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TRIP REPORT WARDA/AfricaLink Information Management Program Bouaké and Dakar, June 2-3, 1997 Jeffrey A. Cochrane July 24, 1997 The AfricaLink Advisor visited Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire to discuss the status of the electronic information management program implemented by the West African Rice Development Association (WARDA) in West and Central Africa. Meetings were also held in Dakar, Sénégal, with staff of the West Africa AfricaLink Help Desk, to be contracted by WARDA. WARDA has received a grant for these purposes in the amount of $300,000 from the USAID Division for Productive Sector Growth and the Environment in the Sustainable Development Office of the Africa Bureau (USAID/AFR/SD/PSGE). The objectives of the AfricaLink visit were to: Review the most recent report on disbursement of small grants to facilitate connectivity for the region's various agricultural research institutions. Discuss a program of training workshops to assist research networks in taking advantage of their Internet access. Advise USAID/REDSO/WCA of AfricaLink activities in West and Central Africa Persons Consulted Alassane Diallo, AfricaLink Liaison, WARDA, a.diallo@cgnet.com Robin Lemp, Administration, WARDA, r.lemp@cgnet.com Yves-Coffi Prudencio, Agricultural Economist, USAID/REDSO/WCA Glenn Rogers, Economist, USAID/REDSO/WCA Moussa Fall, AfricaLink Help Desk, ENDA, moussaf@enda.sn, 54 Rue Carnot by Clinique Pasteur Program Status The complete WARDA status report for the period from July 1996 through May 1997 is included below. The status of assistance provided to agricultural research institutions in each country in the region is reviewed. Generally, funds were disbursed between March and May of this year. Connectivity is expected for most sites by the end of June. Immediately thereafter, a program will commence to verify the quality of connections and identify problems. An agreement in principle has been reached with Mr. Moussa Fall of the organization Environment and Development in the Third World in Dakar to provide technical support in the region. Pending a formal agreement and availability of funds, Mr. Fall will be asked to undertake the task of verifying electronic mail access for sites assisted through AfricaLink, to organize workshops, and to host web pages and electronic conferences on the ENDA server. Mr. Fall will also be asked to take responsibility for establishing and maintaining the West and Central African database directory of electronic mail addresses. In discussions with Mr. Fall in Dakar, the basic strategy of Help Desk management as implemented in other regions was reviewed. This includes the AfricaLink Directory database of network members, and workshops held nationally and in conjunction with regional network meetings. Informal discussions covered the mechanics of organizing a workshop for a group of scientists in which each scientist in his or her own country is using a different technology for accessing the Internet. Mr. Fall agreed to forward to WARDA a pro forma invoice for various services he and his organization, ENDA, could offer to AfricaLink's regional partner networks. These include an AfricaLink Help Desk special email address (e.g. africalink@enda.sn), electronic discussion conferences, web page hosting, and web page design. Workshop plans and budgets from Southern Africa were shared with WARDA. A series of workshops is envisioned for West and Central Africa. It is expected that these will cost approximately $7000 each. Remaining funds will permit perhaps as many as 7 such workshops to be held. The Conference of Heads of African Agronomic Research (CORAF) in Senegal has been asked to provide a schedule of meetings to be held in the coming months in the region. Workshops will ideally be scheduled in conjunction with these regional meetings, economizing on costs. Additional workshops will be nationally oriented. Also discussed was the strategy of targeting special assistance to network leadership in the region. Using the database to be constructed by Mr. Fall of ENDA, it will be possible to identify the major agricultural research networks in the region, e.g. the Inland Valley Consortium. The coordinaters of these networks are key to generating information and facilitating its flow among network members. Extra funds may be allocated to assure that Internet connections to coordinator offices are of superior quality. This strategy has yielded superior results in East Africa, where for example the Secretariat of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA) received special assistance to cope with poor telephone lines in Entebbe. Funding Issues Roughly $165,000 has been spent to date to provide basic packages of assistance to the headquarters and research stations of research institutions in 12 countries. An additional expenditure of approximately $60,000 is expected in the next few months to complete this initial exercise, that is expected to cover the 17 WARDA member countries plus as many as 8 additional countries. Allowing $10,000 for the regional Help Desk, plus $15,000 for administrative costs at WARDA, approximately $50,000 remain from the original grant of $300,000. We may expect problems with 25 per cent of assisted sites, perhaps requiring additional interventions -- purchases of extra modems, transfers to alternative service providers, etc. We estimate this followup assistance will cost on average about half the original assistance to each affected site. A fund of perhaps $20,000 should be maintained for this purpose. Workshops will cost on average about $7000. A prototype workshop budget is included below, based on experience in Southern Africa. The provision of regional technical support via an electronic mail hot line will be budgeted based on the amount of time required each day from staff at ENDA. Hourly rates in other regions have ranged from $19 to $25, depending on the qualifications of staff and duties assigned. Two hours per day for a year will require about $13,000. Additional technical support, e.g. to conduct special reference searches or to design special software, would be billed separately. Networks may require electronic conferences to facilitate their work. Ultimately these should be paid by the networks themselves, but USAID may wish to encourage their use for the first year. These are typically billed by service providers at a rate somewhat higher than an individual mailbox. Roughly $400 is typically required per conference per year, based on costs seen in Southern Africa. A second round of connectivity assistance would target more remote research stations and those major research institutions missed during the first round. Standard packages of assistance cost on average $800 where no computer is required, or $3800 when a computer must be provided. If ten per cent of sites require the purchase of a computer, then a fund of $35,000 would permit assistance to an additional 30 sites. There are a number of special problem sites in the region that will require extraordinary expenditures if they are deemed critical enough to require assistance. For example, the Rokupr Rice Research Station in Northern Sierra Leone does not have access to telephone infrastructure. Communications via radio electronic mail can be established to this and other rural sites for approximately $8000 in equipment costs per site, not including a computer or technical support. A collaborative exercise with the World Food Program may be feasible and could be explored, since they intend to operate a network of radio-email stations in the region, including in Sierra Leone. AfricaLink/Washington provides oversight and technical assistance to WARDA. This has in the past been budgeted separately from the WARDA account, though it may be useful to consider this cost along with other items. $20,000 provides approximately 10 per cent of the Washington budget. Two possible budgets to extend the operations of WARDA/AfricaLink for an additional year are as follows: FUNDING ITEM OPTION 1 OPTION 2 Followup Assistance 20,000 (25%) 20,000 (25%) Special Problem Sites 16,000 (2) 24,000 (3) Help Desk Support 13,050 (2hr/day) 26,100 (4hr/day) Special Tech Support 2,400 (8hr/mon) 2,400 (8hr/mon) Workshops 49,000 (7) 98,000 (14) Electronic Conferences 4,000 (10) 8,000 (20) Connectivity Packages 35,000 (30) 47,000 (40) Subtotal 139,450 225,500 Balance Forward 50,000 50,000 Subtotal 89,450 175,500 WARDA Overhead 15% 13,418 26,325 TOTAL TO WARDA 102,868 201,825 AfricaLink/W 20,000 (10%) 40,000 (20%) GRAND TOTAL 122,868 241,825 Next Steps JUNE Verify electronic mail connections to grantee institutions Secure lists of scientists with access to installed electronic mail connections Receive schedule of regional meetings from CORAF Organize workshops in conjunction with regional meetings Organize nationally oriented workshops to complement regional workshops Negotiate final terms for AfricaLink West Africa Help Desk JULY Establish AfricaLink West Africa Help Desk Generate and publish database for the region's electronic mail addresses Hold first West/Central Africa AfricaLink workshop Prototype Workshop Budget NOTE: All figures are per workshop unless otherwise specified. Workshop Hiring of Venue (computer lab) $1,000 Equipment Hire (computer projection) $500 Co-ordinator Labour (32 hours) $608 Local ISP Participation $300 Local transport (hotel to venue for participants) $200 Preparation for Workshop Labour (20 hours) $380 Photocopying, Faxing, Telephoning $100 Travel & Workshop Co-ordinator Expenses Air Ticket $600 Per Diem (.75 + 2 + .75 days @ $200) $700 Incidentals (local taxi, official telephone, visas, etc.) $200 Administration Processing checks, tickets, accounting, other admin, 16 hours) $304 Subtotal for One Workshop $ 4,892 Nationally Oriented Workshops Only In-Town per diem (10 participants @ $35 per day for 2 days) $700 Visitor per diem (10 participants @ $100 per day for 3 days) $3,000 Total for Nationally Oriented Workshops $8,592 Total for Regional Meeting Workshops $4,892

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