Empowering information revolution ready to roll

MANY people do not realise that poor information dissemination begets inequality. Over the last 20 years government has created numerous opportunities for people to get out of poverty. A number of these opportunities have passed many communities by, due to poor information accessibility, especially for rural communities.

Government a couple of years ago designated certain areas of our country as nodes for rural development. Schemes for supporting up-and-coming farmers were put in place for communities to take advantage of.

Research shows that half of these were either not taken up or were neglected for the simple reason that news of their existence did not fall onto the right ears.

This must change as it is one of the basic elements in accelerating the reversal of poverty in our communities.

There has been a lot of noise about farms that used to be very productive and that suddenly are lying fallow after being handed over to new owners.

The question is, what information is at the disposal of the new owners once they have these new assets? What support is given to them about how to access support funding and markets?

What is in place is clearly not adequate if the current success rate of these enterprises is anything to go by.

At the beginning of the previous administration billions were set aside for a jobs fund. Half of this funding was not taken up purely because of the failure to grasp information by those who applied. This does not include those who did not know where to begin – there was simply no take-up at all.

With the level of unemployment among our youth, such a situation is unforgivable. The question is, how are we going to tackle inequality through the provision of information as we move our country forward?

It is clear that education is going to be key in ensuring empowerment of our citizens. Education outside the formal schooling system is even more crucial for attracting those who are not in the system and for encouraging a renewed appetite for education.

There are simply too many young people who don’t bother to pursue education and who fall out the system. The matric numbers show us that close to 50% of those who start grade one are lost to the system somewhere in the 12 years of schooling that should follow.

With 19 radio stations and four television stations, the public broadcaster needs to be more aggressive in running programming that focuses squarely on increasing education consciousness.

Similarly its resources must focus on being a dependable learning aid and a partner in education.

Similarly, with a network of over 200 community radio stations and numerous community newspapers there needs to be more government collaboration so that we can, together as one nation, drive an information culture that can break the back of ignorance.

Let me hasten to say that no-one in their right mind will suggest that this will be the answer to all the problems facing us. But without an urgent change in how we level the playing field when it comes to information dissemination in this country we are headed for the deepening of inequality.

To be effective, career guidance cannot be only focused on those within the schools system. As the numbers show, that will miss more than half of the youngsters who should be benefiting from such crucial information.

Government must work with civil society to access people where they live and engage in their daily activities. Government needs to use technology to highlight opportunities for short term and long term jobs and educational opportunities, and engineer a change of attitude towards learning.

Often people lament the lack of role models.

But how are we using as role models people who have made it despite the odds of Bantu education, whose stories must be put out there regularly? And what of those who have benefited from the gains of our freedom?

For our part as government, we are readying ourselves to implement an information revolution that will place crucial information in the hand of every citizen with the objective of ensuring that the ideal of freedom from poverty happens faster.

Tomorrow we start the “Information for Empowerment Dialogues” in East London. We have called on the media, amongst other civil society role players, to reflect on their role in empowering citizens to rally around what is essential to do or die for the future of this country.

We have also consulted stakeholders to engage government about how entities such as the SABC, the Films and Publications Board and the MDDA can best serve society.

The adage “information is power” guides our task as we make sense of communication instruments and policies that can empower our people.

Many people expect government to fold its arms and allow information dissemination to our people to remain at the mercy of the fourth estate. This is not sustainable. Newspapers are businesses whose objective and starting point is profit, regardless of how this reality is often dressed up.

This however does not mean we will stop calling on them to take seriously the national project of economic development. We have a duty when it comes to giving out information that empowers our people to take advantage of the huge opportunities that this government has put at the people’s disposal: the real meaning of development communications.

Such a task cannot be confined to how warm the media feels about us on any given day. It is a task we have to implement without an over-reliance on the fourth estate as middle man.

Over the next few months we will engage with communities and other stakeholders to together craft the vision for a new era of information revolution for empowerment of our people.

Faith Muthambi is Minister of Communications. She will be a keynote speaker at the Information for Empowerment Dialogue in East London. If you wish to attend please RSVP to shireenH@brandsouthafrica.com