DID YOU KNOW?

Satellite operators are already making a huge impact to communications in developing nations thanks to the ubiquitous coverage of their satellites. Small but effective examples demonstrate that development opportunities can be seized now by making use of the invisible infrastructure in the sky that covers all countries around the globe, without the need for large-scale investment projects that take years to implement, while suffering persists in the short-term.

Satellite Connectivity is an obvious answer for countries lacking a rolled out, land-based communications infrastructure. Besides ‘bridging the digital divide’, satellite services can contribute directly to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals as well. In this context, satellites can be instrumental to create:

• Adequate institutional capacity and infrastructure to generate and share reliable information.
• The ability to reduce vulnerability to future risks, enhance resilience  and protect hard earned developmental gains against shocks

Satellites cannot deliver food but they can deliver on crucial related requirements to ensuring the availability of food and reducing poverty generally. They are also key to connect remote schools bringing universal access to primary education all around the world. At the same time, satellites can also contribute to hea lth issues in many ways such as enabling tele-medicine, allowing for the monitoring and advance warning of insects and diseases, as well as facilitating water management.

Satellite Contribution to Africa’s Development

ESOA has considered the African situation over the last years and in doing so has engaged with many organisations including the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT), both of which have signed Memoranda of Understanding with ESOA. These agreements also cover cooperation initiatives concerning Africa where both crisis situations and opportunities for new projects using satellite technology exist.

Case Study I: NIGER

In early 2005 the people of the Dakoro region of Niger suffered a famine due to drought and locusts. The NGO Telecom Sans Frontier, which uses satellite technology, intervened to set up an early warning system connecting 12 vulnerable & isolated regions of the country. The system allows for the relaying in real time of information on key indicators (such as variations in stock of subsistence crops/ modifications in the population’s diet/ variations in natural resources) to avoid a repeat of famine situation of 2005. Beyond the basic exchange of information, locust movements/ meteorological information can be monitored by satellite and communicated to the local authorities.

Case Study II: OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL

Opportunity International (OI) is an NGO and a leader in microfinance  dedicated to providing opportunities for people living in chronic poverty. OI decided to add value to banks who provide such microfinance services in developing countries, by ensuring they have reliable, robust and cost-effective access to the Internet in order to allow safe and efficient remote management and monitoring of their local area networks, remotely executed database backups for disaster recovery, and ability to engage in effective general communications. VSAT technology (using very small aperture satellite terminals) was identified as the optimum solution, as it does not require local terrestrial infrastructure to be in place. OI chose the Opportunity International Bank of Malawi to be the first entity where such a VSAT system would be installed under a pilotproject.

Case Study III: SOUTH AFRICA
A satellite operator worked with NEPAD and the South African government on a pilot project to provide educational resources across satellite to remote schools in South Africa. Two schools took part in successful trials, which used a compact and easy-to-use satellite terminal to connect to four basic PCs and a wireless network. As well as accessing information on the Internet – information that the schools had previously not had any access to – the satellite communications supported new links between African schools and schools in the UK. By connecting to a central server in Cape Town, it also helped teachers share teaching resources and follow a national curriculum. The project was extended to 12 schools, before being taken nationwide.