The STAR programme aims at increasing the capacity of HIV/AIDS civil society organisations and microfinance institutions to effectively apply ICT to improve their management processes and communication with their target groups. The programme’s focus has been on the sectors HIV/AIDS and microfinance because of their potential impact on the course of African development. Practice and experience have shown that small and medium-sized organisations working in these sectors generally lack ICT skills and have limited access to communication technologies.
The programme started in September 2005 and will end in September 2009. Twenty organisations from six African countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia) are currently participating in the programme.
STAR is a private-public initiative of Hivos and KPN, the largest Dutch telecom company. Both organisations share the vision that ICT can greatly contribute to the effectiveness of civil society. The mixture of skills of both organisations has added a significant value to the programme. KPN’s role is primarily the provision of technical and management expertise to the programme, while Hivos is responsible for the overall coordination and management.
Skills-building is a key characteristic of the STAR programme. Through workshops, trainings, exchange visits and individual guidance participating organisations are made aware of the available ICT tools and are trained and supported in the use of these tools to improve their administration procedures and communication strategy.
Additionally, a number of concrete projects have been developed under the programme. These have been initiated and developed on basis of needs of the participating NGOs. These projects include the development of a communication toolkit, assisting two organisations in setting up helplines, development of an SMS Bulktool, setting-up of an ICT center and using mobile telephone games to create awareness on HIV/AIDS.
Another project aims at training a number of microfinance institutions in East Africa in the use of an open source management information system, Mifos, developed by Grameen Foundation. A lighter version of this software is currently being developed to cater for offline processing. This development is taken care of by two local ICT companies from Kenya and Tanzania while the Dutch ICT service company Logica is coaching and supporting the processes.
The power of the STAR programme lies in the combination of group activities and individual attention, in the intensive collaboration between a group of partners, and in the development of practical and replicable ICT tools which are useful to many organisations. Furthermore, the involvement of KPN professionals has added valuable knowledge, (technical) expertise and original solutions to the programme. The private-public partnership between Hivos and KPN has made STAR a unique and attractive programme.