Role of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change
Awareness in Seke and Murewa
Districts of Zimbabwe
WORKING PAPER SERIES No. 75

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

1

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

2Role of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change
Awareness in Seke and Murewa
Districts of Zimbabwe

Shakespear Mudombi
Institute for Economic Research on Innovation
Tshwane University of Technology
Pretoria, South Africa

	
  ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

3This paper should be cited as:
African Technology Policy Studies Network, ATPS 2013: Role of information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) in climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa
Districts of Zimbabwe [Shakespear Mudombi], ATPS WORKING PAPER No. 75© 2013Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network

ISBN: 978-9966-030-62-7

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

4Table of Contents
Acknowledgements						

6Abstract								

7

1Introduction						

8

2Literature Review						10

3Research Methodology					

14

4Results and Discussions					

18

5Conclusion and Recommendations				26

References							

27ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

5Acknowledgement
This report was produced as part of the implementation of the African Technology Policy
Studies Network (ATPS) Phase VI Strategic Plan, 2008 – 2012 funded by ATPS Donors
including theMinisterie van Buitenlandse Zaken (DGIS) the Netherlands and the Rockefeller
Foundation. The authors hereby thank the ATPS for the financial and technical support during
the implementation of the program. The Authors specially thank Prof. Kevin Chika Urama,
the ATPS Executive Director for his visionary leadership as Program Director; Prof. Atieno
Ndede-Amadi, Program Coordinator; Dr. Nicholas Ozor, Senior Research Officer, ATPS;
Mr. Ernest Nti Acheampong, ATPS Research Officer and the ATPS Team for the technicalsupport during the research process.

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

6Abstract
The paper examines the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) incontributing to climate change awareness in rural areas. It is based on a cross sectional study
that was conducted in Seke and Murewa districts in Mashonaland East province of Zimbabwe.
The findings indicate that the majority of respondents in the two districts are aware of climatechange. Significant differences in the level of climate change awareness were observed
between those who had access and those who did not have access to ICTs, with those who
had access having a higher level of awareness than those who did not have access. However
not all ICTs were found to significantly influence the likelihood of a respondent being awareof climate change. The following ICTs were found to have a significant positive influence on
the likelihood of an individual being aware of climate change: reading farming/environmental
magazines (really old ICTs); access to radio (old ICTs); access to mobile phone (new ICTs).
An inverse relationship was observed between access to television and the likelihood ofindividual awareness of climate change. Access to television rather decreased the likelihoodof respondents’ awareness of climate change. These findings highlight not just an important
aspect of ICTs as tools that facilitate information dissemination and communication, but how
these technologies and their capabilities are utilised is dependent on the users.

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
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71. Introduction
Climate is recognised as one of the biggest risk factors affecting the performance andmanagement of agricultural systems, and its variability and change contribute to thevulnerability of individuals, businesses, communities and regions (Meinke, et al. 2006).
The decline in rainfall and extreme weather patterns such as heavy rains, cyclones anddroughts are becoming more frequent throughout the continent especially in Sub-SaharanAfrica (IFAD, 2010). Agricultural production relies mainly on rainfall and will be severelycompromised in many African countries, particularly for subsistence farmers; under climatechange, with shorter growing seasons and lower yields, much agricultural land will be lost
(UNFCCC, 2007).
Cooper et al., (2008) noted that whilst the exact nature and extent of the impacts of climatechange on temperature and rainfall distribution patterns remain uncertain, it is the poor andvulnerable who will be the most susceptible to changes in climate.Though these farmers
have developed several adaptation options to cope with current climate variability, such
adaptations may not be sufficient for future changes of climate (Boko, et al., 2007). Becauseof rural households’ vulnerability to climate change, there is need to devise strategies andcoping mechanisms that enhance rural households’ capacity to adapt to and also participate
in the mitigation of climate change. In order to strengthen farmers’ capacity to adapt toclimate change, it will be necessary to implement adaptation strategies through educating
farmers with tested and proven methods (Ngigi, 2009). Through sensitization of farmers anddissemination of climate change information, farmers’ capacity to adapt to climate change
can strengthen (ibid). Climate change awareness plays a critical role within decision-making
processes and is the basis to mobilise action within and for rural agricultural communities(Ospina and Heeks, 2011).
There are various ways in which technologies both old and new can help in reducing theeffects of climate change. ICTs can play an important role as a medium of information andcommunication in climate change awareness, adaptation and mitigation strategies. However
the availability and adoption of ICTs is varied between areas: developed and developing
countries; urban and rural areas and within rural areas themselves. Even when the ICTs areavailable, the information that is transmitted is also varied and its reception is varied.
Thioune (2003) noted that ICTs are known to transform communities, however the detailsof these transformations, the degree and pace of such changes are yet to be fully grasped,
hence the link between development and use of ICTs are yet to be clearly established andsupported by empirical results from Africa. Ospina and Heeks (2010) noted that, experiencesfrom vulnerable communities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean point to theuse of ICT applications as part of climate change responses, however, this constitutes a
new field of enquiry where much remains to be explored. Hence the need for research that
explore the level of climate change awareness and how ICTs contribute to climate change
awareness amongst rural households.

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8This paper examines the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) inclimate change awareness. The focus of the paper is at the local/community level in the rural
areas of Seke and Murewa districts in Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe. It is basedon a cross sectional survey that was conducted in the two districts from May to August 2010.
1.1 Objectives of the Research
The main objective of the study was to analyse the role/contribution of Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) in climate change awareness in rural communities. The
specific objectives include:• Analyze the level of climate change awareness amongst rural people in Seke andMurewa districts of Zimbabwe.
• Assess if there is a positive difference in the level of climate change awareness between
those who had access and who did not have access to information and communication
technologies (ICTs).
• Establish if there is a positive relationship between access to information andcommunication technologies (ICTs) and climate change awareness.

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
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92. Literature Review
Ospina and Heeks (2010) in the scoping study on the links between ICTs and climate change
in developing countries noted that literature linking both the potential and challenges of ICTs
in the climate change field began to emerge at the beginning of the 2000s; they identify
three distinctive strands of research in the field. The first strand of research addresses
broad issues concerning ICTs, sustainable development and the environment from a global
perspective. The second strand is characterized by the emergence of more topic-specificand technical research covering aspects of climate change mitigation, and driven primarily bydeveloped countries’ priorities in the field. The third strand is characterized by an increasing
acknowledgement of developing countries’ needs and priorities in the climate change field.
This strand is characterized by emerging evidence on the use of ICT applications in vulnerable
contexts and adaptation strategies of developing countries (ibid). It is the third strand that is
the focus of this paper.
2.1 Climate variability and change in Zimbabwe
Climate change leads to variations in the amount of rainfall received, with some regions
experiencing too much rainfall which might result in floods while other areas receive less andinconsistent rainfall, which might result in droughts (Hulme et al, 2005). The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s regional scenarios for Africa for the next century indicatethat East Africa could receive more rain while southern Africa will probably become drier, anddesertification will remain a major threat in arid and semiarid regions (UNEP, 2003).
The factsheet on climate variability and change in Zimbabwe highlighted a number ofissues on the country’s climate. Zimbabwe is experiencing more hot and fewer cold days
than before; with the country’s annual mean surface temperature having warmed by 0.4oC
between 1900 and 2000 (Coping with Drought & Climate Change (CwDCC) (b), n.d.). The
period between 1980 and 2000 was the warmest and the driest; and the timing and amountof rainfall received has become increasingly uncertain. The last thirty years (from 1980) haveseen a trend towards reduced rainfall or heavy rainfall and drought occuring in the same
season. Mutekwa (2009) also concurred noting that Zimbabwe has of late been experiencing
frequent droughts alternating with periods of very high rainfall, in some cases, floods and midseason prolonged dry spells being experienced in the same season. Data from Zimbabwe
on temperature trends 1933 to 1993, show a rise in maximum temperatures, a decrease inminimum temperatures and a substantial rise in the diurnal temperature range (Unganai,
1996; Balling, 2005).
2.1.1 Initiatives that were undertaken to enhance climate change awareness in
Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management, previously
known as Ministry of Mines, Environment and Tourism is responsible for environmental andclimate issues. The Ministry of Mines, Environment and Tourism (1998) noted that in 1987
the Government of Zimbabwe developed a policy document which was a blue-print for theconservation of the environment called “National Conservation Strategy”. This document
paved way for most environmental programmes in Zimbabwe, including the signing andratification of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by
ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
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10Zimbabwe in Rio de Janeiro. Climate change activities which followed the issuing of thisdocument were part of environmental programmes based on this historic policy document.
In an attempt to meet the obligation of Article 6 of the UNFCCC which requires Parties to theConvention to promote and facilitate the development and implementation of educational
and public awareness programmes on climate change and its impact, Zimbabwe conductedclimate change awareness workshops targeted at the grassroots community, industry,
schools and universities, professional groups and policy makers (ibid).
The Zimbabwean government also took other initiatives to increase climate change awarenessin the country, these initiatives include workshops such as the “Climate Change Roundtable”
organised in 2009 by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management inconjunction with COMESA with financial support from the Norwegian Embassy (Ministry ofEnvironment and Natural Resources Management, 2009). One of the aims of the workshop
was to create awareness and initiate dialogue on climate change in the country with fullparticipation of legislators, industry and insurance sectors, bankers, and other players.
However the impact of all these inititiatives have not been documented.
2.2 Barriers to smallholder farmers’ adaptation to climate change
Given the threats to livelihoods due to current climate variability and expected change thereis need for rural households to adapt. Gbetibouo (2008) noted that the extent to which theadverse impacts of climate change are felt depend in large part on the extent of adaptation in
response to climate change, without adaptation, climate change would be detrimental to theagricultural sector, but with adaptation, vulnerability can be significantly reduced.
The Coping with Drought and Climate Change (CwDCC) project in Zimbabwe identified somebarriers to replication of successful adaptive strategies. These are: information; institutions;
inclusion; and finance CwDCC. Information barriers were due to limited awareness among
policy makers and development practionioners about the risks posed by climate change
and how these relate to local development priorities. Institutional barriers contributed to
weak coordination between those working on climate change, development and disaster risk
reduction. Inclusion barriers occur because there are limited platforms to share and captureexperiences from different stakeholders while financial barriers are there because the costof adaptation is substantial.
2.3 The Link between information, knowledge and adaptation
For meaningful adaptation and mitigation, individuals, households, and communities should
be aware and have the necessary knowledge on what should and should not be done inaddressing the challenge of climate change. Rural households’ access to information aboutclimate change may enhance their awareness and adaptation capacity. Information canlead to knowledge which is a prerequisite for development (Mansell & When, 1998; Mansell,
1999; Ahmed, 2007). Farmers’ ability to perceive climate change is a key precondition for
their choice to adapt (Gbetibouo, 2008).
The African Climate Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) consortium identified fivecharacteristics of adaptive capacity, and one of the characteristics is knowledge andInformation. It highlights that successful adaptation requires information and understandingof future change, knowledge around adaptation options, whereby it is important to ensurethat systems are in place to distribute relevant information at both national and regional
scales e.g. early warning systems; meteorological data and forecasting; and climate impact
data (ACCRA, 2010). Mutekwa (2009) studied climate change impacts and adaptation in thesmallholder sector in Mazvihwa area of Zvishavane District in Zimbabwe, and the findings
indicated that majority of the farmers (53%) were ignorant about climate change and its
potential consequences, whilst 47% opined to a level of changes observed in recent years.

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112.4 Applications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
The term Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is used to refer to hardware,
software, networks and media for collection, storage, processing, transmission andpresentation of information in the formats of voice, data, text and images (World Bank (n.d.);Nyirenda-Jere, 2010). ICTs are diverse ranging from fixed telephones, radios and TVs tomore complex technologies such as internet technologies, mobile telephony, computersand databases (ibid). The primary purpose of ICTs is to provide an enabling environment
for the generation of ideas, their dissemination and use. Through ICTs, the diffusion andsharing of knowledge is enabled through open access to information and better coordinationof knowledge. ICTs have been and continue to be used to an ever increasing extent ineducation and learning through computer aided learning and distance learning (ITU, 2008).
Likening the ICT revolution to the first machine-driven industrial revolution, Baskaran andMuchie (2006) noted that ICTs have generated fundamental changes in the socio-economic
lives of people and nations across the world. The UN Millennium Project (2005) noted that
ICT will become one of the main enablers in pursuit of poverty alleviation, as a facilitator of
networking, processing, distribution and sharing of knowledge and information. There aremany ICT applications in environmental issues which are categorised as: environmental
observation; environmental analysis; environmental planning; environmental management
and protection; impact and mitigating effects of ICTs utilization; and environmental capacity
building (ITU, 2008). The role of ICTs in capacity building is of importance to climate change
awareness and adaptation. Capacity building includes efforts to increase public awarenessof environmental issues and priorities, the development of professionals involved either
directly or indirectly in the environment, as well as integrating environmental content into
formal education (ibid).
There are few studies that have been done that focus on the application of ICTs in different
aspects of climate change. However, there are some initiatives that are being undertaken suchas the Climate Change, Innovation and ICTs Project at Centre for Development Informatics
at the University of Manchester which is at the forefront of doing research in this regard. It
provides evidence through the various case studies on the application of ICTs on the different
aspects of climate change. In one of the case studies, Saravanan (2011) on using ICTs
to facilitate “ClimateSmart Agriculture” among farmers in North-East India highlighted theneed to prioritise appropriate ICTs in rural areas especially those that are already in use
such as the radio and TV for raising the general awareness and mobile phones for moreindividualised assistance.
2.5 Conceptual Framework
The role of ICTs in climate change awareness was conceptualised using the sustainable
livelihoods (SL) framework. Other researchers who have used the SL framework include
Duncombe (2006) who analysed the ICT applications for poverty reduction via microenterprise in Botswana. Sife, Kiondo, & Lyimo-Macha (2010) also employed the SL framework
in studying the contribution of mobile phones to rural livelihoods in Morogoro region of
Tanzania. Duncombe (2006) integrated the information chain proposed by Heeks (1999;2005) to show the information and communication processes in the livelihoods framework. In
this paper, climate variability and change aspects were added to the Duncombe and Heeks
framework as shown in Figure 1.
Lack of livelihood assets in rural areas heightens their vulnerability to climatic impacts, andalso undermines their capacity to respond to the challenges and to benefit from potential
opportunities derived from climate change (Ospina & Heeks, 2012). Knowledge andinformation play a key role in overcoming the challenges and constraints that communities
face, and are pivotal for building and strengthening the capacity of multiple stakeholders
involved in adaptation strategies at the micro, meso (intermediate) and macro levels (Ospina& Heeks, 2011).

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12

	
  
Data
-Trends-Shocks
Seasonality

Vulnerability
context of rural
people: Climate
variability&changeParticipatoryassessme
nt

Information
Pro-poor
application

Action via
transforming structures
andprocesses

Communication

Livelihood
Assets-Physical-Social-Financial-Human-NaturalFigure 1: Climate change information and communication processes in the livelihoods
framework. (Source: Adapted from Duncombe (2006) who adapted it from theinformation chain by Heeks, 1999)
ICTs can be used in a number of effective ways to enhance current livelihoods or to create newones (Greenberg, 2005). From the conceptual framework, ICTs will contribute to sustainable
livelihoods in rural areas when they are utilised for information generation, exchange andknowledge creation; when they facilitate communication amongst the people within andoutside the rural areas; and when they reduce transaction costs. Climate change awarenessis the basis of all other responses to climate change. Duncombe (2006) noted that information
has both an analytical and a functional role within the SL framework. Of importance is, if
climate variability and change data on trends, shocks, and seasonality is available and throughparticipatory assessment is converted to information and communicated to the people, they
are better able to adapt to and also participate in the mitigation of climate change.
The adaptation and mitigation actions that rural households and communities undertakein response to climate change is dependent on the availability and utilisation of livelihood
assets within their reach and these adaptation and mitigation actions will in turn impact on
the livelihood assets. Appropriate introduction and utilisation of ICTs in rural areas is likely
to directly and indirectly enhance all the livelihood assets (physical; social; financial; human;and natural). However in terms of climate change awareness, ICTs are likely to enhance
the human capital component of livelihood assets by availing information and facilitating
communication which are essential in knowledge creation and its transfer. ICTs also play animportant role by transmitting climate change information from the research field to the rural
people and from rural people to researchers; however this information is important only if therural people understand the information, which can contribute to knowledge.

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133 Research Methodology
3.1 Population and Sampling
Zimbabwe has 10 provinces, and from the 10 provinces one province (Mashonaland East)
was selected. According to the 2002 Census, Zimbabwe had a total population of about 11
634 663 people, and Mashonaland East province had a total population of about 1 127 413
people and 309 198 households. Most of the population in the province is rural while theurban population accounts for about 24 percent. Figure 2 below is the Mashonaland Eastmap; it has 11 districts two of which were selected for the study namely Seke and Murewa.
Figure 2: Mashonaland East Province map showing Seke and Murewa districts (indark colour) Source: CSO (2004)
A multi-stage sampling approach was used. The sampling unit was a household1 . Sample
size of 300 households was used in the study, with 150 households coming from each of
the two districts. One respondent, supposedly the household head was selected from eachhousehold, however if the household head was not available any other adult member of thehousehold could respond on behalf of the household head. Data collection was conductedfrom May to August 2011. The information was entered and cleaned for analysis using SPSS
and STATA.
1. Household constitutes a person or group of persons, irrespective of whether related or not, who normally live together in the same housing unit orgroup of housing units and have common cooking arrangements (Stork & Stork, 2008)

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143.2 Measurement of variables
The study focused on two main issues namely: access to and use of Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) and climate change awareness. Greenberg (2005)
noted that ICTs are often categorized based on how long they have been in common use,
and to some extent the technology used for the transmission and storage of information.
Greenberg identified three categories namely: new; old; and really old ICTs.
•••

New ICTs are mainly based on digital technology, these include: computers, satellites,
wireless one-on-one communications; mobile phones, the Internet, e-mail and multimedia.
Old ICTs have been in reasonably common use throughout much of the world for many
decades, these include: radio, television, land-line telephones and telegraph. They
are mainly based on analogue technology though some are now migrating to digitaltechnology.
Really Old ICTs have been in common use for several hundred years, these include:
newspapers, books and libraries.

This paper looks at both old and new ICTs namely: radio; television; video cassette recorder(VCR); digital video disc (DVD) player; fixed telephone; mobile phone; satellite decoder;computer; internet; and the traditional print media (newspapers; farming/environmental
magazines; business magazines; entertainment magazines; church magazines; andposters). Though the term ICTs is generally used to refer to information and communication
technologies that are electronically based, in this particular study it was deemed necessary
to include even those in print format. Various questions were formulated to explore different
aspects of access to and use of the ICTs.
Climate change awareness was also evaluated. In measuring climate change awareness, theaim of the study was not to solicit a scientific definition of climate change from respondents;
the aim was to evaluate people’s knowledge on various aspects of climate change. Thiswas done by asking the respondents a yes/no question on climate change awareness andthis was the initial question to separate those who were aware and those who were notaware of climate change. For the respondents who had indicated that they were aware ofclimate change, they were asked 11 questions/statements which had five point Likert scale(strongly agree; agree; undecided; disagree; strongly disagree) in which the respondent was
expected to indicate his/her level of agreement with the statements. Whyte (2000) noted
researchers can manipulate variables to create various types of scales, particularly ordinal
and interval scales, which enable them to apply various types of statistical tests; whereby
one can combine the initial variables to create indices, either by simply adding them or bysome other means. The responses to the 11 questions were used to create a climate change
awareness index. The index was calculated as follows: the scores from the 11 questions
were summed up and the minimum and maximum total scores a respondent could get were
-22 and 22 respectively. To get an index between -1 and 1, the total score that a respondent
got was then divided by 22.
3.3 Data Analysis
3.3.1 Testing for differences using T-tests
T-tests were used to test for the differences on climate change awareness between those
who had access and those who did not have access to ICTs. T-tests can be used to test
whether a correlation coefficient is different from zero; to test whether a regression coefficient
is different from zero; and test whether group means are different (Field, 2000). There are
two different t-tests for measuring differences in means namely the independent-means and
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15dependent-means t-tests. Independent-means (Independent samples) t-test is used when
there are two experimental conditions and different participants were assigned to eachcondition. Dependent-means (matched pairs/ paired samples) t-test is used when there are
two experimental conditions and the same participants took part in both conditions. The
independent t-test was used in this study since it tests differences between different people(those who have had access and those who did not have access to ICTs). The formula of the
independent t-test is shown in equation (3.1).

(3.1)

Where

and

are sample means of respective groups while and are population means forrespective groups andis the estimate of the standard error. Instead of comparing
differences b etween pairs of scores as for the dependent-means t-test, differences in overallmeans of the 2 samples are compared. Under the null hypothesis (where the hypothesisis there are no differences)equation (3.2)

and therefore

equation (3.1) becomes(3.2)

3.3.2 Binary logistic regression model
The logistic regression model has been used in many applications due to its mathematicalconvenience (Greene, 2003); in this paper it was used to test the significance of access to various
ICTs on climate change awareness. The formula for binary logit (Long, 1997; `Field, 2009) isshown in equation (3.3) below. (3.3)

Pr( y = 1 | x' ) represent the probability of an event happening, the dependent variable takes
a value of 1 given an independent variable . Represents vectors of all the independent
variables. The explanatory power of the independent variable is explained by the coefficient
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16

. The dependent variable is the probability of a respondent being aware of climate change.
This dependent variable takes two discrete values, which is 1 if the respondent is aware ofclimate change or 0 if the respondent is not aware of climate change.
The model predicts the maximum likelihood of a respondent being aware of climatechange versus not being aware of climate change. The coefficient in the model depicts a
relationship of how variations in the independent regressors affect the predicted log of odds
of a respondent being aware versus not being aware of climate change. This relationshipbetween the dependent and the independent variable can be depicted using the antilog ofthe(exp ) which is the odds ratio. The formula of the odds ratio is presented below.

(3.4)

Where Pi is the probability of being aware of climate change ( Pr( y = 1 | x)' )in equation (1) andis the probability of not being aware of climate change (). Equation(2) represents the odds ratio in favour of being aware of climate change which is the ratio of
the probability that a respondent is aware of climate change to the probability of not being
aware of climate change. An odds ratio that is greater than 1 implies that a unit increase in
the continuous variable or discrete change in the categorical variable in the regressors leads
to a decrease in the odds of a respondent being aware versus unaware of climate change .

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174. Results and Discussions
4.1 Household characteristics
From the sampled households, 32.1 percent were female-headed while 67.9 percent weremale-headed households. The minimum and maximum ages of household heads were 23
and 98 years respectively with a mean age of 52.23 years. The minimum and maximum
household sizes were 1 and 18 respectively with a mean of 5.84 members. The majority of
the household heads had basic education while only 4.3 percent of the household heads did
not have any basic form of formal education.
4.2 Knowledge of and access to Information and Communication technologies
Both old and new ICTs were analysed namely: radio; television; video cassette recorder(VCR); digital video disc (DVD) player; fixed telephone; mobile phone; satellite decoder;computer; internet; and the really old ICTs in print format (newspapers; farming/ environmental
magazines; business magazines; entertainment magazines; church magazines; and posters).
Greenberg (2005) noted that the categorisation of ICTs (new, old, and really old) generally
apply to the developed world, in many parts of the developing world, and particularly in areas
where literacy rates are low, they are all relatively new. This implies that those ICTs that are
generally classified as old might be new or even unknown in some rural areas. Therefore
in exploring access to ICTs the initial step was to evaluate whether the respondent knew
the various ICTs, which was then followed by assessing ownership of the ICTs by different
members of the household. Ownership of ICTs by any household member was taken as aproxy of access to ICTs by the respondent. A shortcoming of the approach was the failure toincorporate access to ICT through people who were not part of the household. The results on
ICT knowledge and access are presented in table 1.

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18

Table 1: Knowledge of and access to ICTs disaggregated by district
ICT

Knowledge

AccessMurewaSeke

Average

MurewaSeke

Average

%

%

%

%

%

%

Radio access

98.7

97.3

98.0

77.9

71.8

74.8

Televisionaccess

86.7

92.6

89.6

40.7

51.7

46.2

Satellite
decoder access

65.3

60.4

62.9

8.0

13.4

10.7

Video Cassette
Recorderaccess

63.3

61.1

62.2

8.0

14.8

11.4

Digital Video
Disc player
access

65.3

60.1

62.7

15.3

14.1

14.7

Fixed
Telephoneaccess

76.0

65.8

70.9

2.0

2.0

2.0

Mobile phone
access

94.7

95.3

95.0

70.7

85.2

77.9

Computeraccess

65.3

60.4

62.9

2.0

4.7

3.3

Internet access

52.0

45.0

48.5

1.3

2.7

2.0

Source: Survey data, 2011

Generally the majority of respondents knew the ICTs, with more than half knowing each of
the ICTs except for the internet in Seke district. Most respondents knew the radio (98%);
closely followed by the mobile phone (95%); television (89.6%); fixed telephone (70.9%);
computer and satellite decoder (62.9%); DVD (62.7%); VCR (62.2%) and the least known
was the internet (48.5%). In terms of access to ICTs, the greatest percentage of households
had access to the mobile phone (77.7%); followed by the radio (74.8%); television (46.2%);
DVD (14.7%); VCR (11.4%); satellite decoder (10.7%); computer (3.3%); internet (2.0%);
and the least owned was the fixed telephone (2.0%).
The newspapers; farming/environmental magazines; business magazines; entertainment
magazines; church magazines; and posters, were assessed if the respondent or any
household member read them. The results are shown in table 2 below. The greatest number of
respondents indicated that they read the newspaper (72.4%); followed by church magazines(55.2%); farming/environmental magazines (51.5%); posters (50.2%); entertainment
magazines (41.5%) and the least read were business magazines (40.5%).

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Table 2: Readership of various forms of print media
District
MurewaSeke

Average%%%

Newspapers

67.3

77.9

72.6

Farming/environmental magazines

45.3

57.7

51.5

Business magazines

30.7

50.3

40.5

Entertainment magazines

34.0

49.0

41.5

Church magazines

48.0

62.4

55.2

Posters

40.5

59.7

50.2

Source: Survey data, 2011

4.3 Climate change awarenessThe results on climate change awareness are shown in table 3 below. The majority of the
respondents indicated that they were aware of climate change, with about 86.3% indicatingthat were aware while 13.7% were not. A greater proportion of respondents who were aware ofclimate change were from Murewa district (94%) while Seke had 78.5%. The level of climatechange awareness was further evaluated using the climate change awareness index2. The
index ranged between -1 to 1; an index value close to 1 means an individual is more awareof climate change while an index value of 0 or below indicates the respondent is not aware ofclimate change. The average index in the two districts was 0.54. Murewa district had a higher
climate change awareness index of 0.59 compared to Seke district’s index of 0.48.
Table 3: Climate change awareness by district
Seke

MurewaAverage

Aware of climate change (Yes)

78.5%

94%

86.3%

Climate change awareness index
Source: Survey data, 2011

0.48

0.59

0.54

4.3 Exploring the relationship between access to ICTs and climate change awareness4.3.1 Testing for differences in climate change awareness between respondents who
had access and respondents who did not have access to ICTs
T-tests3 were conducted to evaluate if there were differences in the level of climate change
awareness between respondents who had access and those who did not have access to
ICTs. The results are presented in table 4 below. Significant differences were observed in thelevel of climate change awareness between those who had access and those who did nothave access to various ICTs except for the computer. Owners of any of the ICTs tools had
a higher level of climate change awareness than non-owners. Significant differences in thelevel of climate change awareness were also observed between those who read and those
who did not read the various forms of print media under study. Those who read had a higher
level of climate change awareness than those who did not.
2. The calculation of the change awareness index was described in section 3.2
3 T-tests were discussed in the analytical framework in section 3.3.1

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20Table 4: T-test results in climate change awareness between owners and non-ownersof various ICTs
ICT

Mean Climate change awareness
index

Difference

Hypothesis:
difference >0

Own

Do not own

Radio

0.56

0.46

0.10

0.0076***

Television

0.57

0.51

0.06

0.0513*

Satellite decoder

0.63

0.53

0.10

0.0429**

VCR

0.67

0.52

0.15

0.0040***

DVD

0.62

0.52

0.10

0.0287**

Fixed telephone

0.79

0.53

0.26

0.0245**

Mobile phone

0.57

0.43

0.14

0.0013***

Computer

0.55

0.54

0.01

0.4459Internet

0.72

0.53

0.19

0.0820*Print MediaRead

Do not read

Newspapers

0.56

0.46

0.10

0.0092***

Farming/Environmental magazine

0.58

0.48

0.10

0.0062***Business magazines

0.58

0.51

0.07

0.0328**Entertainment
magazines

0.59

0.50

0.09

0.0045***Church magazines

0.57

0.50

0.07

0.0398**Posters

0.57

0.49

0.08

0.0162**

Source: Survey data, 2011		

Significance level: * is 10%; ** is 5%; *** is 1%

4.3.2 Testing for significance of access to ICTs in climate change awareness using
Logistic regression
To further explore the relationship between access to ICTs and climate change awareness,a logistic regression model was used. The dependent variable was a binary variable (1=yes,
0=no) to the question (Are you aware of climate change?) and the independent variables
were access to various ICTs (radio; television; satellite decoder; video cassette recorder;
digital video disc player; mobile phone; computer; internet); and the frequency of: reading
newspapers; reading farming/ environmental magazines; reading business magazines;
reading entertainment magazines; reading church magazines; and reading posters. The
logistic regression results are presented in table 5 below. The table has two columns, one
for the odds ratio4 and the other for the significance level. Fixed telephone and internet
connection variables were dropped as they predicted success perfectly in the model.
4. Odds ratio is an indicator of the change in odds resulting from a unit change in the predictor. Odds ratio can be interpreted as: if the value is greater than 1, it means as the predictor
increases, the odds of an outcome occurring also increase; a value less 1 indicates that as the predictor increases, the odds of an outcome occurring decreases (Field, 2009: 270-271).

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Table 5: Logistic regression results
Variable

Odds Ratio

Significance level

Radio access3.42260.003***

Television access0.29150.009***

Satellite decoder access0.7651

0.776

Video Cassette Recorderaccess11.4425

0.185

Digital Video Disc player
access

1.8946

0.480

Mobile phone access1.82690.011**

Computer access

0.14400.140

Frequency of reading
Newspapers

0.8841

0.456

Frequency of reading Farming/
Environmental magazines

1.67230.022**

Frequency of reading Businessmagazines

0.8754

0.657

Frequency of readingEntertainment magazines

1.02470.930

Frequency of reading Church
magazines

1.0242

0.867

Frequency of reading Posters
Source: Survey data, 2011		

0.79070.108
Significance level: * is 10%; ** is 5%; *** is 1%

Four variables were found to have a significant relationship with the dependent variable
and these were access to: radio; television; and mobile phone; and reading of farming/
environmental magazines. The most significant variables were: access to radio and television
ownership, which were significant at 1% significance level. Access to mobile phone andfrequency of reading farming/environmental magazines were significant at 5% level. The odd
ratios of access to: radio; mobile phone; and frequency of reading farming/environmental
magazines are greater than 1, which means access to radio and mobile phone; and reading
farming/environmental magazines increased the odds of an individual being aware ofclimate change. The odds ratio of television ownership is less than 1, which means access totelevision reduced the odds of an individual being aware of climate change.
4.3.3 Assessing perceptions on the importance of access to ICTs in climate change
awareness
Perceptions of individuals are important determinants in the adoption and use of technologies
and ideas. To further explore the role of ICTs in climate change awareness, respondents
were asked whether they considered the ICTs to be important in climate change awareness.
The results are presented in figure 3 below; the figure shows the percentage of respondents
who indicated whether they perceived each particular ICT to be important or not in climatechange awareness. Yes represents the percentage that perceived the ICT to be important
while no represents the percentage that perceived the ICT not to be important in climatechange awareness. N/A is not applicable it represents the percentage of respondents who
did not know the ICT or those who knew the ICT but did not have access to the ICT.

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22Figure 3: Perceptions on whether the ICT is important in climate change awarenessSource: Survey data
The results indicate that the following ICTs namely: radio; television; newspapers; farming/
environmental magazines; and business magazines had a greater proportion of respondents
who perceived them to be important than the proportion who considered them not to beimportant in increasing climate change awareness. The radio was perceived as the mostimportant (83%); followed by newspapers (59%); television (57%); farming/environmental
magazines (43%); and business magazines (24%). The other ICTs namely: satellite decoder;
VCR; DVD; fixed telephone; mobile phone; computer; internet; entertainment magazines;
church magazines; and posters had a greater proportion of respondents who perceived
them as not important than the proportion who considered them important in climate change
awareness.
4.4 Discussion of Results
The first finding was that the majority of respondents indicated that they were aware of climatechange. The second finding is that there are significant differences in the level of climatechange awareness between those who had access and those who did not have access to ICTs.
Those who had access to ICTs had a higher level of climate change awareness than those
who did not have. The third finding is access to some ICTs such as radio; mobile phone; andreading of farming/environmental magazines had a significant positive relationship with thelikelihood that a respondent was aware of climate change. However, access to the television
was found to have a significant negative relationship with the likelihood that a respondent
was aware of climate change. These findings indicate that access to old ICTs such as theradio and really old ICTs such as reading farming/environmental magazines increased thelikelihood of an individual being aware of climate change while in terms of the new ICTs only
the mobile phone increased the likelihood of being aware of climate change. This makes it
imperative to briefly discuss each of the ICTs that were found to have a significant influencein climate change awareness.
4.4.1 Radio
Access to the radio was found to have a significant positive relationship with the likelihoodthat a respondent is aware of climate change. Its importance as a source of information has
been widely acknowledged by many researchers and it is one of the old ICTs which is widelyadopted even in rural areas. The positive relationship was expected, it was further confirmedby respondents’ perceptions on the importance of the radio in climate change awarenesspresented in Figure 3 in section 4.4.3. The radio was perceived as the most important ICTATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
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in climate change awareness with 83% of respondents perceiving it as important compared
15% who perceived it as not important.
4.4.2 Mobile phone
Access to the mobile phone was found to have a significant positive relationship with thelikelihood that a respondent was aware of climate change. This finding was expected,
however the results on perceptions (in section 4.4.3) indicate respondents perceived themobile phone as not important in contributing to climate change awareness. Only 13%
perceived the mobile phone to be important against 81% who perceived it as not important;while 6% was not applicable. This paradox can be explained by looking at some of theattributes of mobile phone technology.
The ITU (2010) noted that important ICT developments have taken place in recent years
such as the rise of mobile telephony and its associated applications. The launch of new
standards in the mobile sector, the convergence of technologies (such as broadcasting andtelecommunication) and the steady expansion of high-speed communication infrastructure
have significantly changed the way ICTs are accessed and used. The convergence ofbroadcasting and telecommunication applications on the mobile phone has transformed theway the phone is used, it is no longer just a communication device but also a source of
information since users can also access radio and television applications. This is also being
enabled by the proliferation of cheaper brands of mobile phones (mainly from the Asian
continent) which are popular because they are: cheaper; have converged applications (radio;
television; multimedia); can handle more than one Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card
(which makes them appropriate in areas where network coverage is poor especially in rural
areas, as the user can easily switch between networks).
The significance of the mobile phone can also be explained by looking at the benefits
associated with its use. Bhavnani et al, 2008 (citing other authors) categorised the benefitsof mobile telephony into three categories: direct; indirect; and intangible benefits. The direct
benefits occur at the macro-level where it has a positive impact on economic welfare by:generating GDP; job generation; productivity increases; and taxation revenue. Indirect
benefits occur at the social or micro-level, as it can produce follow-on economic and social
benefits such as: enhancing entrepreneurship, reducing information asymmetries andmarket inefficiencies, and substitution of transportation. Intangible benefits are difficult tovalue, may not have direct economic benefit, but enhance and promote the growth of culture,society and societal ties. In this regard the mobile phone has benefits in: aiding disaster
relief; enabling the dissemination of locally-generated and locally-relevant educational andhealth information; and promoting social capital and social cohesion (ibid). In the context ofrural areas, it is through the indirect and intangible benefits the access to the mobile phoneincreases the likelihood of climate change awareness.
4.4.3 Farming/ Environmental magazines
Reading farming/ environmental magazines was found to have significant positive influenceon the likelihood of a respondent being aware of climate change. They were also perceived tobe the fourth most important in climate change awareness. 43% of the respondents perceived
them as important while 3% perceived them as not important and 49% not applicable. The
positive relationship was expected since these magazines carry agricultural and environment
information of which climate change issues are cross-cutting. Though reading newspapers
did not have a significant influence on the likelihood of being aware of climate change, therespondents perceived newspapers to be the second most important ICT after the radio incontributing to climate change awareness.
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4.4.4 Television
The regression results show that access to television had a significant negative relationshipwith the likelihood of a respondent being aware of climate change. This does not meanaccess to television reduced an individual’s level of climate change awareness but it means
it reduced the likelihood that a respondent was aware of climate change. This finding iscontra to a priori expectation, whereby access to television was expected to have a positive
relationship with the likelihood of an individual being aware of climate change. The a priori
expectation is also supported by respondents’ perceptions on the importance of television inclimate change awareness. Television was perceived by the respondents to be the third mostimportant ICT after radio and newspapers in contributing to climate change awareness; 57%of the respondents perceived the television to be important compared to 32% who perceived
it not to be important; while 11% were not applicable.
To explain the unexpected negative relationship between access to television and thelikelihood of a respondent being aware of climate change, there was need to explore howthese variables relate with other variables. Correlation analyses were conducted on four
variables namely: access to television; aware of climate change; whether the household got
agricultural income only; and whether the household got non-agricultural income. The resultsof the correlation analysis are presented in Table 6 below.
Table 6: Spearman’s rho correlation coefficients
Aware of climatechangeAgricultural
income only

Non-agricultural
IncomeAgricultural
income only

Non-agricultural
IncomeAccess to
television

Correlation
Coefficient

0.199

Sig. (2-tailed)0.001**

Correlation
Coefficient

0.081-0.044Sig. (2-tailed)

0.161

0.452

.

Correlation
Coefficient

0.041

0.013

0.212

Sig. (2-tailed)

0.482

0.818

0.000**

Source: Survey data ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Significant association was found between Aware of climate change and Agricultural income
only, however no significant association was found between Aware of climate change andNon-agricultural income. Significant association was also found between having Nonagricultural income and access to television. About 65.6% of household heads who had nonagricultural income sources had access to a television while 41.2% of household heads who
had agricultural income only had access to a television. This could give possible reasons forthe negative relationship between access to television and the likelihood of being aware ofclimate change. The positive correlation between having agricultural income only and awareof climate change suggests that people who are mainly dependent on agriculture are likely
to be aware of climate change compared to those with non-agricultural income sources.
For those with non-agricultural income sources, they could be less concerned in climatechange issues, so even if they have access to the television they might be less interested inprograms that relate to climate change and agricultural issues.

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5. Conclusion and Recommendations
Significant differences in the level of climate change awareness were observed between
those who had access and those who did not have access to ICTs, with those who hadaccess having a higher level of awareness than those who did not have access. However
not all ICTs were found to significantly influence the likelihood of a respondent being aware ofclimate change. The following ICTs were found to have a significant positive influence on thelikelihood of an individual being aware of climate change: reading the farming/environmental
magazines (really old ICTs); access to radio (old ICTs); access to mobile phone (new ICTs).
The importance of the mobile phone in climate change awareness can be attributed to theindirect and intangible benefits associated with the mobile phone, and these benefits arebeing reinforced by the convergence of applications (broadcasting and telecommunications)on the mobile phone.
A negative relationship was observed between access to television and the likelihood of
being aware of climate change. This result does not mean access to television reduces
climate change awareness but it means it decreased the likelihood that a respondent wasaware of climate change. Respondents who had non-agricultural income had greater accessto the television than respondents who had agricultural income only which implied that those
who were less dependent on agriculture are less likely to be interested in climate change
issues hence might not utilise the ICT in that regard. These findings highlight an important
aspect of ICTs, that is ICTs are just technologies that facilitate information dissemination andcommunication, but how these technologies and their capabilities are utilised is dependent
on the users.
This paper looked specifically at the role of ICTs in climate change awareness, it did notlook at other sources and means such as extension; farmer to farmer interactions; own
observation; formal and informal school, therefore further research is required in this area.
The study targeted rural areas but it is important to also look at the same aspects in different
settings e.g. in urban areas. Another area of further research is to look at the content that isbeing transmitted in terms of its appropriateness in settings such as rural areas. There isalso need to conduct comparative adoptions studies of new versus old ICTs.
Recommendations• ICTs should be embraced in enhancing climate change awareness especially in areasthat have limited access to other sources of information. However, this should not bedone in isolation but should intergrated with the broader development agenda.
• There is need to initiate public awareness about climate change encompassing all thedifferent aspects such as: causes; effects; mitigation and adaptation strategies.
• How individuals perceive the technology and its capabilities is an important determinant
in its utilisation to enhance development. Hence these perceptions should be taken into
account.
• The promotion and use of ICTs should not be determined by how long they have beenin use but should be based on the appropriateness of the technology in each particularsetting.

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ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

313. Methodology
Study Area
The study area of this research is situated in the upper Blue Nile catchment of Ethiopia.
It is located approximately between coordinate 10033’06’’ to 10050’24’’ North latitude and37042’36’’ to 37058’24’’ East longitude. It covers a total estimated area of 58122.94 hectares
and with the total population of about 132069. Topographically, the area lies in the altitudes
range of 878m to 4000m.a.s.l (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Location of the study area (Source: Choke Mountain Initiative project
document, 2010)

As a result of this the area is characterized by three distinct agro-ecological zones- Dega,
Weynadega, and Kola. According to the traditional classification system, which mainly relies
on altitude and temperature for classification, Ethiopia has five climatic zones (Table 1).
The information which is obtained in Weredas’ Agricultural Offices revealed that the rainfall
amount and temperature of the area ranges from 385 -1300mm, and 10- 26oC respectively.
The area gets monomodal type of rain fall (that is Kirmt rain fall regime). The soil types wereidentified based on their colors (red, brown, black and grey); on the average percentage,
about 60 %, 39 %, 36% and 2.5% are brown, red, black and grey soil respectively. The
cultivated land covers a total area of 34161.93 ha of the area. The major annual crops
cultivated in the catchment are barley, Avena species (Ingedo), wheat, beans, peas, potato,maize, and sorghum. The common domestic animals in the area are cattle, sheep, goats,horses, mules, donkeys, and poultry.
Table 1: Traditional climatic zones and their physical characteristics
Zone

Altitude(meters)

Rainfall(mm/year)

Average temperature(Co)

Wurch(upper highland)

3200 plus

900- 2,200>11.5

Dega(highlands)

2,300- 3,200

900- 1,200

17.1/16.0- 11.5

ISBN: 978-9966-030-62-7

ATPS (2013): Role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Climate Change Awareness in Seke and Murewa Districts of Zimbabwe
ATPS Working Paper No. 75

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