gisw13_chapters

CAMEROONAccess to the internet for womenPROTEGE QVSylvie Siyam, Balbine Tsafack and Serge Dahowww.protegeqv.orgIntroduction, policy and political backgroundIn the late 1990s, Cameroon embarked on a broadprivatisation campaign in the telecommunicationssector that culminated in the adoption of a series oflegal measures, most importantly Law 89/014 of 14July 1998 which, up to now, regulates telecommunicationsin our country.This law made provisions for approximately tenregulations, establishing the end of the public monopolyin the telecommunications sector. It also ledto the dismantling of the government departmentresponsible for telecommunications and institutedthree sets of provisions, namely provisions for exclusiveconcessionary rights, provisions for regulatedcompetition, and provisions for free competition.Thanks to the liberal framework set forth inthe 1998 Telecommunications Act, the sector wasopened to competition and on June 1999 a mobilephone licence was granted to a private enterprise.Towards 2000, internet service providers (ISPs) appearedin the sector. 1 It is worth pointing out thatthe state-owned telecommunications company(CAMTEL) is the only authorised access provider,thereby providing access to the ISPs who serve as“secondary providers”. However, the ISPs providetheir services based on economic activity, populationdensity and availability of infrastructure, suchas ICT backbone, and in doing so, they abandon ruraland unprofitable areas.To redress this and in accordance with provisions19 and 20 of the Telecommunications Act, plusthe recommendations of the World Summit on theInformation Society, the Cameroonian governmentlaunched its ICT outreach policy, aimed at buildingmultipurpose community telecentres (MPCTs) 2 tobridge the digital divide between the well-off areasand the underserved ones.A survey of MPCTsThe 2002 move to set up MPCTs had the goal of developingrural areas by allowing women and youngpeople to access the internet. The objective was toset up 2,000 internet access points throughout thecountry by 2015.In 2010, PROTEGE QV 3 , with the support of theInternational Development Research Centre (IDRC),carried out research entitled “The contribution offive multipurpose community telecentres to secondaryeducation in rural Cameroon”. The objectiveof the research was to identify and analyse the impactsof MPCTs set up in Cameroonian rural areason secondary education.During the course of this research, out of the34 MPCTs that were functioning at that time, PRO-TEGE QV selected the MPCTs of five localities forits case studies. These five localities were Ambam(in southern Cameroon), Bangang (in westernCameroon), Bankim (in northern Cameroon), Jakiri(in northwest Cameroon), and Makenene (in centralCameroon).The criteria for the selection of these MPCTs included:regular access to the internet; equipment ina good state; regular energy supply; and the MPCTsbeing operational for at least three years.In each telecentre, a team of two persons wasselected and trained in order for them to be able toconduct interviews with all the students and teacherswho visited the telecentres in order to identifywhat interests they had. A representative samplingwas used.One month later, the interview forms were collectedby the research team and the data containedwas analysed. In all, 1,015 students and 235 teacherswere interviewed. The findings included thefollowing:1 There are numerous internet service providers (more than 30),but the market is led by CAMNET, a CAMTEL subsidiary, and twomobile operators, namely MTN and Orange.2 In an interview with the magazine “Performances du Ministèredes Postes et Télécommunications” in 2008, the former ministerof Posts and Telecommunications, Bouba Bello Maigari, set theambitious target of creating 2,000 multipurpose communitytelecentres throughout the country by the year 2015.3 PROTEGE QV (Promotion of Technologies that Guarantee theEnvironment and the Quality of Life) is a Cameroonian associationcreated in 1995 which aims for the promotion of individualand collective initiatives geared towards the protection ofthe environment and the amelioration of the quality of life ofCameroonian families. www.protegeqv.org84 / Global Information Society Watch