Draft Working Paper: ASEAN Rural Connectivity for Education and

ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility

Draft Working Paper: ASEAN Rural Connectivity for Education and Development Conference Hanoi, Vietnam, 21-23-September, 2011

BACKGROUND TECHNICAL PAPER EXTENDING REACH AND INCREASING IMPACT WE WELCOME ANY EDITS/COMMENTS ON THIS DRAFT, PLEASE SUBMIT TO

[email protected] NOTE: This paper is a working document for the ASEAN Rural Connectivity Conference for Education and Development, 21-23 September 2011 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The final paper will be finalized based on the findings from the conference. For more information, please visit: http://aseanruralconnectivityconference2011.wordpress.com/

ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility

Working Paper: ASEAN Rural Connectivity for Education and Development Conference Hanoi, Vietnam, 21-23-September, 2011

BACKGROUND TECHNICAL PAPER EXTENDING REACH AND INCREASING IMPACT

Compiled for USAID/RDM/Asia and The ASEAN Secretariat Under Contract 486-I-01-07-00008-00 Task Order 01

DISCLAIMER

This document is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Its contents are the sole responsibility of the author or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States

Table of Contents 

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 4 

ASEAN Commitment to ICT and Rural Connectivity ........................................................................... 6 

Access to ICT: Infrastucture ................................................................................................................... 8 

Content and Software Applications ...................................................................................................... 14 

Financing Rural Connectivity ............................................................................................................... 22 

Public-Private Partnerships 23 

Capacity Development and Alignment of ICT with Sector Policy ....................................................... 25 

Introduction This working paper is in draft form and will be subjected to revision during and following the Conference on Rural Connectivity scheduled for September 21-23, 2011 in Hanoi, Vietnam. The content of the paper will be supplemented by information and suggestions that emerge from the proceedings during the conference. Issues dealt with in this paper will guide the structure and outcomes of the conference itself with the intention of eliciting innovative solutions on rural information and communication technologies (ICT) connectivity from the diverse stakeholders and specialists to be invited to the event. Following completion of the ASEAN Rural Connectivity Conference in September 2011, this paper will be turned into a conference report that lists summary recommendations of the conference for submission to the ASEAN Leaders, including identification of new public-private partnerships that have grown out of the conference. The conclusions and recommendations of the conference will be submitted to the ASEAN Telecommunications and Information Technology Senior Officials Meeting (TELSOM) for their consideration for possible future implementation.

The sectoral focus of the paper and the conference itself will be on the improvement of service delivery for the development of rural communities; however, it is expected that special attention will be paid to the following critical issues concerning rural ICT connectivity: (i) infrastructure, (ii) content, (iii) finance, (iv) capacity development, and (v) alignment of ICT with sector policies and objectives. Figure 1 shows that the concern for establishing sound sector policy and support strategies for the development of rural areas must be given centrality and precedence over technocentric planning that prioritizes the introduction of ICT technology for its own sake.

This paper argues that ICT and the adoption of digital technologies needs to be targeted at increasing access, quality and equity of development services for those who have been traditionally unserved or underserved by development efforts such as those populations in rural areas, women and girls, and persons with disabilities. The financial investment in resource allocation for ICT infrastructure can only be justified if such technology can use relevant software and content to improve the lives of these target populations. Finally, the adoption and integration of these technologies will be dependent on the capacity development of policymakers, ICT facilitators and end-users such as teachers, students, doctors, nurses,

administrators. This document will make a distinction between the development of human capacity for development in rural areas through the use of ICTs to further sectoral objectives and policy outcomes, and the development of capacity for the use of ICTs as an objective in itself.

RECENT TRENDS IN ICT It is widely recognized that ICTs are increasingly important for economic and social development. The

first decade of the new millennium saw extremely rapid increases in access to and use of the Internet,

mobile phones and computers in developing countries. Throughout most of the world today, the Internet

is considered a general-purpose technology and access to broadband is regarded as a basic infrastructure,

same as electricity or roads. In some countries, such as Estonia, Finland and France, access to the

Internet is a fundamental human right for their citizens. There was over a 6-fold increase in the number

of mobile phones in the last decade, with close to five billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide at

the end of 2010. Mobile phones have narrowed the gap in voice communications worldwide with the vast

majority of users operating in developing countries. The use of this affordable technology has allowed

people living in developing countries to access unprecedented communications which fixed telephone

lines could not offer before. Almost two billion people throughout the world now have access to the

Internet.

However, despite this

tremendous and unprecedented

progress, there is still much to be

done. Three quarters of the

world’s inhabitants still do not

have any access to the Internet

and expansion to fast and

affordable broadband access

needs to match the extraordinary

growth of mobile cellular

networks that has occurred in the

past decade. ICT is the

foundation of the Knowledge-

based world which allows economies to acquire and share ideas, expertise, services and technologies

locally, regionally, and across the world (ICT4D, World Bank 2009). ICT can provide new opportunities

for economic development through accelerated knowledge transfer and technological diffusion.

Broadband contributes to economic growth and opens up new opportunities, for which it deserves to

play a central role in development strategies. In rural areas of developing countries where access to

broadband has been introduced, villagers and farmers have gained better access to crop market prices,

training and job opportunities (see Qiang and Rossotto 2009). In fact, for every 10 percent increase in the

extension of broadband services, there is an increase in economic growth of 1.3 percent (Qiang 2009).

Chart 1 further highlights trends in global ICT developments.

ASEAN COMMITMENT TO ICT and RURAL CONNECTIVITY At the 15th ASEAN Summit in October 20091, ASEAN leaders adopted the ASEAN Leaders’ Statement

on ASEAN Connectivity. Recognizing the importance of the internet in business, education and

development, this statement includes a paragraph calling for increased Information and Communication

Technologies (ICT) connectivity as part of the initiative, and emphasizes the importance of completing

the ASEAN ICT Master Plan and the ASEAN Master Plan on regional connectivity. In October 2010,

the ASEAN leaders endorsed the Master Plan for ASEAN Connectivity. The Master Plan lists People-to-

People Connectivity as one of its objectives and, as a subset of this objective, enhancing cooperation on

issues of ASEAN awareness and education. Then in January 2011 at the 10th ASEAN

Telecommunications & IT Ministers (TELMIN), they adopted the ASEAN ICT Master Plan 2015 which

along with strategies including highway network, rail, inland waterways, maritime transport system,

multimodal transport systems and energy infrastructure projects, identified the importance of accelerating

and expanding the regional ICT infrastructure and services in each member state to bridge the digital

divide.

The Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity 2015 adopts a 3-prong strategy corresponding to critical

anchors of ASEAN connectivity: (i) to enhance infrastructure development (physical connectivity), (ii) to

build effective institutions, mechanisms and processes (institutional connectivity), and (iii) to empower

people (“people-to-people connectivity”). ICT is a cross-cutting concern, particularly in the Greater

Mekong Sub-region (GMS) where the vision is for a well-integrated, prosperous and harmonious sub-

region achieved through enhanced connectivity, increased competitiveness, and the fostering of a greater

sense of community.

ASEAN, as a region, is geographically dispersed and not physically contiguous. It consists of ten member

states with disparate policies, priorities and institutions. Enhanced connectivity will play a critical role in

helping to address these relative disadvantages and to engender a more cohesive, collaborative,

1 ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

investment-attractive, resilient, and dynamic economic community. An important pre-requisite for the

development of ICT connectivity in the region is the development of an ASEAN PowerGrid Network to

enhance energy security, accessibility and sustainability for the region. The Master Plan on ASEAN

Connectivity proposes to meet the increased demand for electricity and improved access to energy

services by enhancing trade in electricity across borders, optimizing energy generation and development

and encouraging possible sharing schemes.

ICT infrastructure is broadly defined to include fixed, mobile and satellite communication networks and

the internet as well as the software supporting the development and operation of these communication

networks. ICT Infrastructure development is important for supporting trade, facilitating investments and

enlarging markets through the ability to facilitate information exchange, to connect to people, to support

the delivery of services and to reduce the cost of business and trade-related activities.

ASEAN’S MAJOR CHALLENGES Major challenges identified in the ASEAN Master Plan include: (i) the extent of the digital divide across

ASEAN Member States and within countries between “lagging regions” and, mostly, urban areas,

requiring member states to improve the competitiveness of their national ICT sectors; (ii) insufficient

coordination to ensure connectivity amongst National Information Infrastructure (NII); (iii) the need to

nurture technological innovation; (iv) lack of financing schemes for infrastructure projects that involve

significant participation of private capital; (v) improving access and affordability to reduce the digital

divide, and (vi) the need for member states to develop and harmonize ICT regulations necessary for

connectivity projects (i.e. cross-border transactions) and to encourage national and private investments in

ICT infrastructure and services.

One of the biggest challenges to ensure equitable development throughout the world is to connect rural

communities to modern communication grids, whether through telecommunications or the Internet.

There are three critical factors impeding the spread of ICTs to remote and rural communities: 1) Access

to ICT: Infrastructure; 2) content and software applications; and 3) the issue of finance. The Rural

Connectivity Conference will address solutions to each of these three critical factors. The proposed

conference content for these sections can be found in the subsequent sections of this document.

ACCESS TO ICT: INFRASTRUCTURE The ASEAN Master Plan 2010 outlines a strategy for the development of a robust ICT infrastructure with better human resources and regulatory environment for enabling ICT as the engine of trade, economic growth, innovation and better governance in the region. Building on the experience of a number of countries in the region which are gaining a global reputation on ICT infrastructure, ICT-based industries and services, the Master Plan outlines seven key actions to be implanted as projects:

(i) Establish an ASEAN Broadband Corridor by identifying and developing locations in each ASEAN Member State to offer quality broadband connectivity. This will enable seamless usage of broadband services and applications across ASEAN to further connect and enhance the development of ICT and other sectors by 2014. Locations in each ASEAN Member State will be identified which offer quality broadband connectivity and an enabling environment for the seamless usage and ICT applications across ASEAN and enhance the development of ICT and other sectors (e.g. broadband to all schools), and promote the diversity of international connectivity among ASEAN Member States. (ii) Promote the diversity of international connectivity among ASEAN Member States by 2015. (iii) Establish an ASEAN Internet Exchange Network to facilitate peering amongst ASEAN Internet access providers to reduce latency and increase speed as well as lower costs by 2013; (iv) Promote network integrity and information security, data protection and Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) cooperation by developing common frameworks and establishing common minimum standards where appropriate, to ensure a level of preparedness and integrity of networks across ASEAN by 2015; (v) Review Universal Service Obligations and/or similar policies to ensure that infrastructure covered under these policies are broadband Internet capable by 2015; (vi) Prioritise and expedite roll-out of broadband Internet capable infrastructure to schools by 2015; and

(vii) Conduct feasibility study on developing after 2015 an ASEAN Single Telecommunications Market, in the context of free flow of products, services, investments and skilled human resources by 2015.

While it’s important that people in rural areas are not excluded from the ‘Information Society’, they are also the ones that stand to benefit most from access to and use of ICT connectivity. ICT access and use can help ensure that development service delivery in sectors such as education, health and other services reach those most in need. About half of the world’s inhabitants live in rural areas and these areas are also home to 75 percent of the world’s poor (Khalil et al, 2009). The geographical situation often combined with the corresponding low socio-economic status of such communities, hinders access to ICT services. Communication technologies have a pivotal role to play in the delivery of development services and their quality improvement.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY In 2009, almost three-quarters of the world’s rural inhabitants were covered by a mobile cellular signal, an astonishing increase from 40 percent in 2003. Mobile technology is currently the most widely diffused ICT, and the ITU has made it a policy target to complete mobile coverage of all rural areas worldwide by 2015, or even earlier. Mobile phones are not only dramatically increasing in distribution; they are also undergoing a technologic evolution. The functions of portable data assistants (PDAs)2 open up new opportunities for uses in education, health entertainment, business, banking, e-government, and social interaction. Despite the wide availability and acceptance of such mobile devices, there are apparent constraints in developing countries related to local regulations, the availability of bandwidth and affordability.

There is also a steady increase in the commercial uses of the internet in rural areas. For instance, there are success stories where rural commerce was empowered by the Internet. In the Philippines, PDAs have been used to track tropical fish to ensure that over-harvesting and reef denigration is reduced or to collect health survey information. In health, hand-held devices such as cellar phones can transmit health information updates and weekly messages for health clinic workers, enabling a “two-way” exchange that is sustainable and cost effective. Combined with GPS receivers, PDAs can also collect data that can be instantly mapped from household surveys, and with barcode scanners, PDAs can ensure that HIV test results are matched to the correct patient. They enable, for example, health care workers in remote areas of Africa to access reference libraries, drug lists, and treatment guidelines at the “point of care” without an Internet or cell connection.3 In education, PDAs can provide instant access to both summarized education statistics and individual school records for district offices to send to the provincial or federal level.

Conference Snapshot: Teletrauma and Telepresence for Emergency Management By: Rifat Latifi, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Director, Trauma Services, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar; President International Virtual e-Hospital Foundation. Telemedicine has evolved to become an important field of medicine and healthcare overall, involving everything from simple patient care to actual performance of operations at a distance, telementoring, teleproctoring and other significant educational activities. However, although several studies have

2 Personal Data Assistants, or PDAs were made popular by Palm and these handheld devices evolved into the multi-purpose smart phones, I-Phones and “Androids” currently in use. 3 Small Technology-Big Impact: Practical Options for Development, http://itac.aed.org/Publications/smalltech_bigimpact6-09.pdf

demonstrated the practicality, effectiveness, and safety of telemedicine for trauma and emergency management, it has remained a vastly underutilized field when all its potential is considered. The reasons are multiple, but none justify allowing a patient to die or sustain significant morbidity because there were no experts to render help at the patient’s bedside. The possibilities for help are within reach and new technological advances, teletrauma or telepresence for management of trauma, emergencies and disasters should become a norm and a routine practice, around the world.

A retrospective analysis was performed on 59 teleconsults between five rural hospitals and a level 1 trauma center from November 2004 to October 2008 proved that treating patients in the rural hospitals avoided transfers, saving thousands of dollars in air and grand transportation and saved lives. Data was collected on the type of consult, mechanism of injury, transfer status, perceived impact on survival, and cost implications. The initial telemedicine pilot program with 21 patients treated over a period of 13 months was successful and led to establishment of a wider network. A total of 59 patients have been evaluated, ranging from severe trauma cases to general surgery follow up. 35 of these consults were for trauma cases (59%), 19 for general surgery (32%), and 5 for other reasons (9%). 85% of patients (50/59) were from the first site established. In 8 cases, the teletrauma consult was considered to be life saving. 16 cases (27%) were able to be treated solely in the rural hospitals: 8 of these were trauma patients, 5 were general surgery patients, and 3 were other consults.

Establishing a robust teletrauma system is a time-intensive process. Dedication and motivation of the trauma center is the most important aspect, but complete buy-in from the community hospitals is essential. Implementation of policies, protocols and continuous training on the logistics of its use is mandatory. Telepresence of a trauma surgeon aids in the initial evaluation, treatment and management of patients, which improves patient care and outcomes. It also reduces costs and better serves the health care system by preventing unnecessary transfers.

INTERNET ACCESS AND BROADBAND Countries should take advantage of wireless technologies to deliver high-speed internet access; launch 3G networks (where not yet available); and monitor the percentage of the population within reach of a 3G mobile cellular signal. Most rural households in developing countries rely predominantly on mobile telephones. The proportion of rural households with a mobile telephone now exceeds 50 percent in many developing countries with, by comparison, fixed (wired) telephone penetration in rural households being much lower and even non-existent in some areas. In contrast to the diffusion of mobile technologies, many rural households in developing countries are still deprived of basic access to the internet. Contributing factors impeding access to the Internet are undoubtedly the lack of electricity and the high price of computers and internet access. The costs associated with broadband access are even higher, accounting for the very low penetration in these areas. There are a number of strategies and policies that governments could pursue to increase internet and broadband access and usage in rural areas. These include intensifying competition in all ICT markets, adapting universal access and service policies in order to integrate the delivery of ICTs to rural areas, and fostering wireless broadband access. Given the low number of internet users in many developing countries, governments need to adopt the appropriate policies and provide the necessary resources to encourage the establishment of sufficient public internet access points, preferably equipped with broadband technology, especially in rural areas. With increasing incomes - and the availability of electricity - people will opt for the convenience of using ICTs at home. Therefore, as household internet access goes up, community access in turn is likely to go down. Policymakers should keep this relationship in mind and

policies to promote public access need to move in tandem with facilitating home ICT access. Altogether as incomes rise, the emphasis should shift from public towards household access. The ASEAN Telecommunications and IT Ministers (TEMIN) adopted the Singapore declaration in 2003, an action agenda to harness the ICT technological advances to create digital opportunities for ASEAN and to enhance ASEAN’s overall competitiveness. TELMIN has been working to expand ICT coverage in ways that are affordable to as many ASEAN citizens as possible, especially to marginalized communities. A number of projects in the ASEAN region serve to demonstrate that there are innovative ways of providing the necessary infrastructure to remote and rural communities. There are many creative methods to overcome the problems associated with infrastructure in rural and remote areas. One of the most practical methods of providing ICTs in rural areas in many developing countries is to create shared access through the establishment of community internet access points. Community access points enable people to access the internet at a public facility. Since the cost of ICTs is often lower in these rural areas, creating common access is a cost-effective way of providing connectivity. Public locations such as libraries, post offices, and schools can serve as public access locations. Starting with a pilot project in India and spreading to Cambodia and other countries in the ASEAN region and the world, Media Lab Asia is a research IT organization that has developed DakNet, which is an innovative vehicle-mounted access point, offering asynchronous wireless Internet “store-and -forward connectivity” through broadband in rural areas. In north-eastern Cambodia, for example, motorcycles equipped with mobile Wi-Fi access points (mobile access points or MAPs) automatically connect to the internet as they come in the vicinity of a satellite of a provincial hospital. The drivers in this “Motorman” project disperse to rural villages and these MAPs exchange 20 megabytes of in-coming and out-going mail with a solar-powered fixed access point in each of the villages. The non-profit Grameen Sanchar Seva Organization (GRASSO) in West Bengal, India, demonstrates how shared access can also be achieved with mobile phones. Youths on bicycles ride out to rural villages with mobile phones equipped with

CDMA Wireless Local Loop facility. Local villagers can use the mobile phones on a fee-paying basis while the youths can earn 25 percent of the profits from the calls made. The Infotech Project in the Philippines, supported by UNICEF as part of its “Creating Child Friendly Learning Conditions for Education for All”, works in remote rural areas and uses schools with internet service access as downloading stations that access teachers’ lessons and other materials for teaching from websites for distribution to schools without connectivity. This network ensures that all teachers and students have the opportunity to access information from the web despite not having internet access.

Similar to Singapore’s impressive FutureSchools@Singapore4, the Smart School Initiative in Malaysia is one of the flagship applications that form part of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project that aims to put leading-edge technologies into schools. The first step in the Smart School initiative was the introduction of computers, related applications, software and courseware into schools, classrooms and the teaching and learning processes. However, an enormous disparity continues to exist in the level of ICT availability and in the level of ICT use in schools, especially between schools in rural areas and schools in urban areas5. The lack of internet connectivity issue is a particular challenge for schools in remote rural areas of the country that exacerbates the disadvantages of rural learners. Without infrastructure and connectivity, the integrated system (encompassing web-based courseware, on-line management tools, and technical support) provided by the Smart Schools project is not accessible to rural schools. The Ministry of Education has responded by providing schools in remote areas with special training programmes and provides teachers with notebook computers and CD-ROMs containing teaching materials. In addition, the Ministry has launched special schemes for the schools and communities which are located on remote islands and in mountainous districts. For example in Bario, an isolated community on the island of Borneo in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, there is no road access and poor telecommunications infrastructure. For Bario, the Smart School project was divided into two Phases. Phase I involved conducting a baseline survey to gain an understanding of the information needs of the local Kelabit people. Phase II involved the establishment of a telecentre in a secondary school. Internet access was provided to this school via a VSAT satellite link.

A possible solution to the prohibitive costs of computer hardware is the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)6. The OLPC XO, once called the "Hundred Dollar Laptop" is an inexpensive children’s laptop computer designed to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world developed by MIT and the Open Source Lab with significant contributions from a community of developers. The operating system and software on the XO have been specially designed to create a very usable interface with minimal hardware. The attempt to consider affordability and scalability over high-tech solutions is critical in finding appropriate solutions to connecting underserved areas to digital information. OLPC is operating in China and Malaysia7 (Insert more information on ASEAN experience)

CONVERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGIES

4 See FutureSchools@Singapore: www.ida.gov.sg/Programmes/20090513123701.aspx 5 Zaitun Abu Bakar, University of Malaya, Malaysia, The utilization and integration of ICT tools in promoting English language teaching and learning: Reflections from English option teachers in Kuala Langat District, Malaysia, 2005. 6 http://one.laptop.org/ 7 http://www.olpc.asia/en/vision/our-mission.html

The convergence among telecommunications, media and computing services is also advancing rapidly and will enhance the impact of ICTs in development services. The technological innovations combined with market demand, drive the ICT sector towards convergence – similar to the aforementioned technologic evolution of the mobile phones. Convergences are occurring not only between corporations as they merge to become more competitive and combine functionalities, but also “service convergence or multiple-play” allowing firms to use a single network where several were needed in the past, and “network convergence” where a common standard allows networks to connect to each other. This demand for convergence drives competition and lowers costs for service providers and users as well as broadening the range of services which can be made available through one as compared to multiple devices. The emergence of large-scale “data farms” of large clusters of networked servers termed “cloud computing” is resulting in the enormous processing power and storage capacity that can be within easy reach of users. Cloud computing offers an inexpensive, simple solution to offsite storage and multi-user applications. Cloud applications do not operate on a single computer but are spread over a distributed cluster, using storage space and computing resources from many available machines on an as needed-basis. The “cloud” refers to any group of computers used in this way. It offers a new perspective on computers, software and file storage. Application and data, rather like Google, YouTube, Flickr, and many others, are accessible from any computer, using tools that are free or very inexpensive8

8 See The Horizon Report 2009, published by the New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative on the six emerging technologies, the first tow being mobile phones and cloud computing.

CONTENT AND SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS Technological innovation and the extension of connectivity can only have an impact, especially on rural and remote areas where the majority of the poor live, if there are compelling reasons to use the technology. Projects such as those dealing with ‘last mile’ initiatives, increasing access and capacity building at a local level, inevitably have to address issues such as culture, gender equity, social equity, sustainable community development and benefits to rural areas. Projects working in this area stress that ICTs are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.9 To ensure uptake of the solution and achieve lasting impact, it is important to involve local stakeholders throughout the design and implementation process. This was identified by the project Low-Cost IT Centre for the Philippines (no. 3), which studied the impact of an existing information technology (IT) centre and created a guide for setting up viable low-cost IT centres. It is also noted that a key to successful interventions is not just access but also the provision, or creation of content that is relevant and meaningful to the local beneficiaries. The Malaysian experience with Smart Schools, mentioned above, is significant for the integration of technology infrastructure into the pedagogy and learning process. According to the Ministry “the function of ICT in schools is not primarily to promote computer literacy, or because technology is the ‘wave of the future’. Rather, the function of technology is to enhance teaching and learning.” The development in the capabilities of media technologies, both computer hardware and software, as well as in computer systems, are all seen as functioning to enhance teaching and learning: to improve instruction.10 The need to develop content for the new technology was considered paramount in the attempt to enhance the quality of the curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and teaching-learning materials of the schools. This focus on the need to integrate ICT into the learning-teaching process is also at the heart of Singapore’s impressive integration of ICTs into its schools, particularly in its Future Schools that provide models for the integration of infocomm technology that includes interactive digital media (IDM). Singapore has created “ICT-enabled learning environments” that use digital content developed locally for curriculum instruction and assessment, research and development, and the professional development of teachers. 11 UNESCO emphasizes this need to not only introduce infocomm technology into schools in order to teach ICT skills but to enhance the quality, efficiency and equity of education: “ UNESCO recognizes the potential of ICT to assist in achieving EFA goals, in particular the potential of ICT to:

9 Michael Dougherty, Experiences with Information and Communications Technology Interventions in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Review

and Analysis of the Pan-Asia ICT R&D Grants Programme, UNDP-APDIP ICT4D Series, 2006. 10 http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/databases/ict-in-education-database/item/article/malaysian-smart-schools-project/. See also the Smart School Blueprint http://www.mscmalaysia.my/codenavia/portals/msc/images/pdf/ss-blueprint.pdf 11 Singapore

― Enable the inclusion of groups which have so far not had access to education;

― Improve the quality of teaching and learning; and ― Increase the efficiency and effectiveness in planning and administration in education ministries, schools, classrooms and community learning centres.12

In developing content for ICTs, various studies and pilot projects have been undertaken globally and within the region. Some of these include toolkits to help professionals such as teachers or business people to adapt technology to their own needs. UNESCOs ICT-in-Education Toolkit provides education policymakers, planners and practitioners with a systematic process to formulate, plan and evaluate education development programs enhanced by ICTs.13 The Intel World Ahead Program helps small and medium businesses to take full advantage of ICT solutions to develop their business, stay competitive and “work smarter”.14 Many efforts have been made to promote distance learning and other mechanisms that are specifically designed to help rural communities. The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO INNOTECH) and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Open Learning Center (SEAMOLEC) have been leaders in this area. Within ASEAN, the Facility is working with the Ministers of Education to develop resource materials on ASEAN as well as model curricula that will be put online for use throughout the region. Expand Based on Conference Examples Among the many successful websites devoted to sharing content among students and teachers, the Intel Teach program provides online content designed to improve teacher effectiveness through professional development, helping teachers integrate technology into their lessons and promoting students' problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration skills. So far, it has trained over nine million teachers in over 60 countries.15 Similarly the Intel Learn programs16 is particularly significant because its project-centered approach aims to extend learning opportunities beyond the classroom and to target youth in underserved communities in developing the ICT skills needed in the knowledge economy. The program is delivered through local community centers, includes a learner curriculum and structured training for community center staff. In Malaysia, Intel Learn is implemented in cooperation with Danawa Resources Sdn. Bhd. (DANAWA), a national provider committed to implementing digital inclusion and human capacity development initiatives for rural and underserved communities, in collaboration with Medan Sedunia Digital Technology Sdn. Bhd. (MSDT), a pioneer and leader in digital inclusion programs in the country. 6.5 Similar content development has also been developed by the Oracle Education Foundation (OEF). Oracle’s ThinkQuest program17 which is an educational website that helps students develop skills of communication, critical thinking, and technology. It allows teachers to involve their students in a creative learning environment, at home or in the classroom. The free enrollment of the school involves

12 unescobkk.org/education/ictwwww.unescobkk.org/education/ictww.unescobkk.org/education/ict 13 http://www.ictinedtoolkit.org/usere/login.php 14 http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/worldahead/WorldAheadFactSheet_0507.pdf 15 www.intel.com/about/corporateresponsibility/education/programs/intelteach_ww/index.htm 16 www.intel.com/about/corporateresponsibility/education/programs/learn/index.htm 17 www.thinkquest.org

students in competitions, and gives research information for project topics from students all over the world –filtered according to grade level and country for their own projects through the Think Quest library. The areas include creative writing and an interactive discussion about projects. The School Portal allows communications between teachers and students in their school for discussions, as well as for organizing school projects. Programs also includes ThinkQuest Professional Development, six weeks of online training and four days of in-class training to train teachers in the integration of technology, project learning, and ICTs into their classroom curricula. USAID has sponsored the establishment of the Global Learning Portal18 that aims to improve learning outcomes, especially in developing countries by promoting education reform through “collaborative technology” building on-line platforms for educators and youth communities to collaborate, share content and knowledge and acquire skills. Public and private on-line communities feature collaborative tools including digital archives, resource libraries, message boards and discussion forums, e-learning tools, and multi-media and social software. GLP also includes off-line solutions where there is little or no connectivity. The UNESCO SchoolNet also demonstrates how ICT can be used in schools to improve instructional quality by connecting schools to the internet and to each other in a schools network while also encouraging the use of relevant, local educational resources. Launched in 2003, the project focuses on three subject areas: languages, mathematics, and science and was piloted in 24 schools in eight participating countries in the ASEAN region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam.19

OPEN COURSE WARE & OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)

In its simplest form, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) describes any educational resources (including curriculum maps, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcasts, and any other materials that have been designed for use in teaching and learning) that are openly available for use by educators and students, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or license fees. The term OER is largely synonymous with another term: Open CourseWare (OCW), although the latter may be used to refer to a specific, more structured subset of OER. An Open CourseWare is defined by the OCW Consortium as “a free and open digital publication of high quality university‐level educational materials. These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content.” OER has emerged as a concept with great potential to support educational transformation. While it’s educational value lies in the idea of using resources as an integral method of communication of curriculum in educational courses (i.e. resource-based learning), its transformative power lies in the ease with which such resources, when digitized, can be shared via the Internet. Importantly, there is only one key differentiator between an OER and any other educational resource: its license. Thus, an OER is simply an educational resource that incorporates a license that facilitates reuse, and potentially adaptation, without first requesting permission from the copyright holder. The transformative educational potential of OER revolves around three linked possibilities:

18 www.glp.net 19 See www. unesco.org/education

1) Increased availability of high quality, relevant learning materials can contribute to more productive students and teaching staff. Because OER removes restrictions around copying and adapting/contextualizing resources, it can reduce the cost of accessing educational materials. It removes the need for royalty payments for text books and other educational materials and the time-consuming processes of procuring permission to use copyrighted material. Even where teaching staff produce new materials, their ability to draw inspiration and ideas from other people’s openly accessible teaching materials can serve to increase quality without adding cost.

2) The principle of allowing adaptation of materials provides one mechanism amongst many for constructing roles for students as active participants in educational processes, who learn best by doing and creating, not by passively reading and absorbing. Open licenses that encourage activity and creation by students through re-use and adaptation of content can make a significant contribution to creating more effective learning environments. This freedom to modify also provides an unprecedented opportunity to adapt curriculum to a far greater diversity of learners who would otherwise face barriers to learning due to language, cultural conventions, or disabilities.

3) OER has potential to build capacity by providing institutions and teaching staff access, at

relatively low cost, to the means to create high quality teaching and learning materials. This can be harnessed to develop competence in producing such materials and carrying out the necessary instructional design to integrate such materials into high quality programmes of learning. Increasingly, while teaching staff are expected to have the knowledge and skills to teach in a broad spectrum of subjects, they often lack the time to re-visit and modify curriculum and educational materials on a regular and systematic basis. As a result, the transparency provided by OER (where resources produced by staff are shared openly) places social pressure on institutions and teaching staff to increase quality, allows them to better coordinate curricula, and provides resources for students’ learning and for academic planning. Openly licensed educational materials have tremendous potential to contribute to improving the quality, accessibility, and effectiveness of education, while serving to restore a core function of education: sharing knowledge.

Starting with the launching of the OCW movement in the Learning International Networks Consortium (LINC) managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2002, the OER Movement has been enormously successful throughout the world in ensuring the free distribution of high-quality course content to higher education institutes and even for use in schools. Although much work on OER in higher education has taken place in the United States of America (USA), practices are growing rapidly internationally. The development and use of OCW is extensive in the ASEAN region with content being developed by institutions using the MIT OCW in distance education programmes of MIT and developing their own. For instance, the USAID-funded ASEAN-US Technical Assistance and Training Facility is working with the ASEAN Ministers of Education to develop resource materials on ASEAN as well as model curricula that will be put online for use throughout the region. Thailand’s Cyber University, currently offers over 300 self-paced learning courses. These are made freely available online and cover a variety of subjects from Languages to Physics to Accountancy and Agriculture. Similarly, Chulalongkorn University has made a variety of its courses freely accessible to students, some of which are presented in English to aid access to international schools.

Vietnam’s Open Course Ware (VOCW), a joint project among the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) of Vietnam, the Vietnam Software and Media Company (VASC) and the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), aims to make OCW materials easily and freely to the Vietnamese including university faculty members, students and self-learners. Inspired by MIT, Fullbrights Economics Teaching Program (FETP) of Vietnam has also begun to publish its own teaching and research materials online. FETP OpenCourseWare is a resource for people working or studying in policy‐related fields to increase their knowledge and explore new approaches to learning and curriculum development. Singapore’s three public universities (NUS, NTU and SMU) have also made use of MIT’s OCW offerings. Across the world, there continues to be growing interest in and development of OER initiatives. For example, in China, 451 courses have been made available by 176 university members of the China Open Resources for Education (CORE) consortium. In Japan 1,500 courses have been made available by universities participating in the Japanese OCW Consortium20 of which 1,285 are in Japanese and 212 are in English. In France, over 2,000 educational resources from around 200 teaching units have been made available by twelve member universities of the ParisTech OCW project.21 In India, a number of institutions are also digitizing their course materials and a good number of open courseware have been established. This includes materials from the Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) and the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). Examples of African OCW initiatives include the University of Western Cape22 and the recently established UCT Open Content23 which allows users to accessing open teaching and learning content from the University of Cape Town (UCT). The Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) is also currently launching an initiative called APEC OER. APEC OER’s goal is to raise awareness about the educational possibilities of OER in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and stimulate greater sharing and use of OER across APEC. Its objectives are to raise awareness amongst APEC TVET institutions about the concept of OER and its educational potential. The above are just a few examples of emerging OER initiatives in the higher education space. Institutional participants include mainstream, highly respected higher education institutions from around the world.

SOCIAL NETWORKING Many programmes and websites that distribute learning and teaching content make use of an increasing popular application for the internet called Social Networking (SN). SN has the potential to help rural and local communities leverage modern technology to their advantage in the region. A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige. SNs refer to web applications like Facebook, Hi5, Twitter or LinkedIn. It is a fast growing practice as over 50 percent

20 http://www.jocw.jp 21 http://www.paristech.fr/en/index.html 22 http://freecourseware.uwc.ac.za 23 http://opencontent.uct.ac.za

of the total online population in the Asia-Pacific region visited a social networking site in February 2010, reaching a total of 240.3 million visitors. Developed Asian markets have pioneered the use of mobile social networking, which has been further extended through the diffusion of smartphones, mobile social sites and mobile extensions to Internet social networking sites. The original concept of social circles or networks has been adopted by modern computer technologies to empower social science to do massive surveys on all kinds of social networks. The main idea is to map social relations and to look for parameters which will eventually lead to a better understanding of how relations work, information flows and organizations collaborate.24 The use of SN for development purposes currently include, for example, to map and understand how the H1N1 influenza is spreading over a network of people. Deep Social Networks (DSN) and the Digital Fourth Way implemented by the Four Worlds International Institute is a principle-centred approach and an architectural platform that amplifies and extends social networks for community empowerment, development, education, economic prosperity and health related issues. These networks include a focus on women’s issues, child protection, and Ethnic Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. The DSN program has been implemented by Four Directions International as part of a regional initiative by the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and Southeast Asia Regional Cooperation on Human Development (SEARCH). The initiative advances the understanding of the internet, digital literacy, social networking, and social media for the promotion of human rights, child protection, youth empowerment, and democratic participation among Ethnic Minority and Indigenous youth and their communities in Southeast Asia. These DSNs enable the formation and deepening of communities with shared values and common interests to take a culturally respectful, participatory, principle-centred approach to building relationships and producing results. The DSNs support locally and regionally focused partners and interested organizations in developing social media capacities for organizing, coordinating and communicating with all concerned and interested in the realization of a people-centred ASEAN.

APPLICATIONS FOR THE HEALTH SECTOR

In the health sector, mobile health or “mhealth” technology or “telemedicine” has developed promising healthcare delivered through the use of data gathering software and content for us in digital devices. In the ASEAN region, most specialists live in capital cities and the rural areas remain underserved. With the accelerated growth in telecommunication channels and internet in the region, telemedicine becomes a viable solution to enhance medical care.25 Telemedicine presents a unique opportunity for developing countries to improve their quality of health care to remote areas. Where there is a doctor shortage (both generalists and specialists), no proper roads and isolated communities in the interior of the country as well on remote islands which do not have the chance to be seen by a doctor, telemedicine has the capacity to enable doctors in referral hospitals or base hospitals to provide specialist health services to such communities without even leaving their hospitals. This type of “distance health care” can help other health workers or junior doctors working in smaller hospitals by strengthening their own abilities to diagnose difficult cases. For example, when an X-ray or other patient information is sent (electronically)

24 The Hidden Power of Social Networkshttp://www.bu.ac.th/knowledgecenter/epaper/jan_june2010/pdf/Page_155.pdf 25 Anuradha Shukla , Enhancing Healthcare with Telemedicine, Asia-Pacific Business Technology Report, Thursday, April 1, 2010, http://www.biztechreport.com/story/468-enhancing-healthcare-telemedicine

to a specialist in a base hospital is confirmed as the same diagnosis initially made by the referer, the referer gains confidence in his/her own ability to diagnosis difficult cases in the future. This process also allows continuing medical education for health workers in remote locations and promotes networking both nationally as well as internationally. Establishing sustainable telemedicine has become a goal of many developing countries around the world. Yet, despite initiatives from a select few individuals and on occasion from various governments, often these initiatives never mature to become sustainable programs. The introduction of telemedicine and e-learning can advance the quality and availability of medical services in areas where infrastructure and resources have been decimated by conflict, neglect, lack of funding, and poor management. For isntance in Kosovo, the concept and establishment of the International Virtual e-Hospital (IVeH) has significantly impacted telemedicine and e-health services. The success of the IVeH in Kosova has led to the development of similar programs in other Balkan countries and other developing countries in the hope of modernizing and improving their healthcare infrastructure. Another example is the IVeH “Initiate-Build-Operate-Transfer” (IBOT), which delivered a comprehensive, four-pronged strategy to establish telemedicine and e-health educational services not only in developing countries, but in developed countries. IBOT includes assessment of healthcare needs of each country, the development of a curriculum and education program, the establishment of a nationwide telemedicine network, and the integration of the telemedicine program into the very core of healthcare infrastructure. The end point is the transfer of a sustainable telehealth program to the targeted country. By applying IBOT, a sustainable telemedicine program of Kosovo and Albania has been created as an effective prototype for telemedicine in the Balkans. Once fully matured, the program will transition to the Ministry of Health, which ensures the sustainability and ownership of the program. Similar programs are being established in other countries around the world. The IBOT model has been effective in creating sustainable telemedicine and e-health integrated programs in the Balkans and serves as a good model for establishing such programs in developing countries. These approaches above do not necessarily require sophisticated technology to transmit data or images. For example, a mobile phone/PDA can be programmed with applications to detect cancer and tuberculosis, control sugar levels for diabetics and monitor vital signs. The technology is already widely used to varying degrees in developing countries and it has a vast potential to improve access and ensure rapid delivery of health care especially in remote rural areas in developing nations. Such devices can extend the reach of skilled medical professionals by distributing cell phones to health workers in the field to collect data on patients, including the taking of photographs that can be sent via the internet to a hospital for diagnosis. Such a programme is being used for example, in Bangalore, India, with support from Harvard University, for the early detection of cancer in patients living in remote communities. 26 One reoccurring problem is that mobile technology can collect, disseminate information, and aid diagnosis, but can never really dispense medical aid. Similarly, mobile devices can be used for data collection and distribution to improve maternal health by midwives and field nurses such as in the MOTECH (Mobile Technology for Community Health) initiative of the Grameen Foundation supported by the Ghana Health Service and Columbia University. Mobile phone-based technology is used to improve the quality of pre- and post-natal care for Ghanaian women and their families. MOTECH has developed an information service called Mobile Midwife, which delivers time-specific voice or text messages to pregnant mothers and their partners and families, both before and after birth. A simple Java-

26 http://www.healthtechnica.com/blogsphere/2010/12/08/mobile-health-technology-can-reach-the-remotest-corners/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItNZILObXhA&feature=related

based application was created that enables nurses in rural health facilities to automate much of their record keeping and reporting, which used to take 4-6 days per month of their time, making it easier for nurses to identify patients who have missed appointments and care.27 Need more examples, lessons learned etc from conference

A powerful example of a software data programme that can be used in cell phones is the Gather software, developed by AED-SATELLIFE.28 This programme provides a cell phone capability for use in collecting data for rural health clinics and education district planning offices. Designed to address the data collection and information challenges in all development areas, the tool contributes to efficient and cost-effective data collection, reporting, and analysis in low-resource environments. It can work in cell phones and will therefore only require a cellular network instead of a more costly Internet. Network infrastructure and available bandwidth is vital to any telemedicine program. For example, the international Virtual e-Hospital Foundation (www.iveh.org) has built a robust telemedicine network in the Kosovo and in Albania through dedicated VPN. The sites are connected through 512 kilobits per second (Kbps) dedicated link and 10 megabits per second (Mbps) dedicated link at TCK. The communication between national telemedicine centres in Kosovo and Albania and their respective regional telemedicine centres are supported by a Polycom VSX7000 view station for point-to-point and multipoint communications via a Polycom MGC-25 Multi-conferencing Unit (Polycom, Pleasanton, CA). All communications are recorded and streamed live on the Internet using Polycom RSS2000 Recording and Streaming Unit. In addition, the telemedicine centres are equipped with a Medvizer clinical telemedicine consultation unit (VitelNet, McLean, VA) in each emergency room at the each regional hospital. These units are independent from the electronic library and the video-conferencing system used for educational purposes.

27 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZsufOqpK74; http://grameenfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/motech-making-nurses%E2%80%99-lives-a-little-easier/ 28 [email protected]

Financing Rural Connectivity The 2007 Global Knowledge Conference29 recognized the need to invest in human capacity development in many Asia-Pacific countries to enable them to implement ICT initiatives in general and e-education initiatives in particular. Projections of demand for online learning by investment firms such as IDC, Merrill Lynch, and WR Hambrecth & Co., all indicated exponential growth in the future (Varoglu and Wachholz 2001). This burgeoning demand has materialized alongside an increased responsiveness from the private sector to engage in the development and delivery of education services and products. Traditional models of providing for education and training can no longer meet the demand, opening up opportunities for PPPs both at the national and transnational levels. In measuring the costs of ICT, the “ICT Bread Basket” a recent ITU Report suggests that while prices are falling globally, particularly in developing regions, major price differences remain. Fixed broadband access continues to be the single most expensive and least ICT affordable service in developing countries. The implication of this finding suggests that countries with high fixed broadband prices need to implement policies to reduce costs in order to bring provide online access to more people. Prices are a crucial factor in spreading the uptake of ICTs While mobile prices are relatively low, penetration is relatively high. Fixed broadband prices, on the other hand, remain high and penetration negligible.30

According to a World Bank report per capita economic growth is driven by three ICT-related factors: (i) investments in equipment and infrastructure, (ii)investments in human capital (i.e. in education and innovation), and (iii) the efficient use of labour (human resource) and capital that increases productivity.31 These three factors have a direct impact on the provisioning of education demand for universal access to ICT infrastructure. Many ASEAN Member States have a substantial part (85–90 percent) of the education budget spent on salaries alone, leaving little for capital investments such as those required for ICT interventions in infrastructure and content development. New and diversified ways of financing will have to be found to finance ICTs, especially in remote rural areas in ASEAN. To carry out the program of bringing connectivity to underserved rural areas of the region, the Master Plan on ASEAN Conenctivity has recognized that innovative and diversified sources will be found for financing rural connectivity: multilateral and bilateral development partners, regional and global funds, and national governments will be sought to help fund projects since the resources needed are currently

29 See UNESCO report on Third Global Knowledge Conference held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi bin/media/page.cgi?g=Access_to_information%2FThird_Global_Knowledge_Conference__GK3_%2Findex.html;d=1 30 International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Measuring the Information Society, 2010. 31 Public-private partnerships in ICT for Education, Hitendra Pillay and Greg Hearn. http://www.digital-review.org/uploads/files/pdf/2009-2010/ppp_in_ict4e.pdf

insufficient. In particular, private individuals and businesses in the region will be identified for inclusion in PPPs which represent an innovative way for governments to work with the private sector in providing high-quality service delivery and in closing the gaps in funding requirements of infrastructure.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE The geographic breadth and efficiency of telecommunications infrastructure and cost competitiveness of telecommunications services in a number of ASEAN countries leaves much to be desired. The issue of liberalization of regulatory frameworks is also a critical factor in promoting the equitable distribution of ICT infrastructure. A more liberalized and competitive environment can encourage more investment and continuing technology improvements in the region’s telecommunications, logistics and transport services and industries. Universal Service Obligation (USO) has been a central focus of the development in telecommunication sector contributing to larger development objectives of reducing poverty through creating access for rural community to information and thus new opportunities to improve livelihoods. It further enables rural communities to exploit their social and economic potentials. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1998 has defined universal service and access broadly as:

Universal Service is to achieve availability, non-discriminatory access and widespread affordability of telephone services. Universal Service is in general a per-household concept measured by the percentage of households with a telephone.

Universal Access is taken to mean that each person is within a reasonable distance of public access telephone. In ASEAN, as elsewhere, telecommunications markets are being liberalized.

The liberalization process is expected to enhance efficiency, lower costs and reduce prices for the consumer, which in turn leads to the development of new and improved services. The USAID and U.S. Department of State-funded ADVANCE Program contributed to this effort through the development of a handbook on Universal Service Obligations that lists best practices in extending ICT services to underserved areas in ASEAN. New technologies and competition in markets for basic telecommunications markets have led to new models for procurement and financing procedures. Whereas the old models were based on build-out requirements in a monopoly environment, funding procedures in bilateral and international development agencies are now required to be more aware of the possibilities of new technologies, more open to competition and rely on the private sector for decisions on technologies. Such procedures also need to be more efficient at targeting unprofitable parts of the network in need of subsidies.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS Public-private partnerships (PPPs) may represent the most promising strategy for funding ICT for rural connectivity in education and development. Global initiatives such as the Digital Opportunity Task Force32 the Global Knowledge Partnership, the UN ICT Task Force33 and the World Summit on the Information Society have significantly increased awareness of the vital role that international cooperation can play in providing access for all to ICT as a tool for economic and social development. They have

32 The Digital Opportunity Task Force (www.dotforce.org) was set up and launched by the G8 member countries at the G8 Kyushu- Okinawa Summit in 2000. 33 The UN ICT Task Force (www.unicttaskforce.org) was created by the Secretary General in 2001 at the request of the UN Economic and Social Council

established multi-stakeholder partnerships, such as the Global Digital Opportunity Initiative (GDOI),34 as a mechanism for developing creative PPPs and mobilizing private sector interest in supporting ICT for development and education. More on issues/solutions derived from conference

The Gilas Project (Gearing up Internet Literacy and Access for Students)35 in the Philippines, is an example of a multi-sectoral partnership (MSPE) supported by the Ayala Foundation that comprises numerous national and international private corporations to help provide public schools in the Philippines with computers and internet access. Gilas aims to provide Internet access to all public secondary school students in the Philippines, thus giving them an opportunity to a brighter future. Gilas delivers servers or routers, Local Area Network (LAN) cards and cables, and provides connectivity and free internet usage for the first year. (Insert More Information on what happens after the first year)

USAID has worked with multiple partners and donors to sponsor pilot programs for expanding rural connectivity in ASEAN. The Last Mile Initiative (LMI) in Vietnam,36 in partnership with Microsoft, Intel, and Qualcomm, promoted wireless connectivity and information technology at schools and community centers in 64 provinces, many in rural areas where cable lines did not reach. The alliance developed a national system of sustainable and locally adaptable e-learning centers. In a country where 40 percent of the population works in agriculture, these e-learning centers bring ICT skills to rural communities and focus on employability. Each partner helped to create one center in each 64 province by providing hardware, software and capacity building services. Training focused on instructors, students, and managers of the new centers in order to ensure sustainability.

There are clearly challenges to confront in working with alliances and PPPs. In many cases, the private sector may be less interested in providing financial assistance to the education, health or other development service sectors than in the long-term profitability of the demand for its products and services. On the other hand, demand for the new access devices to the web, new broadband networks, and new social networking applications and the increasing availability of professional content for online learning and data collection and reporting are becoming widely recognized and appreciated as valuable. This demand and growth has the potential to generate more interest from the private sectors and provide alternative ways to mobilize community interest and action toward furthering PPP in the various sectors such as education and health. Related to the need to develop new diverse ways to finance ICT expansion to rural areas is the need to explore ways of cost recovery through the use of user charges. ICT introduces a technology that makes Education for All and quality health care for all a real possibility for the first time in human history. Multi-stakeholder alliances, PPPs in combination with user charges have the potential to make a significant contribution to delivering this reality. Perhaps the most challenging task for governments in Asia-Pacific countries will be the development of a sound understanding of what is entailed in PPPs and the creation of environments for sustaining the interest of both public and private partners. Knowledge, skills, and expertise in developing, negotiating, implementing, and monitoring projects and programs with partners that may have competing agendas are crucial for the success of private-public alliances for investment in rural connectivity.

34 The Global Digital Opportunity Initiative (www.gdoi.org) is a partnership of the UNDP and the Markle Foundation to engage public and private institutions and individuals to help developing countries formulate a comprehensive national approach, including resource allocation for specifi c ICT solutions. 35 http://www.gilas.org/attachments/AR_2009.pdf 36 http://www.usaid.gov/rdma/programs/activity_108.html http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNADU067.pdf

8.0 Capacity Development and Alignment of ICT with Sector Policy The need for capacity development for key personnel prior to the planning and implementation of ICT would seem to be self-evident yet the ASEAN region has many examples of the investment in infrastructure without sufficient concern for the knowledge and skills to be in place for its efficient and effective use. Arinto, for example, alludes to the fixation on technology that propels policies to introduce hardware in schools without providing for the necessary training of the teachers in its use.37 Capacity needs to be developed to ensure that ICT’s meet with the policy objectives relating to rural areas. Policymakers need to be aware of both the benefits and drawbacks of introducing ICTs in these areas to avoid either neglecting ICTs completely or “jumping on the bandwagon” in making huge investments in hardware in an attempt to narrow the digital divide. A useful distinction has been made between two interrelated elements of capacity development and the role of ICTs: (i) capacity building through ICTs as appropriate technologies to achieve the sectoral development outcomes such as improved learning outcomes in education or similar improvements of service delivery and enhanced developmental outcomes in sectors such as in health and agriculture; and (ii) capacity building for ICTs as the building of knowledge and skills to manipulate and use technologies such as computers, mobile technologies, etc. appropriately.38 The first component would focus on the use of ICT as a tool for the development of the sector, clearly underscoring the need to assess the applicability, relevance and feasibility of using ICTs for helping to achieve sectoral objectives and policy outcomes. The second component relates to the need to train personnel in the use of the technology. The latter may of course become an objective in itself as a means to overcome the digital divide by bringing ICTs to rural areas. The distinction is valuable because it helps clarify what is often confused in rural connectivity: why are we bringing this technology to this population, can it really help improve their lives, and what is its value-added over perhaps less costly development interventions? We have already discussed the need to consider not only the infrastructural needs but also the need for relevant and effective content and information that ICTs will help communicate to make an impact in the various sectors, as well as the

37 P.B. Arinto, Reflections on ICTs in nbasic education policy and practice in the Philippines. Paper presented at the 2nd National ICTs in Basic Education Congress, Waterfront Hotel, Laug, Cebu City, Philippines, 6-7 September, 2006. 38 See Tony Zeitoun (C.I.D.A) Capacity Building and ICTs, presentation at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), Geneva, February 19, 2003.

availability of and mechanisms for the appropriate financing of ICT initiatives. Such concerns must give a priority to the development needs of the community (the broader capacity development needs) before the introduction of ICTs and training in their use. UNESCO has identified that a “technocratic perspective” in the education sector has served as both a cause and effect of the lack of capacity in ICT in planning and implementation in the sector.39 It has argued strongly that there is a need to move away from this perspective to models of planning that focus on sound policy planning and strategies leading to the development of capacity and empowerment of individuals and institutions:

“However, ICTs are not a panacea or cure-all for gaps in education provision. The right conditions need to be in place before the educational benefits of ICT can be fully harnessed, and a systematic approach is required when integrating ICTs into the education system. This fact is often overlooked and, in their eagerness to jump on the technology bandwagon, many education systems end up with technologies that are either not suitable for their needs or cannot be used optimally due to lack of trained personnel. Vendor persistence oftentimes overshadows calm and logical consideration of any new technology to be adopted.”40

Capacity development is again being used here in the broader sense of ensuring that service delivery in the education sector improves in access, equity and quality. Capacity is critically needed for policymakers to plan systematically for ICT adoption and integration in line with sectoral priorities, and the teachers need to develop the capacity to implement these policies since it is they who play a key role in the effective and appropriate use of technology in teaching and learning. In the Asian Pacific Region, countries are at different stages of ICT development. Different stages are found in policy formulation, development and access to ICT infrastructure, content and software development, programme implementation as well as in the capacity development for the relevant key staff. UNESCO, following Farrell and Wachhotz,41 identify a continuum of stages or phases of ICT integration (see Figure 7): (i) Emerging: characterized by the discovery of ICT tools, their function and uses, where the focus is on ICT literacy and skill learning; (ii) Applying: the stage at which learning how to apply and use ICT tools is dominant and where there is both a general and specific application of ICTs; (iii) infusing: relating to the stage where understanding how and when to use ICT tools in order to achieve a planned purpose or objective, recognizing when the tools can be the most helpful, selecting the most appropriate ICTs available to solve the problems encountered in the sector; and (iv) Transforming: in which the teaching and learning is enhanced through the new approach of using ICTs as tools of transformation.42

39 See Wai-Kong Ng, Fengchun Miao, and Molly Lee, Capacity-building for ICT integration in education, UNESCO, online resource: http://www.digital-review.org/uploads/files/pdf/2009-2010/capacity_building.pdf 40 Ibid p. 67 See also http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=19487&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html 41 G. Farrell and C. Wachholtz (2003), Meta-survey on the use of technologies in education in Asia and Pacific 2003-2004, UNESCO Bangkok online resource at http://w.w.w.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=1807 42 See Ng et al, UNESCO, 2010. P.71f.

In line with this emphasis on a continuum of stages and the need to build capacity for countries at these different levels, UNESCO in collaboration with InfoDev and others, has produced an “ICT in Education Toolkit for Policymakers, Planners and Practitioners”43 targeting policymakers and teachers. A further valuable resource is the “ICT Competency Standards for Teachers”44 which has the objective of improving teacher pedagogy and learning outcomes, focusing on both ICT skills and innovative approaches and insights on pedagogy, student learning, the curriculum and school organization, to ensure that ICT is aligning and eventually integrating with education sector needs and priorities. This approach is relevant not only for the education sector but to the other development services considered in this paper such as health, agriculture, tourism, etc., in which the use of ICT needs to be integrated with the sector policies and strategic priorities. A balance needs to be struck between capacity development for ICT skills and for using ICT as a tool for enhancing development priorities in each sector; a balance between capacity building in the ICT sector and capacity building through ICTs. This will be most important in rural, remote, and underserved areas where resource constraints are most found and where the power of ICT as a tool to aid development is most in need. A dire need exists in such areas to disseminate and learn from regional best practice in countries at different stages of ICT development to address infrastructure needs, content development, finance issues, and capacity development while ensuring alignment and eventual integration of ICT with development priorities.

Insert more based on conference findings/outcomes

43 See www.ICTinEDtoolkit.org and www.infodev.org/ict4edu-toolkit 44 http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=22997&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html