villages Project- Airtel’s Example

Today, many companies are overtaking one another to showcase their social interventions in a conscious attempt at shaping their images in the minds of their audiences as the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) continues to gain attention and acceptance.

But, while these organizations work hard to portray themselves as responsible corporate citizens, one may genuinely ask that do their initiatives fit well into national or global development agenda and plans to obtain maximum impact? And, this is where a telescopic look at Airtel’s interventions on the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) is highly relevant in illustrating how companies can feed their CSR initiatives into national and global development plans to achieve universal goals.

Millennium Villages Project (MVP)

The Millennium Summit attended by most world leaders in September 2000 adopted the UN Millennium Declaration. All leaders at the summit subscribed to a global partnership referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the aim of reducing extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets to be achieved by 2015.

The Millennium Villages Project is one of the many initiatives developed to support the achievement of the MDGs. It is a community-led initiative that seeks to lift rural African communities out of the extreme poverty through the provision of technology, health and education. The project has 14 research villages across Africa and it istackling challenges related to communications infrastructure, education, health, agriculture, infrastructure, gender equality, business development and other vital issues. The MVP is a partnership among The Earth Institute, Millennium Promise and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the CSR input of Airtel and its partners.

 

Bonsaase in Ghana, Sauri in Kenya and Koraro in Ethiopia together with nine other villages are called Millennium Villages because they are part of the 14 “research villages” in ten African countries, serving as pioneer models of development that can be replicated elsewhere in the developing world.

Why Information and Communication Technology (ICT)?

The UN identified telecommunications as a sector with enormous capacity to support the MDG goal of halving poverty by 2015. According to Jeffrey Sachs, advisor to the UN Secretary General and Director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, “the mobile phone is the single most transformational tool for development in Africa.”

Airtel and its partners, recognising the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) in ending the cycle of poverty by empowering the poor to become economically active, developed a comprehensive end-to-end communication solution by providing ultra-modern 3.5G mobile communications and internet technology for the Millennium Village Clusters. This communication service bridged the digital divide and improved livelihoods, health, education, agriculture, etc.
 

The Bonsaaso MVP

Located in the Amansie-West District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana, the Bonsaaso cluster of Millennium Villages consists of 6 medium-sized villages and approximately 30,000 residents. They rely heavily on their small-scale farms to produce crops such as cocoa, oil palm, yams, plantain and cassava. Production output, however, is low and because most of the focus is placed on cash crops, especially, that of cocoa, growing food crops is neglected.

The villagers are faced with a myriad of problems. They don't have electricity or safe drinking water, only a few have bed nets to protect them from malaria, the nearest clinic and public school are between 2-40km walk away, there are not enough primary schools to support the population of the village cluster and the road network in the Bonsaaso cluster is untarred and a challenge to drivers.

Airtel’s Interventions at the Bonsaaso Cluster

Health

Airtel and its partners supported these clinics by providing 245 handsets, fixed wireless terminals and 400 toll free numbers to the emergency services; professional and community health workers, which allowed a quicker, more efficient delivery of healthcare services. Airtel also provided sim cards which have a closed user group facility, allowing the healthcare workers to consult each other free of charge.  The fixed wireless terminals and internet access granted to each clinic in the clusters will give the workers the opportunity for worldwide consultations and an opportunity for career development.  They have provided solar powered chargers for the mobile phones to some of the healthcare facilities to ensure that these healthcare lifelines are kept on at all times.

Education

Airtel and partners have worked together to provide fixed wireless terminals and 3G internet access at learning centers in each cluster.  This will bring the outside world to the teachers and pupils and give them a valuable teaching aid.  Both teachers and pupils will have unlimited access to the internet and much needed computer skills which will stand them in good stead for future employment in cities.  All schools participating in the one laptop per child scheme will also have internet access on these laptops using the Fixed Wireless terminals donated by Ericsson.

Agriculture

In an effort to diversify outputs and increase nutrition and income, the Village has been integrating food crops into agricultural practices while at the same educating farmers on techniques to increase yields of existing cash crops without further environmental degradation.

The establishment of a 3.5G network in the clusters gives farmers the opportunity to get information about availability of goods and pricing from their vendors without having to travel.  This cost effective solution also mitigates risk as the farmers will not need to navigate the difficult road conditions to meet their vendors.

   

Infrastructure

Communication among community members has improved since the Airtel established a mobile network in the cluster.  Residents are being trained on how to use phones and the benefits of having this invaluable communication tool.  The need for travel on unfavourable roads will decrease, reducing travel costs and risk factors while communication between clusters will increase.

Airtel’sImpact

Over all, Airtel’s interventions have enhanced opportunities through direct and indirect employment and business development; provided affordable mobile communications to get the communities connected to the rest of the world; boosted agricultural development and marketing; brought Internet access to schools to aid learning and research; improving basic health needs by providing community health workers with internet and mobile phone connectivity; ensured prompt emergency response with the provision of toll free numbers; improved communication with government by radio contributions; and, cut cost of travel with the use of mobile phones to gather information.

 

Supported by Airtel and other partners such as Ericsson, MVP has provided an operational platform to tackle poverty through multi-sectorial interventions and a science-based approach in areas such as agriculture, health, environment, education, ICT, among others and this has since empowered the indigenes in all areas of their lives. Aside the rehabilitation of old health facilities, additional health posts have been established at vantage locations equipped and staffed to adequately meet the health needs of the very people who hitherto were trekking long kilometers to access basic medical services, a practice which came with an increased mortality rate.