Along with helping save lives in an emergency, satellite systems also can play an essential role in preventing some crises, according to a study by Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF).
A new satellite system is the basis of an improved information network designed to enable Niger to better respond to the needs of its people, most of who work in the agricultural sector, according to a report released July 12 by TSF, a humanitarian non-governmental organization specializing in emergency telecommunications.
The report looked at the impact of satellite communications in Niger, an African country which has suffered through a widespread food crisis throughout the last two years. The study cites a period from July 2005 to July 2007 when satellite technology played a key role as TSF increased its efforts to prevent a food crisis and better prepare Niger to cope with the dry seasons that regularly affect the country.
Heartened by its effectiveness in Niger, TSF believes the satellite system can help elsewhere in Africa.
“The experience of TSF in Niger shows that if rapidly deployed satellite communications can save lives in emergencies, they can also play an essential role in preventing these crises,” the organization said.
Work began in Niger in summer of 2005 when the country was particularly afflicted by a food crisis due to suffering through an unusual dry season and a locust infestation. TSF visited the country in July to support the relief agencies and local authorities in the most affected region, Dakoro in eastern Niger. At the heart of the crisis, more than 30 agencies benefited from TSF’s communications for more than a month, making it “immediately clear” to TSF that the food crisis prevention system “needed to be strengthened.”
In 2006, satellite communications were deployed to provide information on livestock and agricultural resources. While it had previously taken weeks for such information to be collected and analyzed, the satellite communications system allowed information regarding livestock and agricultural markets to be sent digitally, TSF said.
“In total, the population covered in this project amounts to more than 700,000 people benefiting from the monitoring of and responding to their nutritional needs,” the organization said. “All the sites where the network has been deployed are in what are called ‘uncommunicative areas’, where there is no [global system for mobile communications] network, no landline, no Internet and hardly any radio communications.”
Local government staff gather information in collaboration with the agricultural and livestock markets and then relay the data to the capital using a satellite terminal connected to a small transmitter. According to TSF, the implementation of the system has been a success, as decisionmakers in Niger’s capital, Niamey, are able get real-time information on cereal and livestock markets, something that previously had been impossible. The system incurs about $100 a month in communication costs, with TSF providing the equipment, training and initial communications costs, the group said. The Nigerian government eventually will pay the costs.
According to TSF, the system deployed in Niger can be used anywhere in Africa and be adapted to help in other situations such as aiding in disease prevention.