Have you heard of the tale of The boy who harnessed the wind? This is the title of a Netflix film, the story of a young man, William Kamkwamba, from a village in Malawi, who saved his family and his village from famine in the mid-2000s.
He did this by building a windmill to access water to irrigate crops as well as to produce electricity to power lights and small appliances. Although the use of wind for mechanical and electrical purposes using technologies such as wind wheels and windmills dates back thousands of years, it was new to William.
William came across this technology when he found two American textbooks at his local school library. Realising the direness and backwardness of his home village, he applied his new-found knowledge to help his family and community.
There are important lessons here about how to achieve progress and development. We need to admit that although the talk about the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) may be alluring, many a village has yet to come into the second and third industrial revolutions. And this should inform approaches to development.
While talent, skill and innovation are integral to being successful in the 4IR, information is the main catalyst.
Fortunately, access to information is no longer synonymous with having access to a library or to a classroom. The explosion of digital technology offers a unique opportunity to kick-start and fast-track the upliftment of individuals and communities. ICT makes information, such as that discovered by William in a textbook, more widely accessible.
Just by having access to a feature or smartphone, powered by data, people can have access to the world’s massive reservoirs of information.
Herein also lies the opportunity to repurpose the local state for greater relevance, enabling tailored and effective responses to local problems.
The major trouble with local government is the idea that municipalities exist primarily to deliver basic services. But as the administrative and political leadership that is closest to communities, local government should be more instrumental in providing leadership on the developmental vision at the local level.
Context matters and municipalities should identify communities’ real and present problems. This is what should underpin the integrated development planning (IDP) processes that take place at the beginning of every new term of local government. Nevertheless, it is often the case that these processes are approached as tick-box exercises, thus undermining any potential for these plans to be truly transformational.
Solutions and initiatives that are identified through the IDP process should be relevant. William’s story illustrates the potential to adapt and adopt old solutions to present problems. Progress may actually become more rapid when we acknowledge that we are behind and are late adopters. Others are ahead and sometimes it is not possible to leapfrog our way to catching up with the rest of the world. To catch up, we need to prioritise education and access to information.
A major part of the democratisation project needs to be to make access to data a constitutionally guaranteed basic human right. In this way, by the mass decentralisation of education driven by digital technologies, communities and individuals can learn and teach themselves about technologies and solutions to their problems.
This could contribute to the up-skilling of the unskilled and lower skilled unemployed and working poor to expand their chances of landing skilled jobs and higher income which would lead to the lowering of inequality.
The Covid-19 pandemic has not only highlighted existing societal disparities, but also the turning to digital technology as a means to facilitate work and education.
Data costs are high in comparison to other developing countries. Being the most unequal society in the world, turning to digital platforms such as social media to exercise political agency and as a mechanism for public participation is a luxury for the few. More needs to be done to make the digital revolution a reality for all, whether they are in far-flung villages or large city centres.
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