OLPC instructors teach students how to use their laptops in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo: cellanr (flckr)

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame wants to secure a piece of the growing technology market that has already brought so much change to sub-Saharan Africa, and he’s starting young.

Kagame recently announced that he would provide a laptop for every child in his country between the ages of six and 18, reports The Economist. The magazine suggests the move is based on both economic as well as educational motives: The President has made it clear that he intends to have 50,000 computer programmers by 2020 as a result of the laptop program.

To reach that goal, he is working with the American non-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC), an organization that is the first of its kind to provide durable and affordable laptops to many in the developing world. According to their website they believe (as I do) that a laptop can be a key for children to engage in their own education more fully than traditional rote learning. OLPC claims their laptops offer a way for the user to connect with both their local and greater communities in order to expose them to a world that is often not available.

The more practical economic benefits of such a program are also apparent. The president has already purchased 100,000 laptops from OLPC, according to the Economist, and plans to buy 1.2 million more as early as 2012. Over the long term, the initiative will create more jobs for computer teachers and repairmen.
And Government agencies and businesspeople have already started programs to help educate a computer-savvy population reports The New Times of Kigali.

Understandably, the plan has been criticized by many who think the money would be better spent on more visible and perhaps more necessary projects for the impoverished nation, including food distribution, health care subsidies and infrastructure development. Although the country must never lose focus on these persistent problems, there must also be room for the Rwandan Government to take risks on other fronts. The overall benefits of education are difficult to quantify but are nevertheless unquestionably valuable. Technology markets are on the rise throughout Africa, and President Kagame doesn't seem to want to let this opportunity pass.

Have you heard of "appropriate technology?" It's a movement that helps the world’s poorest people with affordable, simple and practical inventions that address every day problems.

Some examples include:

• The Q-Drum, a circular drum that allows women and children to transport water by pulling a rope attached to the jug as it rolls on the ground, instead of carrying it on their heads.
• The Lifestraw, a portable, filtered drinking straw that allows water to be safely sipped from rivers, lakes and ponds.
• The Solar Home Lighting System, which allows children to study at night using solar-powered screens instead of electricity.

"We need to see the poor as customers rather than charity recipients," says Paul Polak, one of the notables in the appropriate technology movement. "We need a revolution in how multinationals design, price and market their products. There is a huge virgin market out there!"

Explore photos and videos of more inventions at Design for the Other 90%, the website for an exhibit currently touring U.S. museums.

The ambitious project to create a $100 laptop for the developing world is finding itself in the headlines once again. Mary Lou Jepsen, a top executive of the One Laptop per Child program is leaving the non-profit to start her own for-profit company to market the technology she developed for OLPC. Jepsen believes that by working with greater volume, she believes she can have a greater impact.

Since founder Nicholas Negroponte announced his intention to create $100 laptop in 2005, the project has not quite met it's lofty goals. Despite pilot projects in a few countries, many foreign governments aren't buying. Critics are also questioning whether the laptop is living up to its educational expectations.

"We don't have any reports that this play and enjoyment is transferring into real learned knowledge and real growth and development of the child," Wayan Vota, editor of OLPCNews.com said. "And that's really the key metric Negroponte needs to show to have OLPC grow and take off with the developing world."