Rensie and Infopreneur® Phophi on location, discovering the breathing stone in the Nzhelele valley.

Working within the CSIR Meraka Institute’s stable of innovators and scientists is a team of accomplished practitioners involved in the CSIR Citizens Information Services (CSIR CIS). This programme undertakes research, development and implementation (RDI) of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the African development context.  The team, led by Johann (Rensie) van Rensburg, has spent the better part of twenty years investigating solutions to empower South Africa’s marginalised communities through the use of information and communication technologies.

In recent years, the team’s combined expertise has evolved a fundamental shift within the ICT4D arena.  Development solutions have moved beyond the identification and creation of technological tools and processes as the foundations for development, to a prioritisation of the actions of individuals, enterprises and organisations who together form a network through which local skills and resources emerge and grow to deliver on the developmental mandate.  This paradigm shift has resulted in the creation of what is termed the Infopreneur® network wherein people are  the key to expanding the economic value chain to create opportunities for new entrants.  According to a paper collaboratively written in 2010 by van Rensburg and his colleagues, Braam Cronje and Uys du Buisson,  the importance now is to “validate and understand an ICT-enabled, sustainable network of enterprises.”

The networked community

Since 1994, the team has undertaken research and development in South Africa’s developing economy with emphasis placed on the deployment of services and resources for rural communities.  It has been over the last six years, however, that a business model for sustained delivery – which includes active involvement by stakeholders at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) – has been implemented and tracked.  Van Rensburg’s team is currently investigating how the networked community which is involved in delivering economic and social solutions within their communities, can be scaled-up and sustained.

The concept of the community Infopreneur® – a person who facilitates partnerships and processes between community actors and service providers within the value chain – works  in harmony with the notion of so-called Living Labs. Over the years, the team has experienced the benefits of the Living Lab approach which draws all stakeholders into a real-world context where there is both shared risk in terms of the research and commercialisation processes as well as shared success.   Similarly, the idea of the Community Infopreneur®  is to be an active, sustainable approach to rural empowerment, where the Infopreneur® is a key change agent who is embedded into the network to support the creation and facilitation of products and services.  According to van Rensburg et al, Infopreneurs® act as “information highway bridge builders …  [with the aim of] eventually enabling ‘intelligence-based’ niche production and export.”

The Infopreneurs® and the value chain

Infopreneurs® are local people living in – and understanding – local conditions and dynamics.  They are supported by a strong chain of stakeholders, including a back office which is set up by the CSIR.  The back office provides start-up resources and establishes strategic partnerships with public-sector departments and private corporations where necessary.  In close contact with the back office is the Regional Infopreneur® (RIP) who is supported directly by the CSIR Meraka Institute. The RIP not only has a wide skills-set and qualifications to manage the diverse relationships along the value chain, but will depend on the income generated by the network for services people are prepared to pay for.   The Community Infopreneur®, working closely with enterprises and people at the community level, is supported and guided by the Regional Infopreneur® and also has to build a set of income-generating services to justify their own existence. (more…)