Received: from ATHENA-AS-WELL.MIT.EDU by po7.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA22714; Thu, 30 Jun 94 20:51:16 EDT Received: from vtbit.cc.vt.edu by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA09370; Thu, 30 Jun 94 20:51:12 EDT Message-Id: <9407010051.AA09370@MIT.EDU> Received: from VTBIT.CC.VT.EDU by VTBIT.CC.VT.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 3765; Thu, 30 Jun 94 20:48:52 EDT Received: from VTBIT.CC.VT.EDU (NJE origin LISTBIT@VTBIT) by VTBIT.CC.VT.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 4413; Thu, 30 Jun 1994 20:48:49 -0400 Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 20:46:00 EST Reply-To: Volunteers in Technical Assistance Sender: Technology Transfer in International Development From: Volunteers in Technical Assistance Subject: Your DevelopNet News for July. To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@ @@ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ On-Line News and Views on @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ Technology Transfer in @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@ International Development %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% July 1994 Volume 4, No. 7 IN THIS ISSUE EDUCATION WATCH Tanzania, Zimbabwe: Is Distance Education Practical? LITERATURE REVIEWS Entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe Volcanic Disasters: Lessons Learned The Marlboro Man in The Dominican Republic ORGANIZATIONS International Science Foundation VITA PROJECTS Agreement on Communications For Developing Countries ANNOUNCEMENTS Computer Applications in Irrigation * * * DevelopNet News is published monthly by Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) in Arlington, Virginia, USA. For additional information, please see the end of this newsletter. * * * E d u c a t i o n W a t c h TANZANIA, ZIMBABWE: IS DISTANCE EDUCATION PRACTICAL? VITA has long assumed that the benefits of technology transfer in devel- oping countries depend on improved and broadened access to education. Consequently, VITA is interested in distance education, especially as it may be enhanced by using telecommunications in remote areas. Distance education, because it does not require large investments in buildings, teachers, or text books, is cost-effective if well managed. Distance education is an individualized form of instruction and can therefore cater to individual needs. It is flexible: a student can work at his/her own pace during his/her own time and there is no age limit for participation. Because it is cheaper than the conventional system of education, more students can afford to pay required fees. People who would otherwise be marginalized by the conventional educational system -- such as women with children, workers, and disabled people -- can take courses through distance education because of its flexibility. In Tanzania and Zimbabwe distance education was well established long before the end of the British colonial period and survived at a low level since independence. But its benefits always extended only to small numbers of individuals, and many of those were non-Africans. As with other former British African colonies, the benefits of distance education in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, both in colonial times and more recently, most frequently took the form of participation in correspon- dence courses. Many of the participants were selected because they had received high marks in English and mathematics in school. The corre- spondence courses were managed by colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and in South Africa, and were often directed toward the O-level and A-level examinations under the British educational system. Sometimes the courses covered vocational or practical subjects. Costs of the courses were usually payable in hard currency and borne by private organizations, not governments. After independence, Tanzania and Zimbabwe adopted policies of free pub- lic education. However, rapid expansion of the educational system turned out to be highly unrealistic because of national budgetary hardships. Indeed, by 1991 Zimbabwe had reversed the policy of free education and pupils were required to pay fees. Nevertheless, to some extent the prac- tice of distance education was kept alive because it promised some wide- spread access to education in a cost-effective manner. Its management was taken over by public agencies, but it never received enough atten- tion or financial support. Some results were: teaching materials were produced under hardship conditions and their use continued long after they became obsolete. Teachers failed to get paid, sometimes for as long as a year. There were massive infrastructural failures, particularly involving transportation and communication. Finally, as during the colo- nial period, the general public was reluctant to endorse the system, since it was believed that certificates and diplomas awarded through distance education were worth less than those awarded through classroom- based programs. And yet there were success stories: in one of them, distance education helped solve the shortage of classroom teachers in the primary schools. In Zimbabwe, conventional teacher-training colleges had long provided a three-year preservice training curriculum. After completing it, the stu- dents were assigned to schools for in-service training. But, under a new system, the students received 16 weeks of preservice training at the college, followed by three-and-one-half years of on-the-job experience in primary schools. During this in-service period they received super- vision and distance-education training modules on education theory and subject matter. They then returned to the college for another 16 weeks of formal instruction leading to the final examinations. A 1982 evaluation showed that student teachers trained under the new system, with distance education, got higher marks on the final examina- tions than those trained conventionally. Limited successes were also reported in Tanzania. In agricultural educa- tion programs, models, pictures, slides, and audio cassettes were used to demonstrate more effective cattle-dipping methods to help reduce health problems associated with cattle raising. Some important cattle diseases significantly declined in the regions where the distance educa- tion programs had been used. Other projects were directed to women's groups on topics ranging from baby care to agriculture. In 1989 a Tanzanian study group put forward an ambitious proposal that urged the adoption of more efficient communication technologies in edu- cation. The postal authorities would be deeply involved, because the objectives included faster mail delivery, faxes, teleconferencing, and computer-based technologies. The postal authorities responded that it was unrealistic to plan for the availability of the technologies before the year 2000. It is significant that Tanzania is a very large country with a largely rural population. This makes it a prime candidate for the development of technologies for distance education. But, according to Fred Zindi and Robert Aucoin (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada), the country has a "very poor transportation system, very poor roads, and many people without access to electricity. The result is that most of the potential learners . . . would not have access to the types of technologies that the [postal service] is being asked to provide." So, once more, Tanzania learned that for the near term it must rely on existing technologies to improve education. Zindi and Aucoin say two problems must be solved before the benefits of distance education can be realized in Africa and, by extension, in many developing areas of the world. First, the technologies that are taken for granted in the West are based on an infrastructure that allows rapid two-way communication between persons over distance; this infrastructure is virtually nonexistent in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Second, "a viable system of distance education . . . can be achieved [only] when the Afri- can governments take a more serious role and interest in it," by secur- ing the needed finances. Fred Zindi and Robert Aucoin, 1994. "Is Distance Education the Answer? Focus on Tanzania and Zimbabwe." Deosnews, vol. 4, no. 4 (26 April); electronic posting on by the American Society for the Study of Distance Education . L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w s ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN EASTERN EUROPE Frank Hoy and Miroslav Pivoda, 1994. "Ecofluid," in Daniel S. Fogel (ed.), Managing Emerging Market Economies: Cases from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. Hoy (University of Texas at El Paso) and Pivoda (Agricultural University of Brno, Czech Republic) tell of two Czech engineers who quit their jobs at the University of Bratislava in December 1989, a few days after the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, to start their own com- pany. The twin brothers had spent their lives studying wastewater man- agement. Vladimir had studied in Prague and France, earning two doctor- ates. Svatopluk earned his doctorate in Moscow and in 1960 the Interna- tional Atomic Energy Commission sent him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States to specialize in nuclear engineering and the purification of low-level radioactive waste. During this time one of his professors led a project on wastewater treatment in Califor- nia. Hoy and Pivoda say: "This event made an impression on Svatopluk because it marked the first application of chemical water treatment technology that won the approval of environmental technology experts." He also attended lectures on innovation at the Harvard Business School and "began to formulate ideas of how these theories could be applied to the creation and management of innovative organizations." After their studies the Czechoslovak government let them travel to France to develop and commercialize their chemical treatments for industrial applications, but this project was aborted following the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1969. The brothers were recalled to Czechoslo- vakia, soon their jobs at the Academy of Sciences were abolished and they joined the Agricultural University of Brno. There they developed new ideas on the biological treatment of wastewater, took out patents on fluidized-bed purification, and found a firm in Italy that wanted to test their ideas. Their 20 years of work in Italy brought international praise. They developed an innovative management concept to cover research and devel- opment, sales, production, design and operations. By 1989, just before the November revolution, they had arranged with several organizations to establish Ecofluid, Ltd., in Bratislava, its directions to be set by Vladimir and Svatopluk. By 1991, their plans of 40 years were becoming realities: they established international offices to develop global ambitions. To compete in U.S. markets, they needed to show concrete results, not just ideas. It seemed likely that now they could do just that. VOLCANIC DISASTERS: LESSONS LEARNED Jean C. Tayag and Raymundo S. Punongbayan, 1994. "Volcanic Disaster Mitigation in the Philippines: Experience from Mt. Pinatubo Disasters." Disasters, vol. 18, no. 1, p. 1-15. The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in June 1991 surely must have been a high point in the recent application of technology to disaster mitigation. The authors (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Quezon City) say: "State-of-the-art volcano monitoring techniques and instru- ments were applied, the eruption was accurately predicted, hazard zona- tion maps were prepared and disseminated a month before the violent explosions, an alert and warning system was designed and implemented, and the disaster response machinery was mobilized on time." However, the huge scale of the eruption and its long-lasting effects were not antic- ipated and "sorely tested the country's disaster mitigation systems." The major destructive agents were (1) ashfall -- particles less than 2 mm in diameter -- that get blown 40 km high and to other parts of the globe, with the expectation that global climate will be altered. (2) Pyroclastic flows: horizontal blasts of boulders, particles, and hot gases that sweep along the ground at great speed. In 1991, these flows buried some 16,000 ha of land to a depth of 30 to 200 m. The deposits will remain hot for five to ten years, making the areas uninhabitable and uncultivable for a long time. (3) Flowing mixtures (lahars) of vol- canic materials and rainwater, with the consistency of wet concrete. Lahars destroy villages, bridges, and forests. These three agents killed 847 persons and deprived 624,000 persons of their sources of income. Lahar dangers start immediately after the eruption, peak three to five years later, and may last 20 years. With Japanese assistance, a lahar monitoring network has been set up that uses radiotelemetry (rain gauges and flow sensors). But it is principally a data gathering tool because of the limited understanding of the lahar phenomenon. And it does not address the evacuee problems. Construction of dams as a defense against lahar flows is also being explored. THE MARLBORO MAN IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Albert L. Vincent, Douglas D. Bradham, Cesar Augusto Urena Rojos, and Sylvia K. Fisher, 1993. "The Dominican Republic and the Marlboro Brand: a Cigarette Smoking Survey and Status Report." Bulletin of the Pan American Health Organization, vol. 27, no. 4, p. 370-381. A recent survey in the city of Santo Domingo showed that 35% of persons over 14 years of age were smokers and 54% had never smoked. But this situation is changing rapidly as more adolescents take up smoking. Smok- ing is still the leading cause of preventable disease in the United States, although smoking began to decline following a widely cited 1964 report by the U.S. Surgeon General. According to Vincent (University of South Florida, Tampa) and his colleagues, "by the mid 1980's, 100,000 Latin Americans were dying each year from smoking-attributable dis- eases." The leading role in creating this health catastrophe has been played by transnational cigarette companies, particularly Philip Morris, whose Marlboro brand is now the biggest-selling cigarette in the world. Marlboro also dominates the small cigarette market of the Dominican Republic. Although U.S. officials have expressed concern about the impact of aggressive international cigarette marketing on developing nations, only recently has smoking in Latin America and the Caribbean received much attention in the the health research literature. The 1991 survey covered the families of about 500 city residents. Smok- ing was nearly as common among women as for men. Over 90% of the sub- jects disapproved of smoking by adults because of its effects on health. Most of the adolescents "viewed smoking as a mark of maturity (82.3%) and as 'in' among their friends (53.7%). Most of the current smokers (87.0%) wanted to quit." It is likely that the increasing number of adolescent smokers will continue to burden their country's health care system as they grow older. At present, cigarettes are heavily advertised without health warnings and are sold to minors without significant restrictions. Here is an example of harmful technology transfer that should be of particular concern in this and other developing countries with high fertility rates and young populations. O r g a n i z a t i o n s INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION ISF was created in 1992 by philanthropist George Soros "to provide interim support for basic research in the former Soviet Union and the Baltic States. Under its mandate, the foundation is to distribute its $100 million budget in 1993 and 1994 primarily through competitive pro- grams to provide research and infrastructure funding to the scientific communities of those countries." Soros adds that in setting up ISF, "my first purpose was to help the most talented scientists of the former Soviet Union to weather the economic crisis in the region without having to leave science or their countries. A second goal was to encourage new approaches to funding and managing scientific research in the former Soviet Union." ISF has granted $32 million to 2,100 principal investigators and their research teams. Eighty-six percent of the grants involve the participa- tion of research workers age 35 or younger. The grantees are employed at over 500 research institutions in 12 countries. ISF has also supported conference travel grants, library assistance, and telecommunications development including international links. Information: Gerson S. Sher, Chief Operating Officer, International Science Foundation, 1054 31st Street, NW, Suite 110, Washington, D.C. 20007. Phone +1 (202) 342-2760, fax +1 (202) 342-2765, e-mail . V I T A P r o j e c t s AGREEMENT ON COMMUNICATIONS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES VITA has reached an agreement with CTA, Inc. (Rockville, Maryland) for construction and launch of a VITA data communications satellite in exchange for CTA's use of a portion of the satellite capacity for a commercial program. The 115-kg satellite is scheduled to be launched from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard the first Lockheed Launch Vehicle in November 1994. VITA has been granted a Pioneer's Preference Award by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, and intends to use the satellite for data transmission to and from developing nations that lack an existing com- munications infrastructure. The Award guarantees VITA preferential treatment in its license application to operate in the newly created category of Nonvoice, Nongeostationary Mobile Satellite Service. VITA currently uses the UoSat 3 satellite for this purpose, and has user terminals in 18 countries. In exchange for its services, CTA will use the satellite, under VITA's license, for a commercial program involving remote monitoring applica- tions of ground based sensors, according to C.E. "Tom" Velez, CTA Presi- dent and Chief Executive Officer. Henry Norman, VITA's President, said, "Two thirds of the world's popula- tion lack access to phones and, with this satellite, we want to help bring communications to some of those people." He added: "When we took that first step ten years ago to use a store-and-forward low earth orbiting satellite to link remote areas to the rest of the world, we were all alone. Now we're pleased to have a partner with an impressive track record in satellite communications." VITA has 35 years of experience in development and humanitarian aid. In addition to managing its communications system, VITA manages a Disaster Information Center, an inquiry service, and long-term projects in six developing countries. Information: Joe Sedlak, VITA A n n o u n c e m e n t s COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN IRRIGATION During the past decade considerable effort has gone into the development of computer software for irrigation research and management. Unfortun- ately, little use is made of irrigation software largely due to a lack of awareness of its existence and applications. The International Insti- tute for Land Reclamation and Improvement (Wageningen, The Netherlands) has once again joined forces with the Institute of Irrigation Studies (Southampton, U.K.) to offer a two-part course designed to give partici- pants a good overview of useful, efficient and user-friendly irrigation software programs. The first part of the course, from 13 to 24 March 1995, will take place in Southampton, with contributions from various British institutions in this field. Subsequently participants will move to Wageningen where the second part of the course takes place from 27 March to 7 April. Here, various Dutch institutions will contribute to the course. The course will be targeted at middle level and senior staff currently working in irrigation management, professionals working in irrigation, and academic staff incolved in irrigation research and training. It is expected that at course's end, the participants will be able to assess the function of computer programs and models in relation to identified irrigation problems, appreciate modelling and simulation concepts, and select and apply relevant computer programs. Information: The Short-Course Administrator, Institute of Irrigation Studies, The University, Southampton S09 5NH, U.K.; tel. +44 (703) 593728; fax +44 (703) 677519; telex 47661 A/B SOTONU G. * * * HOW TO JOIN VITA'S ELECTRONIC FORUM VITA's free, public, online discussion forum, DEVEL-L, provides for the exchange of ideas and information on a wide range of issues and topics related to technology transfer in international development; for exam- ple, technologies, communications in development, sustainable agricul- ture, women in development, the environment, small enterprise develop- ment, meetings, and book reviews. Subscribers to DEVEL-L automatically receive this newsletter and can download documents free from a special archive by using FTP requests or e-mail messages. To join the forum, send this command or message that reads: SUB DEVEL-L your_real_name to this address: or . You can receive the same benefits by joining the newsgroup bit.listserv.devel-l. You can subscribe to DevelopNet News without joining the discussion forum by sending the following message to the same address: SUB DNN-L your_real_name . Please do not send these messages to VITA. * * * DevelopNet News is an electronic newsletter published monthly by Volun- teers in Technical Assistance (VITA), a private, nonprofit, interna- tional development organization located in Arlington, Virginia. The newsletter needs your stories: you are invited to send them to the edi- tor in electronic form. Your redistribution of DevelopNet News is encouraged. Kindly send us a message on the approximate size of your mailing list; it will be helpful in our planning. President: Henry R. Norman Acting Editor: Vicki Tsiliopoulos Editorial Assistant: Rafe Ronkin, VITA Volunteer VITA specializes in information dissemination and communications tech- nology. It offers services related to sustainable agriculture, food processing, renewable energy applications, water sanitation and supply, small enterprise development, and information management. It has pro- jects in 6 African countries. VITA's publications, on a variety of practical subjects, are designed to assist persons and organizations in developing countries. You can request a descriptive publications list by postal mail, phone, or fax. Be sure to include your postal address. Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 500, Arlington, Virginia 22209. Tel. +1 (703) 276-1800, 24-hr BBS: +1 (703) 527-1086 [up to 9600, N,8,1], fax +1 (703) 243-1865, telex 440192 VITAUI, cable VITAINC, e-mail: Internet , FidoNet 1:109/165 .