Ethiopia Internet Case Study

consultation with the Ethiopian

development of a design for the

Church, the Ministry of Culture, and

network, upgrading of telecom links

other relevant authorities FAS is

where necessary and making 50 free

seeking to raise USD 1.3 million to

hours per month of dial up Internet

cover the initial three year phase.

access available to the hospitals

involved in the project. The project

4.2

Health

was planned to begin in December

2000, however due to executive

Health care is very underdeveloped in

personnel changes in the health

Ethiopia, which has one of the lowest

ministry, which have delayed final

health status indicators in the world.

approval for the project, the initiative

According to a report by the

has not yet started.

telemedicine working group, infant

mortality is 105/1000, maternal

4.3

E commerce and trade

mortality rates are between 560 and

850/100'000 and life expectancy is

E commerce and the use of the

estimated to be between 47 and 54

Internet in trade is at a very early

years. Health services are only

stage of development in Ethiopia.

accessible to about 50 per cent of the

E commerce related laws and

population (due to bad or nonexistent

regulations such as privacy protection

roads it can take up to two weeks for

and digital signature have yet to be

someone to travel to the capital from

adopted, however, the draft

a remote area) and most of the

Information Policy currently under

medical experts are concentrated in

consideration is expected to outline

the major cities.

4

steps in this direction. There are no

credit cards available in the country,

The establishment of the HealthNet

or branches of any international

node in the early 1990s provided an

commercial banks, which even makes

initial impetus to the use of the

it impossible for foreign visitors to

Internet in the health sector, however

obtain a credit card cash advance.

5

because of the limited bandwidth and

Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) are

restriction of service to e mail, this did

also currently not widely in use,

not have widespread impact. There

although the major state owned bank

are a total of 110 hospitals in Ethiopia,

  the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia is

of which only 38 had a dial up Internet

about to run an 8 ATM pilot using

connection by end 2001 and no

Amharic customization. The Bank

hospitals were using the Web for

initially planned to introduce a credit

administrative purposes. Of the

card, then decided instead to develop

311 pharmacies in the country, 8 had

a smart card service. Initial bids for

Internet access and none of the

the supply of the smart card were

4'818 health service clinics appear to

rejected due to lack of EMV

be online.

compliance and a re tender is

expected next year.

A National Telemedicine Co ordinating

Committee has been set up as part of

The Commercial Bank, as well as the

the ITU's telemedicine project in

privately owned Dashen Bank, have

Ethiopia to support the development

also begun networking their branches

of a national telemedicine network,

in Addis Abeba and plan to extend this

which aims to initially connect

to the region with the new DDN

10 outlying hospitals and the AAU

network in the coming months.

Faculty of Medicine. Telemedicine

Currently, the banks must use

equipment to facilitate remote

international direct dial to participate

diagnostics is to be installed at each

in SWIFT, CitiBank and Western Union

hospital. ITU is planning to provide

financial transfers, and this is

telemedicine software and digital

becoming a significant problem, as

cameras to each hospital, along with

well as being costly. In other countries

a central telemedicine workstation to

the airlines nework   SITA   is used,

the Faculty of Medicine. ETC has been

and although a SITA PoP exists in

supporting the project with the

Addis Abeba for use by the airlines,

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