There are several challenges faced by Zambia regarding access to information initiatives. Infrastructure, capacity, and organisational culture are all challenges to make freely and readily accessible, relevant, and important materials available to citizens, and intricately linked. However, despite these challenges, there are a number of new initiatives in the field of access to information that are improving the actions of scholars and researchers, students, civil society organisations, and individual citizens. Before we highlight some of the success stories though, we wish to explore in a limited fashion the challenges faced by these new initiatives, so we can begin to work together to address the obstacles we face.
Infrastructure is far and away the number one challenge faced by access to information initiatives in Zambia. The Internet is the main medium for these new ventures, because through the Internet we can make materials freely available and readily accessible. Yet, as we are all frustratingly aware, the Internet is Zambia is of both poor quality and high cost, limiting much of the population’s accessibility.
Unreliable, expensive Internet directly impacts the capacity of organisations that pursue access to information initiatives, in terms of software components as well as staff training. While there are many open source software options that can be chosen for use by organisations, making such projects more economically feasible and sustainable, these software options are usually Internet based. Organisations cannot learn to use nor make useful software that is not often accessible due to poor Internet speeds (or in some cases, no Internet at all).
There is little wonder then, that an organisational culture that has a desire to work with new technologies and software, emphasises cloud computing and back-up solutions, and seeks to use freely accessible information to impact society through researchers, civil society, and other citizen initiatives is lacking. Being involved in such pursuits is a difficult, frustrating, and at times exasperating journey.
Yet it is also rewarding, and a number of new access to information initiatives in Zambia validate that the cost benefit analysis is truly on the side of freely available information. At SAIPAR, we host not only the Economic Policy Resource Centre (EPRC), which focuses on a target group of scholars, researchers, and policy makers, but also the Zambia Legal Information Institute (ZambiaLII). ZambiaLII provides no-cost access to Zambia’s judgments and legislation, with the aim to make law more accessible to the public, as well as providing a useful resource for the judiciary and legal professions.
The Zambia Governance Foundation has focused its access to information efforts on civil society organisations with its Social Accountability and You (SAY-Zambia) site, which has not only resources related to social accountability in a number of different areas, but also tools and forums. Similarly, the Policy Monitoring and Research Centre (PMRC) has created Legislation@Your Fingertips, which compiles and makes available acts and other legislation from all Zambian ministries.
The creation of these initiatives, and more importantly, the increasing usage and impact of these websites and their resources, is an important step forward for Zambia. All these projects are complementary, and working together is critical to ensure that overlap is avoided and linkages are made.
Freely available, readily accessible access to information is a critical component of strong research, more effective social accountability, and improved policy design and implementation. Addressing the above challenges must be a key priority of organisations in order to grow and improve these initiatives.
We are interested in hearing more from you on how we can begin to face these challenges. What ways do you think organisations, government, and international assistance can positively impact access to information initiatives in Zambia? We look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Jessica Achberger
Associate Director of Research and Programmes
SAIPAR
You are quite right Jessica, especially regarding the poor ICT infrastructure in Zambia and the limitations it imposes on internet speeds. The Internet Society’s Global Internet Report (2014) shows that Zambia ranks 127th out of 180 economies in terms of internet speed. It has a medium download speed of 3.37Mbit/second, the same as for Gabon and slower than the speeds in Tanzania and Uganda. On affordability, the report says Zambia ranks 121st, fairing slightly better than Tanzania and Uganda (perhaps as these comparator countries trade-off affordability in preference for higher speeds). However, Zambia’s internet access affordability is far less than that of Gabon (ranked 75th).
I think SAIPAR and other think-tanks running Access to Information Initiatives should consider undertaking systematic policy research into the ICT policies and regulations in Zambia and their influences on the ICT environment. The empirical findings thereof might be useful for informing ZICTA about consultative ICT policy-making and regulatory reforms; ultimately this could fostering a better ICT climate.