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Donation
Donors
are vital to the pipeline
of importing second-hand
PCs to Africa because
without them there would
be no second-hand PCs
available for re-use,
apart from acquiring PCs
from second-hand PC traders.
Donation Activities
This refers to the donation
of second-hand PCs to
the developing world for
re-use. Donation currently
requires very little activity
from the donors, other
than making their redundant
PCs available to one of
the international NGOs
who source computers for
the developing world.
Donating PCs to the developing
world provides an attractive
opportunity for organizations
with a large number of
end-of-lease PCs requiring
disposal. Not only do
these organizations receive
the credit for doing something
socially responsible,
there are also potential
tax benefits for them
because many socially
responsible donations
are tax deductible in
the developed world. Additionally,
these organizations do
not have to cover the
increasingly high costs
of disposing of these
PCs in an environmentally
sound manner. It is estimated
that the cost of legitimate
disposal (via recycling)
of PCs in Europe is now
between 40-70 Euros1.
Currently, donors are
not required to pay anything
towards the cost of refurbishment
or distribution of their
machines to Africa. They
relinquish all responsibility
for the machine the moment
that it is donated. It
is thus considerably cheaper
to donate a PC for refurbishment
than it is to dispose
of it in any other way.
Donation Roles
A wide range of corporations,
government agencies, and
individuals in the developed
and developing world have
donated used PCs to African
schools in the past few
years. Many of these PCs
have been in extremely
poor condition because
by the time an organization
or individual can no longer
use a PC that was bought
by them, it tends to be
near the end of its useful
life anyway. The donation
of these end-of-life PCs
has given second-hand
PCs a bad reputation in
the developing world.
However,
there has been a growing
trend over the last few
years for corporations
and government agencies
in the developed world
to lease their IT equipment
from the manufacturers
instead of purchasing
it. In this way they save
themselves the initial
capital costs of purchasing
equipment, and they can
keep up-to-date with the
latest technologies by
upgrading their leased
equipment every three
or four years. This trend
has seen the creation
of large volumes of end-of-lease
PCs, which are no longer
required by the corporations
who leased them originally,
but which are still in
good working order. It
is these PCs that are
particularly suitable
for refurbishing, not
only because they are
mostly still in good working
order, but also because
they become available
in large volumes of the
same make and model. The
PC lessors/manufacturers
are the donor in these
instances.
1
From interview with Joris
Komen from SchoolNet Namibia.
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