infodevns2 · 2017-01-04 · working hypothesis. seven years later, it has virtually become part of...

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I N F O R M A T I O N F O R D E V E L O P M E N T

P R O G R A M

G L O B A L I N F O R M A T I O N A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N T E C H N O L O G I E S D E P A R T M E N T

THE WORLD BANK

M I S S I O NTo promote innovative projects that use informationand communication technologies for economic and

social development, with a special emphasis on the needs of thepoor in developing economies.

3 Foreword4 Abbreviations and Acronyms6 1 MAINSTREAMING ICT IN THE FIGHT

AGAINST POVERTY 7 ICT and Development: the Changing Context7 Great Expectations8 The Road Ahead8 Information and Communication: the Oxygen of

Modern Economy and Society9 Beyond Markets9 Information-Poor Environments10 Harnessing Knowledge10 Mainstreaming ICT11 Establishing an Enabling Environment11 Using ICT Well12 ICT and the Millennium Development Goals12 The Key: Use ICT as a Means, Not an End13 The Role of the International Community18 2 THE INFODEV PORTFOLIO19 Core Program19 Overview20 Proposal Evaluation22 Newly Funded Projects24 The infoDev Conference Scholarship Fund

(iCSF)27 Flagship Initiatives27 The Incubator Initiative29 The African Connection Initiative31 Country Gateways33 ICT Infrastructure and e-Readiness Assessments

35 Dialogue on Regulation of the Networked Economy35 e-Government36 3 KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION AND

EXTERNAL ACTIVITIES37 infoDev Symposium39 The ICT Stories Competition40 infoDev Working Papers40 infoDev Seminar Series41 The Global Information Technology Report 2001–

200241 Global Knowledge Partnerships41 The Development Marketplace42 4 GOVERNANCE43 Donors’ Committee43 New Strategy43 External Review44 Technical Advisory Panel46 infoDev Secretariat48 5 FINANCES49 Contributions52 Expenses53 Cash Position

54 ANNEX 1 infoDev on the Web 56 ANNEX 2 infoDev Donors’ Committee Meeting: Summary Proceedings 76 ANNEX 3 Projects Active as of June 30, 200290 ANNEX 4 Projects Completed as of June 30, 2002

C O N T E N T S

T A B L E S15 Table 1 infoDev Projects in Fiscal 2001 and 2002

and the Millennium Development Goals19 Table 2 Project Funding in Fiscal 2002, by Region

and Initiative20 Table 3 Active and Completed Projects as of June

30, 2002, by Sector and Main Activity22 Table 4 Proposals Processed as of June 30, 200226 Table 5 infoDev Conference Scholarship Fund:

Conferences in Fiscal 200231 Table 6 Summary of Grant Funding for Fiscal

2001 and 200232 Table 7 Summary of Planning Grants in Fiscal

2002

32 Table 8 Summary of Implementation Grants in Fiscal 2002

34 Table 9 Countries and Organizations Participating in the Development Gateway

40 Table 10 infoDev Seminars in Fiscal 200251 Table 11 infoDev Donor Contributions, by Fiscal Year

(000 USD)52 Table 12 infoDev Expenses for Fiscal 1996–2002 (000

USD)53 Table 13 Trust Fund Balance as of June 30, 2002, by

Donor

F I G U R E S21 Figure 1 infoDev Proposals in Fiscal 2002, by

Proponent21 Figure 2 infoDev Funded Projects in Fiscal 2002,

by Proponent21 Figure 3 infoDev Proposals in Fiscal 2002, by

Region21 Figure 4 infoDev Funded Projects in Fiscal 2002,

by Region

25 Figure 5 infoDev Conference Scholarship Fund: Origin of Fellows in Fiscal 2002

50 Figure 6 Contributions to infoDev in Fiscal 2000–2002, by Category of Funding

F O R E W O R D

2002 has been an important and exciting year for infoDev. Our core program has continued to allocate grants to a vast array of innovative projects in all parts of the world. With the adoption of a new strategy based on knowledge dissemination and flagship initiatives, the program has embarked on the path of deep reform with renewed ambitions.

The coming year promises to be rich with challenges and achievements; the Incubator Initiative is a case in point. The year will also see further opportunities for infoDev’s to use its core program’s accumulated knowledge to strengthen existing flagship initiatives and develop new ones: African connectivity, e-government, regulatory frameworks, and distance education are at the top of the list. Increased synergies with infoDev’s partners and donors (including the World Bank Group) should contribute to the mainstreaming of infoDev as a knowledge initiative.

The 2002 Annual Symposium, being held this December in Chongqing, China, should provide additional impetus in that direction by calling international attention to the potential role that ICT (and infoDev) can play in such fields as trade, rural development, and government modernization.

infoDev is no longer alone in its class; but it is still unique—and ahead of the pack. When infoDev was created in 1995, the role of ICT as a powerful tool to fight poverty was at best a working hypothesis. Seven years later, it has virtually become part of “conventional thinking.” Many international initiatives have been launched recently, including the World Economic Forum’s Digital Divide Initiative, the Digital Opportunity Task (DOT) Force of the G-8, the UN ICT Task Force, and the Development Gateway initiated by the World Bank. All of these aim at reducing the Digital Divide. While some would see such an environment as a threat to infoDev’s relevance, signs indicate that our role is more important than ever. We remain the only organization with seven years of direct and diversified experience in applying ICT to poverty alleviation and socioeconomic development in general.

The success enjoyed by several of the “knowledge products” that infoDev has developed or contributed to (such as the Telecom Regulatory Handbook or the Global Information Technology Report) show that demand exists for this kind of project. In 2003, infoDev can play a significant and visible role in linking its own experience and accumulated knowledge to the pursuance of the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. In that context, the holding of the first part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in December 2003 in Geneva is a milestone that should not be missed.

BRUNO LANVINProgram Manager, infoDev

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AC African Connection

DFID Department for International Development (UK)

DGF Development Grant Facility of the World Bank

DOT Force Digital Opportunity Task Force

ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States

FY fiscal year

GKD Global Knowledge for Development

GKP Global Knowledge Partnership

IDG Internationally Agreed Development Goals

ICT information and communication technologies

IICD International Institute for Communication & Development

infoDev Information for Development Program

IT information technology

ITU International Telecommunication Union

NGO nongovernmental organization

SME small- and medium-scale enterprise

TAP Technical Advisory Panel

WSIS World Summit on the Information Society

Y2K year 2000

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I C T A N D D E V E L O P M E N T : T H E C H A N G I N G C O N T E X T

Efforts to harness the power of information and communication technologies (ICT) to foster economic and social development and help the poor long predate the advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In areas as diverse as public sector reform, private sector development, education, health, the environment, and agriculture, developing countries and their partners in the international community have sought to use radio, television, computers, and related technologies to increase access to information, to build skills, to share knowledge, and to make institutions and markets more transparent and effective.

Great ExpectationsYet the remarkable technological developments of the final decade of the 20th century—the emergence of global connectivity as an economic and social force, the dramatic and sustained advances in the power and speed of computers relative to their cost, the vast expansion of communications networks, the unprecedented creativity in the development of software and applications, the spread of affordable mobile telecommunications—seemed to hold out the hope that ICT could have a truly transformative effect on the development process and on the hopes of millions of the world’s poorest. From the mid-1990s, some predicted that developing countries could “leapfrog” several stages of technological and economic development, benefiting from the newest technologies to build new sectors of economic opportunity, tackle their education and health challenges in new ways, and give their leaders and citizens instant access to global knowledge and best practice. While few imagined that ICT were a “magic bullet” for the intractable problems of poverty, many believed that the power of these new technologies offered previously unimaginable opportunities for economic and social development, even in the poorest countries.

International organizations reflected this optimism in their programs, with a surge of interest in ICT throughout the development community. Efforts focused not only on how ICT could strengthen existing efforts in traditional development sectors from health and education to agriculture and environment, but also on how developing countries could create new economic opportunities through the clever deployment of ICT. At the same time, the longstanding (and still unfinished) effort to persuade developing countries to liberalize and privatize their telecommunications sectors, so as to attract private investment and foster innovation, was complemented by growing efforts to help these countries create enabling environments and policy frameworks for the ICT economy more broadly. Programs proliferated to help developing countries assess their readiness for the new technologies and networks, develop strategies to deploy them, and adapt them to their specific needs.

It was in the early days of this “Internet boom” of the ICT-for-development field that infoDev was created in 1995. And, as the table at the end of this section shows, infoDev continues to play an active and important role in the global effort to harness ICT in the fight against poverty and the pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Despite the new challenges faced by the global economy (and particularly the technology sector) since 2001, the promises of ICT for development and poverty reduction remain intact. However, the multiplication

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M A I N S T R E A M I N G I C T I N T H E F I G H T A G A I N S T P O V E R T Y

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of initiatives, excessive enthusiasm from some newcomers, and unrealistic expectations have resulted in some confusion on the role ICT can play in the development process and a general feeling that not enough evidence yet exists of the positive impact of ICT in tackling development issues.

The Road AheadNevertheless, it remains clear that it will not be possible to reach the Millennium Development Goals without using ICT tools more broadly and with an increased determination. It is also clear that a better effort needs to be made to disseminate and share the lessons learned and the successes recorded over the last five to seven years on the use of ICT for development in such sectors as education or health.

For infoDev, the challenge is now to share more broadly and effectively what is known about “what works and what doesn’t” in the use of ICT in fighting poverty and fostering sustainable development. The opportunity that presents itself, if this challenge is properly met, is to truly and fully mainstream ICT as a powerful tool of development, by helping a broad range of stakeholders in developing countries—government officials, entrepreneurs, teachers, citizens groups, NGOs, health specialists—experiment, learn, and share what works in harnessing ICT to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

infoDev’s increased emphasis on evaluation, dissemination of best practices, and scaling up of successful approaches reflects the realization that the real test of the success of ICT in development efforts is whether they ultimately contribute to reducing poverty, increasing opportunity, and improving the lives and livelihoods of the poor.

I N F O R M A T I O N A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N : T H E O X Y G E N O F M O D E R N E C O N O M Y A N D S O C I E T Y

It is no coincidence that infoDev’s full name is the Information for Development Program. While ICT (in all their variety) have been the principal focus of infoDev’s work, this focus is rooted in a recognition of the importance of information and communication—made possible by a vast range of tools, from the human voice to the Internet—as key enablers of economic and social life in any society.

It has long been recognized that persistent poverty, limited growth, and inequality in developing countries are not simply the result of uneven access to material and financial resources. Persistent poverty, at both an individual and societal level, has deeper and more systemic roots. The material deprivations of the poor are compounded by their lack of access to education, information and knowledge, their lack of voice in the institutions and societal processes that shape their lives, and their inability to communicate effectively their needs, hopes, and expectations to those who have control over them.

These deprivations are mirrored at the societal level by institutions and markets that function poorly, that are often unresponsive to the needs of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised, and that are all too frequently captured or excessively influenced by economic, social, or cultural

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elites. Information and communication are in many ways the oxygen of modern economy and society. Although economists have long recognized that “perfect” information is an unrealized ideal in any economic interaction, the pivotal role of information in the proper functioning of markets remains a fundamental insight of economics and a fundamental reality of market economies.

Beyond MarketsYet the importance of information, and its wide and free flow through society, extends beyond markets. In societies where information flows badly, and where the poor lack adequate access to information about rights, services, and opportunities, the institutions that are supposed to serve their needs are often unresponsive, inefficient, and subject to influence by those with greater resources. When the poor lack information about basic hygiene and health issues or about the resources available to address health and hygiene problems, sickness and disease spread and perpetuate their poverty. When poor farmers lack information about crop prices, new farming techniques, new markets, or even weather forecasts, they remain excessively dependent on middlemen, unable to adapt to environmental and market changes, and unable to get the best yield from their own labor and that of their family.

When information flows badly both within government institutions and between those institutions and their stakeholders, the institutions remain inefficient and more likely to make poor policies. Their lack of transparency makes them more susceptible to corruption and improper influence. Their lack of access to best practice, to information about the true needs and conditions of their clients, and to knowledge about developments in other sectors of society and economy that constrain and shape their own decisions and actions, means that even the most well-meaning government officials risk making short-sighted or self-defeating decisions.

Information-Poor EnvironmentsIn short, experience over the last several decades with the intractable problems of poverty shows that poor countries and poor communities are not just resource-poor environments. In most cases they are also, and just as importantly, information-poor environments. The poor lack access not only to vital information and knowledge that could improve their lives, but access to effective voice in the societal institutions and processes that shape their lives. Those institutions and processes, in turn, are inefficient and sometimes corrupt, also in part because of weak information flows within society.

Information-poor environments are also usually low-growth. While development economists (and others) have long disagreed about the relative emphasis to be placed on aggregate growth or poverty reduction within national development strategies, it is widely agreed that robust economic growth at a societal level is an indispensable element in reducing poverty. Yet it is difficult, if not impossible, for such growth to occur in environments where markets and institutions perform poorly because of weak information, communication and knowledge flows. Where information flows poorly, and where communication is difficult, investment and innovation are also scarce. It is well known that unreliable information and communications infrastructure, along with poor physical infrastructure, is a major deterrent to foreign private investment in many developing countries.

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Harnessing KnowledgeThe relation between ICT, economic growth and poverty reduction has another crucial dimension as well. ICT, just as other technologies before them, increase in myriad ways the efficiency and productivity of individuals and firms, both by permitting greater outputs for a given input of scarce resources and by making available new information and knowledge about processes, products, techniques and markets. The poor typically spend a disproportionate percentage of their scarce resources (labor, time, money, land, water, and other resources) to secure the things necessary for themselves and their families because they have less access to the time-saving and productivity-boosting effects of technology. This is no less true with ICT than with earlier technologies, from motors to tractors. Where information flows poorly and communication is difficult, knowledge flows poorly as well. As the World Bank’s 1998–99 World Development Report clearly demonstrated, effectively creating, harnessing, adapting and using knowledge is vital not only to growth and competitiveness in an increasingly global economy, but also to addressing the needs of the poor and the root causes of persistent poverty. In information-scarce environments, the poor are not only deprived of the benefit of rapidly expanding global knowledge on health, agriculture, environmental management, and other issues vital to their daily lives. They are also deprived of opportunities to develop new skills that can give them new opportunities, and of the empowerment that comes with understanding the functioning of their societal and governmental institutions and their roles and rights within them. Last but not least, they are deprived of the opportunity to share their own, often extremely valuable and centuries-old local knowledge, and to reap benefit from that knowledge, while also benefiting from the traditional knowledge of other poor communities.

M A I N S T R E A M I N G I C T

Understanding the vital role of information, communication, and knowledge in the functioning of vibrant markets and responsive societal and governmental institutions helps us understand what it means to “mainstream” ICT in national development strategies and in the work of the international development community. It is perhaps useful to begin, in the light of recent experience, by stressing what “mainstreaming” does not mean. It does not mean insisting on an “ICT component” to every development project—though it does imply a careful attention to when, and how, ICT might help any project meet its objectives. It does not mean making ICT the principal focus of national development strategies—although an awareness of the importance of information and communication, and thus ICT, is a vital component of any such strategy.

In its simplest form, “mainstreaming” does mean, first and foremost, engaging in a frank and comprehensive diagnosis of the information and communication dimensions of a given country’s development challenges. It means asking the fundamental question: How can we create a situation where information flows much more freely and widely, and where communication is easier, broader and more inclusive within our society, so as to create more vibrant markets, better economic growth, more responsive government institutions, more participatory and inclusive societal processes?


The answer to this question, although distinct for each country, covers two mutually dependent areas. The first is the establishment of an enabling environment for an information-rich economy and society; the second is the innovative, appropriate use of ICT within the various sectors of economy and society.

Establishing an Enabling Environment Establishing an enabling environment itself involves two sets of actions. The first set is the creation of policy and regulatory frameworks for encouraging competition, innovation, and private investment in information and communication infrastructure, products, and services.

While some (uneven) progress has been made in introducing competition and reducing the role of government in telecommunications (and broadcasting) in developing countries, there is still much to be done even on this fundamental element of the enabling environment for ICT. There also is the need for a broader range of actions influencing policies and practices that constrain the growth and effective use of ICT, from import restrictions on high-technology products to weak intellectual property regimes and regulatory impediments to new business creation.

Yet, creating an enabling environment for an information-rich society and economy goes beyond creating the frameworks for ICT growth. It entails a second set of actions directed at issues that are more fundamental and challenging for many developing countries. Information-rich economies and societies emerge and thrive in contexts where people have the right and ability to expect that information will be available to them—that public and private institutions, markets, and government officials will behave in an open and transparent manner. Of course, even in the most information-rich society this expectation is never fully met. But developing countries governments can take significant measures—in areas such as freedom of information, accountability of public servants, transparency of market regulation and operation—that create a virtuous cycle of expectation and supply of public information about markets, institutions, policies and processes within a society. One of the facts often overlooked in analyses of the growth of the “information economy” in advanced countries is that these countries already had in place the policies, institutions, expectations, and practices of information-rich societies and economies.

Using ICT WellThe second area for creative action by developing country governments, supported by their partners in the international community, is in innovative, appropriate use of ICT within the various sectors of economy and society. It is here that there has been substantial experimentation in recent years, much of it supported by multilateral and bilateral development agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and other international partners. The results, although often encouraging, have also been uneven, for at least two reasons. First, there has often been a tendency to propose a solution before conducting a proper diagnosis. The development community, which has a long history of identifying “gaps” which need to be filled between developed and developing countries, identified the “digital divide” as a key issue of the late 90s, and much effort was made (at great expense) to “bridge” that divide by helping developing countries, and poor communities, gain access to new digital technologies.


Often, these efforts were supply-driven, lacking an adequate attention either to the broader economic, social, and policy context into which the technology was being inserted or to its sustainability and appropriate use over time. (The telecenter movement, despite some successes, offers abundant examples of this problem.)

Second, while these efforts were intended to increase pressure on developing country governments to make progress on broader reform in the enabling environment (both by creating local “success stories” and by generating local demand for new ICT products and services), they often had the paradoxical effect of diverting attention from those deeper and more crucial efforts, both in developing country governments and in development agencies. While their “incrementalism” and experimentation was vital to the early stages of efforts to understand the role of ICT in development, their modest scale deprived them of the leverage necessary to generate the significant policy change that would create the conditions for scaling up.

ICT and the Millennium Development Goals The growing international attention to, and consensus on, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is allowing the ICT-for-development effort to advance to the crucial next phase: mainstreaming ICT in development strategies by demonstrating their effectiveness in helping reach those goals.

The MDG set specific benchmarks for progress in reducing poverty, disease, hunger, environmental degradation, and disempowerment of the poor in the coming years. In reading them, it is clear that every one has a significant, if often implicit, component of increasing information, communication and knowledge for individuals, institutions, markets and societies, and of making institutions and markets more productive and efficient.

Poverty can only be halved if the poor have greater access to information, knowledge, and opportunities—in societies and markets that are themselves more efficient, transparent, and productive. Hunger can only be reduced if farmers are more productive, food markets and trade are more efficient, global best practices are shared, and the causes of famine are better understood and addressed. Women and girls can only be empowered and educated if they—and their teachers—have access to learning opportunities, gain the ability to be heard in local and national debates and decisions, and have the ability to learn from, and share strategies with, women and girls facing similar challenges in other communities and countries. Debilitating diseases can only be combated if knowledge about prevention is more widespread, the ability to monitor their outbreak enhanced, and global knowledge about therapies and cures more effectively shared.

The Key: Use ICT as a Means, Not an EndThe key to mainstreaming ICT in the fight against poverty and the pursuit of the MDG, then, is not to begin with ICT, nor to posit them as an essential need. Rather, it is to determine, country by country and region by region, the impediments to realizing the MDG. It is to ascertain the information, communication, knowledge, and efficiency components of these impediments. It is to assess, on the basis of global experience, how ICT—broadly deployed and properly adapted—could help address these impediments. And it is to develop and implement a


strategy for encouraging and supporting the deployment of ICT, in support of, and subordinate to, a national strategy for meeting the MDG and fostering broad and sustainable development and growth.

In mainstreaming ICT for development and poverty reduction, it is vital to keep in mind the critical role of private sector investment and innovation in the effective deployment and use of ICT within any society. There are two reasons for this. First, the scope and scale of ICT deployment in a country is potentially so vast that it can only be sustainably supported by private investment, both domestic and international. Second, the ways in which ICT are used most effectively in any given society and economy will depend on a variety of unique local circumstances, and thus the capacity to innovate and adapt are crucial. Private investors, inventors, and entrepreneurs, in partnership with NGOs, local communities, and other end-users of ICT, are better suited to this innovation and adaptation than governments.

The role for developing country governments, however, remains equally crucial, in at least three areas. First, governments need to exercise leadership, in cooperation and consultation with the private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders, in articulating and implementing a national strategy for achieving the MDG and combating poverty, and in that context for harnessing the power of ICT. Second, they need to take, and rigorously implement, the complex but crucial policy and regulatory measures that will create an enabling environment for the broad deployment and effective use of ICT in all areas of economy, society and government. Third, they have to pay particular attention to helping the poorest and most marginalized gain access to the benefits of ICT, both directly and indirectly. They should, wherever possible, do this not by replacing private investment, but by a careful combination of policies, incentives, and investments that push the boundaries of the market and help temporarily those not yet served by it.

In all of this, ICT are not the objective; they are a tool of a broader strategy to fight poverty and create sustainable growth. Mainstreaming ICT in development means subordinating them to this broader purpose. For the international community, it means shifting from a focus on ICT as a key theme for its dialogue with developing countries to a focus on the MDG and how ICT can help attain them, within the context of a broader (and more difficult but important) effort to create information-rich societies and economies in developing countries.

T H E R O L E O F T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L C O M M U N I T Y

The international community—multilateral and bilateral development agencies, the private sector, NGOs, and others—has already played an important and varied role in helping developing countries realize the benefits of ICT in combating poverty and supporting sustainable development. This role has taken several forms:

• Awareness-raising and advocacy;• Support (both technical and financial) for policy and regulatory reform, telecoms sector

restructuring, and the deployment of specific ICT applications and infrastructure; and• Support for innovation, experimentation, and knowledge-sharing in ICT applications

relevant to the needs of the poor.


All of these efforts are worthwhile and should continue. However, as the discussion of the MDG above suggests, the international community’s attention to ICT as a tool of development could benefit from greater focus and discipline, particularly by focusing more concretely on how ICT, and their effective spread and use, could advance the Millennium Development Goals.

The high-level international dialogue on ICT in the past few years has tended at times to have only a weak link to the more important international dialogue, and action, on the MDG. At the same time, support for innovation and experimentation in ICT applications relevant to poverty reduction has often been poorly coordinated and difficult to replicate, and there has often been a disconnect between support for ICT experimentation at the local level and efforts to influence the ICT enabling environment at the national level, thus limiting the chances that local successes (when they occur) will be sustainable and scaleable.

While there is increasing consensus within international organizations of the need to go beyond the “pilot-project” phase of ICT for development and to “scale up and replicate” successful models, there is less attention to the need to embed these efforts in a more strategic approach to leveraging broader policy changes. Making the MDG the benchmark against which ICT-for-development efforts are measured over time provides a discipline and focus to these efforts that will help them better realize their ultimate goal—which is to help developing countries become vibrant market economies and robust societies with responsive governments, where the poor have opportunity, a voice, and access to the knowledge and information that will help them improve their lives.

The preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society—to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2003 and in Tunis, Tunisia, in 2005—represents an opportunity for the international community to focus its ICT efforts on the MDG, and thereby on harnessing the true power of ICT as a tool of hope for all.

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At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the member states of the United Nations refined and adopted a set of “millennium development goals” (MDG) for reducing poverty and creating sustainable development over the coming years. These goals, reaffirmed during the summer of 2002 by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, are as follows:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2. Achieve universal primary education. 3. Promote gender equality and empower women.4. Reduce child mortality. 5. Improve maternal health.6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. 7. Ensure environmental sustainability. 8. Develop a global partnership for development.


T A B L E 1

i n f o D e v PROJECTS IN FISC A L 2001 A ND 2002 A ND THE

MILL EN NIUM DEV ELOPMENT GOA L S

Goals Project Title Grantee Organization FY

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction CDI International Expansion CDI - Committee for Democracy in Information Technology, Brazil

2002

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction Inter-city Marketing Network for Women Micro-Entrepreneurs

Foundation of Occupational Development (FOOD), India

2001

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction Empowerment Incubator for the Voluntary Sector In North Eastern India

Earth Conscience Foundation, India

2002

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction Goal 8: Partnership

Siberian Development Net Cryptos, Russia 2002

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction Design and Implementation of Community Telecenters of Information and Communication (Chile)

Government of Chile, Ministry of Transports and Telecommunications, Chile

2001

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction Future Stations Viva Rio, Brazil 2002

Goal 1: Poverty Reduction Goal 8: Partnership

Using Satellite Technology to Disseminate Critical Knowledge Throughout Africa

WorldSpace Foundation, United States of America

2002

Goal 2: Education infoDev Motorola Visiting Fellowship Program

Motorola University, United States of America

2001

Goal 2: Education Kidlink Houses and Families in Brazil Fundacao Padre

Fundacao Pe Leonel Franca Foundation (FPLF) of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2001

Goal 2: Education Creating a Global Information Network on Distance Education (Worldwide)

Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Canada

2001

Goal 2: Education OpenSchool: A collaboration platform for educational content development using Open Source principles

CSIR, South Africa 2002

Goal 2: Education School Governance Networks for Educational Improvement in Developing Countries (Gansu, China Pilot)

Harvard University, United States 2002

Goal 2: Education Tuition Free Telecommunications Training

United States Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI), United States

2001

Goal 3: Gender Equality UNECA/CISCO Training of Women Entrepreneurs (East Africa)

United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA - Ethiopia

2001

Goal 3: Gender Equality Goal 4: Child MortalityGoal 5: Maternal HealthGoal 6: HIV / AIDS

Radio-Internet Brazil Cemina, Brazil 2002

Goal 3: Gender EqualityGoal 4: Child MortalityGoal 5: Maternal HealthGoal 6: HIV / AIDS

EHAS PROGRAM (2002-2003) Hispano American Health Link

Asociación Madrileña de Ingeniería Sin Fronteras, Spain

2002


A Voice Portal for Health Voxiva, Peru 2002

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1 6 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

Goals Project Title Grantee Organization FY


Improving Healthcare and Education through shared ICT Resources (Nigeria)

The Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria

2001

Goal 8: Partnership African Connection- Consensus Building Development Bank of Southern Africa DBSA, South Africa

2002

Goal 8: Partnership Buy South Africa On-line, South Africa, Triple Trust Investments, South Africa

2002

Goal 8: Partnership Data Fusion for Flood Analysis & Decision Support

Wuhan Univ. of Hydraulic and Electric Engineering (WUHEE), China

2001

Goal 8: Partnership E-Government Center for Democracy and Technology, United States

2002

Goal 8: Partnership Electronic Bulletin Board for Farmers- Philippines

b2bpricenow.com, Philippines 2002

Goal 8: Partnership E-Readiness Assessment for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Egypt

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt

2001

Goal 8: Partnership Exploring Adequate Reform Models for the Telecom sector (China)

Exploring Adequate Reform Models for the Telecom Sector in China, China

2001

Goal 8: Partnership Global Knowledge for Development Online Forum (Worldwide)

Education Development Center Inc., United States of America

2001

Goal 8: Partnership Implementation of OHADA.com: A legal and Economic Internet Portal for Africa

UNIDA, France 2002

Goal 8: Partnership Online ICT Resource Centre for the Global Development Community Development Community (Worldwide)

Association for Progressive Communications (APC), United States of America

2001

Goal 8: Partnership RITS (Brazil) - Experimentation And Application Of Adequate ICT To Contribute To Internet Access For Third Sector Organizations

RITS - Rede de Informacoes para o Terceiro Setor (Information Network for the Third Sector), Brazil

2001

Goal 8: Partnership VITA-Connect Volunteers in Technical Assistance VITA - CONNECT, United States of America

2002

Goal 8: Partnership World Economic Forum World Economic Forum, Switzerland

2002

Goal 8: Partnership World Regulatory Colloquium for the Networked Economy (RFP)

Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies (Lirne.net), Denmark

2001

Goal 8 : Partnership Maestros al Trabajo- Venezuela, DM Award

Obraweb, Venezuela 2002

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1 6 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

2

1 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

T H E I N F O D E V P O R T F O L I O...............................................................................................

2

1 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

This chapter reviews the fiscal 2002 portfolio, compares it with the 2001 portfolio, and discusses emerging trends in the composition of activities with respect to infoDev strategic objectives. It also describes the achievements of illustrative initiatives and projects.

As of June 30, 2002, infoDev’s portfolio (since 1995) comprised 249 projects with a total cost of $86.5 million, of which infoDev funded $26.9 million. Table 2 breaks down the 2002 portfolio by region and by initiative, including the percentage of funding provided by infoDev.

T A B L E 2

PROJECT FU NDING IN FISC A L 2002 , BY R EGION A ND INITI ATI V E

C O R E P R O G R A M

Under its core program, infoDev provides grants that support innovative projects or activities aimed at alleviating poverty through the use of ICT.

The core program is demand-driven; that is, it is implemented via projects selected on the basis of unsolicited proposals. The proposals—which can cover one or more countries—may be submitted by governments, nonprofit organizations, private companies, development organizations, or partnerships between different stakeholders in the international development community. The proposed activities may be in several fields, including e-commerce, education, telecommunications policy, and health.

Most of the activities in infoDev’s project portfolio fall into four broad categories: Consensus Building, Information Infrastructure Strategies, Telecommunications Reform, and Demonstration Projects. More information on infoDev’s core programs is available at www.infodev.org/projects/apply.htm.

OverviewThe core program attracted 235 new proposals in fiscal 2002. The fiscal year started with 45 active projects in the portfolio; over the course of the year, infoDev funded 34 new projects in the core program and 38 previous projects were completed (the figures include iCSF). The

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T H E I N F O D E V P O R T F O L I O

············································································································································································· N u m b e r o f F u n d e d P r o j e c t s P e r c e n t a g e o f To t a l F u n d i n g ················································································································· Core Country E- Core Country E- R e g i o n Program Gateway Readiness Total Program Gateway Readiness Total·············································································································································································Sub-Saharan Africa 9 5 1 15 26% 31% 12% 27%Latin America and the Caribbean 10 4 2 16 29% 25% 25% 28%Middle East and North Africa 1 1 2 3% 6% 4%South Asia 1 1 2 3% 6% 4%East Asia and Pacific 7 1 8 21% 6% 12%Europe and Central Asia 3 4 4 11 9% 25% 50% 19%Global/Multiple Regions 3 1 4 9% 13% 6%·············································································································································································Total 34 16 8 58 100% 100% 100% 100%


value of the new projects was $11.3 million, of which infoDev funded $3.3 million. The average amount of funding per project was $160,000 for the core program and $20,000 for the iCSF. By the end of fiscal 2002, 43 projects were active, as compared to 44 active projects in fiscal 2001. This brings the total of funded projects over the life of the program to 178, of which 135 have been completed (see Annex 3).

Figures 1–4 describe both the proposals infoDev received during fiscal 2002 and the core funded initiatives (by proponent institutions and geographic distribution). As can be seen, proposals come from a similar distribution of public sector entities, NGOs, and academic institutions as in the past. A clear increase of funded projects for private sector and international organizations characterizes fiscal 2002.

The percentage of funded projects increased respectively from 19%, in fiscal 2001, to 31% for the Africa region, and from 19%, in fiscal 2001, to 32% for the Latin America region.

Table 3 lists the active and completed projects in the core program by sector. As in previous years, projects dealing with telecommunications and Internet have been a significant part of the ICT portfolio. The pilot and demonstration projects demonstrate infoDev’s commitment to new innovative projects that may be scalable when completed.

T A B L E 3

ACTI V E A ND COMPL ETED PROJECTS A S OF JU NE 30, 2002 ,BY SECTOR A ND M A IN ACTI V IT Y

Proposal EvaluationThe proposal evaluation deadline for this year was February 1, 2002, and the reviews were completed in late March 2002. infoDev received 235 proposals in this batch. All were screened by the infoDev Committee. Thirty proposals were chosen for review by an external panel of experts that met on March 22, 2002, at infoDev.

Table 4 shows the number of proposals processed in fiscal 2002 and the comparative numbers since fiscal 1995. The number of proposals received in fiscal 2002 represents almost 50 percent of the total received from fiscal 1995 to 2001.

············································································································································································· S e c t o r·············································································································································································M a i n A c t i v i t y Telecom Internet Education Health Environment Gov’t e-Commerce Total·············································································································································································Networks and Communities 1 6 3 1 2 1 1 15of InterestPolicy 16 7 1 1 25Capacity Building 16 28 6 2 8 4 5 69Pilot and Demonstration 4 14 13 11 10 6 11 69·············································································································································································Total 37 55 22 14 20 12 18 178


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11

47

NGOs 46%Private Sector 21%

Academic/Research 19%Government 8%

International Organizations 6%

FIGURE 1

infoDEV Proposals in Fiscal 2002, by Proponent Type

16

NGOs 47% Private Sector 26%

International Organizations 16% Academic/Research 11%

FIGURE 2

infoDEV Funded Projects in Fiscal 2001, by Proponent Type

26

Sub-Saharan Africa 25% South Asia 16%

Latin America & Carribbean 15%Multiple Region or

Non-Region Specific 15% East Asia & Pacific 14%

Europe & Central Asia 13% Middle East & North Africa 2%

FIGURE 3

infoDEV Proposals in Fiscal 2002, by Region

Latin America & Carribbean 32% Sub-Saharan Africa 31%

Multiple Region or Non-Region Specific 16% East Asia & Pacific 11%

South Asia 5% Europe & Central Asia 5%

FIGURE 4

infoDEV Funded Projects in Fiscal 2002, by Region

4619

8

21

6

16

2

25

15

15

14

135

32

16

31

5

11


T A B L E 4

PROPOSA L S PROCE SSED A S OF JU NE 30, 2002

Newly Funded ProjectsDuring fiscal 2002, 34 new projects were funded. At the end of the fiscal year, 43 projects were active. (Annex 3 lists all active projects; Annex 4 lists all completed projects.) Some of the newly funded projects are profiled here to illustrate the multidimensional nature of the infoDev core initiatives, which have the following overall mandates:

• Creating market-friendly environments to accelerate global access to information and communications;

• Reducing poverty and exclusion of low-income countries and social groups;• Improving health and education;• Protecting natural resources and the environment; and• Increasing government efficiency, accountability, and transparency.

Latin America and the CaribbeanThe objective of the Voice Portal for Health project is to test and evaluate a public health voice portal for Peru. Remote and dispersed health care professionals will be able to communicate and gather critical information. This will strengthen public health programs such as maternal health and immunization.

The portal integrates a telephone-based technology with web-based IT systems to communicate with and gather critical information from remote health care workers and populations. By making these services accessible by telephone piggybacking on Peru’s rapidly expanding telecommunications infrastructure the technology can reach a wider group of users than Internet or other IT-based system.

The goal of Strengthening Women’s Leadership in Community Development through Radio Internet in Brazil is to improve education on gender by strengthening the use of community radio by low-income women in Brazil. The proponent, which broadcasts a network of 350 women’s radio programs throughout Brazil, in 1998 started integrating the Women’s Radio Network (WRN) into the Net.

Questions have been raised about the long-term sustainability of existing telecenter models as well as their limited outreach. Obstacles of cost, language, local relevance of content and distance limit access for poorer residents—especially those in remote rural communities. Community radio, in this project, is seen as an alternative to telecenters. Community radio can expand telecenter investments by expanding outreach and increasing participation and value.

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Proposals Received 771 303 1074Proposals not Accepted 578 243 821Proposals Funded 145 34 179Proposals Completed 100 38 138·············································································································································································Note: Includes iCSF proposals.


AfricaIn Africa, the project Using Satellite Technology to Disseminate Critical Knowledge throughout Africa will apply ICT to assist developing African countries in overcoming obstacles to social and economic development. The project will:

• Establish a communications model for the cost-effective dissemination of multimedia information through the use of digital satellite technology. Target organizations include but are not limited to : medical libraries, schools, and community-based organizations.

• Develop user-friendly training manuals to facilitate the use and maintenance of the technology.

• Develop user-friendly manual and guidelines for digital content development and formatting for the multimedia service.

• Train a core group of “proponent trainers” who are positioned to implement the technology within their host institutions and who will serve as trainers of additional operators within their organization and locality.

• Develop a framework for the selection and evaluation of content, with particular emphasis on African information providers.

A pilot project will be conducted to demonstrate the viability of this digital satellite technology as a low cost way of delivering timely, useful and relevant material to African institutions with limited information access. The four main activities of this project will be Equipment installation: distribute the necessary hardware and software to eight test sites for receiving digital satellite radio broadcasts.

The project will also design and conduct a training workshop for approximately fourteen people on the use and maintenance of the equipment. The workshop will be conducted in Nairobi, Kenya.

East AsiaIn East Asia, the project School Governance Networks for Educational Improvement in Developing Countries (Gansu, China Pilot) will help improve governance in isolated rural schools. An ICT-enabled rural school governance network for principals in remote regions of Northwest China will be created. ICT tools that facilitate school management and planning and promote interaction with peers and expert advisors will be designed, piloted, and refined. Using a randomized experimental design, the effects of the network on school management and student achievement and engagement will also be assessed. Lessons learned will be disseminated to educators, development practitioners, policymakers, and scholars. The project will:

• Develop ICT tools for rural junior secondary principals that facilitate school management and planning as well as interaction with peers and expert advisors;

• Launch tools as sustainable “Governance Networks” in rural Chinese junior secondary schools;• Critically evaluate the consequences of networks for school functioning and student

engagement and achievement; and• Disseminate lessons learned to educators, development practitioners, policymakers, and

scholars.


GlobalThe VITA-CONNECT project helps expand access to connectivity and useful information resources for organizations and individuals working at the grassroots level in underserved areas of developing countries. VITA will develop and deploy a satellite-based telecommunications solution that provides affordable access to digital information resources in remote areas. The VITA-connect solution includes connectivity to a telecommunications network (VITAsat), a satellite-based “store-and-forward” email application and service (VITAmail), and access to a series of specialized Web-based information services (VITAinfo) developed by the grant recipient. The main component that infoDev is funding is the implementation, testing, and pilot use of the VITAmail component. This includes a software interface facilitating access to VITAsat and VITAinfo and the full information and community-building resources of the Internet for users constrained to email connectivity. Participating organizations in developing countries will be offered these services at an estimated annual fee of less than $500 per site. The operation of the whole system is expected to become self-sustaining in three years.

South AsiaThe Empowerment Incubator project in India establishes and online service in the North Eastern region of India to promote sustainable development. This project will establish an online service and deliver IT training to the civil society. This training will introduce participants to the information and communication resources available through the Internet, and will help guide the participants through a planning process for effectively introducing and utilizing the Internet into their respective institutional settings.

This project has four main activities:• Establishment of the online service (Virtual Empowerment Incubator);• The developing the web site, online resources, and resource persons;• Training and demonstration of online service for efficient use of the incubator; and• Dissemination of lessons learned.

T H E i n f o D e v C O N F E R E N C E S C H O L A R S H I P F U N D ( i C S F )

The infoDev Conference Scholarship Fund (iCSF) facilitates the attendance of professionals from developing countries at conferences and training events related to the use of ICT for development. The iCSF makes block grants to the event organizers, who then are able to sponsor the participation of individuals (“iCSF Fellows”) from developing countries. For further information about the iCSF, see www.infodev.org/icsf.

Applications are judged on the relevance of conference content to infoDev’s mission, the qualifications of proposed Fellows, and cost-effectiveness. The iCSF noted a surge in applications for fiscal year 2002: 50 formal applications were received, which is more than double the number from the previous year. This is a sign that the program now is more mature and better known. The iCSF Call for Proposals is rolling on an almost continuing basis and applications are accepted throughout most of the year.


“I got a very good understanding of “ISP Routing” and BGP/OSPF peering and I am now actively involved in setting up [an Internet Exchange] with the knowledge I got from the workshop. We do not have an Internet Exchange yet in Nepal. I also got a better insight into security issues for an ISP after attending “ISP Security” workshop and have already implemented some of the systems in my network and am helping other providers do the same. Now, I have a more secure network that will protect my servers from various security vulnerabilities that were present before. I am also planning to organize a similar conference/workshops on a national level in the near future.” —iCSF Fellow

As Table 5 shows in fiscal 2002, the iCSF sponsored 15 conferences at roughly $242,000 of net total funding.1 This allowed 178 Fellows to attend events of median 4 days in length (average: 6 days). Whereas the total number of funded conference days was slightly lower (9 percent) compared to last year, the cost per conference day was as much as 33 percent lower, demonstrating the greater travel economy (more Fellows per grant dollar) of regional events. Out of the 15 conferences funded in fiscal 2002, 11 had a significant regional focus: four conferences were concentrated on Latin America, two on East Asia, and one conference each was registered for Middle East/North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe. From an outcome point of view, regional conferences also tend to have the advantage of a more focused agenda and knowledge-sharing more attuned to participants’ needs.

About one-third of Fellows were women, which is a significant improvement from last year (21 percent). Encouraging grant recipients to promote women as Fellows led to visible improvement in several cases, although female candidates are still scarce in most ICT-related areas.

As Figure 5 shows, the geographical distribution of Fellows was more even than in previous years. In particular, the increase of Asian Fellows (East Asia-Pacific and South Asia combined) should be noted: 34 percent compared to 13 percent in the previous year. Fellows from the Middle East and North Africa region are still underrepresented, which is partly due to the lack of proposals from that region.

F I G U R E 5

i n f o D e v CONFER ENCE SCHOL A R SHIP FU ND :CONFER ENCE S IN FISC A L 2002

1 Net funding is the grant amount less funds returned to infoDev due to the unforeseen inability of selected Fellows to attend the event.

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LAC 31% EAP 24%

AFR 20% SAR 10%

ECA 8% MNA 7%

24

31

20

10

87


C o n f e r e n c e T i t l e Field Dates and LocationOrganizer/Grant Recipient

Total Fellows(Women %)

Medinfo 2001 Health informatics

September 2-5, 2001, London, United Kingdom

The British Computer Society’s Health Informatics Committee

21(38%)

Fourth Water Information Summit - Internet-Based Mechanisms and Partnerships to Build Virtual Capacity for Sustainable Water Resources Management

Internet, environment

October 25-31, 2001, Panama City, Panama

CATHALAC 15(27%)

2001 International Conference on the Development of Agricultural Information Management, Technology and Markets in the 21st Century

Agriculture, Information Management

November 4-6, 2001, Beijing, China

China-EU Centre for Agricultural Technology

6(17%)

Internet Rights and Civil Society in Latin America and the Caribbean

Internet Rights November 19-22, 2001, Montevideo, Uruguay

Association for Progressive Communications

10(50%)

E-commerce: Towards Harmonization of Policies and the Andean Regulation

E-commerce November 21-22, 2001, Cochabamba, Bolivia

The Andean Community 12(36%)

APRICOT 2002 Internet Technology

25 February-March 7, 2002, Bangkok, Thailand

National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC) Ministry of Science Technology and Environment

22(18%)

World Congress on Information Technology 2002 (WCIT 2002)

Information Technology

February 26-March 1, 2002, Adelaide, Australia

World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA)

15(7%)

ICANN Accra Meetings Internet Management

March 10-14, 2002, Accra, Ghana

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

7(14%)

ICT Appropriation in Latin America

ICT for Rural Development

March 17-24, 2002, Lima and Cajamarca, Peru

Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG)

11(36%)

“Applying the e-Government Framework in Transitional Countries”

E-government April 25-27, 2002, Cracow, Poland

NISPAcee (The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe)

9(44%)

Horn of Africa Regional Conference on Women and Information and Communications Technology

ICT and gender

June 3-7, 2002, Nairobi, Kenya

The African Centre for Women, Information and Communications Technology (ACWICT)

14(79%)

INFOSOC 2002 & GKP Asia Pacific Regional Network Meeting

ICT for poverty reduction

June 4-5, 2002, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat

7(43%)

Annual Conference of the Society for Conservation GIS

Geographic Information Systems, Environment

July 5-7, 2002, Borrego Springs, USA

The Society for Conservation Geographic Information Systems (SCGIS)

5(—)

Competition and Regulation in Infrastructure

Infrastructure Regulation

July 14-20, 2002, Bruges, Belgium

College of Europe 10(30%)

Asia Pacific Forum on ICT for Rural Poverty Reduction

Rural ICT July 19-31, 2002 Chiang Rai, Thailand

Asia-Pacific Telecommunications

23(39%)

T A B L E 5

i n f o D e v CONFER ENCE SCHOL A R SHIP FU ND :CONFER ENCE S IN FISC A L 2002

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F L A G S H I P I N I T I A T I V E S

Flagship initiatives are strategic projects that complement the portfolio of demand-driven projects. With flagships, infoDev can encourage proposals from selected critical areas, tailor the review process to find proposals that meet objectives in a timely manner, and provide technical assistance to proponents. Flagship projects are intended to focus scarce resources in critical areas.

During fiscal 2002 infoDev managed a total of six flagship initiatives.• Incubator Initiative• African Connection• Country Gateways• ICT Infrastructure and e-Readiness Assessment• Dialogue on the Regulation of the Networked Economy• e-Government

The Incubator InitiativeWith support from the Government of Japan, infoDev is launching an “Incubator Initiative”—a new flagship initiative aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and private sector development in developing countries. This initiative will be dedicated, over an initial three-year period, to the establishment of a network of incubators to facilitate the emergence and development of small- and medium-size ICT-enabled enterprises in developing countries. Given the national objectives and priorities, and recognizing the varying levels of private sector development, the Incubator Initiative will take into account a comprehensive framework that will be adaptable to the specific needs and opportunities of different countries. Activities and deliverables will be designed as modular components of a global program. Under the Incubator Initiative, infoDev will work with governments, private enterprises, and investment banks, as well as with universities and research centers, in developing countries. Additional details on the Incubator Initiative, including the various activities planned can be found at www.infodev.org/incubator.

Designed initially as a three-year program, the initiative is aimed at promoting economic growth and competitiveness through the following objectives:• Improving performance in existing incubators in developing countries, achieving higher

“survival rates” of incubated companies, growth and sustainability.• Promoting a synergetic approach focused on the needs of incubators in developing countries,

based on improved knowledge, networking, and capacity building.• Seizing new opportunities offered by the more advanced use of ICT within incubators.• Fostering entrepreneurship and competitiveness in developing countries, supporting the

analysis and testing of new incubator approaches, and disseminating best practices.


Structure and Activities of the Incubator InitiativeThe infoDev Incubator Initiative focuses on three activities, each of which will be promoted through requests for proposals (RFPs) announced periodically over the duration of the program. The activities will be managed in accordance with Terms of Reference and grant/contract agreements that will reflect their objectives, targets, and expected outcomes. Guidelines, eligible proponents, and funding criteria will also be specified.

Activity 1: Creation of the infoDev Incubator Support Center (iDISC). Responding to a specific need shared by most incubators in the developing world, the infoDev Incubator Initiative aims to create the first common repository of knowledge, best practices, experience, and services—specifically targeted to the needs of technology and business incubators in developing countries. Support Center (iDISC) efforts will include:

• Content creation (studies, collection of best practices, toolkits, and methodologies);• Content dissemination (web delivery; seminars, and other ad hoc initiatives); and• Service provision (training and online advisory services).

The RFP for this activity was announced on July 10, 2002. The iDISC is expected to begin operations by November 1st, 2002 and to work under infoDev’s overall guidance for 18 months. Activity 2: Support to Existing Incubators in Developing Countries Existing incubators will be invited to apply for grants aimed at improving their performance, sustainability and growth, in accordance with stated strategy and objectives. Eligible proponents in this activity are incubators, not-for-profit business development service centers, science parks, consortiums involving the above-mentioned types of organizations, and networks of incubators. Activity proponents and end beneficiaries must be based in developing countries (this requirement will not apply to project partners, provided that the World Bank rules on procurement for goods and services are followed.)

Activity 3: Technical Assistance and Support for New and Start-up IncubatorsThis activity targets countries or communities that cannot draw on adequate private sector development environments. Objectives are as follows:

• Helping assess the specific gaps hampering ICT private sector development;• Providing specific technical assistance as identified and requested;• Setting up strategies, assessing the developmental impact and success criteria, and

conducting feasibility studies; and• Supporting the planning and setting-up of new incubators in particularly challenging environments.

Grant proponents must demonstrate to be consistent and able to add value to the private sector development efforts being carried out in each country. Any organization, including government entities, municipalities, private groups, NGOs, or public-private consortiums, will be invited to submit proposals for technical assistance grants. Additional details on the process and the criteria will be provided at the time of the RFP for this activity, which is expected to begin in July/August 2003.


The African Connection Initiative

Rural ICT ToolkitThe purpose of the Rural ICT Toolkit is to prepare and help implement concrete programs and projects that will attract broad support within Africa for the rapid expansion and improvement of ICT in rural areas. The programs and projects will be based on the results of an initial evaluation of existing experiences within Africa and globally prepared on behalf of the African Connection (AC) with funding from the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development (DFID); it will be presented for consideration by African decision-makers, development partners and private sector. At the same time, the activity will be designed to support and enhance African and Africa-based capacity to carry out research, analysis and policy advice on these issues as well as plan, design, and implement national and cross-border programs and projects in ICT. In carrying out the activities, the AC Secretariat will work in close cooperation with ATU to ensure that recommendations made are read by as broad an African audience as possible. The project comprises a special focus on the least developed countries, as there the proportion of the non-urban population is highest. In addition, some attention will be given to special issues pertaining to smaller towns and peri-urban areas.

The project will be carried out in four stages.

Task 1: Identify and Document Rural Market Opportunities: Based on the material assembled in the preliminary study, as well as experiences from new and innovative initiatives following the study, the team of consultants will prepare an outline of the toolkit , and will provide the basic framework and methodology for selecting rural ICT market opportunities.

Task 2: Design, Development and Promotion of Rural ICT Funds and Design of Pilot Project: Building on the experiences of Latin American and African countries in providing financial incentives (smart subsidies) to encourage the deployment of rural ICT networks, the consultants will design a program for working with national governments and the private sector to promote and support the establishment of ICT funds for local projects and ICT application development in rural areas.

Task 3: Finalize a Rural ICT Toolkit for Africa: Based on the analysis and experience gained in developing Tasks 1 and 2, the consultants will finalize the rural ICT toolkit, which will provide basic, recommended standards and steps for rural ICT project initiatives across Africa.

Task 4: Implement pilot project: Once funding for the pilot project developed in Task 2 has been secured, the consultants will support the joint team in its implementation.


To date, Intelcon has been recruited as the consultants to assist AC for the implementation of the four tasks. Draft reports on “rural ICT market opportunities” have been provided for eight African countries.

Consensus BuildingThis project aims to develop processes that will (1) allow the AC to make the case for African ICT development in the international arena and (2) foster engagement and decisions among African ICT stakeholders. Most of the corresponding activities to be undertaken in creating these processes would also constitute outputs in the narrow enabling context of this proposal.

To date, this infoDev grant has enabled to organize events on the following topics:New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD): e-Africa Commission. This involves the organization of dedicated workshops for policymakers and high-level technical officials on emerging ICT infrastructure, technology, regulatory, and policy options to assist in (1) the preparation of action plans for the creation of supranational cross-border policy and regulatory arrangements and (2) the implementation of smart subsidy schemes to promote competitive private-sector–managed ICT applications in productive and social services.

Sub-Regional organizations: Coordination of Activities. AC has taken a main role in the organization of sub-regional workshops for: (1) the COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS, EAC, CEMAC, and AMU regions to facilitate implementation of telecommunications and ICT policies and regulatory frameworks developed by these regional bodies; (2) the ECOWAS/WAEMU regions for the effective development of a regional telecommunications regulatory association; and (3) the promotion/marketing of sub-regional programs in the other regions—Central and North—to foster effective development of ICT regulatory associations learning from best practices. AC has already organized policy thematic seminars to raise awareness for member countries during these conferences in coordination with the organizers and the World Bank (for example, the ECOWAS Workshop on Interconnection).

Other areas supported by this project but not yet implemented by AC include the following:First AC Signature Forum to Market ICT Opportunities in Africa. On the basis of an action agenda to be prepared by the AC Secretariat, the AC will organize the first forum as a high-level platform of exchange, consultation, and engagement. These fora will be quite different from standard commercially oriented conferences. They are expected to develop into (1) the principal event for the announcement of major African policy and investment initiatives and (2) a platform for the incubation of private sector partnerships between African and international ICT companies.

Diffusion of Rural ICT Best Practice. AC will organize workshops to generate consensus on use of Rural ICT Toolkit and rural ICT Development Funds. Following the completion of the Rural ICT Toolkit and design of ICT development Funds, the AC’s Centre for Strategic Planning (ACCSP) will organize two workshops to promote the results and solicit comments on the development of pilot projects as further inputs to the final phase of the Rural Grant Program, which involves development of pilot projects.


Country Gateways

OverviewinfoDev launched the Country Gateway Initiative in September 2000 in partnership with the Development Gateway program2 and played an instrumental role for the inception of the program leading countries through a rigorous planning process for a sustainable Country Gateway model.Country Gateways are independently owned and operated public-private partnerships that facilitate the use of ICT for sustainable development at the country level. Country Gateways typically consist of a country-level portal and a range of online and offline initiatives. The portals contain resources on key development issues in a country, and assist in creating and sharing local and global development knowledge, solutions, and opportunities.

Country Gateways bring together representatives of the public and private sectors, civil society, and academia, building transparent and broad-based partnerships to pursue common goals for development. Currently, Country Gateways are at different stages of development: some are in the planning stage, while those who pioneered the program are moving into implementation.

Since September 2000, infoDev has provided a total of $3.5 million to the Country Gateway Initiative. Similarly, by the end of fiscal 2002, infoDev had received a total of 104 proposals from 60 countries, and had approved 41 planning grants and 7 implementation grants.

T A B L E 6

SUMM A RY OF GR A NT FU NDING FOR FISC A L 2001 A ND 2002

Planning and Implementation GrantsIn FY02, infoDev offered both Planning and Implementation Grants. Through a Planning Grant, a Country Gateway team is expected to: • Create a governance structure and establish partnerships;• Determine local needs for different products and services;• Develop a business plan addressing the issue of sustainability; and• Build a prototype portal featuring local content.

From the funding available for FY02, infoDev committed $700,000 for Planning Grants, with the maximum size of each grant set at $100,000. As shown in Table 7, in fiscal 2002 infoDev launched two calls for proposals. The first one was in October 2001 and from the 12 proposals received, infoDev approved planning grants for the following five countries: Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. The second call for proposals was launched in January 2002 and was reserved for proposals from the Sub-Saharan Africa region. From the 18 proposals received, infoDev approved 3 Planning Grants for Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda. An additional grant was awarded to Morocco that was carried through from the previous round.

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FY01 $2,000,000.00 $2,000,000.00FY02 $700,000.00 $800,000.00 $1,500,000.00

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2The Development Gateway (www.developmentgateway.org) is an Internet portal for information on sustainable development and poverty reduction—offering a common space for dialogue and exchange of experience, knowledge, ideas, tools, and other resources.


T A B L E 7

SUMM A RY OF PL A N NING GR A NTS IN FISC A L 2002

Implementation Grants provide seed funding to help start the implementation of a Country Gateway initiated through work carried out by a Planning Grant. At this phase, Country Gateways start offering the products and services outlined in their business plans.

In fiscal 2002, infoDev allocated $800,000 for Implementation Grants, with the maximum size of each grant set at $200,000. As indicated in Table 8, the first call for proposals was made in September 2001. From the 14 proposals received, infoDev awarded 7 Implementation Grants for the following countries: China, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and West Bank & Gaza Strip.

T A B L E 8

SUMM A RY OF IMPL EMENTATION GR A NTS IN FISC A L 2002

Lessons LearnedFrom July 2001 to the end of June 2002, the Country Gateway network expanded from 32 to 41 Country Gateways, 23 of which are moving into the implementation phase. Experience to date shows a rich diversity in approaches among the different country gateways. Some prioritize the provision of Internet access and services, while others focus on developing local content for the portal. A number of Country Gateways support economic and business development through the use of ICT, whereas others strengthen local development initiatives by civil society and low-income groups.

Despite the diversity of the network, the basic principle is the creation of a portal and the provision of services relevant to local needs. Content offerings and services of the portal may include a mixture of the following:

• Information tools for publishing local content;• Communication tools such as email, discussion forums, and other interactive tools;• Knowledge management for project databases, documents, etc.;• Transaction platforms for the needs of businesses, civil society, and the population at large;• Distance learning tools; and• Hosting and providing application services (ASP) to organizations and individuals.

·············································································································································································Call for Proposals # of Proposals Received # of Proposals Awarded Awarded Countries·············································································································································································Sept 01 12 5 Argentina, Peru, Guatemala Bangladesh, VietnamJan 02 18 4 Morocco, Mozambique, Tanzania,Uganda·············································································································································································

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Many of the Country Gateways plan to offer a variety of products and services to generate income for their long-term sustainability. These services may range from Web design, programming, and consulting to establishing Internet access points, providing onsite training, and initiating ICT-for-development awareness campaigns.

Awareness-Raising ActivitiesTo increase awareness of the potential of ICT in development efforts, two three-day workshops were conducted in Uganda and in Burkina Faso, with representatives from the local public and private sectors, academia, and non-governmental organizations, as well as participants from neighboring countries. During the workshops, participants discussed ways of sharing information and knowledge on local and national developmental issues and explored the potential role of ICT in facilitating intra- and inter-community interactions and networking to address local priorities.

Finally, it should be noted that during the infoDev Symposium on December 9–10, 2001, a special session was dedicated to the Country Gateway initiative. Speakers from four Country Gateway teams (China, El Salvador, Namibia, and Russia) presented their experiences in planning and building their gateways, discussed the challenges faced and the lessons learned, and explained the expected developmental impact of their work.

During the early stages of the program, seed funding for planning and implementing a Country Gateway was awarded by infoDev. In June 2002, the Development Gateway Foundation3 began awarding implementation grants under the scope of its Grants and Investments Program, and infoDev is expected to continue partnering with the Development Gateway to provide planning grants in fiscal 2003.

Table 9 lists the countries and coordinating organizations that are participating in the Development Gateway Initiative. Those marked with an asterisk (*) have completed the planning phase and are moving to the implementation phase.

ICT Infrastructure and e-Readiness AssessmentsUnder the ICT Infrastructure and e-Readiness Assessments Initiative, infoDev approved seven grants during fiscal 2002, bringing to 20 the number of country assessments approved. The Initiative provides grants for participatory analysis and assessment of a country’s information infrastructure and e-readiness, with special emphasis on the policy, legal and regulatory environment, and on the availability of adequate human resources. Support from infoDev is often a key element to developing national e-strategies, allowing the recipient to take advantage of opportunities and address identified challenges. It allows countries to design their e-readiness strategy as a tool to pursue objectives in areas such as fighting poverty, reducing the digital divide, or contributing to a truly global information infrastructure. In the course of the year, four countries (Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Philippines) completed their assessments. Results were shared with Bank country teams and are expected to provide inputs in the design of country programs.

3 The Development Gateway Foundation is a not-for-profit organization based initially in Washington DC. Its core objective is to reduce poverty and support sustainable development through the use of ICT.


T A B L E 9

COU NTR IE S A ND ORG A NIZ ATIONS PA RTICIPATING IN THE DEV ELOPMENT G ATE WAY

·············································································································································································Count r y / R e g ion Organization·············································································································································································AfricaMozambique SISLOG (Sistemas e Technologies de Informacao e Comunicacao, Lda)Namibia* Namibia Development Gateway AssociationRwanda National University of RwandaTanzania Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF)Uganda Makerere University·············································································································································································Europe and Central Asia Armenia* e-Armenia FoundationAzerbaijan* State Students Admission CommissionBulgaria* Applied Research and Communications (ARC) FundCroatia* Camdivision StudioGeorgia* Georgia Development Gateway UnionKazakhstan* Kazakhstan Gateway Foundation for e-Development and Civil Society SupportKyrgyz Republic* e-Development Public Foundation Moldova* Moldova Digital Development FoundationPoland* EMCom, Ltd.Romania* eRomania Gateway AssociationRussia* Institute of the Information Society, RussiaTajikistan* Association of Communication Operators of TajikistanUkraine* Ukraine e-Development Association Uzbekistan Center for Economic Research·············································································································································································Latin American and CaribbeanArgentina Asociación CONCIENCIAColombia Corporacion Invertir En Colombia (Coinvertir)Costa Rica* Fondo Socio Empresarial Foundation (FOSE)Dominican Republic Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y MaestraEl Salvador* Asociación InfocentrosGuatemala Guatemalan Chamber of CommerceJamaica Central Information Technology OfficeNicaragua Cámara de Industrias de Nicaragua (CADIN)Peru Centro Peruano de Estudios Sociales (CEPES)Venezuela* CANTVUruguay* Centro Internacional de Investigación e Información para la Paz (CIIIP)·············································································································································································Middle East and North Africa Algeria Didactica, Advanced School of Management and Information TechnologiesMorocco Morocco Trade and Development Services (MTDS)West Bank & Gaza Strip* Palestine Development Gateway Association·············································································································································································East Asia China* China International Publishing Group (CIPG)Indonesia Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) Mongolia* InfoCon Co., Ltd.Vietnam Vietnam Data Communication Company (VDC1)·············································································································································································South AsiaBangladesh Grameen CyberNet Limited India Ministry of Information Technology Pakistan Sysnet Pakistan (Pvt.) LtdSri Lanka* Ceylon Chamber of Commerce·············································································································································································* Has completed the planning phase and is moving to the implementation phase.


Dialogue on Regulation of the Networked EconomyBegun in 1993, the World Regulatory Telecommunications Web Colloquium was hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) until 1998. Several organizations supported it, including the World Bank via infoDev. The colloquium involved annual meetings of professionals from both developed and developing countries, including regulatory authorities, experts, and academics, to discuss major telecommunication regulatory topics and the dissemination of best practices through the colloquium’s website and its publications. In fiscal 2001 infoDev decided to support the launch of a new edition of the colloquium, the World Dialogue on Regulation (WDR) for Network Economies (www.regulateonline.org). Its objective is to support the global community of professionals involved in regulatory issues relating to telecommunications and, more generally, the development of the networked economy.

One of the WDR’s primary objectives is to disseminate the reports produced by the research teams. Four discussion papers were posted at the time regulateonline.org was launched: • Discussion Paper 0201, Building the Regulatory Foundations for Growth in Network

Economies;• Discussion paper 0202, Some Implications for Regulation of ICT and Media Convergence;

and• Discussion Paper 0203, Multisector Utility Regulation, and • Discussion Paper 0204, Rationales for Convergence and Multisector Regulation.

e-GovernmentAmong the many promises of the digital revolution is its potential to strengthen democracy and make governments more responsive to the needs of their citizens. e-government is the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to transform government by making it more accessible, effective, and accountable.

A combined effort of infoDev and the Center for Democracy and Technology, the e-Government Handbook attempts for the first time to catalog and present key resources on e-government in a format useful for policymakers in the developing world. It offers a comprehensive index of e-government models and resources, focused on success stories in the developing world.

Whereas other reports and papers have outlined the philosophy, benefits, and general methodologies of e-government, the Handbook uses specific examples to show how it can be done, with a healthy respect for the realities and challenges that must be faced. It includes case studies, best practices and other online resources, and draws recommendations from them to illustrate and guide readers through the ideas and concepts of e-government. The print version offers illustrative case studies, while the companion online resource—available as a CD-ROM or online at www.cdt.org/egov/toolkit—contains a searchable index of useful websites and other resources.

3 7 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

3K N O W L E D G E D I S S E M I N A T I O N A N DE X T E R N A L A C T I V I T I E S

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3 7 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

i n f o D e v S Y M P O S I U M

On December 5–6, 2001, 350 visitors gathered in the Auditorium of the IFC building for the Sixth Annual infoDev Symposium. The 2001 Symposium brought leaders from the academic, public, and private sectors, to discuss and challenge lessons learned from the use of ICT in narrowing economic and social inequalities. Videos from the Symposium are available on the infoDev website at www.infodev.org/symposium2001/agenda.htm

The opening session brought to an important lesson: information and communication technologies are the “key” to offer a new path for learning and development. Presenting keynote addresses were President James D. Wolfensohn; Professor Seymour Papert, mathematician and pioneer of Artificial Intelligence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Laboratory; Jose Maria Figueres from the World Economic Forum; and Nemat Talaat Shafik, Vice President of the Private Sector Development and Infrastructure. Mr. Mohsen Khalil, Director of the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department, moderated this session.

The debate was lively, provocative, and constructive, with different views on the true meaning of innovation. Professor Papert did not hesitate to define as “fundamentally flawed” the strategies international organizations are currently following to adapt learning to the increasingly digital knowledge environment. He also highlighted how attempts to close the digital divide are too often “like climbing a tree as a first step in the right direction to intergalactic travel.”

Assessing Country e-Readiness SessionOver the last three years, e-readiness tools have been developed to help determine how ready a society or economy is to benefit from ICT. Consequently, the first panel of the Symposium was dedicated to “Assessing Country e-Readiness.” Moderated by Thomas T. Niles, President, US Council for International Business, the discussion focused on the correct definition of an “e-ready” society, on the different approaches used to carry out assessments, and on the use of such assessments to the building of appropriate e-strategies. Speakers in this panel included Harris N. Miller, CEO of the Information Technology Association of America; Teresa Peters, Executive Director and Chairman of Bridges.org; and Ernest J. Wilson of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland. As Ms. Peters remarked, there are countries, like India, or Brazil, in which assessments have been made more than nine times. It is however important to highlight that these efforts are particularly important, provided that appropriate strategies, planning and resources are allocated afterwards to bridge the gaps identified. The support provided by infoDev in this scenario was broadly recognized during the panel.

Education and Distance Learning SessionA large range of experiences is now available in the field of distance education, as well as in the broader context of ICT for education and ICT training, from “high-tech” networks to low-tech local solutions. For the second panel, experts in this sector, especially those who have experimented e-learning techniques at the grassroots level, discussed how best practices could

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K N O W L E D G E D I S S E M I N AT I O N A N D E X T E R N A L A C T I V I T I E S


be “identified, shared and possibly combined.” Speakers included the Honorable Diana Lady Dougan, Chairman of the Cyber Century Forum; Sam Carlson of WorldLinks; and Claudia Zea of the infoDev-supported Conexiones project in Colombia.

Country Gateways SessionA third panel discussed the challenges of building Country Gateways. Under the aegis of the Development Gateway, the World Bank Group, and a large array of other governmental and non-governmental players have attempted to respond to the need often expressed by donors and recipients of international development assistance for an easy way to access and disseminate the wealth of information available in this area. infoDev grants have helped several developing countries to build their own gateways. Sharing their experiences were Guoqing Li, Deputy Director of the China Internet Information Center; David Hill, Chairman of the Namibia Information Technology Association; and Tatiana Ershova, Director General of the Institute of the Information Society in Russia.

Public and Private Sector Synergies SessionAs ICT have moved higher on the agenda of governmental aid agencies and NGOs, the world of telecom and IT enterprises has been shaken by more than one shockwave. The fourth panel focused on what public and private entities have learned in the process, and how they see their respective roles in efforts to bridge the Digital Divide.

The panel was opened by a presentation from John Gage, Chief Researcher at Sun Microsystems, Inc. The “Globe” is a new tool created by Sun Microsystems that allows the user to locate and view locations around the world in a manner similar to a video game. It could be defined as the “latest generation of a geographic information system.” The impressive level of definition and accuracy was based on high-definition images captured by satellites around the world.

During his presentation, Mr. Gage highlighted the role of the private sector—including the tools it can generate through its research efforts—to increase the accountability, transparency, and availability of information. Eduardo Da Costa of Harvard University; David Souter of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Council, United Kingdom; Guilhermo Monroy of Guatemala MicroNet; and Loyola Joseph of the Foundation of Occupational Development, India, discussed the role of private-public partnerships from different perspectives, including the fostering of micro-enterprises, which are at the roots of socioeconomic growth in most developing economies.

infoDev’s Flagship Initiatives SessionThe last panel of the Symposium was dedicated to infoDev’s Flagship initiatives, with discussions ranging from regulation to the role of incubators, and of open-source software, in fostering development in the South.

William H. Melody, Managing Director of LIRNE.NET and Chair of Economics of Infrastruc-tures at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), highlighted the important role played by sound “policy and regulatory environments” in bridging the infrastructure gap. He also presented the Regulatory Colloquium, an initiative supported by infoDev aimed at fostering knowledge and reform in regulatory environments affecting the development of the networked economy.


Tony Stanco, Senior Policy Analyst at the Cyberspace Policy Institute, presented the status of the open-source software development around the world and discussed the role open-source can play to foster competitiveness in an “immaterial” industry such as the software industry. Other cases discussed during the session included the PEOPLink e-commerce services, presented by Daniel Salcedo, Founder of PEOPlink; and the development of incubators in Brazil, presented by Guilherme Ary Plonski, CEO of IPT - Institute for Technological Research in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Bruno Lanvin, Program Manager of infoDev, made the final remarks in the closing session of the Symposium.

T H E I C T S T O R I E S C O M P E T I T I O N

The ICT Stories Project has been an active partnership between infoDev and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) in the Netherlands since 1998. In November 2001, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two organizations to formalize the partnership.

The ICT Stories Project aims at sharing innovative examples of the use of ICT for development. To collect these stories, an annual competition has been held since 1999. An expert panel of judges from around the world selected the stories they believe will contribute most to the understanding of the impact that ICT can have on development, in hopes that the stories will inspire others and teach lessons for future endeavors. This year’s judges included Carlos Braga, Fernanda Cabanas, Layton Croft, Alfonso Molina, Aida Opoku-Mensah, and George Sadowsky.

The winners of the 2002 competition presented their stories and lessons learned to the attendees of the INET 2002 Internet summit in Washington, D.C., during a session moderated by Mr. George Sadowsky. They also presented the same session at the World Bank, moderated by Mr. Jac Stienen and open to the public.

This year’s winners are:

• “Connecting India Village by Village,” presented by Satyan Mishra of Drishtee, India;• “Kabissa: Space for Change in Africa,” presented by Kim Lowery and Tobias Eigen of

Kabissa.com;• “Marrying Radio with Internet in Nepal,” presented by Gaurab Raj Updahaya of

Sagarmatha Radio, Kathmandu, Nepal; and • “Sole Comfort Dot-Com: Bridging the Global Income Gap Through Hard Work, Quality

Sandals, and ICT,” presented by Becky Wachera and Matthew Meyer of Ecosandals.com, Korogocho, Kenya.

All stories submitted in this and previous competitions are available at www.iicd.org/stories.


i n f o D e v W O R K I N G PA P E R S

As part of its series of Working Papers, the seminal Telecommunication Regulations Handbook published in English and French by infoDev in 2000 was translated into Arabic, Chinese, and Russian as a joint venture with other Bank units. Another major achievement was the co-publication with the World Economic Forum and Harvard University’s Center for International Development of the first Global Information Technology Report 2001–2002. The report provides key indicators and ICT profiles for 75 countries in addition to essays on key topics. It highlights the prospects of growth in countries ready to take up new technologies, and also reveals the obstacles to Networked Readiness. The report is expected to serve as a guide to policymakers and regulators.

i n f o D e v S E M I N A R S E R I E S

During fiscal 2003, infoDev hosted 10 seminars to do with ICT for development. These are listed in Table 10.

T A B L E 1 0

i n f o D e v SEMINA R S IN FISC A L 2002·············································································································································································

Name of Presenter Name of Ins t i tut ion Seminar Topic

Dr. Wai-Keong Foong ECQUARIA Ltd, Singapore An Integrated Approach to Electronic Government - G2B2C

Casey Wolfe and Steven Rynecki ECI Communications Digital Development in the Post Dot-Com World

Ashok Jhunjhunwala Indian Institute of Technology Connecting Rural Areas of Developing Countries: A Case for India

Barbara L. Harley International Business Incubator, Silicon Valley

The Business Incubation Industry: A Worldwide Tool for Economic Development

Sheri Dankevy International Research Development Centre (IDRC), Canada

Integrating Gender into ICT Projects: Reflections from IDRC’s ICT for Development Program

Nidhi TandonDorienne Rowan-Campbell

Networked Intelligence (NID) Women in infoDev Projects - Applying Gender Analysis to the ICT Context

Satyan Mishra Drishtee, India The ICT Stories Competition 2002 Winning Stories

Kim Lowery and Tobias Eigen Kabissa

Gaurab Raj Updahaya Sagarmatha Radio, Nepal

Becky Wachera and Matthew Meyer

Ecosandals.com

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T H E G L O B A L I N F O R M AT I O N T E C H N O L O G Y R E P O R T 2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 2

During FY02 infoDev supported the publication of The Global Information Technology Report 2001-2002: Readiness for the Networked World. This publication is a product of the Global Digital Divide Initiative, a collaborative effort between members of a large community, including businesses, governments, and the civil society. The report—the most comprehensive documentation to date of how ICT are being used around the world—addresses the major opportunities and obstacles that global leaders face as they try to more fully participate in the networked world. Through the development of the first Networked Readiness Index, which ranks 75 countries according to their capacity to take advantage of ICT networks, a series of 75 in-depth Networked Readiness country profiles, and thematic chapters by some of the world’s leading experts on the Networked World, the report provides an ambitious, global picture of how ICT are being used and what opportunities and challenges remain.

G L O B A L K N O W L E D G E PA R T N E R S H I P S

In fiscal 2001, a $100,000 infoDev grant supported the archiving system for the Global Knowledge for Development’s (GKD) distribution list. The GKD Virtual Forum is an email discussion group that shares knowledge about the use of ICT for sustainable development by individuals, NGOs, universities, companies, and government agencies around the world.

The project is almost completed. The major lesson learned is that GKD—as the longest running Internet discussion on the use of information technology for development—may offer an interesting story for the wider public (that is, people not directly involved in development, but interested in world affairs). As a result, the grantee organization, the Education Development Center (EDC), has decided to design and launch a communication campaign to promote GKD and the database. Although this was not part of the original proposal, the potential value of the communication campaign is significant; and EDC will engage its own resources.

infoDev also supported the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) through an iCSF grant of $7,500 for the INFOSOC 2002 meeting in Malaysia.

T H E D E V E L O P M E N T M A R K E T P L A C E

For the third year, infoDev has been a sponsor of the Development Marketplace (www.developmentmarketplace.org), a World Bank program that promotes innovative development ideas through early-stage seed funding. The program links social entrepreneurs with poverty-fighting ideas to partners with the necessary resources. Since 1997, the Development Marketplace has awarded more than US$14 million to over 180 groundbreaking projects. Through the Global Competition, infoDev has awarded $50,000 grants to each of three projects; “e-Commerce for Farmers: Hands-On Training Program” in the Philippines, “Buy South Africa Online” in South Africa, and “Artisans at Work! (¡Maestros al Trabajo!)” in Venezuela.

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4 3 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

D O N O R S ’ C O M M I T T E E

The 2001 Annual Meeting of the infoDev Donors’ Committee took place on December 4–5, 2001 in Washington, D.C. (see Annex 2). Ms. Mamphela Ramphele, Managing Director of the World Bank Group, addressed the donors as a keynote speaker. Ms. Nemat Shafik, World Bank Vice President for Private Sector Development and Infrastructure, opened the meeting, which was chaired by Mr. Mohsen Khalil, Director of the Global Information and Communication Technologies Department.

The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss a new strategy proposed by the management of infoDev. It was observed that the draft strategy, as well as the report from the infoDev Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) and other background documents, were received too late for donors to conduct a thorough review of these documents. A revised strategy was circulated and adopted in early 2002.

Japan pledged $8 million during the present fiscal year in support of the Incubator Initiatives. Most donors present confirmed their support to infoDev at a level at least equivalent to the support provided during the previous fiscal years. (See Annex 2.)

N E W S T R AT E G Y

The new program strategy stresses a number of aspects of the program that donors deemed of particular importance:

• infoDev’s focus on poverty alleviation, in particular through the implementation of Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IDGs) resulting from the Millennium Summit of 2000;

• infoDev’s comparative advantage among other “Digital Divide” initiatives, and possible synergies with such initiatives;

• infoDev’s ability to enhance its visibility and to better disseminate its own experience and knowledge;

• infoDev’s capacity to address specific dimensions of poverty alleviation through specific actions and approaches in areas such as health, education, gender, and culture-related sectors;

• infoDev’s readiness to attract more participation from the private sector; and• infoDev’s capability to channel resources and attention towards “new areas” likely to

be of particular importance to developing countries in the near future. These include international trade “post-Doha,” intellectual property (including open-source), and the legal dimensions of cyberspace generally.

E X T E R N A L R E V I E W

As agreed at the fiscal 2001 Donors’ Committee Meeting, a second external review of infoDev was conducted. (The first was conducted in fiscal 1999.) The review, led by Dr. Eduardo da Costa (Brazil), included Professor Ernest Wilson III (United States) and Dr. Barbara Fillip (France). The external review team interviewed a wide range of people connected with the

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G O V E R N A N C E


program, including grantees, infoDev staff and managers, officers and managers in the World Bank, external donors, and TAP members, as well as various individuals and associations active in ICT for development.

The bottom-line message of the report is unambiguous: infoDev must focus on its knowledge activities in order to capitalize on its initial success and stay ahead of the growing pack of ICT-for-development programs. Knowledge activities are the gathering, analysis, organization, promotion, and dissemination of information for development, the program’s very name. infoDev must create new knowledge about the successes and failures of the projects it supports and also about other similar initiatives, and have the capacity to diffuse that new knowledge promptly to its development partners in the South and to its donor community in the North, including the World Bank itself. Knowledge about ICT for development should now become infoDev’s core competence.

T E C H N I C A L A D V I S O R Y PA N E L

The six members of the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) selected for a three-year term in fiscal 1999 completed their third year in fiscal 2002. The TAP comprises the following members:

• Ms. Fernanda Cabanas (Mozambique), Information Management Specialist, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

• Dr. K. J. John (Malaysia), Vice President for IT Policy Development, Mimos Berhard Technology Park

• Dr. Nii Quaynor (Ghana) Executive Director, Network Computer Systems• Dr. Silvio Romero de Lemos Meira (Brazil), President, Centro de Estudos e Sistemas

Avancados do Recife (CESAR)• Mr. Philippe-Olivier Rousseau (France), Executive Vice President, Banexi• Dr. George Sadowsky (United States), Executive Director, Global Internet Policy Initiative

Dr. George Sadowsky continued to serve as TAP coordinator.

The mandate of the TAP is to advise the Donors’ Committee and the Program Manager on making strategic recommendations to strengthen infoDev’s program; to assess advances in information and communications technologies relevant to developing countries; to identify new and more efficient paths to reach the objectives of infoDev, notably through special initiatives or flagship projects; and—at the request of the Donors Committee—to evaluate the impact of infoDev’s work through post-evaluation of activities selected after consultation with the Program Manager.

A four-day TAP meeting was held in Washington, D.C. in August 2001. During the first two days of the meeting, infoDev organized a series of presentations to elucidate the different aspects of infoDev program:

• infoDev management provided a review of the priority objectives of the program, and presented the status of the work program as well as other ongoing and proposed activities;


• Mohsen Khalil, Director of World Bank’s Global Information and Communication Technologies (GICT) Department, described the activities of his department and emphasized the need to further explore synergies between infoDev, IFC, and the World Bank; and

• Robert Valantin, Head of the Country Gateways Program at the Development Gateway, reviewed the Country Gateway grants and illustrated their impact with success stories.

In the last day of their annual meeting, the TAP members completed the outline of their report to the Donors’ Committee, and had the opportunity to have in-depth discussions with infoDev’s Program Manager, Bruno Lanvin, regarding infoDev’s strategy for the next three years.

The TAP report was finalized through subsequent exchanges between TAP members and presented by Dr. Sadowsky at the annual Donors’ Committee meeting in Washington, D.C., in December 2001.

The TAP annual report stated that there are increasingly more programs with similar goals as infoDev, and therefore stressed that it would be important for infoDev to reassess its position in the community of organizations active in the application of ICT for development. In this framework, the report also suggested that further IFC–World Bank synergies must be sought in order for infoDev to benefit from the considerable enthusiasm for and investment in ICT applications across IFC.

The TAP report further recommended that infoDev, rather that focusing primarily on poverty, should pay an equal level of attention to wealth creation, emphasizing upon empowering the private sector, and assisting the growth of new ideas. Furthermore, the report stressed that infoDev should focus on initiatives that are scalable and that would be sustainable over time.

In terms of the technological environment in which infoDev operates, the TAP report emphasized that focus should not necessarily be on the latest technologies but on the developments that could help to fulfill infoDev’s mission of creating equal digital development opportunities all over the world. To achieve that, the report explained that infoDev should continue to be creative, efficient, and innovative.

On the basis of infoDev’s success in executing the Y2K Project, the TAP report suggested that infoDev consider undertaking the following new initiatives:

• A Network Security Initiative to raise awareness on cyber terrorism and to help those developing countries that are less prepared to deal with security issues;

• A Global Internet Pricing Initiative to identify the components of costs of developing country operators and its relation to in-country pricing and to foster affordable information services in developing countries; and

• An Open Source Software Initiative for ICT-based development, which would help to raise awareness in developing countries of the benefits of adopting open-source.


In addition to its formal plenary meeting, four TAP members met in Washington, D.C., in December 2001 on the occasion of the infoDev Symposium and the annual Donors’ Committee meeting, and participated as speakers and discussants in the infoDev Symposium.

During fiscal 2002, the TAP received monthly updates on infoDev activities and held five teleconferences. The program manager and other infoDev staff participated in these teleconferences, providing updates on infoDev activities such as the flagships, dissemination and monitoring efforts, the interface between public and private sector institutions, and donor funding.

infoDev Secretariat·············································································································································································

Bruno Lanvin, Program Manager Ellie Alavi, Research AssistantSamiha Boulos, Program Assistant (Y2K/Special Initiatives)Henri Bretaudeau, Donor Relations Administrator (part-time)Louise Chamberlain, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Vivek Chaudhry, Work Program AdministratorJohn Daly, Acting Work Program Administrator (until August 2001)Jacqueline Dubow, Program CoordinatorRiva Eskinazi, Research Analyst (part-time, until June 30, 2002)Rafael Hernandez-Rios, Information Management SpecialistTeri Nachazel, Program AssistantAllen Olson, Team Assistant (until May 1, 2002)Elena Scaramuzzi, Telecommunications Specialist (until June 30, 2002)Shi, Heini, Program Officer (as of January 28, 2002)Pamela Street, Research AnalystLeo Tayamen, Budget Administrative AssistantRajesh Vasudevan, Research Assistant (as of August 20, 2001)Erich Vogt, Mass Media Advisor ·············································································································································································

4 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

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4 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

infoDevs’ financial situation at the end of fiscal 2002 provided a solid base for the strategic changes decided during the year. After six years of operation, infoDev had mobilized cumulative contributions totaling $78.85 million (including $7.64 million in fiscal 2002), and negotiations for a new substantial contribution from Japan to fund an Incubator Initiative were substantially completed.

Contributions to the core program slightly decreased by $243,000 during the fiscal year. However, disbursements on projects and knowledge dissemination activities increased by some $242,000 during the same period while overall administrative costs (governance, program management, and project evaluation) fell by $46,000. At the end of the fiscal year, the cash position in trust funds and resources from the Development Grant Facility (DGF) of the World Bank amounted to $5.92 million, compared to commitments to fund ongoing activities totaling $4.10 million. The balance of $1.81 million was sufficient to fund newly approved activities during the last fiscal year. The implementation of these new projects was expected to start early in fiscal 2003.

C O N T R I B U T I O N S

Contributions paid in during the fiscal year totaled $7.64 million, compared with $7.88 million in fiscal 2001. They included a $4 million contribution from the DGF in addition to $759,000 from the World Bank’s administrative budget. The Government of Japan (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) contributed for the first time during the year: a $500,000 transfer through UNDP in support of the G8 Digital Opportunity Task force. A contribution of Japan of $6.5 million for a new Incubator Initiative was also negotiated during the year. This contribution was to be finalized early in fiscal year 2003. In addition to the Government of Japan and the World Bank, eight other donors made contributions during the year. As part of the $7.64 million contributed by donors in fiscal 2002, investment income from assets in infoDev’s multi-donor trust fund as well as from the trust funds of Finland and France were made available to infoDev for a total of $168,000. Italy increased its contribution to some $1 million, Sweden provided funding to cover the secondment of one staff to the infoDev team, and Telecom Italia continued to provide in-kind contribution to infoDev by making available to the program one of its telecommunications specialists.

Figure 6 summarizes the contributions to infoDev, by category of funding, during fiscal years 2000 to 2002. It shows that over the last two years, the World Bank has provided well over 50 percent of infoDev’s new resources. This trend is unlikely to continue and is expected to change significantly in fiscal year 2003, with a reduction of the DGF contribution to $3 million and an increase in contributions from donors through trust funds. Table 11 lists contributions by individual donors since the inception of the program. The $78.85 million made available to infoDev includes (a) the cost-recovery fees retained by the World Bank to manage the trust funds and (b) incomes from investments and reinvestments of trust funds balances when donors have allowed such investments and reinvestments to accrue to infoDev trust funds. Except for the multi-donor trust fund, incomes from investments of assets in trust funds are counted in Table 12 as part of individual donor contributions.

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F I N A N C E S


F I G U R E 6

CONTR IBUTIONS TO infoDev IN FISC A L 2000 –2002 ,BY C ATEGORY OF FU NDING ( 000 USD)

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4,000

DGF 2,278 Trust Funds 1,713 Bank Budget 1,087

FISCAL 2000

200

FISCAL 2001

3,682

FISCAL 2002

FIGURE 6

Contributions to infoDEV in Fiscal 2000-2002, by Category of Funding (USD)

2,278

8

21

DGF 4,000Trust Funds 3,682Bank Budget 200

DGF 4,000Trust Funds 2,880Bank Budget 759

4,0002,880

759


·············································································································································································Country FY1996–98 FY1999 FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 Total·············································································································································································Australia, Y2K (in-kind) – – 107.00 – – 107.00Belgium 511.00 – – – – 511.00Brazil 150.00 100.00 – – – 250.00Canada – 250.00 245.00 244.00 254.00 993.00Canada, Y2K – 742.00 406.00 – – 1,148.00Cisco – – – 50.00 – 50.00Cisco (in-kind) – – – 141.00 – 141.00Colombia 122.00 118.00 – – – 240.00Denmark 500.00 – – 125.00 122.00 747.00El Salvador – 100.00 – – – 100.00European Union (in-kind) – 80.00 – – – 80.00Finland 721.71 32.19 114.97 117.57 17.34 1,003.78France 465.84 19.88 19.98 8.76 5.40 519.86France (in-kind) 153.00 57.00 77.00 – – 287.00France, Y2K – – 330.00 – – 330.00Germany 114.00 121.00 38.00 22.00 208.00 503.00Germany (in-kind) – – – 171.00 – 171.00IBM 375.00 – – – – 375.00Ireland – – – 171.00 – 171.00Italy 441.00 – 250.00 465.00 922.00 2,078.00Italy, Y2K – – 295.00 – – 295.00Japan – – – – 500.00 500.00Luxembourg 200.00 – – – – 200.00Motorola 200.00 – – – – 200.00Motorola (in-kind) – – – 135.00 – 135.00The Netherlands 500.00 164.00 – 500.00 – 1,164.00The Netherlands, Y2K – – 5,423.00 – – 5,423.00Sweden 427.00 378.00 351.00 422.00 217.00 1,795.00Sweden, Y2K – 1,230.00 – – – 1,230.00Sweden (in-kind) – – – 197.00 62.00 259.00Switzerland 1,489.00 226.00 – 250.00 100.00 2,065.00Switzerland, Y2K – – 1,024.00 – – 1,024.00Telecom Italia 250.00 150.00 – – – 400.00Telecom Italia (in- kind) – 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 400.00United Kingdom 200.00 89.00 370.00 395.00 227.00 1,281.00United Kingdom, Y2K 8,516.00 6,336.00 1,616.00 – – 16,468.00United States, Y2K – 12,000.00 – – – 12,000.00Investment income from 185.41 102.72 147.75 168.15 145.62 749.65multi-donor core fundWorld Bank (Budget) 2,697.00 1,020.00 1,087.00 200.00 759.00 5,763.00World Bank, Y2K 200.00 509.00 381.00 – – 1,090.00World Bank DGF 3,000.00 3,325.00 2,278.00 4,000.00 4,000.00 16,603.00·············································································································································································Total 21,417.96 27,249.79 14,660.70 7,882.48 7,639.36 78,850.29·············································································································································································Total Y2K 8,716.00 20,817.00 9,582.00 39,115.00·············································································································································································

T A B L E 1 1

infoDev DONOR CONTR IBUTIONS, BY FISC A L Y E A R ( 000 USD)


Unrestricted contributions include so-called “core” contributions from public and private donors through trust funds with the World Bank. Such core trust funds can be used to fund any activity supported by infoDev. Contributions from the World Bank DGF, which are funded by the net income of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), can be used to fund infoDev activities. A limited amount is earmarked to cover part of infoDev management and administrative costs. Resources from the World Bank budget are used solely to cover administrative costs.

Donors earmark restricted contributions in advance. These contributions must be used in support of specific themes, activities, or regions. They are administered through different trust funds arrangement with the World Bank. In-kind contributions include staff secondments from donors.

E X P E N S E S

Total disbursements reached $7.12 million in fiscal 2002, as compared to $7.22 million in fiscal 2002 (excluding disbursements under the Y2K Initiative). Direct disbursements on projects and knowledge dissemination activities under the infoDev main program increased by some 4.2 percent, from $5.66 million in fiscal 2002 to $5.90 million in fiscal 2001, the reduction in overall disbursement resulting from lower governance and administrative expenses and from lower expenses on special projects (such as the DOT force).

T A B L E 1 2

infoDev E X PENSE S FOR FISC A L 1996 –2002 ( 000 USD)

The cost of administering the program remained in line with that recorded during the previous fiscal year. Including direct management costs, supervision, monitoring coordination, and financial administration, it amounted to $706,000, which represented 9.9 percent of total disbursement. Total administrative costs (including the costs of governance and project evaluation) amounted to $1.04 million, or 14.6 percent of total outlays. The costs of knowledge

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Categor y Cumulative 1996–98 1999 2000 2001 2002·············································································································································································

Project funding 5,646 4,501 3,696 5,161 5,267Project evaluation 286 211 118 179 195Governance

of which Donors’ 50 10 52 78 88Committee 84 34 99 66 54

of which TAPProgram administration 1,383 711 642 767 706Knowledge dissemination 162 109 303 495 631Special projects 415 200 207 476 179·············································································································································································

Total 8,026 5,776 5,117 7,222 7,120·············································································································································································

Note: Does not include expenses related to the Y2K initiative, which closed in 2001.


dissemination, including the infoDev Symposium, increased by over 27 percent, in line with infoDev’s new strategy. The costs of special projects—such as the support some donors provided through infoDev to the DOT Force Secretariat —were accounted for separately.

C A S H P O S I T I O N

As of June 30, 2000, cash resources in trust fund accounts controlled by infoDev totaled $6.05 million, of which $5.30 million was in core funds and $0.75 million in restricted funds. Table 13 lists infoDev trust funds by donor at the end of the fiscal year.

T A B L E 1 3 .

TRUST FU ND BA L A NCE A S OF JU NE 30, 2002 , BY DONOR

From the $5.91 million available in cash in trust funds, $3.67 million was committed to projects and expected to be disbursed shortly, of which $0.55 million was in restricted funds and $3.12 million in unrestricted funds. An additional $0.43 million was committed but remained undisbursed from the DGF resources. All resources available from trust funds at the end of the fiscal year (totaling $1.82 million) were expected to be committed shortly after the start of the following fiscal year to projects selected under the evaluation process.

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Belgium TF024574 252,884 200,000 52,884Canada TF021844 743,690 506,833 236,857Denmark TF024698 234,956 129,766 105,190Denmark (Initial Trust Fund) TF024576 51,299 30,000 21,299Finland TF024573 227,186 120,000 107,186France TF024571 41,535 0 41,535Japan TF050565 0 0 0Netherlands (Initial Trust Fund) TF024575 26,143 26,000 143Netherlands TF024044 194,800 194,710 90Multi-donors TF024570 2,138,351 1,171,252 967,098Sweden TF023173 794,275 573,485 220,790Sweden (secondment) TF024118 100,140 100,140 0Sweden (Initial Trust Fund) TF024577 106,287 86,000 20,287UK TF024572 580,214 534,233 45,981·············································································································································································

Total 5,491,759 3,672,419 1,819,340·············································································································································································

Annex............................................................................................... A N N E X 1

5 5 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

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i n f o D e v O N T H E W E B

Annex............................................................................................... A N N E X 1

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i n f o D e v O N T H E W E B

I N F O D E V O N T H E W E B

1. The infoDev website, www.infodev.org, is a source of news and information about the activities of the infoDev Program. It is updated frequently, as information becomes available, with project and proposal information as well as news about special initiatives, such as the Incubator Initiative. In March 2002 the site was revamped, with links updated and navigation improved. As Figure 1-1 shows, the number of visits to the site increased considerably from fiscal 2001 to fiscal 2002.

F I G U R E 1 . 1

MONTHLY HITS FOR W W W.INFODEV.ORG, F Y01 V ER SUS F Y02

2. The infoDev electronic mailing list (infoDev-L) is an email-based source of program information and is open to the public. It has grown from 1800 members to over 3500 members in Fiscal 2002.

3. The infoDev exchange newsletter offers interviews and timely stories related to infoDev activities. It has been a popular feature on the website since its launch in 1999.

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FY 2000FY 2001

FIGURE 1.1

Monthly Hits for www.infodev.org, FY01 versus FY02

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i n f o D e v D O N O R ’ S C O M M I T T E E

............................................................................................... A N N E X 2

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A N N U A L M E E T I N G • D E C E M B E R 4 •5 , 2 0 0 2T H E W O R L D B A N K , W A S H I N G T O N , D C

D I S C U S S I O N S U M M A R Y

First Session DECEMBER 4, 2001

Introductory Statements

ModeratorWelcome to the members of the Donors Committee. I express a particularly warm welcome to the new members, Japan and Cisco Systems, and acknowledge the new contributions from Italy, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom made available to infoDev since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2002 (FY02). Under the new management of Bruno Lanvin, infoDev is finding a new momentum and drive based on the strong foundations built under Carlos Braga’s leadership.

infoDev is a very effective vehicle to take charge of special initiatives, as demonstrated with the Y2K and e-Readiness initiatives. The e-Readiness initiative now has 15 projects under way in response to a strong demand from recipient countries. The e-Readiness initiative is also very close to World Bank Group operations. However, we are constrained by lack of funds to support this initiative, not lack of interest.

One major theme of this Donors’ Committee meeting should be: what is the proper focus for infoDev after six years of experience? We believe that infoDev remains a most effective platform to promote the use of ICT for poverty reduction and economic development. and we believe that it has the potential to be even more effective. That is the sense of the new strategy proposed to you. It is our intention to work more closely and effectively with other programs and initiatives, as well as with the private sector.

We should also note the strong complementarity between the proposed strategy and the new World Bank Group sector strategy for ICT adopted by the Board of Executive Director last September.

Chair I just want to reiterate here the expression of support from the World Bank to infoDev.

Presentation of TAP Report

TAP Coordinator A multitude of organizations are addressing the digital divide. infoDev was there early, but the stage is now very crowded. This implies a different role for infoDev in the future.

The rate of technical progress in ICT is still sustained, with massive changes despite the recession in the industry. There is an increased understanding of the role of policy and regulations in ICT.


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Distance education has the potential to contribute to bridging the digital divide. It should be encouraged.

In its focus on poverty, infoDev should not forget that wealth creation and dissemination is an effective way to fight poverty.

The mandate of infoDev still needs to be clarified.

The downward trend in funding from public donors seems to be reversed, but participation from the private sector is lagging.

With respect to the Incubator Initiative, we believe that incubators should not only focus on providing social benefit but also insist on supporting economically sound ventures.

infoDev’s review process has improved very substantially during the year, but task management remains somewhat thin.

The TAP would like to see a set of lessons on which the program can expand. infoDev could improve its methods, and needs help in examining its processes. The web site has improved, but is still perfectible.

There is a need to revisit infoDev’s intellectual property policy.

Overall, infoDev is in good shape and, in the future, it can afford to take chances. It should be a participant in the DOT Force follow through.

We see infoDev with three distinct roles in the future:• A test bed for pilot grassroots/bottom-up projects• A place for flagship initiatives• A place for scaling up successful initiativesWe see four new directions for initiatives that would be worth pursuing:• A network security initiative to assist developing countries in understanding the seriousness

of the issue and how it can be tackled• An Incubator Initiative• A study on Internet global pricing• An open-source Initiative.

Financial and Operational Report

Donor Relations AdministratorSince its inception in 1995, infoDev (including the Y2K Initiative) has mobilized over $71 million, which in turn helped fund activities worth a cumulative total of the order of $250 million.

Funding for infoDev core program stood at about $7.9 million in FY01, compared to $5.1 million in FY00.


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Disbursements in FY01 exceeded net receipts by $1.6 million, as the cash balance in trust fund was reduced. There remain difficulties in using some “non-core” funds that can be used only for limited activities.

Administrative overhead of the program stands at about 11% of total disbursements, well in line with comparable programs. Funds available for new projects amounted to some $1.5 million at the end of November 2001.

Work Program AdministratorAs part of its core program, infoDev approved 30 new projects in FY01, for a total of $2.7 million in funding. There were an additional 32 grants for country gateways and 14 grants for e-readiness assessments.

Altogether, at the end of FY01 infoDev had approved 145 projects under its core program, more than 100 of which had been completed, and 186 projects under special initiatives (Y2K, Country Gateways, e-Readiness).

There was a major change in the evaluation process, which is now based on a review panel. Under the new process some 150 project proposals were received. Eighteen proposals were short-listed and submitted to the review panel, and 12 of the proposals were eventually approved. In addition, five iCSF projects were approved.

Demand for infoDev funding continues to grow.

Presentation of the Proposed New Strategy

Program ManagerThe environment for infoDev has changed as the program has grown over the years. The proposed strategy, however, does not change the rational of infoDev: how ICT can help reduce poverty.

We need to draw the lessons from experience and past actions. And we need to share and disseminate knowledge. We have identified four directions to respond to the signals received from the donor community:• Pilot projects need to remain a dynamic and key component of the program (what we used

to call the “core program”).• Flagships or strategic initiatives should be strengthened to learn from the lessons of the

past, scaling up successes and charting the way ahead.• We must be ready for “anticipated surprises” or to respond rapidly to new challenges with

narrow windows of opportunity for action—for example, on some of the themes presented by the TAP or on themes put in evidence by the DOT Force. Another example of these challenges is the need that is doubtless going to emerge from the recent WTO negotiations in Doha.

• Improve knowledge dissemination.


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Concerning knowledge dissemination, the environment has changed. As noted by the TAP, many groups are actively bridging the digital divide. This offers more possibilities for synergies. The experience of infoDev could be made widely available. Similarly, infoDev has a lot to learn from others. Knowledge generation, sharing and dissemination is clearly a field where infoDev can improve. As a way to better capture the lessons from our projects, we are proposing to embed an auto-evaluation component in every new project.

Another perennial challenge for infoDev is to broaden its donor community. There is room for involvement by more public donors, the civil society and the private sector. We need to increase the program’s visibility. This should facilitate our knowledge dissemination and additional donor participation. And we need to look at the way the program is organized and managed.

General Discussion

ModeratorI suggest that we organize our discussion around three main topics:• Program achievements • The TAP report• The new strategy.

United KingdomThe infoDev Annual Report lists a figure of $80 million for infoDev projects, of which $22 million represents projects funded by infoDev. This figure seems different from the one mentioned during the presentation. Could you please clarify these figures and give us some indications on where the money came from?

Donor Relations

Administrator The $22 million in the Annual Report concerns only the core program. These are cumulative commitments (not disbursements) from infoDev, whereas the corresponding $80 million is the total costs of these projects as indicated to us by project proponents. In reality, we estimate that the 3 to 4 multiplier or leverage factor is rather conservative because some additional funding may not be recorded in initial proposals, even though infoDev funding may have triggered such additional funding.

Program Manager: In the new evaluation process, indication on funding leverage is a critical point taken into consideration.

United Kingdom We are pleased to hear that cofinancing is a critical element of the new projects.

SwitzerlandThis is an important question. Could we know how much cofinancing is coming from the


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private sector? What are the challenges to bring the private sector on board? Do you have a clear leverage policy?

Program Manager Yes. Showing that part of the money can come from the private sector is very important. And emphasizing leverage is clearly a way to bring in more partners. We can also encourage proponents to approach the private sector to co-support proposals. We should also show proponents ways on how to better involve the private sector.

Regarding private sector participation, there are two ways of looking at it. One way is to look at how many infoDev projects involve private entrepreneurs and SMEs in recipient countries. The other way is to count how many private corporations we have as donors. We worked hard to separate the two ways, but the more we look at them the more we realize that there is merit in connecting them.

United Kingdom Last year we had an interesting breakdown of projects by poverty assessment markers. I don’t see any reference this year. Was this exercise repeated for FY01?

Moderator We have not done it, but we can make it available.

Sweden·Knowledge dissemination, which is the second area of focus for infoDev after the external evaluation in 1998 is not well covered in the Annual Report or the presentations. infoDev seems to have been slow moving into that area.

Program ManagerI would not disagree with that. Indeed, the recommendation was there in the 1998 external evaluation. Why was the response slow? I believe that it was not realized then that it could not really be accommodated without a profound change of strategy. It could not just be added to infoDev as it was then. My vision is that you need to embed knowledge dissemination in every effort.

Moderator This is definitely something to which we must pay attention in the future. The point is well taken and we will make sure that the future strategy pays attention to it.

Sweden Excellent. But it should also be addressed at the management level through targeting and quantifying.

Program Manager I strongly agree. We need to set up concrete indicators to measure it.


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Moderator Let’s move now on to discuss the TAP report, and particularly two points:• The TAP assessment of past operations, and• Future outlook.

Denmark I would be interested to know more about infoDev’s evaluation methods.

TAP Coordinator There are two aspects to that question: the monitoring during implementation, and the evaluation at the end. What we saw was a moderately mechanistic way of measuring the results of projects. This does not give a feeling of problems and achievements. There are also very few on-site evaluations.

Program Manager On page 38 of the proposed new strategy we tried to describe the current process and what we believe would be a better process. We have a sophisticated appraisal (ex-ante evaluation) process and, frankly, we spend a lot of money on projects we will never finance. We need to improve that. The disbursement phase is quite well managed. The evaluation of project implementation is done cheaply by ad-hoc task managers. We propose that task managers work with local partners to arrive at a more significant evaluation component. We think that if we inject 5 percent of project costs for monitoring and evaluation we can derive substantial results.

Finland What is the auditing process of infoDev?

Donor Relations

Administrator As with other programs hosted by the World Bank, infoDev’s trust funds are subject to internal and external audits. These audits, unless specified in agreements with donors, are not mandatory but optional. But they may always be conducted at a donor request. In addition, some large trust funds, like for the Y2K, may be selected by the World Bank for an internal audit. These are accounting audits. The World Bank’s Operational Evaluation Department (OED) conducts operational audits. Currently, the OED is conducting an overall evaluation of a number of global externally funded partnerships in the Bank. infoDev is one of them and we expect the results of this evaluation to be communicated to donors.

Work Program

Administrator In the grant agreements that we have with project proponents implementing infoDev projects, we have a requirement for an audit to be performed at the end of each project.


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United Kingdom In the TAP report there is a reference to the involvement of the private sector and mention of a consultant report on the subject. At the last meeting in Cairo the management promised a paper on options for the private sector. We have not seen that paper.

Program Manager The paper is available on a side table. Honestly, we are not totally happy with the consultant report and we tried to summarize in the draft strategy the options that we think could be explored. We leave that discussion open. Your reactions on this issue, we expect, should contribute to improving the options.

Sweden As we envisage new areas for infoDev, could the TAP advise us on the areas infoDev should cut its activities if it has only limited resources?

TAP Coordinator My reaction would be to cut e-readiness studies. They may give confidence to donors but are not necessarily useful to the countries. Beside, everyone seems to be doing e-readiness studies, including my own organization.

Germany We have doubt on whether infoDev should continue help set up country gateways because the Gateway Foundation seems to be able to take that responsibility now.

Program Manager I must reassure you that no funding has been used for country gateways that had not been specifically earmarked for this purpose by donors. The work done on the country gateway was by arrangement with the Development Gateway, which relied on infoDev experience to provide grants to outside organization. There is no competition whatsoever between the country gateways and other infoDev activities.

The question whether we can embark on new activities without cutting on existing ones depend on whether we keep the program at the present level or not. Cutting present activities to develop new activities is not an absolute necessity, but it is a possibility that deserves to be looked at. Another possibility is to reduce the average amount of our grants. Doing so will probably increase our administrative costs, but it is doable. However, some donors—and this is time to express our gratitude to Japan—have indicated a willingness to support new initiatives with additional resources.

Luxembourg Finding infoDev’s comparative advantage is crucial. But this needs visibility. It seems that the visibility of infoDev recently has not been what it could have been, particularly in contacts with some donors. There should be mechanisms to engage donors more directly in the program activities and decisions.


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SwedenI support the idea of looking at infoDev’s comparative advantage in deciding on the new strategy. There have been a lot of new initiatives in the last 12 to 15 months. Even if not all these initiatives ever become operational, some will and are bound to focus on the same areas as infoDev. There are also areas that the new actors will not enter. These should be for infoDev to continue its innovative role. So, there should be scope to talk about infoDev’s comparative advantage.

Japan Japan has decided to participate in infoDev as a donor. We want to cooperate with the management team and with other donors. We are a latecomer to this community and we feel that we have a lot to learn from you. It is quite interesting to listen to the discussion at this table. This will be very useful as we consider our own involvement in this donor community.

Let me comment on the Incubator Initiative to which we are going to contribute. Last year in Cairo, there was a TAP recommendation for an Incubator Initiative to be implemented by infoDev. Since then we have held discussions with the management team and we are now finalizing arrangements for an $8 million contribution this year. We are also discussing with our budget department additional contributions in following years.

We understand that the Incubator Initiative is based upon the experience of other initiatives and we believe that infoDev has a comparative advantage to implement this initiative.

We strongly welcome the participation of other donors in this initiative. We would not like to dominate it and would much prefer to cooperate with other donors on this initiative.

We agree that monitoring and evaluation is a very important issue. Consultations with donors on this issue are essential and we hope that the management of infoDev will follow up on observations from our colleagues around this table.

Concerning the general strategy, we would like to emphasize that since we have limited resources, priority should be given to fields where access to ICT is a bottleneck for economic development and where involvement in traditional project would not be adequate without ICT. This calls for a comprehensive view of the economic development process in countries where infoDev is to be active. The sequencing of items on the development agenda is important. For example, some infrastructure subjects other than ICT (like energy) may have to be tackled first. In this respect, it is important to ensure a good cooperation between infoDev and World Bank Group operations. There should be synergies at the country level, particularly in the spirit of the new ICT strategy as well as with Country Assistance Strategies (CAS).

infoDev management should also seek synergies between infoDev and the Gateway Foundation.

United Kingdom I am a bit confused. We have started talking about priorities but I am not sure of what is


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going on outside infoDev. Has any comprehensive mapping exercise been done by infoDev management? That would be useful to figure out where we can fit and what we can do.

Program Manager Let me answer this question as well as those raised by Luxembourg and Sweden: infoDev visibility, contacts with donors, and relations with other initiatives.

Visibility. In the new strategy we want to give infoDev a higher visibility. That is a first step to prevent duplication by other initiatives as well as a way to attract more interest and render a better service to our beneficiaries. It also serves donors in comforting their own constituencies. We should be able to carry on this effort jointly with donors. There are many ways to do it. We have a few ideas in mind but this item has to be recognized first as an area of priority for the program.

Donor Contacts. We have one opportunity to meet with donors every year. It is this annual Donors’ Committee meeting which is coupled with the infoDev symposium. I believe it is a very useful device. We also try to visit donors. But when we go on a tour to donors we unavoidably have to miss some of them. Here I have to apologize to Luxembourg because we did not stop in your country last June. Between meetings of the Donors’ Committee I intend to visit individual donors at least once a year. We will also make every effort to exploit systematically opportunities to consult and exchange with donors as our respective paths cross. With respect to flagship we have discussed with Japan ways to systematize the kind of contacts and regular consultations we will need as we implement the Incubator Initiative.

Relations with Other Initiatives. It is true that the field is much more populated now than it was six years ago. I believe it is a good thing as the dimension of the problem is equally huge. The resources available are still not measuring up to the size of the challenge. Let me also be very candid on certain of these initiatives. If you look at the nine items of the Genoa Action Plan proposed by the DOT Force and endorsed by the G8 last July, and if you look at the UN-ICT Plan of Action, you see a good level of convergence. But many other initiatives have not yet reached the point where they can present a plan of action. We are seeing a lot of attempts. Many will fail without ever reaching the level of infoDev and its proven capacity to evaluate and conduct projects.

Looking at the DOT Force report, there are many items that could be usefully tackled by several actors. For example, e-government. This is a massive subject. It covers many areas: e-procurement, customs automation, corruption reduction, trade enhancement, government transparency, direct democracy, etc. The e-government task could be distributed among many different actors, and yet we may not be able to face the entire challenge. Another point in the DOT Force Plan of Action concerns universal participation. We have a small facility in infoDev, the infoDev Conference Scholarship Fund (iCSF) to which we allocate $250,000 a year to help individuals in developing countries participate in conference such as the ICANN conferences and others. In fact, several million dollars a year are needed to do this task. One possibility could be to beef up our iCSF. Another possibility could be to develop another facility elsewhere, but right now it does not exist. For example, there is a meeting of ICANN


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coming up in Accra, Ghana, that Nii Quaynor knows well. We may be able to sponsor two or three participant to the Accra meeting, but what is needed is much more.

Concerning the coordination with other initiatives, let me mention what has been happening with the Global Development Gateway. It is the Global Development Gateway that has selected infoDev as a channel for supporting the first country gateways. We expect that what happens with the Development Gateway may happen on other subjects with other initiatives.

I see great potential in all the ideas proposed by the TAP this year. These are less crowded or less attractive areas where infoDev can make a most valuable contribution. We have a flagship initiative on grassroots connectivity in Africa. This is directly linked to poverty reduction.

By linking the three issues of visibility, contact with donors and cooperation with others we should be able to identify those areas where no one is active and where therefore infoDev has and will continue to have a comparative advantage. Open source is clearly one such subject. It raises the issue of intellectual property rights and we started to discuss this issue with our legal department.

Moderator Let me comment on relations between infoDev and other initiatives and on relations with the World Bank Group. Is the space really crowded? Possibly, but we should not be afraid of competition which we see as the best way to bring progress. When a new field of interest like ICT opens up there is always an explosion of interest and initiatives. But what ultimately matters at the end is implementation and results. Rather than trying to catalogue all initiatives, let’s try to identify what has been achieved and what remain to be achieved.

We realize that infoDev is not the World Bank. It is a community of which the Bank is only a part. Why are we emphasizing infoDev relationships with the World Bank Group? Because in the World Bank Group, following the development of our ICT strategy, there is a much better focus on ICT issues in relation with poverty alleviation and economic development. Also, with our IT venture capital unit we feel that there are great potential synergies yet to be exploited, in particular if we want to increase the participation of the private sector.

Canada The space may not be as much crowded as it is huge. You made the comment that you cannot cope with demands from clients. In our national programs we get multiple requests for similar programs, and we wonder what is going on. We do not have a clear idea of all the ongoing initiatives. We are not trying to compare between them. We are more simply trying to know what is the whole spectrum of on-going activities. Is there a way of finding out what is going on in ICT at the international level and that is related to development?

Moderator We can probably put something together fairly quickly on major initiatives. There is also a lot going on bilaterally and we can attempt to keep track of it. The issue really is to have a site where everything could be recorded. Maybe one day that could be a flagship. However,


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because it is a rather broad new sector and there is a lack of expertise, we surely need to be aware of what else is going on—but, overall, we must first ensure that we are getting the best results for what we are doing.

Canada What we do not really understand is the multilateral and cross-sector comparisons, and how ICT compares with priorities in other sectors.

United Kingdom Bruno knows that mapping on-going activities was initially one of the goals of the DOT Force and that it just proved impractical. What might be more useful for infoDev would be to bring some clarity between infoDev’s role and that of three or four other initiatives which would limit infoDev’s ability in the area. I am thinking in particular of the PPIAF and of the Global Development Gateway. The international community is dying to have a strong infoDev with the backing of the World Bank and others, yet we see a situation where an infoDev meeting is cancelled because of conflict with a Gateway meeting and where PPIAF is doing much more on the regulatory environment for ICT than infoDev ever did.

Moderator Let me reiterate that there is still strong support for infoDev in the Bank, but unless we continue to get a clear and strong support from the broader development community this may change.

Program Manager On the inventory of activities, the DOT Force is now trying to see what the main actors are. Let me also mention that, a few years ago, within infoDev, it was proposed to have links on the infoDev web site to publicize what other donors where doing in ICT. Everyone accepted the proposal enthusiastically. In reality, only DFID followed up.

I will let David Satola, our legal counsel, respond on PPIAF and also discuss the intellectual property rights issues that the TAP mentioned and to which I alluded.

Concerning the Gateway, we coordinated our meetings to accommodate donors coming to Washington for both infoDev and Gateway events. More generally we benefit from a situation where the head of the Gateway is the former head of infoDev. We have very good day-to-day working relations. We do not necessarily agree on everything and when we see the possibility of conflicts we put it on the table. There are still a number of questions on how the Gateway will operate and there is no doubt that we will have to adapt. But if you, as infoDev donors, believe that infoDev has a clear mission that should be preserved, it is important for your voice to be heard and make sure that infoDev continues to be in a position to deliver.

Legal Counsel The “I” in PPIAF is for “infrastructure.” PPIAF does the work on policy reform for energy, water and telecommunications as long as it is directly related to infrastructure. But PPIAF does not feel that Internet, e-commerce or other knowledge applications are part of their domain. So infoDev complements PPIAF on applications and knowledge domains.


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Concerning intellectual property rights (IPR), picking up on the TAP report, I congratulate the TAP for their courage in tackling this difficult issue of IPR and development. With respect to infoDev, the World Bank holds funds in trust on behalf of donors, as described in funding agreements between donors and the Bank. What you sign on for when you participate in infoDev is that projects are replicable and their results freely and widely disseminated. Thus, when infoDev provides funds for a project and something “protectable” results from that project—patentable, copyrightable, or otherwise protectable—we have said in the past in agreements with infoDev grantees that to ensure the dissemination and replicability the safest and easiest is for the Bank to own (on infoDev donors’ behalf) the IPR. It sounds bad, but it achieves the objectives of making the results of infoDev projects freely available. What we have in grant agreements right now is a traditional license. It is tried, tested and true, and we know that it works. It is safe.

With respect to software, we can and we will pursue software work through a general public license, an open source license that preserves the openness and free availability of the software. Whether we do it through a traditional license or through an open source license, in the end we get to the same point: easy replication, wide dissemination.

I would caution you however, as donors. There are no published cases interpreting the enforceability of a general public license for open source software. We think that it is a pretty good mechanism that has been around for about ten years, but we do not know whether it is as safe as the traditional license that we have now. It probably is, and I would be willing to experiment with it, but I cannot tell you with legal certainty that it protects your funds as well as the traditional license.

Moderator Let me introduce now Pierre Guislain, the new chief of the Policy Division in the World Bank Group’s Global ICT Department.

Pierre Guislain I would just like to comment on some of the apparently competing initiatives we discussed earlier. First, be it infoDev, PPIAF, the Development Gateway these are all initiatives founded by basically the same donors. We have overlapping shareholding. And it seems to me that if we have different vehicles it is to achieve different objectives. What strikes me regarding infoDev is that it is a well-tested, no-surprises mechanism for delivery of assistance in the ICT field. What strikes me also is that it needs to grow. Bruno mentioned the post-Doha needs. Developing countries need help in this trade area. Global governance issues, trade issues, Internet governance, these are issues where I see infoDev with a tremendous comparative advantage based on past achievements.

United Kingdom I would like to raise a point of order. Given the short time since we received the background papers for this meeting, I find myself in a difficult position to endorse the strategy without taking it back to London. Could we clarify what the process is going to be?


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Moderator The intention is to continue our discussion over dinner, and to resume our discussion and hear donor pledges tomorrow morning from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. until the start of the infoDev Symposium.

Canada We will not be in a position either to endorse the strategy before we leave Washington.

Moderator What is really important is that we have a good discussion while you are here and then to get your feedback when you are ready, rather than a formal endorsement. We will then prepare a new draft incorporating your comments.

Let me now briefly summarize some of the points we discussed this afternoon. I think we have heard a few very clear messages:

• The need to provide as much information as we can on what is going on in the ICT for development efforts

• The need for infoDev to remain focused, particularly as the number of players in the sector increases

• The need to do better on knowledge dissemination• The need for ongoing monitoring and evaluation to extract as many lessons as we can

and share them with donors and others and, doing so, demonstrate infoDev’s comparative advantage

• The need for a more proactive participation by donorsWe will continue our discussion tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.

E N D O F F I R S T S E S S I O N

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Second Session DECEMBER 5, 2001

Moderator I propose that we start by discussing what will be the next steps. With respect to the infoDev strategy, my suggestion is that donors should have sufficient time to review it, absorb it and then relay their comments to us. We would like to set a deadline for receiving your feedbacks. Given the coming holiday period there are not going to be very many working days until the end of the year and I propose that we receive your comments by January 11.

Switzerland With respect to the strategy, I see new measures but I do not see an action plan with a time frame and indicators to implement these new measures.

Moderator We want to do it in two phases. First, we will agree on the main elements that should be part


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of the strategy. And then we will develop an action plan that will be more specific on products and deliverables, with a timetable. This would be our suggestion.

Canada We would like to see some linkage between infoDev’s strategy and the Millennium Development Goals. This does not suggest that we delay the discussion on the strategy but rather that we incorporate such links in a revision.

Program Manager After this meeting, we will start working on a revision of the strategy. We expect to have a new text by the end of February. At the same time, we would like to start thinking about an action plan and a timetable to implement the strategy. In this respect we will need additional discussions with donors. The timetable may vary, depending on the possibility for donors to support certain elements of the strategy, certain flagships within a given time frame. Our hope is that as soon as we have the revised strategy we will start designing specific activities with their respective action plans.

Switzerland What would be the timetable for an action plan?

Program Manager If we receive comments by mid-January, we should have a fairly well articulated action plan, at least for some activities, by the end of February. We expect to follow a process quite similar to what we observed in our discussion with Japan on the Incubator Initiative. We first discussed the strategy to be followed and then we came up with a fairly precise action plan, with detailed costs and a time frame, as is the case with the one that is available now. Other flagships, depending on the support we will receive from donors, will have separate action plans.

Moderator Concerning the follow-up to this meeting, I would like to have your views on whether we should have another meeting or if we should rather focus on bilateral discussions to finalize the strategy.

Canada I suggest that we all share the comments that will be made by the various delegations.

United Kingdom The TAP should also provide its comments on the strategy.

Moderator We want to be as transparent as possible. If all donors are comfortable with it, we will organize it so that all comments will be shared among donors.

Cisco Systems There has been an expressed desire to have the private sector participate more actively in


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infoDev. This partnership is indeed very important to us and maybe we should strengthen that point in the strategy. If the message comes out from this group for a strong participation from the private sector, I believe that could help bringing other private sector partners.

Moderator Thank you for your suggestion. This subject was debated last year and there is the consultant report that you may wish to read in parallel with the draft strategy. From our perspective we see the potential for partnerships with both public and private sectors. The question now is what is the best way to achieve that.

Concerning the follow-up process there was a suggestion to have a subset of this group work with the management in finalizing the strategy. Are there any volunteers? If there is no volunteer, let’s skip it. We will then rely on your comments.

Program Manager Immediately after the present meeting we will send a short summary of the points we have agreed, so that it could be communicated to those like Italy or France who could not be with us today.

Sweden It is very likely that in the future infoDev will put emphasis on flagships. The question is which flagship to chose and for what purpose? I found the draft strategy lacking in direction to make these choices. I feel that the strategy should include some policy indications and a framework for selecting flagships, as well as the objectives to be achieved by these flagships. For us, it is important to have clarity on these points as well as on the countries that are going to benefit from the flagships. The emphasis on poor countries and on the poorest segments of the population in developing countries is also a very important criterion to us. Even if infoDev grows, its activities, as I see it, will remain rather small-scale operations. It is important that infoDev keeps its innovative aspect in helping small-scale projects and remains a mechanism to identify and support those innovative projects in areas such as:• Open source• Software development• Network securities.infoDev should also put more emphasis on sharing lessons and on knowledge dissemination.

Japan I would like to stress that we should not necessarily put too much emphasis on the poorest if that were to slow the development process. That ultimately would not help reducing poverty.

Program Manager These are very important messages and exactly the kind of feedback we are expecting from you by January 11. There is a kind of compromise to be worked out in combining these approaches if infoDev is to continue to be faithful to its mandate. I would like to outline one possible scenario. If indeed infoDev is to devote a bigger share of its resources to flagships, we have to realize two things. First, we already have some on-going flagships. Second, there are


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more proposals out there than infoDev can absorb in an initial action plan for the next two years. The question, then, is: What is the optimal size of infoDev? The reference we take is that of the Y2K Initiative, wherein infoDev’s volume of operations was suddenly multiplied by a factor of five. We are not asking you to put a Formula One engine on a moped! We have experience showing that we have a vehicle that can do certain things. This delineates what is feasible in terms of size of the program. Beyond a certain size, infoDev may lose its nature and gets into diseconomies of scale. But infoDev can safely absorb between $10 million and $60 million a year. That leaves a fairly wide range of possible flagship initiatives.

In our discussions I have noted 15 possible flagships, including the four currently underway. There is a possibility to look at the three mentioned by the TAP. There are nine action points in the DOT Force report and each of them could lead to at least one flagship. We have the possibility to beef up the iCSF and turn it into a flagship related to trade negotiations. There is much more than what could be reasonably envisaged, even with an infoDev much more focused on flagships. If we look at the size of the Incubator Initiative, we could probably accommodate three or four flagships of that kind. We could have smaller ones as well.

As Bengt just mentioned, looking at the digital divide within countries may be another area of priority. The view from Japan was quite different and we will have to see how these views can be reconciled. We will have to combine that into an action plan, which will be a by-product of the strategy. That action plan will probably appear as an imperfect matrix that attempts match set priorities and goals with available resources.

United Kingdom As was noted before, there are many more players compared to six years ago, when infoDev started and was basically the only one. It would be very helpful if in a month or so you could identify those things for which infoDev has a strategic advantage in doing, and then try to focus on them more tightly. This would be very helpful for our process.

Pledging Session

Moderator This is a very interesting discussion, but for the sake of time we now need to move to the pledging session. Bruno will then make some concluding remarks.

Germany The German Government is prepared to pledge DM200,000 [102,258]for FY02. It is also considering earmarking for infoDev part of the German contribution to the Gateway Foundation in 2003 and 2004. With respect to the strategy, we feel quite confident that the mix of pilot projects and flagship initiatives should be continued and Germany is ready to continue to support infoDev.

Canada We pledge the same level of commitment as last year in Canadian dollars [CAD375,000]. We would also like to earmark some of it to one initiative that we started with ORBICOM


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on developing a digital divide index. We are entering a second phase of that project and would like to have infoDev involved in it. We would like also to continue to support the Development Gateway.

Switzerland We are in principle willing to continue to contribute next in the same range as last year [some $750,000], subject of course to the finalization of the strategy. But in principle we would be ready to continue to support infoDev.

Netherlands There will be no change in the level of the Dutch contribution for this year.

United Kingdom We do not pledge today. Whether we increase or decrease our contribution all depends on what we shall see in the revised strategy. Our next fiscal year starts in April and there will not be a contribution before that time. We have in our budget a figure similar to the one for last year; we have other budget lines, possibly to support other activities suggested in the DOT Force report. If we were to contribute to the core funding, it would be at the same level as of now.

But it is worth emphasizing a few points that would be absolutely essential if we were to continue with our contribution.

I was somewhat concerned with the TAP report suggesting to forget about poverty and focus on wealth creation. If it were so, that would be the end of our contribution.

Referring to the suggestion from Canada to link infoDev’s strategy to the Millennium Development Goals, this may be too specific. But we would like to see links with internationally agreed development targets or goals. We do need to get that clear in the strategy and see how infoDev activities impact other sectors, particularly health and education.

We need a very clear statement on where infoDev fits on the very complicated map of ICT and other initiatives and programs.

Concerning resources, we do need some indication of what kind of resources, an order of magnitude necessary to implement the strategy.

Also, please make the strategy paper a little shorter!

Denmark Denmark has a deep interest in infoDev. However, after the recent general election in Denmark we have to wait for decisions to be made by the new Foreign Affairs Minister on issues relevant to infoDev. We still expect to continue to be part of the group of donors to infoDev. We are particularly interested in:• Education


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• Poverty reduction• Gender issues

Sweden We have no new pledge for Sweden. We have a commitment of SKR2 million and we will continue with the secondment of one expert.

Finland I am representing the Ministry of Trade and Industry that is now focusing on projects of the EU Northern Dimension Initiative. We have no pledge, but the Ministry would be willing to support projects in the Northern Dimension area. This may include flagships.

Cisco Systems I am not in a position to pledge. I will report back on this meeting and contact you again.

Concluding Remarks

Moderator Thank you very much for your continued support. I sense a strong interest in infoDev and am encouraged by it. I hope we will be able to meet our expectations. We see the growing interest of multilateral and bilateral organizations in ICT as a positive sign for an increased role for infoDev in ICT for development. I hope you will be able to continue to support infoDev and use it as an effective platform for increasing the use of ICT for development. On the World Bank side, there is a pledge of $4 million from the Development Grant Facility. There is also a budget contribution from the Global ICT Department.

Let me now ask Bruno to conclude.

Program Manager: Before we conclude I would like to mention that we received a message from Telecom Italia indicating the continuation of their in-kind contribution in the form of a secondment. This leads me to remark that Telecom Italia, as a private donor to infoDev, is an exception. It is the only one from Europe and all our other private sector donors are from the United States. If we want to have a credible representation from the private sector, we need to attract private partners from Japan, Europe and other regions. I believe that this group of donors has a role to play in raising private sector interest in infoDev. This program should be as global as possible. And we would like to have the chance to discuss with you how companies from your respective countries could be interested.

Let’s conclude now. I will not try to be comprehensive or fair; let me only mention some salient points from our discussions.

Generally, the Donors’ Committee expressed its satisfaction with the quality of the TAP report. There were some recommendations to look even more closely at the TAP report when we reformulate the strategy. We will certainly do that.


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Concerning the strategy, it is worth looking at it a bit more and we have a timetable to receive your comments by January 11, 2002. We then expect the management to propose a revised text towards the end of January.

On the basis of the revised document we should prepare an action plan, hopefully by the end of February. This will include a time frame to implement the strategy, quantitative objectives, costs and specific activities likely to receive support.

Several donors expressed interest in seeing the revised strategy before making formal pledge. We take note of that. A number of indications were given to improve the strategy paper and make it endorsable by donors. These indications included positioning infoDev among other initiatives and showing its comparative advantages. We also took note that donors would prefer a shorter document and a narrower menu.

We found a good level of consensus on the format of the proposed new infoDev that could include a significantly stronger component of flagships.

Taking all signals on funding, including the $1 million contribution already received this year from Italy and the new contribution from Japan for our new flagship initiative, we think that the current level of financing of infoDev will be more than maintained. This is very encouraging.

On a personal note, I am very happy to see that the friendliness but also the direct, straightforward exchanges taking place in infoDev have been maintained despite the new management. I very much hope that this climate will be preserved.

Finally, let me mention next year’s meeting. As you know, there is an established tradition in infoDev to have the Donors’ Committee meeting outside the United States every other year. We have received invitations to meet in Asia next year, possibly in China. We will be glad to receive your reaction on that possibility. Thank you.

Moderator Thank you, Bruno. Let me express again my appreciation to all of you for your participation in this very good meeting. We look forward to receiving your comments on the new strategy, as we would like this document to genuinely reflect the views of all donors supporting infoDev.

T H E M E E T I N G A D J O U R N S

Annex

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i n f o D e v P R O J E C T S A C T I V E A S O F J U N E 3 0 , 2 0 0 2

P r o j e c t T i t l e Grantee Organization

Region/Country

Sector Total Project Cost (US$)

Total Grant (US$)

Grant Disburse-ment through June 30, 2002 (US$)”

Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

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............................................................................................... A N N E X 3

Annex

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································E-Government Toolkit. This project will create electronic (web-friendly, or “online”) and hard-copy (“offline”) versions of an e-government “”toolkit”” for the use of na-tional policymakers and government in-formation technology leaders seeking to implement citizen-focused e-government programs. The Toolkit will include a diag-nostic tool allowing developing countries to systematically examine e-government read-iness indicators---the better to scale and plan their own e-government initiatives. In addition, the Toolkit will contain concrete suggestions for (1) strategic frameworks for cross-sector partnerships, (2) evaluations of existing policy and regulatory frameworks or obstacles, and (3) strategies for securing the long-term sustainability of citizen-fo-cused e-government initiatives. This proj-ect will also create and facilitate the e-Gov-ernment Toolkit Advisory Group.

Center for Democracy, USA

Worldwide Govern-ment

60,000 60,000 30,000 July 01 - October 02

VITA-CONNECT. The overall goal of this project is to help expand access to connec-tivity and useful information resources for organizations and individuals working at the grassroots level in developing coun-tries, particularly in underserved areas. The grant recipient will develop and de-ploy a satellite-based telecommunications solution that provides affordable access to digital information resources in remote ar-eas. The VITA-connect solution includes connectivity to a telecommunications net-work (VITAsat), a satellite-based “store-and-forward” email application and ser-vice (VITAmail), and access to a series of specialized Web-based information servic-es (VITAinfo).

Volunteers in Technical Assistance, USA

Worldwide Telecom-munica-tions

560,000 115,000 65,000 November 01 - November 02

A Voice Portal for Health. This project will test and evaluate a pilot voice portal pro-moting public health in Peru – a practical, sustainable means for communicating with and gathering critical information from re-mote and dispersed health care profession-als and populations, and thus a means for strengthening maternal health, immuni-zation, and other public health programs. The portal integrates telephony with web-based IT systems. By making services acces

Voxiva LLC, USA Peru Health 70,898 249,630 149,630 December 01 - December 02

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Project Dates

FY02

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································sible from any telephone and piggybacking on a rapidly expanding telecom infrastruc-ture, the technology can reach a much wid-er group of users than the Internet or cur-rent IT systems.

Using Satellite Technology to Disseminate Critical Knowledge throughout Africa. This Africa-focused project aims to establish a communications model for disseminating multimedia information to large audienc-es. The project seeks to use digital satellite technology to assist target organizations such as medical libraries, schools, and com-munity-based organizations. It will develop user-friendly manuals and guidelines for digital content development and format-ting; train a core group of “proponent train-ers”; and develop a framework for selecting and evaluating content.

WorldSpace Foundation, USA

Sub-Saharan Africa

Education 261,140 131,880 65,940 December 01 - December 02

African Connection (AC) - Concensus Build-ing and Awareness Raising. This project supports processes that will (1) allow the AC to make the case for African ICT devel-opment in the international arena and (2) foster engagement and decisions among Af-rican ICT stakeholders.

Development Bank of South Africa

South Africa Telecom-munica-tions

200,000 200,000 75,000 January 02-January 04

African Connection - Rural Telecoms. This project aims to prepare and help implement concrete programs and projects designed to attract broad support within Africa for the rapid expansion and improvement of ICT in rural areas. The programs and projects will be based on the results of an initial eval-uation of existing experiences within Africa and globally prepared on behalf of the Af-rican Connection with World Bank/DFID funding, and will be presented for consid-eration by African decision-makers, devel-opment partners, and the private sector. At the same time, the activity will be designed to support and enhance African and Africa-based capacity to carry out research, analy-sis and policy advice on these issues as well as plan, design and implement national and cross-border programs and projects in ICT.

Development Bank of South Africa

South Africa Telecom-munica-tions

400,000 400,000 160,000 October 01 - October 03

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Region/Country


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FY02

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Implementation of OHADA.COM -- A Le-gal and Economic Internet Portal for Africa. The Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) was established to help harmonize the business laws of its 16 member countries. In further-ance of its general mandate, OHADA has established its website, OHADA.com -- the basis for an Internet portal that will become the primary on-line source for legal and economic information relating to OHADA member countries. This portal will provide greater transparency and efficiency to the member countries and their governments, and will encourage users to become more reliant on the OHADA portal. It will con-sist of the main Ohada.com website as well as national sub-portals in each of the mem-ber countries.

African Association for a Unified System of Business Laws (UNIDA), France

Sub-Saharan Africa

Govern-ment

1,000,000 150,000 75,000 March 02 -March 03

Future Stations - Stimulating Economic In-tegration of Low-Income Population via the Internet Viva Rio is a project supported by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development, the Inter-American Devel-opment Bank, FININVEST, and the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Labor Secretariat. Im-plemented in Brazilian shantytowns (fave-las), it will support the creation of “”future stations,”” i.e., local centers with Internet access. The Internet portal vivafavela.com will help stimulate e-commerce partner-ships with established businesses at the city, state, national and international levels, and local economic cooperation networks will be established.

Viva Rio, Brazil Brazil E-com-merce

1,028,600 246,500 112,167 March 02 -March 03

Strengthening Women’s Leadership in Com-munity Development through Radio Inter-net in Brazil. The main goal of this Proj-ect is to improve education on gender by strengthening the use of community ra-dio by low-income women in Brazil. The grant recipient broadcasts a network of 350 Women’s radio programs throughout Brazil, and in 1998 it started integrating the Wom-en’s Radio Network (WRN) with the Net. Community radio, in this project, is seen as an alternative to telecenters.

CEMINA, Brazil Brazil Education 425,593 245,593 50,000 March 02 -March 03

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································EHAS Program (2002 - 2003) Hispano American Health Link. This project aims at improving public health assistance in rural areas of Latin America by applying ICT. It will implement adequate ICT infrastructure and related services that (1) match the cur-rent information and communication needs of rural health personnel and (2) perform successfully in rural areas. The component funded by infoDev aims to establish tele-communications facilities in public health units located in remote rural areas of Co-lombia and Peru; to provide distance edu-cation services and online health informa-tion systems to rural health workers located in those units; and to provide access to tele-matic facilities to enhance existing health information systems and epidemiological surveillance systems.

Ingenieria Sin Fronteras, Spain

LAC Health 2,085,659 250,000 125,000 June 02-June 03

CDI International Expansion. CDI is a Bra-zil-based non-profit organization that pro-motes information technology training pro-grams targeting low-income communities in several countries. Its business model is known as a “”social franchise package,”” in which the grant recipient provides the fol-lowing to local organizations: installation of hardware and software, volunteers to train local instructors, administrative and techni-cal support, and the educational methodol-ogies required to develop programs and cur-ricula customized for the local community.

Comitê para Democratização da Informática – CDI, Brazil

“LAC (Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uru-guay)”

Internet 447,000 150,000 50,000 June 02-June 03

Buy South Africa Online (Development Market Place). The goal of the project is to provide small South African businesses with access to global markets through a low-cost export system. The project anticipates tak-ing e-commerce to a new level, opening up new ways for international trade to take place and providing a full, decentralized, fulfillment logistics service.

Triple Trust Investments, South Africa

South Africa E-com-merce

1,155,591 50,000 50,000 June 02-June 03

Electronic Bulletin Board for Farmers - Phil-ippines (Development Marketplace). The goal of the project is to use an electron-ic marketplace, B2Bpricenow.com, to ed-ucate and train farmers in the Philippines to use ICT in their day-to-day transactions. The project will benefit rural farmers by

b2bpricenow.com, Philippines

Philippines E-com-merce

850,039 50,000 50,000 June 02-June 03

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································putting information about prices, volumes, and the identity of buyers and sellers at their fingertips -- allowing them to negotiate and attain competitive prices for their products and purchasing requirements. The project creates a positive investment climate by re-ducing intermediation costs, increasing ef-ficiencies, making information accessible and available, and facilitating ease of com-munication.

Empowerment Incubator. The goal of this project is to promote broader utilization of information technology within the NGO community of the Northeastern region of India for promoting sustainable develop-ment. The project seeks to establish an on-line service and to deliver IT training to en-hance the capabilities of civil society and to help advance their development agenda. This training exposes participants to the ICT resources available through the Inter-net, and it is expected to guide the partici-pants through a planning process for effec-tively introducing and utilizing the Internet into their respective institutional settings.

Earth Conscience, India

India Environ-ment

125,000 11,500 11,500 March 02 -March 03

Open School: A Collaboration Platform for Educational Content Development Using ‘Open Source’ Principles. CSIR is a com-munity- and industry-based scientific and technological research and development or-ganization in Africa. Its business is to per-form research and development to support developing communities with technology solutions and information that improve the quality of life. In addition to its research, development and implementation services, CSIR provides global science and technol-ogy links and perspectives; consulting ser-vices; specialized technical and information consulting services; software development and products; education and training. The aim of this project is to create local educa-tional content for Southern Africa, applying Open Source principles and engaging South Africans from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Information Society, thus contribut-ing to an improved understanding of Open Source in a development context.

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa

South Africa Education 347,440 100,000 50,000 June 02-June 03

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School Governance Networks for Educa-tional Improvement in Developing Coun-tries (Gansu, China Pilot). This project seeks to improve governance in isolated rural schools serving impoverished popu-lations. An ICT-enabled rural school gov-ernance network for principals in remote regions of Northwest China will be created. ICT tools that facilitate school management and planning and promote interaction with peers and expert advisors will be designed, piloted and refined. Using a randomized experimental design, the effects of the net-work on school management and student achievement and engagement will also be assessed. Finally, lessons learned will be dis-seminated to educators, development prac-titioners, policymakers, and scholars.

University of Pennsylvania, USA

China Education 418,000 150,000 60,000 June 20-October 04

Siberian Development Net: Russian Re-gional Approach to Stimulating Economic Growth. The overall goal of this project is to increase the capabilities of small and me-dium enterprises (SME) in poor areas of Si-beria, Russia, to attract investments for the growth and sustainability of their business-es (Project). The Project will attain this goal by increasing the capacity of local SME sup-port organizations to attract private invest-ment on the Internet. The Project will make specific efforts to promote equal investment opportunities for enterprises started by poor people, women, and individuals with disabilities. Russian municipalities provide support for small and medium enterprises through Local Business Centers (LBC). Al-tough a number of LBCs have the techni-cal capacity for using Internet technologies, in practice they are rarely used, due to com-munications problems or a lack of knowl-edge about opportunities. By building the capacity of the LBCs to use the Internet, and providing the knowledge and techni-cal platform for Internet marketing, this Project will help attract investments to Si-berian SMEs.

Cryptos, Russia Russia Internet 82,237 67,640 37,640 June 02-June 03

Maestros al trabajo (Artesans at Work). The main goal of this project is to create a pilot project for an internet based job an-nouncements page and a database of black-smiths, brick-layers, carpenters, construction

obraweb, Colombia

Colombia Internet 91,960 50,000 0 to be announced

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FY02

supervisors, electricians, gardeners, glazers, painters, plumbers, and workers who re-side in the poor areas (barrios) within and around Caracas, Venezuela.

FY01

UNECA/CISCO Training of Women En-trepreneurs. In partnership with Cisco Sys-tems, Inc. and UNECA this project will es-tablish a training course for African women in Internet networking technology at its Information Technology Centre for Afri-ca (ITCA) located in the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC), Addis Aba-ba, Ethiopia. The training course will fol-low the established curriculum of the Cis-co Networking Academy Program, a global program presently in operation in sixty-one countries. The UNECA-Cisco train-ing course will cover six months and 280 instructional hours each year, over 2 years (2 six-month courses). The women trained each year are 25, totaling 50 over 2 years. “

United Nations Eco-nomic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Ethiopia

sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia)

Education 669,595 249,000 187,000 March 01 - March 03

Online ICT Resource Centre for the Glob-al Development Community. The Asso-ciation for Progressive Communications (APC) will build a pilot version of an in-teractive, global ‘clearinghouse’ website of ICT training materials and support resourc-es that can be reproduced in local versions that meet local interests, language needs and regional/thematic concerns. The clear-inghouse will deal with issues of informa-tion infrastructure, education, and training material on ICT and networking processes geared at the public at large and specifically at civil society organization. Organizations and individuals will be able to exchange methodology, advice, FAQs, and best prac-tice on applying Internet technology to the work of civil society.

Association for Progressive Communications (APC), South Africa

Worldwide Education 353,700 248,710 210,000 January 01 - November 02

Creating a Global Information Network on Distance Education (World Wide). This project is designed to develop and dissemi-nate best practice in the design and delivery of distance education programs. It will sup-port the Global DistEdNet partner institu-tions in their efforts to forge a global chain of inter-connected information manage-ment sites, each with the capacity to gather

Commonwealth of Learning, Canada

Worldwide Education 529,613 245,450 155,000 June 01 - December 02

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3··················································································


·············································································································································································································in its region carefully selected information of proven value for decision-makers and practitioners in all developing countries in its region, and to disseminate such informa-tion to the world.

Regulatory Colloquium (Worldwide). The “World Regulatory Colloquium” will fo-cus on policy and regulatory issues of tele-communication and questions arising from its convergence with computing, broad-casting, new media, publishing, informa-tion services, and other activities related to the rapid growth of the Internet. The Col-loquium will provide the global communi-ty of professionals involved in this expand-ing field with a pre-eminent forum in which to explore ideas, share experiences, find best practices, and obtain guidance.

Lirne.net, Denmark

Worldwide Telecom/Regulatory

250,000 250,000 187,500 June 01 - March 04

Data Fusion for Flood Analysis & Decision Support (ANFAS). This project will test a prototype software information system, the goal being to find a solution for flood pre-vention and protection. The ANFAS project involves 13 partners from several European countries, and is supported by the Europe-an Commission and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology .

International Department, Ministry of Finances (Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences), PRC

China Environ-ment

4,190,000 245,000 205,000 March 01 - March 03

Inter-city Marketing Network for Women Micro-Entrepreneurs. This project will estab-lish a closed group communication network for community based women organizations to promote inter-city direct sales of products made by artisans and skilled workers in the state of Tamilnadu. This will be accomplished by providing the community-based organiza-tions (CBOs) with communications links by way of cellular phones to enable them to net-work for marketing their products.

Foundation of Occupational Development (F00D), India

India E-com-merce

172,900 147,900 127,000 April 01 - November 02

E-Readiness (Egypt). The objective of this project is to conduct an e-readiness assess-ment of Egyptian SMEs working in the ICT sector, and of Technology Access Community Centers in Egypt, to determine if they are pre-pared to participate in the networked world. After bottlenecks and strengths have been identified at the local level, a model to address these issues will be defined and a pilot project implemented. A final project evaluation re-port will include a replication plan.

Ministry of Communication, Information & Tech-nology, Egypt

Egypt Govern-ment

100,000 80,000 50,000 February 02 - February 03


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY01

8 4 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

8 5 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

3··················································································


·············································································································································································································Exploring Adequate Reform Models for the Telecom Sector. This project will assist the Chinese government in its efforts to build consensus on and raise awareness of options for a new communications/ICT sector pol-icy on introducing additional competition and encouraging private participation in in-vestment and service provision, especially in e-commerce. A reform agenda will be elab-orated through a careful review of current e-readiness situation in China.

Ministry of Information Industry, PRC

China Telecom/Regulatory

250,000 150,000 80,000 March 01 - October 03

Design and Implementation of Commu-nityTelecenters of Information and Com-munication. This project will support the expansion of the telecommunications infra-structure and valued-added services to low-income communities located in remote ru-ral and urban areas of southern Chile. The project is part of a national government program that competitively allocates sub-sidies from the Telecommunications De-velopment Fund as a mechanism for lever-aging private investments to bring telecom infrastructure to remote areas. The pilot in-frastructure includes five pilot community telecenters.

Ministry of Transports and Telecommunications, Government of Chile

Chile Internet 1,939,395 205,000 109,140 June 01 - December 02

Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) Online Forum. The GKD is an email discussion group focusing on the use of ICT for sustainable development by indi-viduals, NGOs, universities, companies, and government agencies around the world. It is an open list that has been active since March 1997 and has over 5,000 messages to date. Particular attention is paid to the collec-tion of development knowledge and experi-ence from developing countries. This project seeks to create a comprehensive system of in-dexing and to build a web-based interface.

Education Development Center, Inc., USA

Worldwide Internet 617,464 100,000 80,000 May 01 - November 02

Improving Healthcare and Education Through Shared ICT Resources. The goal of this project is to increase access, partic-ularly for women, to ICT facilities within southern Nigeria. It proposes to do this through IT training and equipment up-grades for Central Community Learning Centers (CCLCs) and Mobile Communi-tyTelecenters (MCTs) located in rural com-munities in the southern Kaduna area of

Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria

Nigeria Health 190,542 97,500 84,475 May 01 - May 04

·············································································································································································································


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY01


3··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Nigeria. Culturally relevant health informa-tion will be made available through a variety of media: the Internet, intranets, radio, and reference textbooks in the libraries. Alterna-tive power sources will be provided for the computers, and rural communities will be supported to set up their own CCLCs.

FY00

Information Strategy Tool Kit (ISTRA). The objectives of this project are the pro-duction of a strategic and technical toolkit for decisionmakers and network adminis-trators in developing countries in the form of a CD-ROM library on Internet related aspects: technology, regulation, legal as-pects of e-trade, development, strategic is-sues, and software. The CD-ROM will con-tain 200 documents created by 100 of the most prominent authors in the Internaut community.

UNITAR, Switzerland

Worldwide Internet 125,000 55,000 35,000 March 00 - September 02

Knowledge Network for Augmening Grass-roots Innovations I (India). The Knowledge Network (KN) will establish an experimental wide area network of farmers, rural extension workers and researchers in agricultural insti-tutions in the state of Gujarat to share results in field experiments with improved seeds, tools and other innovations. The new net-work will also be accessible to neighboring regions. In addition to specialists from the agricultural sector, it will become available to scientists, investors, entrepreneurs and consumers. Information will be transmitted by sound or picture files to reduce language barriers and facilitate communication with farmers who are illiterate.

Indian Institute of Management, India

India Internet 385,000 75,000 60,000 April 00 - November 02

Knowledge Network For Augmenting Grass-roots Innovations II (India). (see previous)

Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Tech-nologies and Institu-tions, Ahmedabad (SRISTI), India

India Internet 385,000 155,000 145,000 April 00 - November 02

Guatemala Micronet. The MicroTech Ser-vices Preparation Plan of March 13, 2000 aims to design, prototype and market test MicroTech services, one of the three service

La Fundacion Guatemala 2020, Guatemala

Guatemala E-Com-merce

127,000 50,000 40,000 May 00 - November 02


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY01·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································


3··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································lines of the proposed MicroNet network of community business centers. MicroTech would provide personal computer (PC) tools, side-by-side client coaching, and a cli-ent information technology user orientation course on how to use MicroTech in order to increase business competitiveness and mar-ket outreach.

INDEV: India’s Development Information Network. This project aims to create four major databases to hold and disseminate different forms of information using the In-ternet and web technology. The proposed databases are an NGO directory, a proj-ect database, a documents database, and a statistics database. Contents for these data-bases would come from partner organiza-tions, including government departments. To reach the target audience with different levels of access to information, there will be six types of output from the project: the IN-DEV Web site, e-mail digests, printed re-ports, exhibitions, CD-ROMs, and discus-sion lists.

The British Council, New Delhi, India

India Govern-ment

374,000 188,000 111,000 May 00 - November 02

India Health Care Project - Use of Infor-mation Technology for Delivering Quality Health Care to the Rural Population (India). This project will help to reduce or eliminate the redundant entry of data prevalent in pa-per registers, automatically generate Auxilia-ry Nurse Midwife (ANM) monthly reports, and make data electronically available for further analysis and compilation at higher levels of the health care system.

CMC Limited, India India Health 375,000 250,000 187,500 June 00 - November 02

FY99

SITA (Study of Information Technology Applications): Computer Skills Training for Low-Income Women. This project empow-ers low-income women from rural, suburban, and urban areas through computer training that is customized to meet the demands of both the public and private sectors.

Committee on Science & Technol-ogy in Developing Countries (COST-ED), India

India Education 220,000 120,000 114,000 June 99 - November 02

Strengthening Electronic Communica-tions Capacities of Women’s Organiza-tions in Africa. This project aims to de-velop a strong and focused core group of women across Africa. This core group will

ABANTU for Development, Kenya

Kenya Education 500,000 250,000 187,500 June 99 - September 02


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY00

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

8 8 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

8 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

3··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································use its combined expertise to help define and guide African priorities on electron-ic communications development and use; establish a cross-sectoral, inter-disciplinary African women’s information network; set up and maintain other African list servers and information networks to build African information and data banks within Africa; stimulate dialogue and cross-fertilization of ideas between women across Africa; enable women to use the Internet as an advocacy and information sharing tool on interna-tional issues; and develop strategies for in-fluencing information and communication policies from a gender perspective.

The U.S./Russia Child Health Care Tele-medicine Network. This project creates an international tele-health care network that will provide Russian pediatric medical per-sonnel in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the education and clinical training necessary for the effective management of children with cancer. The tele-healthcare network is being created at First Municipal Children’s Hos-pital in St. Petersburg, the largest city chil-dren’s hospital and the main source of ter-tiary care for children with leukemia in the northwest region of Russia.

Vishnevskaya-Rostropovich Foundation, USA

Russia Health 3,750,000 250,000 225,000 January 99 - November 02

InfoCaffé. NGO youth groups for Sene-gal, Ecuador, and India are participating in pilot nation-based sites by developing and operating “cyber-cafés” providing In-ternet connectivity in a user-friendly en-vironment. These cyber-cafés provide (1) email and Web access (where available) for partner youth environmental organizations, other local NGO groups, and the commu-nity at large; and (2) training in hardware and software operations for local people in the community.

The Foundation for the Future of Youth (FFY), USA

“Ecuador, Senegal & India”

Internet 676,996 249,535 175,000 December 98 - September 02

21st Century Communications. This proj-ect will develop a regulatory framework (in-cluding a responsible licensing process) for Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS) in Africa, which will address issues such as treatment of spectrum management, user terminal authorization, service partnership development, and ser-vice authorization.

Development Bank of Southern Africa, South Africa

Africa Telecom/Regulatory

806,340 250,000 225,000 June 99 - November 02


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

8 8 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

8 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

3··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Information Infrastructure Indicators, 1990-2010. Pyramid Research is develop-ing a set of indicators, designing a meth-odology, and defining empirical data to be used in assessing the information infrastruc-ture. This project is worldwide in scope, with special emphasis on developing coun-tries. The indicators are based on actual data and projections for total investment, reve-nue, infrastructure, and traffic for the peri-od 1990-2010.”

Pyramid Research, USA


100,000 100,000 100,000 June 99 - June 10

TOTAL “26,696,702 6,688,838 4,296,992·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

Annex

9 1 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································

i n f o D e v P R O J E C T S C O M P L E T E D A S O F J U N E 3 0 , 2 0 0 2


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)

Grant Disburse-ment (US$)”

Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

............................................................................................... A N N E X 4

Annex

9 1 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································



Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Network Readiness Assessment This grant supported (1) an assessment of the network readiness of developing countries and (2) the preparation of a Global Net-work Readiness Report (GNRR), which analyzed the adoption and use of infor-mation technology in approximately 75 countries. The GNRR addressed issues of network readiness through essays written by internationally renowned experts on IT and development, country profiles, and rankings of countries’ network readiness.

World Economic Forum, Switzerland

Worldwide Internet 250,000 250,000 250,000 November 01- December 01

Medinfo 2001, London, United Kingdom The British Computer Society’s Health Informatics Committee, UK

Worldwide iCSF 35,000 35,000 35,000 September 1-2, 02

Asia Pacific Forum on ICT for Rural Pov-erty Reduction, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), Thailand

Thailand iCSF 40,000 40,000 40,000 July 29-31, 02

e-Commerce: “Towards Harmonization of Policies and the Andean Regulation,” Cochabamba, Bolivia

Andean Community, Bolivia

Bolivia iCSF 14,000 14,000 14,000 November 21-22, 01

Fourth Water Information Summit (“In-ternet-Based Mechanisms and Partner-ships to Build Virtual Capacity for Sus-tainable Water Resources Management”), Panama City, Panama

Foundation for the Inter-Ameri-can Dialogue on Water Management, Panama

Peru iCSF 30,000 30,000 30,000 October 25-31, 01

“Internet Rights and Civil Society in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Montevi-deo, Uruguay

Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Canada

Uruguay iCSF 14,800 14,800 14,800 November 19-22, 01

2001 International Conference on the Development of Agricultural Information Management, (“Technology and Markets in the 21st Century,”) Beijing, China

China-EU Centre for Agricultural Technology (CECAT), China

China iCSF 17,700 17,700 17,700 November 4-6, 01

Annual Conference of the Society for Conservation GIS, Borrego Springs, USA

Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS), USA

Worldwide iCSF 15,000 15,000 15,000 July 5-7, 02

ICT Appropriation in Latin America, Lima and Cajamarca, Peru

Intermediate Technology De-velopment Group (ITDG), Peru

Peru iCSF 15,000 15,000 15,000 March 17-24, 02

APRICOT 2002, Bangkok, Thailand National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), Thailand

Thailand iCSF 15,000 15,000 15,000 25 February-March 7, 02

9 2 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02

9 3 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

Horn of Africa Regional Conference on Women and Information and Commu-nications Technology (“Towards a Horn of Africa Region Women’s Knowledge Network (HAWKNet)”)

The African Centre for Women and ICTs (ACWICT), Kenya

Kenya iCSF 15,000 15,000 15,000 June 3-7, 02

ICANN Accra Meetings, Accra, Ghana Internet Corpora-tion for Assigned Names and Num-bers (ICANN), USA

Ghana iCSF 30,000 30,000 30,000 March 10-14, 02

World Congress on Information Technol-ogy (WCIT) 2002, Adelaide, Australia

World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), USA

Worldwide iCSF 30,000 30,000 30,000 February 26-March 1, 02

Applying the e-Government Framework in Transitional Countries, Cracow, Poland

The Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe, NISPAcee

Poland iCSF 9,000 9,000 9,000 April 25-27, 02

INFOSOC 2002 & GKP Asia Pacific Re-gional Network Meeting, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Global Partnership Secretariat through MIMOS Berhad, Malaysia

Malaysia iCSF 7,500 7,500 7,500 June 4-5, 02

PPMI Seminar on Competition and Regulation, Bruges, Belgium

College of Europe, Belgium

Worldwide iCSF 13,700 13,700 13,700 July 14-20, 02

FY01

Kidlink Houses and Families in Brazil. This project addressed the need for ap-propriate care of a large number of poor Brazilian children, as well as lack of at-tention to elderly Brazilians. It fostered the development of “virtual families” wherein elders act as family members for children and tell them about their learning experiences.

Projeto Kidlink no Brasil-Fundacao Pe Leonel Franca/PUC-Rio, Brazil

Brazil Internet 1,512,000 134,000 134,000 January 01 - June 02

infoDev Motorola Visiting Fellowship Program (Worldwide). This project was designed (1) to establish or strengthen university-level educational curricula focused on communications technologies and Internet-Protocol-based (IP-based) networks; and (2) to create a “Virtual Curriculum Managers Network.” Visiting Scholars received state-of-the-art training and knowledge that allowed them to bet-ter teach engineering students.

Motorola University, USA

Worldwide Education 235,000 100,000 90,000 August 00 - December 01

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

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·············································································································································································································

9 2 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY02

9 3 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································Experimentation and Application of Ad-equate ICTs To Contribute to Internet Access for Third Sector Organization. With the goal of democratizing access to ICT in Brazil, this project focused on third-sector organizations, i.e., NGOs and civil society. The three objectives were (1) extensive, affordable and well distributed access to the Internet; (2) training and in-formation dissemination in the use of the medium, particularly as regards knowl-edge management and dissemination; and (3) awareness-raising to influence ICT policymaking.

Rede de Informa-ções para o Terceiro Setor (RITS), Brazil

Brazil Internet 532,139 250,000 125,000 January 01 - January 02

e-Maroc: Cyber Park. (Cancelled) Secrétariat d’Etat chargé de la Poste et des Technologies de l’Information (SEPTI), Morocco

Morocco Internet 353,700 145,000 0 March 01 - July 01

Tuition-Free Telecommunications Train-ing (Africa). This capacity-building project targeted regulators and policymakers in the telecommunications sector in Africa. With the liberalization of the sector, the introduction of privatization and com-petition, and the pressures of developing advanced communications services, Afri-can policy-makers and nascent regulators are faced with thorny legal, regulatory, economic and technological issues. The project provided funding to defray certain expenses incurred in connection with USTTI training.

United States Telecommunica-tions Training Institute (USTTI), USA

sub-Saharan Africa

Education 4,500,000 100,000 80,000 February 01 - February 02

IV Latin American and Caribbean Workshop on Internet Technology / V Latin American Networking School, Me-rida, Venezuela

The Internet Society (ISOC), the Forum of Latin American and Caribbean Net-works (ENRED), the National Center for Information Technologies of Venezuela (CNTI-REACCIUN) and the Latin American Networking School Foundation (Fun-dación EsLaRed)

Venezuela iCSF “144,240” “20,000” 20,000 May 28-June 02,

01

·············································································································································································································


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY01


4··················································································


MT200: Machine Translation and Mul-tilingual Applications in the New Millen-nium, Exeter, U.K.

The University of Exeter and The Natural Language Translation Special-ist Subgroup of the British Computer Society, UK

Worldwide iCSF 24,000 3,800 3,800 Nov. 19-22, 00

ACT2000 Regulators Forum, Sun City, South Africa

African IT Exhibitions and Conferences, UK

South Africa iCSF 135,000 22,000 22,000 Aug 29-Sep 01, 00

Strategies For Establishing Gateways and Information Networking in Zambia, Kitwe, Zambia

The Copperbelt University Library, Zambia

Zambia iCSF 37,000 9,225 9,225 April 01

GITA 2001: A Geospatial Odyssey, San Diego, USA

The Geospatial Information & Technology Association, USA

Worldwide iCSF 60,695 20,000 20,000 March 4-7, 01,

2001 Data Odyssey, Collaborative Work-ing in the Social Science Cyber Space, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

International As-sociation for Social Science Information Service and Tech-nology (IASSIST), USA

Worldwide iCSF 45,000 10,000 10,000 May 14-19, 01

Annual Conference of the SCGIS, Bor-rego Springs, USA

Society for Conser-vation (SC) GIS, USA

Worldwide iCSF 78,375 20,000 20,000 June-July 01

Fostering Democracy and Development through e-Government, Naples, Italy

The Italian Ministry of Public Adminis-tration, Italy

Worldwide iCSF 2,000,000 50,000 50,000 March 12-17, 01

Global Information Technology Manage-ment (GITM) World Conference, Dallas, Texas, USA

Information Systems and Opera-tions Management Department, Bryan School of Business and Economics, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA

Worldwide iCSF 18,560 18,560 18,560 June 10-12, 01

African Network Operators Group (AF-NOG) Workshop and Conference, Accra, Ghana

Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), AfriNIC, AfNOG, Ghana

Ghana iCSF 175,000 46,600 46,600 May 5-13, 01

World Broadcasting Unions Technical Committee Meeting, Munich, Germany

North American Broadcasters As-sociation (NABA), Canada

Worldwide iCSF 29,500 6,000 6,000 March 19, ‘01

Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) Annual Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Worldwide iCSF 275,000 11,000 11,000 March 22-23, 01

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY01


4··················································································


Internet Society (ISOC), Network Train-ing Workshop for Developing Countries, Stockholm, Sweden

The Internet Society (ISOC), Canada

Worldwide iCSF 200,000 45,300 45,300 June 01

FY00

MetaBase de Datos: Improving Public Ac-cess to Central America’s Bibliographic Re-sources Via the Internet. This project cre-ated a regional pilot “MetaBase de Datos” containing bibliographic references from information centers throughout Central America on development issues and en-vironmental protection. This searchable website was designed to facilitate public access to the region’s wealth of informa-tion resources and promote the exchange of materials and experiences among cen-ters, with an emphasis on those focussing on development issues and environmental protection. The project also supported self-sufficiency for the information centers by introducing a practical application of new technology and providing the oppor-tunity to reach a wider audience.

Fundación Acceso, USA

Central America (Costa Rica)

Telecom/Regulatory

282,000 250,000 250,000 March 01 - June 02

Stories Exchange Net. Begun in 1994 in Central Europe, this was a creative experi-ment using storytelling and performance as a tool for inter-ethnic communication and positive self-expression. The goal was to use capacity-building to reduce the social and economic exclusion of the people of Roma (Gypsy) descent in the Czech Republic. Participants collected and evaluated accounts of interaction between ethnic communities, then developed per-formances and other public presentations derived from these stories.

The Fund for New Performance/Video, New York and Institute of EastWest Studies, Prague, Czech Republic

Czech Re-public

Internet 332,350 245,295 225,000 December 99 - December 01

Connectivity & Commerce: Accelerat-ing e-Commerce (Uganda & Tanzania). The project supplied e-commerce pilot projects in Uganda and Tanzania with twinning, mentoring, and technical and targeted financial support.

PERWIT International Management Consultants, Canada

Uganda & Tanzania

E-com-merce

500,000 249,500 224,500 February 00 - October 01

Implementing a Global e-Commerce Net-work of Artisan Groups. This project sought to make operational a globally distributed network of digitally-capable grassroots or-ganizations promoting and marketing a wide range of crafts and agricultural goods produced by marginalized producers.

Peoplink, USA Worldwide Education 429,840 125,000 70,000 February 00-October 01


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY01·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

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·············································································································································································································

9 6 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

9 7 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Development of an Information Infra-structure. this project assisted the devel-opment of an information infrastructure agenda for Uganda consisting of both policy and program elements. Related objectives were to raise awareness of the potential for information infrastructure initiatives to contribute to Uganda’s devel-opment, and to help build constituencies for specific initiatives.

Makarere University, Institute of Computer Science, Uganda

Uganda Telecom/Regulatory

247,000 230,000 207,000 February 00 - August 01

PlaNet University Information System. This grant helped fund PlaNet University, an international non-governmental insti-tution that supports the microfinance sec-tor and microfinance institutions through web-based services. The PlaNet Informa-tion System provides a cost-effective platform for providing financial services (loans and grants to microfinance institu-tions), training services (online seminars and university degrees), and information rating services (evaluation databases).

PlaNet University, France

Worldwide Education 418,000 250,000 212,500 March 01 - October01

The National Graduate Registry in Pana-ma -- Partners for Employment. This proj-ect aimed to deliver a national web-based employment system in Panama by intro-ducing an expanded version of the National Graduate Registry (NGR), an employment creation tool used by the Canadian Govern-ment (through Industry Canada) to bring together university and college graduates and prospective employers.

EDUC-INTER, Quebec, Canada

Panama Telecom/Regulatory

309,800 210,800 189,720 March 00 - December 01

Enhancing Transparency in Local Govern-ment: Management Information System for the Municipality of Sofia. The project prepared a feasibility study and imple-mentation plan for a Municipal Govern-ment Management Information System (MGMIS) for Sofia. (The MGMIS is part of a wider administrative modernization program and a primary catalyst for de-centralizing government and improving municipal management.) An MGMIS pilot was installed and tested at the head-quarters of the municipality.

Applied Research and Communica-tions Fund (ARC Fund), Bulgaria

Bulgaria Govern-ment

344,010 250,000 225,000 March 00 - December 01

Empowering People with Disabilities (Central America). This projected trained people with disabilities in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua in the use of ICT to improve their employment opportunities.

Organization of American States (OAS), Trust for the Americas

“Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua”

Education 227,000 50,000 45,000 May 00 - December 01


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY00

9 6 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

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9 7 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································APT Conference Thailand (East Asia). This grant supported the organization of a regional Forum on Telecommunications Regulation in the Asia-Pacific region and the publication of papers presented there. Undertaken with the participation of the WTO, the event promoted the sharing of experience between international experts and telecommunications sector regulators in the Asia-Pacific region.

Asia Pacific Telecommunity, Thailand

Thailand Telecom/Regulatory

152,000 30,000 53,000 1-March

IYCC-Health Sector Coordinator. The goal of this project was to minimize the adverse effects of the Year 2000 “”millen-nium bug”” within the global health sec-tor by providing technical expertise, global coordination and promotion of good practice to all participating countries.

IHSD Ltd. (Institute for Health Sector Development), UK

Worldwide Health 260,306 120,700 100,700 August 99 - December 00

RFP/Analysys. This project demonstrated how the networking revolution can lead to an extreme range of potential outcomes, including any of several possible interme-diate scenarios; why this is happening so rapidly; and what can be done to steer the revolution towards a favorable outcome without distorting market mechanisms.

Analysys Ltd, UK Worldwide Internet 150,000 150,000 150,000 June 1998 - Decemer 99

Conducting a Series of Demonstration Project/Workshops in Georgia. For this project, the staff of Georgian NGOs, private businesses and others were trained in basic computer techniques including e-mail/Internet, website creation and design, electronic/CD-ROM/desktop publication, information and data management, and distance education programs. The project also provided free e-mail and Internet access to the under-served Georgian com-munity, created a comprehensive database of Georgian NGOs, and started a monthly NGO Internet bulletin. Throughout, ITIC staff researched demand for telecom-munications infrastructure and facilities.

ITIC (International Telecommunica-tions and Information Center), Georgia

Georgia Internet 61,707 44,727 44,727 February 00 - March 01

The African Computing Telecommunica-tions Summit (Sub-Saharan Africa)

AITEC Exhibitions & Conferences, UK

Worldwide iCSF 65,947 26,190 26,190 August 25-27, 99

NIT ‘99: The 11th International Confer-ence on New Information Technology (Sub-Saharan Africa)

Chen and Chen Consultants, USA

Taiwan iCSF 88,000 8,480 8,480 August 18-20, 99

ICDE Librarians’ Roundtable (East Asia) The Open Univer-sity of Hong-Kong

Worldwide iCSF 64,647 15,150 15,150 October 11-12, 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY00


4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

Integration with Information Technology and Electronic Commerce (Sub-Saharan Africa)

Association pour le Soutien et l’Appui a la Femme Entre-preneur - ASAFE, Cameroon

Cameroon iCSF 190,562 26,800 26,800 November 8-13, 99

Tel-isphere ‘99 (Latin America & the Caribbean)

The Common-wealth of Learning, Canada

Barbados iCSF 126,900 31,625 31,625 November 24-27, 99

The World Services Congress (Worldwide) Coalition of Service Industries Research and Education Foundation, USA

Worldwide iCSF 800,000 25,000 25,000 November 1-3, 99

The Executive Conference on Integrated Information Systems - Cesii ‘99 (Latin America & the Caribbean)

Black & Gorman, USA

Worldwide iCSF 258,000 25,000 25,000 November 20-24, 99

Commsphere 2000 - Affordable Telecom and IT Solutions for Developing Countries

Indian Institute of Technology, India

India iCSF 85,000 20,000 20,000 February 28- March 2, 00

The Latin American Forum on Com-munications (Latin America & the Caribbean)

Public Utility Research Network - PURC University of Florida, USA

Worldwide iCSF 180,000 21,123 21,123 January 25-28, 00

Bamako 2000: Bridges to Development (Sub-Saharan Africa)

Fondation du Deve-nir, Switzerland

Mali iCSF 1,000,000 20,000 20,000 February 21-25, 00

IAALD 10th World Congress: Challenges facing the agricultural information com-munity in the third millennium (Sub-Saharan Africa)

IAALD, the Nether-lands

Senegal iCSF 337,000 20,000 20,000 January 24-28, 00

The Panamerican Seminar/Workshop NSDI (Latin America & the Caribbean)

ICAG : Instituto Geografico Agustin Codazzi, Colombia

Worldwide iCSF 205,000 20,000 20,000 February 28 - March 1, 00

Global Knowledge II (Worldwide) MIMOS Berhad - National Technol-ogy Council , Malaysia

Malaysia iCSF 4,000,000 50,000 50,000 February 00

Stokholm Challenge (Worldwide) City of Stockholm, Sweden

Worldwide iCSF 400,000 10,000 10,000 February 00

ICANN Yokohama Meetings ICANN (Internet Corporation for As-signed Names and Numbers), USA

Worldwide iCSF 2,100,000 50,000 50,000 July 13-17, 01

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Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY00·············································································································································································································


4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Autonomous System for Interactive Electronic Commerce (ASIEC): Phase 1 - Computerized Mobile Bank (CMB). This project designed, deployed and operated a Computerized Mobile Bank (CMB) to provide banking services to Susu operators and small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana over a period of 18 months. The objective was to determine the extent to which a CMB can expand the outreach of formal banking institutions and reduce the transaction costs of providing com-plete banking services to informal bankers and SMEs.

AEDAR Corporation, USA

Ghana E-com-merce

600,000 250,000 150,000 May 99 - December 01

The Establishment of a Technical, Opera-tional and Legal Framework for the Man-agement of Geographic Information. This project provided appropriate technical and financial support mechanisms for the ac-tivities of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Geographic Information (IATFGI).

National Mapping & Resource Information Au-thority (NAMRIA), Philippines

Philippines Environ-ment

168,800 88,000 66,600 April 99 - October 01

Conference on Global Electronic Com-merce. This was a project to implement a survey, commission a white paper, and organize workshops. The goal was to provide a rich source of data about current needs and future technological trends, thus providing timely and anticipatory information to e-commerce practitioners in India and worldwide.

Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India

India E-com-merce

191,500 88,500 88,500 June 99 - December 99

Trade Information Network (TIN) of The Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Assimilated Institutions of the Group of 77 and China, UN as an Integral Part of IBCC-NET. This was a project to develop and implement five technical workshops on electronic commerce targeting cham-bers of commerce from developing coun-tries. Using a training-of trainers (TOT) methodology, selected participants learned how to use and apply information and communication technology to enhance trade competitiveness for small- and medi-um-scale enterprises. The project focused on capacity building to help chambers of commerce re-invent their role as informa-tion brokers and roll out acquired Internet proficiency to local business communities. The activity also developed an educational tool-kit for public use.

Global Management Center, USA

Worldwide E-com-merce

684,488 250,000 225,000 June 99 - March 00


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

1 0 0 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

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1 0 1 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Report for the 8th ITU Regulatory Col-loquium, “Regulatory Issues for e-Com-merce.” This project prepared the Briefing Report for the “8th ITU Regulatory Col-loquium: Regulatory Issues for Electronic Commerce” held in Geneva in December 1998. The Briefing Report addressed the many policy and regulatory issues raised by the rapid advance of electronic com-merce in recent years.

David N. Townsend & Associates, USA

Worldwide E-com-merce

50,000 50,000 50,000 September 99 - February 99

Solidarity Information System (SO-LARIS). This information delivery system activity was designed to raise awareness and build consensus on issues related to (1) access to natural resources and (2) the equitable sharing of their benefits so as to preserve the environment and exploit such resources in a sustainable manner.

Solagral Montpellier, France

sub-Saharan Africa

Education 750,000 250,000 250,000 June 99 - March 01

China’s Industrial pollution Projection System (CIPPS). In early 1999 the World Bank and the China State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) signed a project contract to develop and imple-ment an information tool (CIPPS, an air and water pollution control modeling system) to support China’s environmental regulatory agencies. Major components included constructing air and water pol-lution discharge models, ambient environ-mental quality models, pollution damage models, and pollution abatement cost models; data collection; model estimation; development of a GIS-based software sys-tem; system manual preparation; training; policy analyses of the case area; a work-shop; and documentation.

National Environmental Protection Agency of China (NEPA), PRC

China Environ-ment

412,900 249,900 249,900 January 99 - March 01

The Environment and Information: Building Capacity (Mexico). This project coordinated the efforts of several govern-ment agencies and NGOs to disseminate environmental data and information in Mexico by providing continuous training for data providers and users, establishing an Environmental Information Coop-erative in Mexico, and developing an electronically distributed catalog of data and information

Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Mexico

Mexico Environ-ment

347,000 177,000 177,000 April 99 - September 00

Developing User-friendly Data Products for Sale and Distribution to Agricultural Data Users. The purpose of this project was to help governmental providers of

Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT), Colombia

Central America & the Caribbean

Environ-ment

1,008,478 241,489 241,489 April 99 - March 01


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

1 0 0 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 1 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································agricultural data to (1) create geographical-ly referenced data products and (2) develop networks with the data-user community. The participating countries in the region linked their census and statistical data sets to digital administrative boundary maps in a geographic information system (GIS) for the agricultural sector. Participants devel-oped the methods and human resources to implement and maintain these agricultural information systems.

Demonstration Project with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to Create an International Waters Learning Exchange and Research Network (IW LEARN). The purpose of this project was to set up a global distance learning program for transboundary international waters projects. infoDev funds supported three “proof-of-concept” activities: establishing a set of innovative financing packages for student aid; setting up interactive Web links between at least 7-8 developing country waters projects and two major scientific meetings; and developing Web-based curriculum modules for coastal secondary schools.

The Tides Center, USA

Worldwide Environ-ment

600,000 140,000 140,000 December 98 - March 00

From Accounting to Accountability: Man-aging Accounting Records as a Strategic Resource. This project was designed to improve government financial account-ability in Namibia and Zimbabwe. It fo-cused on strengthening accountability and public sector financial management by improving the quality of records required by government accounting systems. The project reviewed the special requirements of the accounting systems needed for ef-fective decentralization of government, providing donors and administrators with a framework for implementing ef-fective records management. A final goal was to produce measurable performance indicators for evaluating the effectiveness of record keeping systems in supporting financial management.

International Records Management Trust (IRMT), UK

Namibia & Zimbabwe

Govern-ment

274,806 245,749 245,749 June 99 - December 00

Reference Model for Government Trea-sury Systems (Worldwide). This project developed a reference model for govern-ment treasury systems to help them increase efficiency, accountability, and transparency in financial management.

Crossings Development Corporation, USA


250,000 250,000 250,000 January 99 - March 00


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

1 0 2 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 3 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Tobacco-Control Training and Commu-nications Program (Czech Republic). This project used an Internet-based Czech To-bacco-Control Training and Communica-tions Program (TOB-CCP) to support an 18-month demonstration program to ad-dress health issues related to tobacco use, especially among women and children. The TOB-CCP, located at the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM), is training health professionals from Czech district-level district hygiene stations (DITs) as well as from other public health professionals and NGOs in using modern information technology for health-related issues.

Center for Communica-tions, Health and the Environment (CECHE), USA

Czech Re-public

Health 924,029 249,879 249,879 April 99 - December 00

Forward – A Project to Foster a Wide and Rational Development of Telecommu-nication Infrastructures. For this project, participants updated and completed their skills and knowledge, the better to meet the challenge of developing local infor-mation infrastructures and connecting to the global information infrastructure. They investigated issues such as invest-ment strategies, economic management of different architectural and technical options (particularly those related to the access network for residential and business customers), business development, and self-sustaining development plans.

TELECOM ITA-LIA LAB S.p.A., Italy

Latin America Telecom/Regulatory

612,500 400,000 400,000 June 99 - March 01

Preparation of a Practical Handbook for Telecommunications Regulators. This project produced a handbook to give telecommunications regulators a reference source on telecommunications regulatory practices and procedures currently used around the world. It focused on best practices for implementing the clear and effective regulatory reform required for the introduction of competition, privatization, and more-efficient telecom markets in emerging and industrialized economies.

McCarthy Tetrault, Canada


334,410 245,000 245,000 June 98 - December 00

Regional Journalists’ Y2K Awareness Semi-nar. The Dante B. Fascell North-South Center, in conjunction with the Inter American Press Association, convened four seminars for journalists and public information officials in Argentina, Brazil, the United States, and Venezuela on “Cov-ering the Y2K Bug and its Local Impact in the Americas.

Dante B. Fascell North-South Center, University of Miami, USA

Latin America Y2K Non-Govern-ment

211,057 100,000 100,000 June 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

1 0 2 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 3 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Y2K and GPS Bug Web Site. This project improved an already partially built web-site, adding and resources for solving Y2K and Global Positioning System Satellites End-of-Week (GPS EOW) problems in an easily accessible and usable form.

Grand River Informatics Inc. (GRI), USA

Worldwide Y2K Non-Govern-ment

120,000 68,000 68,000 June 99 - March 00

The Y2K Public Awareness and Prepared-ness Campaign. The Y2K Public Aware-ness and Preparedness Campaign project complemented the Government’s Action Plan, Project 2000. The project involved preparing audio-visual and printed mate-rials for the media to inform the Russian population of the progress of “Problem 2000”; distributing these materials via the media; and monitoring and analyzing public opinion.

Committee 2000 Foundation, Russia

Russia Y2K Non-Govern-ment

720,253 150,000 150,000 June 99 - March 00

AHCIET special workgroup on account-ing rates, Cartagena, Colombia

AHCIET (Asoci-ación Hispanoamer-icana de Centros de Investigación y Empresas de Tele-comunicaciones), Spain

Colombia iCSF 70,000 18,200 18,200 October 22-23, 98

ITU-T Study Group 3 meeting, Geneva, Switzerland

International Telecommunication Union / Telecom-munication Stan-dardization Sector, Switzerland

Worldwide iCSF 457,500 54,264 54,264 December 7-15, 98

African Telecom Summit ‘99, Accra, Ghana

Spectrum Interna-tional Ltd, Ghana

Ghana iCSF 118,292 73,700 73,700 March 2-4, 99

GITA 99 Annual Conference , Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

GITA Geospatial Information & Technology Associa-tion, USA

Worldwide iCSF 57,595 48,970 48,970 April 25-28, 99

ITU-T study group 3 meeting, Geneva, Switzerland

International Telecommunication Union / Telecom-munication Stan-dardization Sector, Switzerland


The Global Bangemann Challenge Conference and Exhibition, Stockholm, Sweden

The City of Stockholm / Global Bangemann Chal-lenge, Sweden


ESLARED II Workshop on Internet Networking Technologies 1999 for Latin American Countries, Merida, Venezuela

Internet Society (ISOC), Forum of Latin American and Caribbean

Venezuela iCSF 223,580 32,500 32,500 June 13-18, 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99

1 0 4 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2 1 0 5 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Networks (ENRED), National Center for Informa-tion Technologies of Venezuela (CNTI-REACCIUN), Latin American Networking School Foundation (Fun-dación EsLaRed)

AHCIET Hispano American Forum on Telemedicine, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

AHCIET (Asoci-ación Hispanoamer-icana de Centros de Investigación y Empresas de Tele-comunicaciones), Spain


FY98

Networking for Innovation in Technology and Teacher Training. This project estab-lished an international network of countries engaged in innovative approaches to train-ing teachers in the use of technology, and/or are training teachers to use computers and the Internet as tools to enhance student learning. Case studies were conducted of each country’s efforts to document the efficacy of the approaches under various conditions and contexts.

Institute for International Education (IIE), USA

Worldwide Education 406,000 250,000 250,000 June 98 - December 01

UrbanDataLink. The Urban Data Link was a prototype, ready-for-testing, stand-alone application designed to facilitate the collection, dissemination, visualization, and simple analysis of urban indicator data collected by local observers. The key objective of the Urban Data Link (UDL) project is to create a software package for generating and linking distributed local urban indicators data sets.

UN Center for Human Settlements (Habitat), The Global Urban Observatory, Kenya


467,750 249,750 124,875 June 98 - December 01

Promotion and Development of Telematics in the Public Sector in Ghana. The project helped empower user institutions in sectors of public concern in Ghana to consolidate their demand for national and international telematics services and to define and develop appropriate and local access infrastructures. The project was also a prototype for planned assistance to African countries in the telemat-ics field under the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa.

UNESCO, France Ghana Govern-ment

342,800 250,000 225,000 June 98 - September 01


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY99·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································


4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

Informatisation du Système d’Information à des fins de Gestion (SIG) du Ministère de la Santé Publique et de l’Action Sociale (MSPAS) de la République de Sénégal. The project assisted the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the development of a computerized network supporting the Senegal Health Management Informa-tion System (MIS). The project provided software programming, materials, core logistics, word processing equipment, pro-cedural manuals, and training of MSPAS staff in the use of the foregoing.

Ministère de la Santé Publique et de l’Action Sociale, Sénégal

Senegal Health 3,300,000 250,000 175,000 March 98 -December 01

Information Systems for Rural Develop-ment (A demonstration project in Caja-marca Department, Peru). The project worked to to reduce poverty and isolation, enhance productive activities, and make local government more efficient in two provinces of Cajamarca, San Marcos and the Jequetepeque Basin. To this end, an information system was designed and implemented with the support of the lo-cal producers’ association and two local governments.

Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), Peru

Peru Internet 367,775 247,885 208,223 May 98 - December 01

Interactive Workshop and Conference on “Emerging Global Electronic Distance Education”. This project brought together decisionmakers from under-served coun-tries to discuss practical ways to imple-ment affordable global electronic distance education across national boundaries. The conference goals were to promote accessible, affordable global distance education; increase understanding of different cultural conditions, values, and needs; emphasize the values of sustain-ability and equality; link enthusiasts with decisionmakers and funding resources; identify pilot projects that will lead to full scale distance education; and discuss the standardization of courses, credits, and accreditation.

University of Tampere, Finland

India Education 250,000 100,000 100,000 June 98-December 99

Cyberschool Africa. This grant was made to help CSA to offer a range of Internet-based educational services. These services included revision tutorials, an online ques-tion-and-answer forum, a test facility to assess student performance, educational games, an interactive chat room, and training courses.

Cyberschool Africa, South Africa

South Africa Education 125,970 70,910 70,910 March 98 - September 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

1 0 6 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 7 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Proyecto Conexiones. Conexiones was a project to research, develop, and evaluate new learning environments in basic educa-tion. Conexiones aimed to foster the use of new pedagogical methodologies based on the flexibility and adaptation of the cur-riculum, encouraging individual capabilities to reach group goals, teacher training, and community involvement. To accomplish this, Conexiones deployed a pilot commu-nications network linking public and private schools in urban and rural areas of Medellin, Colombia.

Universidad EAFIT, Colombia

Colombia Education 1,320,494 250,000 250,000 May 98 - October 99

Regional Distance Learning Networks for Information Technology. This project established a distance learning network for information technology in seven Arab countries. The project included the first phase of an assessment of the data commu-nication infrastructures in the region as well as the need and potential for remote learning facilities. This survey was accomplished by specialized experts from the region and a master plan was based on that survey. A pilot implementation was accomplished in Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan to connect three training centers in these countries with each other.

Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center - RITSEC, Egypt

Egypt Education 330,000 250,000 250,000 May 98 - April 99

Wise-Dev (Web Integrated System for Environment & Development). This grant funds the research, design and implementa-tion of the Web Integrated System for En-vironment and Development (WISE-DEV) software tool. This tool is suitable for use on an internet platform for multimedia data ac-quisition and processing and knowledge rep-resentation and dissemination, with a focus on environmental matters in West Africa.

Institut de recherche pour le developpe-ment (IRD), France

sub-Saharan Africa

Environ-ment

2,200,000 228,600 228,600 December 1997 - May 01

Information Dissemination for Sustain-able Development of Industrial Minerals Resources and Environmental Constraints. The purpose of the project was to organize regional workshops to provide specialists from government and the mining and consuming industries in developing coun-tries with an appreciation of (1) evaluation techniques for industrial minerals, (2) effec-tive databasing of the resulting information, and (3) use of the information to formulate effective responsible long-term strategies for resource management and land-use plan-ning. Three workshops were planned in three regional centers.

British Geological Survey, UK

Worldwide Environ-ment

90,000 88,780 88,780 March 98 - July 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

1 0 6 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 7 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Information for Collaborative Planning: Global Knowledge -- Activity Information Management System (GK-AIMS). This project supported greater communication, broader and more meaningful program/project information sharing, and increased collaboration among development agen-cies working in the area of ICT. It did this through three sets of interrelated activities: development, operation, and maintenance of of prototype information-sharing tools; research into and incorporation of relevant evolving technical solutions for shared on-line activities; and animation of inter-agency dialogues around sustainability issues of col-laboration and information sharing.

Bellanet International Secretariat, Canada


341,000 250,000 250,000 June 98 - March 01

infoDev Health Information Training Center. infoDev funds helped establish a pilot East African Regional Information Technology Training Centre (RITTC) in Nairobi, Kenya. The center offered two courses for individuals recruited from health-related institutions and organiza-tions in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanza-nia, and Uganda. The first was a three-day introduction to information technology and its health applications. The second was a one-week training course designed to create a cadre of information-technol-ogy trainers (ITTs), that is, a group of health professionals skilled not only in the use of information technology, but also in training other health professionals in their home countries. The RITTC was administered by SatelLife with assistance from the network management team of HealthNet Kenya (HNK).

SatelLife, USA sub-Saharan Africa

Health 317,504 250,000 250,000 May 98 - September 00

Physician-Based Sentinel Surveillance System for Emerging Health and Disease Problems in the Caribbean. Using current and new technologies in information and communication, the project developed na-tional capability in Caribbean countries for monitoring trends and promptly detecting, investigating, and controlling emerging health and disease problems (e.g., cholera) as well as re-emerging ones (e.g., measles, food borne outbreaks in hotels). An elec-tronic information system for the real-time surveillance of these problems was estab-lished at physician’s offices in Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, and St. Lucia.

PAHO/WHO Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), Trinidad & Tobago

Latin America & Caribbean

Health 433,357 248,407 248,407 June 98 - April 01


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

1 0 8 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································Demonstrating a Generalizable Model for Introducing Technologies to Expand and Strengthen National Reproductive Health Training and Service Delivery Systems. The purpose of the project was to refine and demonstrate solutions (ReproSys-temTM components) for strengthening national, competency-based training (CBT) and service delivery systems by application of computer and communica-tions technologies to address constraints to information flow in training networks. The ReproSystemTM solutions used were ModCalTM.

JHPIEGO, Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Reproductive Health, USA

Indonesia Health 3,055,614 248,572 248,572 June 98 - November 99

Business Plan Development for Tele-communication/Information Centers in Ghana. This project developed a business plan for the establishment and operation of for-profit information service centers, demonstrating that such “Info/Marts” are an economical way to provide telecom-munication and information services to unserved and underserved communities in Ghana. The business plan included lists of demand factors, costs, technical requirements, potential business partners, and other parameters.

Info/Mart Foundation, Inc., USA

Ghana Internet 86,000 55,000 55,000 June 98 - December 00

African Empowerment Network in Information Technologies. The project addressed two major shortcomings in the development of Information technologies in Africa: the negative impact of the “soft constraints” that hamper the efficiency of IT investments made via development assistance and the private sector; and the risk that IT programs will never become self-sufficient because of a lack of empow-erment of local actors, especially in those population groups and areas most in need of IT for development.

Fondation du Devenir, Switzerland

sub-Saharan Africa

Internet 550,000 250,000 250,000 June 98 - September 00

The Baltic Sea Information Society Project-Start up: Northwest Russia. This project fostered the development of an “Information Society” program in the St. Petersburg region of Russia. The first step was to form a broadly-based, inde-pendent project organization (including private and public sector representatives) to consult on creating an Information Society strategy for St. Petersburg. On the basis of this strategy, a concrete In-formation Society program was formed.

Eurofacts Oy, Finland

Russia Internet 250,000 250,000 250,000 March 98 - October 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

1 0 8 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 0 9 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································The knowledge and experiences of the Finnish Government’s Information So-ciety Strategy and the European Union’s Information Society program were used as references.

Second Annual Ballerina Meeting: Support to CIS and CEE Participation. This proj-ect supported BALLERINA, a network for sharing regional information on the envi-ronment and sustainable development; it also links users to relevant information in the Baltic region. The institutional network comprises a wide range of insti-tutions, ranging from inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations lo-cated in all of the fourteen Baltic countries and elsewhere.

UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Sweden

Worldwide Internet 147,000 36,750 36,750 March 98 - September 98

Africa Global Connectivity Conference. The conference goal was to improve com-munications between African countries and the rest of the world by bringing together the promoters/operators of existing and proposed satellite- and cable-based communications facilities with deci-sionmakers in Africa at the policymaking, regulatory, and operating levels.

BMP International, Ltd., UK

Ethiopia Internet 600,000 250,000 201,400 January 98 - June 98

Development of Web Site and Online Services for ITU Regulatory Colloquium. This project supported a program to elec-tronically distribute the ITU Regulatory Colloquium’s information resources and facilitate interaction with its key audienc-es. This was done by developing, market-ing, and managing a website and related online services in a manner that integrated with and furthered the objectives of the Colloquium’s information dissemination program. The potential exists for the Col-loquium to become the pre-eminent refer-ence point for people trying to understand the fundamentals of telecoms regulation in a liberalizing environment.

Analysys Ltd., UK Worldwide Telecom/Regulatory

155,805 101,065 101,065 June 98 - December 99

Assistance for Emerging Economies to Participate in the WTO Telecommunica-tions Market Liberalization: Caribbean Telecommunications Union. This proj-ect was a follow-up of the Program to Enhance the Participation of Emerging Economies in WTO Telecommunications Negotiations, which helped 26 developing countries understand and participate in

Caribbean Telecommunica-tions Union (CTU), Trinidad & Tobago

Latin America & Caribbean

Telecom/Regulatory

70,360 70,360 63,443 December 97 - June 98


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

1 1 0 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 1 1 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································the World Trade Organization Negotia-tions on Services that ended on February 15, 1997. There were two tracks under which assistance was provided to emerg-ing economies taking part in the WTO telecommunications market liberalization process. Track I included assistance to countries making telecommunications commitments under the GATS. Track II involved a detailed workplan acceptable to IBRD (the Track II Workplan) outlining issues, strategy, tactics and recommenda-tions for helping countries that have com-mitted to carrying out legal and regulatory reform. The project was split into four grants to regional organizations.

Assistance for Emerging Economies to Par-ticipate in the WTO Telecommunications Market Liberalization: Asia Pacific Tele-com. This project supported Asia Pacific Telecommunity’s (APT) efforts to provide assistance to countries in the Asia Region. The project was split into four grants to regional organizations.

Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), Thailand

Asia Pacific Telecom/Regulatory

72,600 72,600 72,600 May 98 - March 00

Assistance for Emerging Economies to Participate in the WTO Telecommuni-cations Market Liberalization: Telecom Forum of Africa--WTO Program (*Grant was originally $107,996). This project was for BMI-TechKnowledge Africa Ltd. and Telecom Forum Africa to provide as-sistance to countries in the Africa region. The project was split into four grants to regional organizations.

BMI-Tech-Knowledge Africa Ltd/TELECOM FORUM AFRICA, Africa

sub-Saharan Africa

Telecom/Regulatory

124121* 124,121 124,121 June 98 - June 99

Assistance for Emerging Economies to Par-ticipate in the WTO Telecommunications Market Liberalization: Wissenschaftliches Inst. This project is for the Wissenschaftli-ches Institut fuer Kommunikationsdienste (WIK) GmbH to provide assistance to countries in Latin America and the Carib-bean as well as Europe and Central Asia The project was split into four grants to regional organizations.

Wissenschaftliches Institut fuer Kom-munikationsdienste (WIK) GmbH, Germany

ECA Telecom/Regulatory

86,500 86,500 86,500 March 98 - June 01

Support to International Telecommunica-tion Operations in Emerging Economies to Make Adjustments Necessitated by the Inevitable Reduction in International Telecommunication Settlement Revenues. This activity helped two countries (Ugan-da and Sri Lanka) make the adjustments

Commonwealth Telecommunica-tions Organisation, UK

Uganda and Sri Lanka

Telecom/Regulatory

70,000 70,000 70,000 February 98 - May 98


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

1 1 0 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

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1 1 1 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································necessary to cope with lower revenues resulting from inevitable changes in tra-ditional international telecommunication settlements. infoDev financed case studies reviewing the impact tha

ITU Seventh Regulatory Colloquium, ITU, Headquarters, Geneva. The Sev-enth Colloquium dealt with one of the most pressing issues of international telecommunications -- and one that vitally concerns many developing countries: the current crisis in the international system by which countries compensate each other for international telecommunications services (the so-called “”accounting rate”” issue). The Colloquium examined this crisis, considered what specific changes can be made to the present arrangements, identified alternatives to the current sys-tem, and considered transition schemes needed to get from here to there.

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Switzerland


8,140 8,140 8,140 December 97

Toolkit for Addressing the Y2K Problem in Developing Countries. This activity gener-ated a Toolkit and operated a web-based dissemination campaign to raise awareness among governments and industry of the Y2K problem for developing countries. The Toolkit provided information on the nature of the Y2K problem, helped government officials assess problems, and provided guidelines on how to select a contractor and how to evaluate a contrac-tor’s work. The Toolkit was disseminated electronically and via conventional media. Finally, a strategy was developed for hold-ing awareness-raising seminars in several key cities worldwide using the Toolkit to generate interest and concern for the Y2K problem.

Consiel, Italy Worldwide Y2K Non-Govern-ment

250,000 243,000 218,700 September 97 - June 99

Commsphere Africa ‘98, Dakar, Senegal African Telecom-munications Observatory

Senegal iCSF 300,000 50,000 50,000 July 98

Internet Society Network Technology Workshop for Latin America & Carib-bean, Rio de Janeiro

Rede Nacional de Pesquisas (RNP), Brazil

Brazil iCSF 170,000 30,000 30,000 July 98

Executive Conference on Integrated Information Systems (Cesii) in Florida, Miami, Florida

Black & Gorman, USA

Worldwide iCSF 266,054 48,054 48,054 September 98

Internet Society Network Technology Workshop for Developing countries, Ge-neva, Switzerland

The Internet Society, USA

Worldwide iCSF 714,000 50,000 50,000 July 98


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98


4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································12th Annual Conference, Asian Asso-ciation of Open Universities: “The Asian Distance Learner”, Hong Kong

The Open Univer-sity of Hong-Kong

Worldwide iCSF 211,645 21,645 21,645 November 98

First International Conference on Rural Telecommunications, B138Washington, D.C.

National Telephone Cooperative As-sociation NTCA (in cooperation with the Economic De-velopment Institute of the World Bank), USA

Worldwide iCSF 104,230 48,030 48,030 Novem-ber - December 98

FY97

Linking Poor Producers to Global Mar-kets. With infoDev support, PEOPLink developed a set of equipment, software and procedures that enabled poor artisans to take the first steps into the world of electronic communications for product design and sales.

Peoplink, USA Asia, Africa, Latin America

E-com-merce

261,600 158,400 158,400 April 97 - September 98

The National Information Infrastructure of Mexico: The Environmental Link. In cooperation with CICEANA, UNAM, and ITESM, CIESIN conducted a one-year activity to train and support personnel in Mexico to place data and information on the Internet and to con-duct Internet user training courses. The objective was to provide public and private organizations in Mexico with the ability to place environmental, social, economic, and other data on-line and to familiarize a large number of users with the contribu-tions that electronic information available on the Internet can make toward planning and social and economic development.

Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Mexico

Mexico Environ-ment

347,000 250,000 250,000 April 97 - March 98

Increasing Electronic Connectivity be-tween Strategic Allied in the HIV/AIDS field in South East Asia. This project helped the UNAIDS Asia Pacific Inter-Country Team (APICT) increase the level of email connectivity between govern-ments and NGOs working on HIV/AIDS in Southeast Asia.

UNAIDS, Switzerland

South-East Asia

Health 224,000 224,000 224,000 November 97 - Septem-ber00

Economic Tool-kit and Workshops for Internet Connectivity in Africa. This grant was made to assist UNECA in creating a toolkit to be used by policymakers in Africa to determine and demonstrate the benefits of liberalizing value-added Internet services.

Africa Internet Forum (AIF), Ethiopia


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································


4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································The Internet Society 1997 Workshop on Network Technology for Countries in the Early Stages of Internetworking. Held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 1997, this workshop focused on assisting countries that are either not yet connected to the Internet or are currently developing and enhancing a national Internet backbone. The workshop was sponsored and run by the Internet Society. Funding was provided by a variety of public and private donors. Leading practitioners provided training in basic and advanced national networking, network navigation and services, and na-tional network management. All workshop participants engaged in extensive hands-on training, setting up prototype networks and using actual Internet resources.

McGill University, Canada

Malaysia Internet 182,000 50,000 50,000 June 97 - April 98

Connectivity Information & Training Center for Internet, Cameroon (Internet CITI Cameroon). The main purpose of this project was to instill a solid Internet awareness in the higher education appara-tus. This was to encourage the introduction of the Internet in the University programme relating to computer science and other sub-jects; to develop permanent training activi-ties for companies and administrations; and to stabilize a substainable and financially au-tonomous structure in charge of permanent training and advice.

UNITAR, Switzerland

Cameroon Internet 174,652 120,152 120,152 March 97 - October 99

Kenya Rural Telecommunications Field Trial and Commercialization Pilot. This project involved the installation, field trial, and evaluation of rural telephony systems in two geographic areas over a 12-month period. A private telephone operators were chosen to operate rural telecommunications systems comprising at least 100 lines. Dur-ing the trial period, each system chosen was evaluated. If the system proved suitable for commercial services, it was considered for exansion to at least 500 lines and approved for further market deployment in Kenya during the next three years.

Kenya Posts and Telecommunica-tions Corporation (KPTC), Kenya

Kenya Telecom/Regulatory

775,000 250,000 100,000 August 97 - June 00

Program to Enhance Participation of Emerging Economies in WTO Telecom-munications Negotiations This program developed along two parallel tracks. First,six regional workshops were con-ducted to (1) raise awareness and dissemi-nate information on the WTO process

International Institute of Communications, UK


293,000 233,000 201,400 November 96 - February 97


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY97

1 1 4 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 1 5 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································and how to get involved, (2) examine how existing telecommunications reforms can be accommodated in forthcoming General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) commitments, and (3) highlight how reforms complemented by GATS commitments will benefit economic and social development and help build up an information infrastructure. Second, tech-nical assistance was provided to about 10 countries selected according to two criteria: interest expressed by the government con-cerned and whether the kind of reforms in place or planned could form the basis for a GATS offer by the 15 February deadline of the negotiations. Emphasis was placed on preparing, assessing, and improving offers and conducting negotiations.

Establishment of Cyber Cafes at the Sixth Annual Conference on Telecommunica-tions, Informatics, and Broadcasting (AF-COM) infoDev funds established an “Inter-net Café” during the sixth annual AFCOM conference held in Mbabane, Swaziland, in May 19-23, 1997. The Internet Café served as a forum for ministerial level policy discus-sions regarding Internet proliferation in Af-rica. It also provided “hands-on” experience for ministerial delegates to further their un-derstanding of the potential for the Internet to accelerate economic and social develop-ment. Specifically, the funds were used to lease computers and dedicate data lines and to hire (1) technical experts to configure and administer the resulting Internet node and (2) knowledgeable Internet trainers.

AFCOM International Inc., USA

Swaziland Telecom/Regulatory

25,000 25,000 25,000 May 97 - October 97

Toward a National Informatics and Tele-communications Policy for Russia The goal of this project was to review alterna-tives for a national telecommunications and informatics policy to help propel the Russian economy into the information age and integrate Russia into the open, global information society.

The Freedom Channel, Russia

Russia Telecom/Regulatory

370,000 250,000 250,000 March 97 - September 98

FY96

Jamaica: Partnership for Technology in Basic Education This project supported the Jamaica 2000 and EDTECH 20/20 programs, which work to improve the

Jamaica Computer Society Educa-tion Foundation, Jamaica

Jamaica Education 1,500,000 450,000 450,000 April 96-December 99


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY97

·············································································································································································································

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1 1 4 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································

1 1 5 i n f o D e v A R 2 0 0 2

4··················································································


·············································································································································································································

·············································································································································································································quality of education in Jamaica’s schools through the introduction of computers. infoDev’s support was geared toward (1) exploring how computational and com-munication technologies can best con-tribute to literacy learning in primary and secondary schools and (2) evaluating the outcomes for replication on a larger scale.

African Virtual University The goal of this project was to conduct a feasibility study leading to the creation of the African Virtual University. The study involved defining an organization model that would form the basis for the formulation of a business plan. Topics covered included choosing techno-logical options for delivering instruction, arranging with partnering institutions on both the supply and demand sides, structur-ing study programs for start-up phase, nego-tiating prices and contractual arrangements with suppliers (including agreements on intellectual property rights), and establish-ing agreements with African countries and institutions.

The World Bank, USA

Africa Education 990,000 250,000 248,000 March 96 - March 97

Telematics for African Development This project was seen as the first phase of an on-going development of Africa infrastructure and human resources through the use of telematics. The project used information technology to improve access to and utili-zation of information and telecommunica-tions in the area of distance education at the secondary and tertiary levels.

Telematics for Africa, Develop-ment Consortium, South Africa

Africa (South Africa)

Internet 626,500 250,000 250,000 September 95 - July 96

Sixth ITU Regulatory Colloquium. The Sixth Colloquium on the Changing Role of Government in an Era of Telecom De-regulation (Regulatory Colloquium) was held at International Telecommunication Union (ITU) headquarters in Geneva on December 11-13, 1996. About one-third of the invited participants were from tran-sitional and emerging economies in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. The infoDev-funded component of the project produced and published two reports trans-lated by the ITU into French, Spanish, and Arabic and widely distributed to policy-makers, regulators, and others concerned with telecommunications reform.

Latham & Watkins, USA


507,000 145,000 145,000 March 96 - December 97


Region/Country


Total Grant (US$)


Project Dates

FY98

TOTAL 58,701,887 15,709,858 14,727,351·············································································································································································································

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