Workshop on ICT Strategies for Islands and Small States
(Malta, 17-19 March)

Session 3 : User consortia

Mr Pal Vaserhelyi (UNESCO) introduced the session by explaining UNESCO’s initiative to produce a training module for the training of trainers on promoting cooperation among users of Internet-based services in small countries. The workshop participants were invited to review the draft document prepared by Mr John Gilbert and input their comments and experiences.

Mr John Gilbert (Consultant) explained that the draft document provided a framework which would be developed based on the experiences of the experts present. He then went through the document briefly explaining its structure and content. The first part of the document, the background, is intended to give the reader sources from which they can draw information, including websites and references. The second part of the document relates to the optimization of the cost of Internet access, while the third part deals with cross sectoral user cooperation. The fourth and final part focuses on management and organization.

Mr Gilbert drew attention to the reference in the first part of the document to the Programme of Action adopted at the 1994 Barbados Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. He highlighted the fact that there was an opportunity to review this programme of action and forward the recommendations from this workshop to the 1999 special session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. He also noted that the views of small islands, in particular, on regulation need to be heard in international fora.

Mr Taholo Kami (SIDSNET, UNDP http://www.SIDSnet.ORG) provided an overview of SIDSNET’s work. The Barbados 1994 Conference had agreed on a common set of issues which are important for small islands and UNDP saw the potential of the Internet as a bridge for linking small islands on these issues. SIDSNET has focused on building communities around the issues identified in the Barbados Programme of Action, namely climate change, biodiversity, coastal and marine resources, sustainable tourism and energy and small islands. SIDSNET’s mandate is very wide but it has focused on some key issues including connectivity, i.e. ensuring that all SIDs have some form of Email connection. This involved problems related to potholes in the information highway due to the excessive cost of access. Mr Kami highlighted the fact that private enterprise in small islands has not been the most cooperative or vibrant and there are reasons for this, which implies that there is a role to be played by governments and development agencies.

SIDSNET provides a networking website which seeks to resolve problems with connectivity. The SIDSNET website, featuring a calendar of events and documents centre, provides tools which allow small islands to control content. In particular, the Muscat search engine highlights sites of relevance to small islands. The site gives small islands the possibility of publishing press releases featuring local news which may be shared with other small islands. The site also provides an Eroom facility where teams can book a secure and closed space to work on the drafting of a document. The site is mainly visited by donor countries and SIDs countries for news, discussions, calendars, mirrored sites. SIDSNET also organizes national training workshops to build up national capacity. One of the problems encountered is the difficulty to find champions for the networks. Other problems are related to poor awareness among the people of SIDSNET, the costs of Internet access, computers and on-line costs.

SIDSNET is seeking to establish itself as the gateway to relevant information on small islands as well as raising awareness of SIDS agenda at global level. SIDSNET is also working on assisting AOSIS to improve its information management capacity. Other SIDSNET activities include E-initiatives in telemedicine, e-commerce and distance education. SIDSNET is interested in developing a portfolio of best practice, featuring concrete examples of projects which have worked, which can be presented to policy-makers. It is important to promote partnerships between development organizations working with SIDS. Local experience generated in small islands is what counts and should be shared through investments in Internet technology.

Mr William Dankwa (Institute of Science and Technology Information, Ghana) : The World Bank Infodev project in Ghana has the mandate of improving telematics usage in the public sector. A 24-member committee, made up of public and private institutions, including the energy and ISP providers, was set up. A programme to train fifty trainers in basic Internet applications, network administration and troubleshooting was organized, however despite the programme, telematics usage by public institutions did not improve. A survey was carried out on the potential for IT usage in the public sector which identified many bottlenecks in the system, due to the fact that the top echelons knew nothing about computers. A number of training sessions for top officials were held to promote awareness-raising on IT. NGOs are also being encouraged to participate in the project, by each supporting one or two schools, to access the Internet. The next phase of the project involves connecting four key cities to the Internet. Among the problems encountered with the project, have been the delay in implementing the project due to bureaucratic procedures, as well as problems related to infrastructure, energy for connectivity, the cost of computers, the low level of funding from government and the lack of coordination of previous initiatives. One way of overcoming the IT awareness-raising problem in government was to provide all cabinet ministers with free connection for three months. One of the main problems facing the project is its sustainability, in view of the fact that long-term funding from government has still to be secured. The impact of the Infodev project in the Ghanian community as a whole is limited and it is important that distance learning facilities are promoted to build up local capacity.

Mr Samuelu Taufao (Forum Fisheries Agency http://www.ffa.int) provided information on an initiative which brought together fourteen independent Pacific countries together to address collectively a key economic issue, tuna fishing. By using IT-based tuna tracking systems, these countries have been able to develop an effective system for managing tuna fishing, reducing illegal fishing and increasing revenues. They introduced a satellite-based vessel management system which is fully cost recovered by a VMS levy charged to tuna fishing vessels. One of the main lessons to be drawn from this success story is that it is important to identify a business problem which is a priority. There must be a good d definition of the problem. By pooling together their resources, these countries avoided having to develop their own systems, and created a more effective management tool, as a result. The main advantage of the system which is Internet-based is that it provides real-time information which facilitates decision-taking.

Mr Mark Borg (UNDP http://www.undp.org.fj/piip) stressed the importance of taking into account every aspect of the Internet, in particular, Internet connectivity and awareness-raising on IT, which are key issues. However, it was difficult to convince donor agencies on this point. Among the key obstacles encountered, were the absence of a private sector in these countries, the lack of an IT policy and the telecomms monopoly. Internet applications provide the possibility for networking these islands, to offset the disadvantage of remoteness from bigger countries. Work has focused on providing Internet access to NGO and community organizations as well as training in web authoring, server-side training etc. Efforts have been made to provide support as required on any Internet-related theme. Each country requires a different approach based on different priorities. Recently, a success was scored in Fiji, with the lifting of the telecomms monopoly over ISPs. UNDP is also very much involved in assisting Pacific Island countries in restructuring their policies to remove obstacles that hinder developing Internet applications appropriate for the Pacific.

Suggestions regarding the UNESCO document on user consortia :

It was agreed that the training module should include training in negotiating skills to empower those involved in negotiations over costs with service providers.

The concept of consortium /a needs to be more clearly defined at the outset of the document. The sectors of public concern should also be more clearly presented. The multidisciplinary applications of telematics could be emphasized and the document should include a section on financing.

General conclusions and recommendations :

It was noted that in both the SIDSNET and Ghana experiences, the main problem encountered is with top level management and their mistrust of IT, because of the fear of losing power through the sharing of information. It was agreed that good sensitisation material, featuring appropriate examples in economics, which could be presented at a short but effective workshop for top level management should be developed. UNESCO would be prepared to fund such initiatives, including the preparation through joint efforts of a training module for small islands on IT awareness-raising and the convening of a number of workshops on this theme.

High level managers often do not use IT because they do not have enough time to search for information on the Internet. A system has been developed in the UK for streaming information by inputting the information into a specific format, so that it can be streamed by subject, language and area. The system will automatically forward updates by e-mail, every time new information is added. Major policy organizations were approached in order to have their information included in the system. This system, which is aimed at removing searching and information overload on the Internet, may be used by villages or any other user groups. It is important to structure information better, if it is to be useful. This involves the setting for standards and norms for integrating information into the system. This system could be applied to distance education and the organization of material for easier use at community level. It could also facilitate use of the Internet by policy-makers without their being exposed to unnecessary material. A study could be prepared through cooperative input and ideas to create streams in fields of interest to small islands and states, including education and environment.

It was proposed that applications should be developed which can pay for their use. Such applications could be developed through a tripartite partnership, involving the private and public sectors and the community. The involvement of the community is very important in strengthening the bargaining hand of the users as the community as a whole exerts considerable weight as compared to the say of one or two users.

There is a need to convince the policy-makers in small islands and states to reduce prices/tariffs, as the income generated goes into government budgets. It was noted that in small countries, competition and the market-based approach do not make sense. It was proposed that a list of the current tariffs charged by telecomm providers should be collected and published on a central website. UNESCO could develop and run the website in collaboration with other organizations. The information could be obtained from various sources, including ITU, the Commonwealth Secretariat, UNESCO’s regional and national Commissions, and through the ISOC Internet National Chapters (questionnaire). This transparency of costs could help generate consumer awareness, paving the way towards striking an equitable deal with telecomm providers. There is the need to encourage governments to establish a policy to provide incentives to ISP to invest in rural areas. A new system could be developed whereby a particular type of user could be exempted from paying. In discussing costs, it is important to note that there are costs and benefits involved in investing in IT. In convincing top-level decision-makers, it is important to focus on the economic and social benefits. Equally, the costs have to be considered in terms of seeking more benefits, by challenging the existing costs.

There is the need for user cooperation in improving telematics and informatics training. The usual reaction of employers is that they are not getting the type of expertise they require from university graduates. There is a real problem, which universities need to take into account, but companies should also ensure that their expectations are realistic.

It was proposed that a cooperative effort on training for journalists (in archival material, programme development) be developed. A user group could be set up to promote policy-makers’ awareness of the benefits of IT. A workshop for training journalists could also be organised but efforts should be made to ensure that the emphasis is more on news and accuracy of facts and less on infotainment. it was also noted that in promoting awareness-raising programmes on IT, the media tend to be left out as a target group. It is important to also sensitize the media itself on IT. It is also important to consider the social impacts of informatics and the need to also sensitize computer specialists on these issues to make them more aware of the effects of their work on society.

There is a need to explore how Internet can help in promoting indigenous arts and handicrafts and micro-businesses to be set up. It is important to identify or develop applications that take it further than the web and E-commerce. There is also a need to resolve the problem of bottlenecks with bulk orders, in terms of capacity, delivery and warehousing

Cross-sectoral user cooperation could also be developed in the area of telemedicine which is particularly important for small islands and states which are remote from the mainland and have restricted medical services. IT applications could be introduced which allow the sharing of information among doctors, thereby promoting teamwork and learning.

There is a need to track who’s doing what on what issues and to set up inter-jurisdictional databases. Acadia University had already set up a website related to this where academics were being encouraged to input data and an in-built electronic reminder had been developed into the site to remind academics to keep it updated. There was currently a big emphasis in Canada on policy-relevant research and this had lead to the setting up of Community-User Research Alliances (CURA). Similar initiatives could be introduced in islands and small states in order to tap the tremendous knowledge capital at the community level which is not being accessed. Journalism has a key role to play here in communicating this.

There is a need to address women’s involvement with technology. possibly by building on current UNESCO initiatives to provide teleworking training for women.

In order to address the problem of the cost of computers in developing countries, UNESCO proposed to develop a facility, whereby it would buy the best value computers (linked with a maintenance arrangement) and make them available for small islands and states. It was noted that similar efforts had already been developed through UNDP and a number of problems had been encountered, therefore it would be useful to study previous efforts to determine best practice

A number of projects were proposed by the workshop participants :

Malta would be shortly be launching an initiative under the patronage of Parliamentary Secretary Jesmond Mugliett, to develop user consortia for youth.

Projects could focus on developing applications for resolving island infrastructure problems, e.g. telemedicine

It was agreed that a project proposal to draw up a portfolio for decision-makers, focusing on issues related to best practice and governance, be jointly funded by UNESCO, UNDP and possibly the Infodev programme. The project would also aim to collect examples of E-commerce and focus on addressing the need for parallel warehousing.

It was noted that there is a need to develop some form of search engine, similar to the SIDSNET MUSCAT system, to cut the costs of searching.

Mr Pal Vaserhelyi encouraged the workshop participants to send him concrete ideas on how to take these recommendations forward.