Johnson Should Increase Involvement in Africa
By Christian Duncan JGSM '10
Issue date: 9/9/09 Section: Perspectives
This summer I had the opportunity to intern in Nairobi, Kenya for Accenture Development Partnerships (ADP). ADP is a business unit within Accenture which provides business and technology services to the international development sector, operating on a non-profit basis.
Through fate and good fortune, one of the available ADP opportunities not only positioned me in Kenya, but also leaned heavily on my prior work experience in telecommunications. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I knew this would be an amazing experience both personally and professionally. I am happy to say that my initial thoughts held true. For eight weeks I called beautiful Nairobi, Kenya my home. It reminded me a lot of Silicon Valley, but instead of a dense arrangement of technology firms, there were INGO offices on every block. In fact, one INGO had three different offices in Nairobi-an East Africa Regional office and both the Kenyan and Sudanese country offices. The first week I found myself having lunch with dignitaries, including the Chairwoman of Kenya's BPO and Contact Center Society and the President of the Rockefeller Foundation. I was also exposed to the struggles of the African continent, spending my last week in Kenya visiting Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums totalling over 1.3 million people.
My client's name alone got me excited because it combined two of my favorite things-Networks and Hope. NetHope is an IT consortium of international NGOs focused on leveraging technology to ultimately better serve end-beneficiaries. My project involved NGO collaboration around shared services. I helped organize a community of practice around procurement, with a special focus on how NGOs source fiber and satellite connectivity. During my first two weeks in country, I was present for the historic landing of two submarine fiber optic cables, the first such cables in East Africa. These cables will ultimately help reduce East Africa's dependence on costly satellite communication that runs up to $3,000 per MB/s per month in stark contrast to the $40-$50 most of us pay TimeWarner or Verizon for the same bandwidth per month. By the end of my summer, I had created a workbook that helped NGO's better understand the connectivity marketplace and, more importantly, saw six NGO's sourcing connectivity as a collective group with some legitimate negotiating power.
Through fate and good fortune, one of the available ADP opportunities not only positioned me in Kenya, but also leaned heavily on my prior work experience in telecommunications. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I knew this would be an amazing experience both personally and professionally. I am happy to say that my initial thoughts held true. For eight weeks I called beautiful Nairobi, Kenya my home. It reminded me a lot of Silicon Valley, but instead of a dense arrangement of technology firms, there were INGO offices on every block. In fact, one INGO had three different offices in Nairobi-an East Africa Regional office and both the Kenyan and Sudanese country offices. The first week I found myself having lunch with dignitaries, including the Chairwoman of Kenya's BPO and Contact Center Society and the President of the Rockefeller Foundation. I was also exposed to the struggles of the African continent, spending my last week in Kenya visiting Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums totalling over 1.3 million people.
My client's name alone got me excited because it combined two of my favorite things-Networks and Hope. NetHope is an IT consortium of international NGOs focused on leveraging technology to ultimately better serve end-beneficiaries. My project involved NGO collaboration around shared services. I helped organize a community of practice around procurement, with a special focus on how NGOs source fiber and satellite connectivity. During my first two weeks in country, I was present for the historic landing of two submarine fiber optic cables, the first such cables in East Africa. These cables will ultimately help reduce East Africa's dependence on costly satellite communication that runs up to $3,000 per MB/s per month in stark contrast to the $40-$50 most of us pay TimeWarner or Verizon for the same bandwidth per month. By the end of my summer, I had created a workbook that helped NGO's better understand the connectivity marketplace and, more importantly, saw six NGO's sourcing connectivity as a collective group with some legitimate negotiating power.
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