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I heard Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda, speak at MIT on Sept 18. He described the role that technology plays in helping Rwanda and other African nations develop. He was very detailed and gave us specific examples about how people are using mobile phones as their major method of communication, and for health tracking and other things like giving farmers pricing information to help them sell their crops. He mentioned that he wants Rwanda to become a technology hub in the region.

Here's my list of pages and sites about internet communication technology in the developing world saved to del.icio.us

If you haven't seen this already, take a few minutes to play with this online tool called the Gapminder. It takes data like the changes in life expectancy and number of doctors per 1000 for each country and shows it as an animation. One of the saddest things to see is the life expectancy of the African countries (blue dots). While life expectancy continues to rise for most of the world, you'll see it plummets in Africa starting in the mid 80s as the AIDS epidemic hits. Go to the Gapminder site for better access to the tool.

At 12, brown-eyed Neema Laizer persuaded her elementary school teacher to accept one litre of milk each morning instead of money because her father refused to pay for a girl to be educated.

At 13, her father selected a 30-year-old stranger to be her husband. The next day, she was supposed to drop out of school and begin a new life as a housewife and a mother within a year, a common fate for young Maasai girls in Tanzania.

Laizer had a different plan.

An older article but a good one...
New York Times
July 22, 2007
Africa, Offline: Waiting for the Web
By RON NIXON

ON a muggy day in Kigali in 2003, some of the highest-ranking officials in the Rwandan government, including President Paul Kagame, flanked an American businessman, Greg Wyler, as he boldly described how he could help turn their small country into a hub of Internet activity.

November 1, 2007
My travel partners from PIH arrived in Kigali on Monday and drove out to the Rwinkwavu hospital. Here are some observations and thoughts about where the communities of practice can be most valuable. I'll update this throughout the week as I talk to more people.

Photos: Overview of PIH in Rwanda

To make it easier to visualize the Rwandan health system, here's an overview of how the 8 million Rwandans are organized into different health regions.