The Use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) And International Technology Transfer by Non-Governmental Developmental Organisations in Africa

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DISSERTATION DOCUMENT COMPLETE CHAPTER 1-7 27/11/01

The Use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) And International Technology Transfer by Non-Governmental Developmental Organisations in Africa

ABSTRACT

This Research work is based on the Use of Geographic Information system (GIS) and international technology transfer to Developing Countries (Africa) by Non-Governmental Development organisation. NGDO are involved in initiating and Implementing development projects in Developing Countries. They discover that with the use of GIS in their projects, scarce resources could be appropriately distributed using GIS system for the intervention measures identified. The GIS Technology seen by NGDO playing a role in improving decision making and planning (Mather1997); used the new mapping technology to assist in agricultural development throughout the third world (CIRAD 1994); seen playing a leading role in environmental assessment in the third world (World bank); GIS seen as technology that remove the 'political' from the decision making process and allows for an equitable and fair distribution of resources.

GIS has many problems both at the development stages and the implementation and use. Some of the problems included: Data Capture, Data access, National infrastructures, Organisational issues (such as Management acceptance, Top management involvement, GIS users participation); also funding sustainable development and appropriate technology transfer are issues of concern.

Recommendation made to overcome such problems included: appropriate participation at all stages of development and use by all GIS users; development of prototypes, incremental (phase) implementation.

GIS has many benefits: rational planning, Monitory of trends of disease prevalence, Integration of Data and geo-information from diverse sources (aerial photography, GPs, satellites, survey data, routine data, data from conventional maps); accurate and timely information ; Mapping of social and physical information.

GIS technology transfer should be an incremental approach: Initial phase, orientation, sensitisation programmes, developing technical capacities, training and workshops, establishing of provisional teams to ensure sharing of resources, data and information across line agencies and other government departments, establishment of national system to supported and promoted by international organisations.

DEVELOPMENT : According to Ingham (1995) "Development is a much broader concept of human welfare, with important social, political and cultural implications." vi

CHAPTER ONE 1

.1 INTRODUCTION 1

.1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY 1

.1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM 3

.1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 5

.1.4 AIMS OF THE STUDY 6

.1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6

.1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 7

.1.7 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY 7

2 CHAPTER 2 7

NON-GOVERMENTAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION( NGDO) 8

DEVELOPMENT ACTION IN PRACTICE IN NGDO 8

GIS TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES/NGDO'S 9

OVERVIEW OF SOME INTERNATIONAL AID AGENCIES /NON-GOVERNMENTAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATIONS 12

UNITED NATIONS CHIDREN'S FUND (UNICEF) 12

WORLD HEALTH ORGANSITION (WHO) 13

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER,GIS AND DEVELOPMENT THINKING/PRACTICE 15

3 CHAPTER 3 17

4 17

4.1 DEVELOPMENT 17

4.1.1 DEVELOPMENT LITERATURE 17

4.1.2 DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION 19

4.1.3 AN INTERNATIONAL AGENDA FOR DEVELOPMENT 20

4.1.4 21

4.1.5 INFORMATION SYSTEM RELEVENT TO AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT 21

4.2 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) 22

4.2.1 OVERVIEW 22

4.2.2 CONCEPT OF GIS 23

4.2.3 THE STRATEGIC ROLES OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS 24

4.3 GIS IN AFRICA 26

4.3.1 ORIGINS OF GIS IN AFRICA 26

4.3.2 DEVELOPMENT BASE ON NEEDS IN AFRICA 26

4.3.3 EXAMPLE S OF SOME AFRICA'S USE OF GIS 27

4.3.4 FREQUENT PROBLEMS FACED BY AFRICA GIS FACILITIES 27

4.4 GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND HEALTH 28

4.5 GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IMPLIMENTATION AND USE 30

4.5.1 ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES 30

4.5.2 PUBLIC ACCESS TO GEOGRAPHIC DATA 32

4.5.3 NATIONAL SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURES 34

4.6 WHAT GIS PRODUCTS DO PRODUCTS MATTER 37

4.7 GIS DEVELOPMENT ADVANCES AND CRITIQUE 39

4.7.1 INTEROPERABILITY - CORE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY OPEN GIS CONSORTIUM (OGC) 39

4.7.2 OBJECT-ORIENTATION TECHNOLOGY 40

4.7.3 OPEN GIS SERVICES 40

4.7.4 INTEROPERABLE GIS 41

4.7.5 FUTURE OF GIS IN HEALTHCARE 42

4.8 GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 45

4.8.1 OVERVIEW 45

4.8.2 ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 46

4.8.3 INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 46

4.8.4 RECOMMENDATION ON INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 47

4.9 GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE IN THE FUTURE 53

4.9.1 OVERVIEW 53

4.9.2 GIS APPLICATION RESEARCH 53

4.9.3 GIS AND HEALTH RESEARCH 54

5 CHAPTER 4 56

5.1 METHODS OF RESEARCH 56

5.2 RESEARCH METHODS USED 57

CHAPTER 5 57

5.3 CASE STUDIES I 57

5.3.1 GIS MANAGEMENT TOOLS FOR CONTROL OF TROPICAL DISEASES: APPLICATIONS IN BOTSWANA, SENEGAL AND MOROCCO 57

5.3.2 IMPLIMENTATION OF GIS FOR THE CONTROL OF TROPICAL DISEASES:APPLICATIONS IN BOTSWANA, SENEGAL AND MOROCCO 60

5.3.3 THE CASE OF SCHISTOSOMIASIS CONTROL IN BOTSWANA 60

5.3.4 REASON FOR GIS USE IN SENEGAL 62

5.3.5 COUNTRIES NEED FOR GIS 62

5.4 CASE STUDY II 69

5.4.1 Sustainable technology transfer under the Malawi environmental monitoring programme 70

5.4.2 TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER UNDER MEMP 70

6 CHAPTER 6 73

6.1 ANALYSIS OF THE CASES 73

6.1.1 THE CASE OF TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER IN THE THREE CASES OF BOTSWANA, SENEGAL AND MOROCCO 73

6.1.2 PROBLEMS /CONTRIANTS ENCOUNTERED 75

6.1.3 FUNCTIONAL STATUS OF GIS IN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SURVEILLANCE 75

6.2 CONCLUSION 76

7 CHAPTER 7 77

7.1 RECOMMENDATION ON THE USE OF GIS IN AFRICA 77

7.1.1 DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA GIS LABORATORIE 77

7.1.2 PROPOSED STRATEGY FOR ORGANISATIONAL GIS SUCCESS 78

7.1.3 DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION 78

7.1.4 PRACTICE OF GIS IMPLEMENTATION 79

7.1.5 PARTICIPATION 79

7.1.6 CULTURE 79

8 REFERENCES ERROR! BOOKMARK NOT DEFINED.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

TECHNOLOGY:" A piece of equipment, technique, practical knowledge or skills for performing a particular activity".

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER: " The broad set of processes covering the exchange of knowledge, money and goods amongst different stakeholders that lead to the spreading of technology for adapting to both for diffusion of technology and cooperation across and within countries.

DEVELOPMENT: "To expand or realise the potential of; bring gradually to a fuller, greater or better state"(New college edition of American Heritage Dictionary)

DEVELOPMENT: According to Ingham (1995) "Development is a much broader concept of human welfare, with important social, political and cultural implications."

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: "To strike a balance in response to continually changing conditions with respect to the principal components that collectively contribute to the welfare of society, namely: the promotion of acceptable forms of economic development, the fulfilment of social needs and the achievement, protection and maintenance of satisfactory environmental condition". (Pryor andChu1997)

"Sustainable Development in a country is a process by which decisions are taken about resources use to provide for both the short and long term needs of its people. This process will allow the people to realise their full potential and provide for a healthy environment and enjoyable quality of life". (www.info.gov.hk/planning/p-study

SOCIAL INERTIA: "the resistance to change in organisations in relation to information systems" (Keen1981)

CULTURE: "An integrating system of learned behaviour patterns that are characteristic of the members of any given society. It includes everything that a group thinks, says, does and markets it customs, language, material artefacts and shared systems of attitudes and feelings " Bailey R. E. (2001)

DATABASE: "an organised, integrated collection of data stored so as to be capable of use by relevant applications with the data being accessed by different logical paths. Theoretically it is application-independent, but in reality it is rarely so.

DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DBMS): "a collection of software for organising the information in a database. Typically a DBMS contains routines for data input, verification, and storage. Retrieval and combination

DATASET: "A named collection of logically related features arranged in a prescribed manner, for example, all water features. A dataset has more internal structure than a layer and is related to another dataset only by position.

DIGITISING: "The process of converting analogue maps and other sources to a computer readable form"

EPIDEMIOLOGY: " the study of the spread of disease throughout population in particular areas"

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATON: "Information, which can be related to a location (defined in terms of point, area or volume) on earth, particularly information on natural phenomena, cultural and human resources special case of spatial information"

LOCATIONAL REFERENCE: "the means by which information can be related to a specific spatial positions or location"

RASTER DATA: "Data expressed as an array of pixels, with spatial position implicit in the ordering of the pixels"

REMOTE SENSING: "The technique of obtaining data about the environment and the surface of the earth from a distance, for example from aircraft or satellites"

SPATIAL INFORMATION: "Information, which includes a reference to a two or three dimensional position in space as one of its attributes.

TOPOGRAPHIC DATABASE: "a database in which data relating to the physical features and boundaries on earth's surface is held.

VECTOR DATA: "Positional data in the form of co-ordinates of the ends of line segments, points, text position etc."

DATA CAPTURE: " The encoding of data. In the context of digital mapping this includes map digitising, direct recording by electronic survey instruments, and the encoding of text and attributes by whatever means."

ATTRIBUTE: "is a property of an entity, usually used to refer to a non- spatial qualification of spatially referenced entity"

ENTITY: " something about which Data is stored in a databank or database"

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: "any information management system which can: Collect, share, and retrieve information based on its spatial locations;

Identify locations within a targeted environment, which meet specific criteria;

Explore relationships among data sets within that environment;

Analyse the related data spatially as an aid to making decisions about that environment;

Facilitate selecting and passing data to application specific analytical models capable of assessing the impact of alternatives on the chosen environment;

Display the selected environment both graphically and numerically either before or after analysis." (Francis Hanigan (1988) in Antenucci et al 1991p.7)

ACRONYMS

AT Appropriate Technology

NGDO Non-Governmental Development Organisation

ICT Information Communication Technologies

UN United Nation

GRID Global Resource Information Database

AIT Asian Institute of Technology

GIS Geographic information systems

WHO World Health Organisation

UNICEF United Nation Children Funds

IFI International Financial Institutions

UNDP United Nations Development Programme

IDRC International Research Development Centre

CIRAD Centre de Co-operation Internationale en researche agronomique pour le development

FEWS Southern Africa's Famine early warning System

PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal

DEVSIS Development Sciences Information System

USAID United states Agency for International Development

NGDO Non- Governmental Development Organisation

NGO Non-Governmental Organisation

UNEP United Nations environment Programme

GEMS Global Environmental Monitory System

FAO Food and Agriculture Organisation

DTSS U.S. Army's digital Topographic Support System

DCP Distributed Computing Platform

OO Object-Oriented Programme

OGC Open GIS Consortium

UCGIS University Consortium for Geographic Information Science

GPS Global Positioning System

RS Remote Sensing

CSE Ecological Monitory Centre

UNITAR

MapInfo Registered trademark Mapping Information System

ATLASGIS Trademark of Strategic Mapping

ARCVIEW Registered trademark of Environmental Systems Research Institute ESRI

ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute

ARC/INFO Register Trademark of ESRI

MEMP Malawi Environmental Monitory Programme

ASAP Agricultural Sector Assistance Programme

DOF Department of Forestry

DOW Department of Water

DOM Department of Meteorology

DOS Department of Surveys

DREA Department of Research and Environmental Affairs

2 CHAPTER ONE

2.1 INTRODUCTION

2.1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

According to Yapa (1991) " there is a new interest in decentralized regional planning and development in using locally-available resources and in low cost Appropriate Technology (AT) which is part of an emerging alternative paradigm".

The concept of using local resources came into being contextually in a system of space and time co-ordinates embedded in the local regional geography. Uncovering these "local resources" is an essential part of regional development through the use of AT.

The technology of GIS was not seriously applied prior to 1980 except for few research applications and exploratory pilot projects. From the 1980 especially after 1986 was a steady expansion of the application of the GIS knowledge in developing nations to a rapid technological change in a number of related fields (Taylor 1991).

The explosions of GIS technologies in the developing nations were found to be initiated by funded or supported by international agencies and Non-governmental Development organizations (NGDO's), (Edralin 1990). These applications were mainly pilot or research projects as opposed to operational systems, which were also controlled by outsiders, not by indigenous scientists.

GIS represent a promising generation of both traditional and new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's) in both public and private organisations for Administration and decision-making (for example new database technologies, the Internet). Some commentators explicitly states that the development and use of GIS's is becoming such a generic application in public administration and have been expected to contribute to a more comprehensive, technocratic and rational mode of policy making and decision making. (Wim, Donk&Taylor 2000)

Examples of such initiatives are United Nations (UN) systems, which has been in Nairobi and Geneva, developing the Global Resource Information Database (GRID) used to support UN efforts to collect and manage environmental information for planning and decision-Making purposes (Clarke, Hasting and Kinneman 1991). The second example by Taylor (1991) the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, which was supported by UN, funds. AIT has been involved in the development and application of GIS especially in Asian region. Taylor (1991) noted that " GIS as a new Technology in developing countries and their introduction, whether in: 'Top-down' or 'bottom-up' fashion was coming mainly from the outside and so far it had been largely marginal to the solution of the development challenges of developing countries".

The steps identified by Taylor (1991) and others like, Sundaram (1987), Rada (1982) to face the challenges were:

* Indigenous scientists and decision-makers from the developing countries to gain a greater degree of knowledge and control of the technology.

* How to obtain the Socio-economic command of the developments of science and technology (Sundaram1987)

* How to master the change to the best advantage for development strategies.

When this is done would avoid mismatch between the tasks, which can be performed by GIS and the reality of the current application situation.

The development challenges facing developing countries are:

* "The effective and efficient technology transfer;

* The development of skills by the local staff in the host country; and

* The effective management of programmes that could be monitored using GIS.

* The provision of continuous funding for development projects and maintenance of the information stored so that it is kept up-to-date."(Taylor 1991)

This paper will explore the impact of GIS systems use on a number of development programmes in some developing countries in Africa with a common theme, which is the "improvement of community/Public health". Programmes with a wide geographical spread would be selected from the ones being executed or have be executed by the following organisations:

UNDP, DFID, UNICEF OR WHO

2.1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

According to Taylor (1991) " many problems of GIS Technology are common to all nations but in the developing world there are additional issues to be addressed. GIS technology is not as scientifically objective and value-driven as some authors assume. It is a product of industrial and post-industrial societies of the so-called "first world". The information revolution of which GIS is an integral part, taking place in these societies is imbedded in general context of Socio-economic change in society as a whole. The Socio-economic realities and priorities of the "Third world" are quite different and, if GIS is to be of use to the challenges to these realities and priorities"(Taylor, preface 1991)

2.1.2.1 APPLICATION OF GIS

According to a report of the British Computer Society's Developing Countries Specialist Group (1991) stated, " As a management information (MIS), GIS is capable of enhancing our understanding and management of geographical phenomena in developing countries. In particular its uses should be noted in the application areas of:

* Health

* Management of public services such as water, electricity, roads;

* Management of forests;

* Land use surveys, irrigation, soil maps, pest control;

* Fisheries;

* Discovery of natural resources such as minerals;

* As a tool for recording of geographical information; and

* The forecasting of major events.

The report highlighted the benefits gain for the visual representation of information with spatial characteristics, especially while it is of a network type such as that concerning roads, pipes, cables etc. This spatial representation is appropriate in helping people to think in visual terms. Also the combination offered by GIS of graphical/visual terms with a tool such as a relational database represents a great benefit. (BCS 1991)

2.1.2.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF INFORMATION FOR GIS

The key issues of concern are the both quality and the appropriateness of information collected in a GIS. For projects of geographic nature, there is a tendency to make a decision to adopt a GIS before reviewing adequately the temporal and spatial characteristics of the information, which is to be used. Some information is so time-dynamic that it is not appropriate to represent it in a GIS. Information from different areas may also very so much in terms of detail required to be meaningful that it is not appropriate to collect it with the same precision from these different areas. (BCS1991)

2.1.2.3 NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT

Quoting Shirin Madon in her own research in formation systems for rural management in India; Shirin commented "the objective of the requirements analysis phase of any GIS implementation effort should be to assess the overall goals of the organization to be served by the technology".

This requires a careful understanding of the environment within which the technology is to be implemented. Madon explained that while plans existed in India for the digitisation of records of village amenities in order to promote micro-level rural development planning in India, little attention was focused on the various implementation issues involved with data capture and on the social and political acceptability of the system. (BCS 1991)

2.1.2.4 CONTEXT OF MAKING POLICY DECISIONS

The concern is the seductiveness of the new technology of GIS can serve to overemphasis its importance. Some countries may value GIS as a less valuable tool in development than other more conventional systems; GIS projects could also distort the development process by attracting funds to the wrong segments. It is clear that with GIS there are big potential benefits, but there is also potential for misuse either they may be inappropriate and not succeed, or where they are positively harmful in diverting resources away from other much needed projects. These issues should be understood in order to make policy decisions. (BCS1991)

2.1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of this dissertation is to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the International Aid Agencies- NGDO (Non-governmental development organizations programs and initiatives to introduce Geographical Information Systems technology (GIS) into development process in some developing countries in Africa.

2.1.4 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The GIS technology will be assessed using a number of criteria. These will include:

* The contribution that the technology has made to the specific development project;

* The extent to which the system used was an appropriate technology;

* The degree to which skills transfer as well as technology transfer has taken place;

* The trade off between low system cost and software effectiveness;

* The nature of the information processing that takes place and its relationship to the core function of the host agency or host Country;

* The efficiency and effectiveness of the solution and the scope of future development and application.

* A critical approach will be taken in order to evaluate the limitations as well as the benefits of any of the systems considered.

It is hoped that, there would be discovery on whether the GIS product use matters in the development process and what alternative GIS's are possible, who will be best served by the development; whether GIS is an Appropriate technology to be used in the developing countries. Also to identify if issues that affect skills and technology transfer has been addressed adequately.

Recommendation is to be made on the future perspectives of GIS in development.

2.1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology would include literature reviews, which will involve library and Internet research.

2.1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The time available for dissertation writing does not allow a comprehensive study to be carried out. Besides a study of this nature might require travel, which increase the cost. Therefore time and funds will act as serious constraints.

2.1.7 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY

The dissertation is divided into seven (7) chapters. Chapter one would be the introduction in which there would be a brief discussion on the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives and aims, methodology, limitations and the organization of the study. Chapter two would be about, the international Aid agencies/ |Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDO) that is the focus of this study, example are UNICEF, WHO, and also development issues, NGDO and GIS Technology use would be looked at. Chapter three would centre on Development, Geographic information Systems (GIS), GIS technology Transfer and the issues on GIS products, what products and do products matter. Also in the same chapter issues on Current Advances, Critique and future Development Perspective of GIS would be mentioned. Chapter four would be the Methodology. Chapter five the analysis of the case studies selected for the research work, which are Botswana, Senegal, Morocco and Malawi. Chapter six would be the Discussion and Conclusion of the study, while chapter seven would be Recommendation.

3 CHAPTER 2

NON-GOVERMENTAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION (NGDO)

DEVELOPMENT ACTION IN PRACTICE IN NGDO

According to Fowler (1997) "there is often confusion about the overall purpose or goal of international development assistance. A source of uncertainty is the mix-up between means and ends, fed by multiple agendas and institutional rivalry."

Market capitalism is now the pre-eminent global economic model. This unrivalled position has pushed the major proponents - International Financial Institutions (IFI's) like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund - to the forefront in setting the agenda in terms of the purpose and content of international assistance. These influential institutions create the impression that efficient markets producing broad based growth can be equated with development itself (Fowler, 1997).

The United Nations Development Programme UNDP opposed the view of the IFI's, while competing for the acknowledged pre-eminent position in the aid system. According to Fowler (1997), UNDP has for the past few years been emphasising human well-being as the purpose of markets and development.

NGDO's would, assert to all people and their values are both the means, ends and judges of development, and those markets are in the service of human kind. That is NGDO's can and may do, take a more holistic, people-centred view, unimpeded by the "bickering made necessary by IFI's limited economic mandates".

The reasonable consensus about the overall long-term goal to be achieved by development assistance is the creation of societies without poverty and injustice, and the functional purpose of development is to nationally and internationally, foster socially just, sustainable economies with accountable, inclusive systems of governance (Fowler, 1997).

Figure 1.1 - Framework of development action

The figure summarises what makes up development today and how they are meant to relate to each other and how the NGDO are playing in achieving the goals, which the aid system has set itself.

Figure 1.2 expands on Figure 1.1 by bringing NGDO's into the scene and showing what actions typically impart on the micro- and macro-levels of development.

Figure 1.2 - NGDO's and development action

Fowler (1997) argues that for NGDO's to be effective in development work, the NGDO's individually, in alliances and collectively must have the capacity to among other:

Balance the knowledge, experience, motivation and values of people who are poor or marginalized, especially women and powerless minorities against the expertise, links, resources and relative power of outsiders;

Balance external inputs with local mobilisation of resources and links;

Balance tangible products with human processes over time;

Balance time perspectives, interests and power relations between stakeholders while hitting them in favour of the powerless;

Balance micro-, macro- and increasingly intermediate levels of development, coupling direct actions at the grassroots with learning for leverage to gain structural change.

GIS TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES/NGDO'S

Overview

According to Mather (1997) that "GIS technology is first becoming the darling of the international development community". The Canadian-based International Research Development Centre (IDRC) foresees a 'brilliant future, for GIS in the communities and nations of the developing world'. The IDRC had funded a number of different development projects in Peru, Nepal, China, Cote d'Ivore and Egypt that relied heavily on the technology for improving decision making and planning. (Mather1997).

Also the French organisation CIRAD (centre de co-operation internationale en researche agronomique pour le development) used new mapping technologies to assist in agricultural development throughout the third world. Example is given of how (CIRAD, 1994 quoted in Mather 1997) the technologies in Burkina Faso in an attempt to maintain a sustainable balance between agricultural land use

The World Bank in its report of 1993 indicated "It sees the technology playing a leading role in environmental assessment in the third world. The technology's advantage over previous methods lies in its ability to... assess complex relationships between a variety of economic, environmental and social factors across space and time" (world Bank 1993).

South Africa sees the potential of the technology to redress the inequalities associated with apartheid social engineering. Due to the prominent role that these and other development agencies see for new mapping technologies in the Third World as recorded by Missoten et al (1994) made a basis for critical attention of researchers interested in the relationship between technology and development.

DIGITAL MAPPING AND DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES

Many reasons have been proposed as to why the GIS technology is attractive to development agencies? Mather (1997) suggested three most impotent reasons.

The first is that GIS allows planners and development workers to integrate data and geo- information from diverse sources as satellites, aerial photographs, global positioning systems, and conventional maps and surveys, into one computer system. This was previously difficult to do such as analysing data from, for example, satellites, in conjunction with surveys and field reports. Now with GIS combining remotely sensed information with data collected by humans is a relatively simple task (Jacobberger 1994 in Mather 1997). Example of the kind of Data Integration using GIS comes from southern Africa's famine early warning system (FEWS). This project goal was to allow countries in Southern Africa sufficient time to respond in the event food shortages or worse famine (Wright, 1994 in mather1997). FEWS used data from surveys climatologically information and predictions, crop prices and other information in an attempt to anticipate shortfalls in food production. Those information have been integrated with satellite images into a GIS to provide timely assessments of plenty growth on a regular basis, throughout the year. It was recorded that GIS considerably improved the ability of FEWS to predict food shortages (Mather 1997).

The second reason is the growing appreciation within development circles of the benefits from mapping social and physical information. It is possible to map a particular area and be able to identify problems, dispel myths and find solutions to social and resource based problems. Example of this was given of the use of GIS in Nepal, a country that was predicted by World Bank in the 1970's that due to population pressure, Nepal would have no forests left in 15 years. However according to Schmit et al, 1995, GIS planners were able to challenge the world banks dire prediction and provided a complex explanation of resource, use and change (Mather 1997).

The third reason is the GIS system's ability to assist planners in rational decision making. For example, Hastings and Clark (1991) noted that Africa is often perceived as a continent where rational planning of development ... can contribute significantly to environmental protection as well as people's welfare... This increases the appeal to some organisations interested in implementing GIS (as "it is perceived by many donors, the failure of countries in Africa and elsewhere to develop was partially due to corruption and the use of funds to enrich individuals rather than communities and nations.")

This ability of GIS has made donor countries to be prepared to fund projects, which rely on technology that removes the 'political' from the decision-making process and allows for an equitable and fair distribution of resources.

It is noted that while these systems can be applied to almost any spatial planning problem, they are used most frequently as a tool for service provision, resource management, and for environmental assessment and management

OVERVIEW OF SOME INTERNATIONAL AID AGENCIES /NON-GOVERNMENTAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATIONS

UNITED NATIONS CHIDREN'S FUND (UNICEF)

UNICEF was created in 1946 to meet the emergency needs of children in post war Europe, (then called United Nations International children's Emergency Fund-UNICEF)

UNICEF's initial Mandate in the 1950's was the provision of supplies, training and emergency operations to countries recovering from the world War. In 1973,UNICEF teamed up with WHO, Governments, and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's) in mass campaigns against childhood disease. This led to many other resolutions by the General Assembly of the United Nation to reformulate the focus of UNICEF. Among the important resolutions include: 1975 endorsed the incorporation of "Basic services for children in Developing countries", embodied the inclusion of child health, nutrition, water supply, basic education and supporting services for women; 1984 authorised UNICEF to take advantage of developments on social and biological sciences bringing about a low costs, promoting Universal Immunisation and the use of the oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) (this improved and recorded success in child mortality reduction in a short time),
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UNICEF programme of co-operation with governments an the Civil Society are being governed by the provisions of the convention on the rights of the child (CRC) what was passed by the UN General Assembly in 1986.It incorporate and enlarge on all the previous mandates.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANSITION (WHO)

The world Health organisation (WHO) is one of the specialised agencies of the United Nation responsible for international health matters on Public Health.

In 1945, a proposal for the establishment of WHO was approved and in 1946, the constitution conference on international Organisation. The constitution came ...

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