Browsing by Author "Njenga, James K."

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    Approaches for enhancing information sharing between government and communities in Western Cape
    (AOSIS, 2021) Nelwamondo, Murendeni; Njenga, James K.
    The Western Cape Provincial Government uses digital intermediaries to facilitate information sharing between individuals, communities and the government. Digital intermediaries are shared facilities where communities can visit and have access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the internet. Communities benefit economically, socially and politically by using free access to ICT and the internet from intermediaries’ facilities to share information with the government. There seem to be disparities between the roles of the different stakeholders in information sharing. These disparities often result in poor communication between the government and communities, and also poor government services delivery.
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    Community-driven initiatives for the social sustainability of e-centres in the Western Cape
    (University of the Western Cape, 2024) Sigwadi, Vuyiswa P.; Njenga, James K.
    E-centres ensure digital inclusion by providing access to information and communication technologies to disadvantaged communities. E-centres face sustainability challenges in their operations, which hamper their digital inclusion agenda. Literature was reviewed to identify factors that contribute to sustainability. A few case studies were evaluated to identify factors contributing to their success or failure. The study seeks to understand how community-driven initiatives can ensure the sustainability of an e-centre, using the six dimensions of social capital theory from (Grootaert, Narayan, Jones, & Woolcock, 2004) to guide the research using a qualitative research approach for data collection with semi-structured interviews as the instrument. E-centre managers, development leaders and e-centre users were interviewed from three e-centres in the Western Cape. The philosophical approach that informed the study is interpretivism as the research paradigm. A purposive sample method was used. The (Miles & Huberman, 1994) model was used to guide the data analysis process, a combination of inductive and theoretical thematic analysis used for analysis. Key findings from the study were the importance of stakeholder relationships, the running of ecentres and the influence e-centres have on communities. Regarding stakeholder relationships, it was noted that relationships amongst the various stakeholders of an e-centre have an impact on the success of the e-centre. In cases where care is not taken to foster the relationships, the e-centres suffer
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    Digital literacy: The quest of an inclusive definition
    (AOSIS, 2018) Njenga, James K.
    Forces of globalisation and economic competition enhanced by, among others, the digital technologies, are radically transforming the social context. Digital technologies are characterised by a powerful and pervasive Internet as well as the related information and communication technologies. Globalisation is facilitated by the universally accessible, reliable and inexpensive communication assisted by these digital technologies. However, there is growing and valid scepticism regarding the digitally influenced socio-economic emancipation. This scepticism is mainly driven by a lack of understanding of digital literacy as a holistic process of creating the necessary social, economic and political changes within a given context. The understanding of digital literacy therefore needs to join a number of seemingly divergent views of digital technology when dealing with these technologies’ benefits in socio-economic emancipation. This understanding of digital literacy should therefore be shaped and focused more on understanding how digital literacy impacts the poor and marginalised, especially in looking at the socio-economic welfare of these marginalised sections of the society. This article discusses digital literacy by firstly looking at the shortcomings of the available definitions and approaches and then recommends a socio-economic development-orientated definition. The article brings to the fore the most critical digital literacy issues for socio-economic development. These issues are important; they ensure that digital literacy is not viewed in isolation, but rather in terms of its outcomes and consequences, especially with regard to socio-economic development.