TRIP REPORT
Swaziland Workshop:
Introduction to Electronic Communication
July 4, 1997

Introduction

The SACCAR\AfricaLink Help Desk held a workshop in Swaziland at the University of Swaziland on the 4^th July 97. The workshop was planned in such a way that it would be "appended" to a Steering Committee Meeting of the Maize and Wheat Researchers’ Network (MWIRNET) of SACCAR held at the Royal Swazi Sun.

The Mwirnet meeting was due to conclude on the afternoon of the 3^rd July 97 and the AfricaLink workshop for the Mwirnet scientists to begin on the evening of the 3^rd at 19:00.

Consultations were held beforehand between SACCAR’s Communications Officer Chris Lungu and SANGONeT’s Na'eem Jeenah who co-ordinates the Help Desk. Mr Lungu also consulted with the co-ordinator of Mwirnet and with senior Mwirnet people regarding the workshop. Although he initial proposal from SACCAR was for the workshop to be held on the 4^th and 5^th, agreement was obtained from the Mwirnet co-ordinator to host it on the 3^rd and 4^th.

Much of the pre-planning for the workshop was done by the Help Desk and the workshop hosts in Swaziland, UUNet Internet Africa, represented by Mr Graham Matthews and Mr Eelco Vriezekolk.

I arrived in Swaziland on the morning of the 3^rd July and was met at the airport by the two UUNet people. We visited the University and met Mr Gunene, the manager of the Computer Centre. He showed us the facilities that were available for our use. The university provided us with 18 computers connected to the University LAN. UUNet installed a Linux server and modem on the Network. Thus all participants of the workshop would have access to the Internet via the Linux server dialling out to UUNet in Mbabane. The setup seemed quite satisfactory for our purposes.

The Workshop

Between the two of them they also presented the sessions on The Internet in Swaziland, Accessing Information via the Web and the Use of Search Engines. (The program for the workshop is attached.)

Of the seven participants only three use the Internet (mainly email). The other four have no experience with the Internet. However, the evaluations showed that all the participants seemed to have benefited from the workshop. Researchers also indicated that they would attempt to pressurise their institutions to use the SACCAR grant to get Internet access.

As with the other workshops, the Help Desk was introduced to the participants and they were told of the services they could expect from it. In the discussions Mr Matthews also intervened a few times to explain from an ISP perspective how UUNet fits into the SACCAR-AfricaLink-researcher arrangement.

The workshop and the pre-planning highlighted the importance of using local service providers for such events. Although only one of the participants was from Swaziland (Malkerns Research Station, already a UUNet subscriber), the relationship that developed between that participant and the ISP and myself and the ISP will definitely be useful for USAID partners in Swaziland

Problems

Here were certain problems with the organising that need to be mentioned for this report to be complete.

1. I believe we will often have a problem when we tack on this type of workshop to the end of a Network meeting – in this case, MWIRNET. After a three or four day meeting not everyone would be keen to attend a two-day workshop. This was also the case here. Of the 12 MWIRNET members expected to attend the workshop, only seven finally did attend. While we have to accept that this is the case, I’m not suggesting we do not have such workshops. These workshops actually allow us a unique opportunity to get together people within a single network but from different countries in the region. Thus, the loss of a few people has to be accepted. This is especially true when we consider the low budgets for workshops bringing together sometimes between 15 and 20 people from the region.

2. Another problem with tacking such a workshop on at the end of a network meeting is what happened at this Swaziland workshop. The MWIRNET meeting could not finish on time because, I guess, the issues to be discussed were underestimated. As a result the workshop sessions for the first evening had to be accommodated the next day. Thus, what was to be a workshop over a day and half ended up being over about six hours.

I suggest that for future "thematic" workshops – those attached to Network meetings – a commitment must be received from the network members well in advance that they would be willing to spend the extra time to participate in the workshop.

Successes

1. A good relationship was cemented between the Malkerns Research Station and their ISP, UUNet.

2. Similarly, a good relationship developed between UUNet and the AfricaLink Help Desk. Just to illustrate, a few days after the workshop, when I received a detailed query from a Malkerns researcher, I immediately passed it on to the appropriate UUNet person in Mbabane, Mr Vriezekolk. He responded almost immediately to the reseracher dealing with all of the queries. If the workshops are able to establish this kind of support back-up for all the agri researchers, then they have achieved an important objective.

3. Of the seven people that attended, the Swaziland person was happy with this new relationship; the other two that had internet access were thrilled with the new possibilities opened up to them by the workshop; and the four that had no access were determined to pressurise their institutions to work with SACCAR to get connected.

Thus, while some MWIRNET reasearchers might have missed out on this workshop, for the seven that did attend it was a golden opportunity.