Connecting People-Changing Lives in Asia
Chapter 5
Influencing policy in ICTs for development
"The huge debate throughout history, in fact, has been how
can the new capacities that we develop through technology, through new technologies,
make a difference in the
creation of a fairer world."
- Maureen O'Neil, President of IDRC
A key driver of positive change in countries is the development of appropriate government policies. Indeed, good governance, which is partly attributable to effectively developed and implemented policies, is now considered an important factor in ensuring a country's sustainable development. However, the effectiveness of policies is quite often linked to well-researched recommendations and ideas. Unfortunately, resources for research are scarce commodities in developing countries and, therefore, a primary objective of PAN's work is to support knowledge generation and research capacity to help inform policy.
PAN has always sought opportunities to influence policy in the area of ICTs for development and to build capacity for research on ICT policy. A
well-researched policy instrument that covers key sectors where ICTs are bound to make a difference can have great impact at a national, regional, or local level - provided, of course, it is backed up by sufficient financial and human resources for its implementation. PAN has pursued its objective of encouraging governments in their ICT policy formulation to focus on bringing ICTs to rural and disadvantaged communities. The convening power of IDRC/PAN brings together researchers who can contribute to policy development at all levels. PAN has also sought to strengthen the capacity of developing Asian nations to participate in international negotiations on ICT issues to better serve their own interests. Some projects are designed with built-in policy components. In other instances, the policy influence is only realized in
the wake of significant research results, a case in point being India's experience with village knowledge centres (see below).
Oddly enough, policy can be supported in the long run by establishing a presence on the ground in certain countries and pursuing concrete objectives unrelated to policy. This has been true for PAN in countries like Mongolia, Bhutan, and Laos in the early years of the ICT revolution that brought the Internet and connected these remote and traditionally "closed" countries to the world. PAN's focus in these places was on Internet adoption and capacity building to lay the groundwork for ICT use and applications. Some years down the road, when governments turned to developing ICT policy, PAN - knowing the key players and the weaknesses in policy development - has been in an excellent position to work with partners to find solutions.
Building blocks for ICT policy
ICT policy and implementation are extremely important to Mongolia, as ICTs are a promising tool for improving the quality of life of poor rural and urban communities. Since the demise of the
Soviet Union, Mongolia has made significant progress in democratic restructuring and creating
a private-sector-led open economy. The very first programming undertaken by PAN was in Mongolia in the mid-1990s to support the building of basic ICT infrastructure and capacity (see chapter 3 for more detail). In 2000, the Government of Mongolia released the policy paper Vision 2010, a national vision for ICT development to 2010. A national strategy and action plan for ICTs followed in 2003.
In theory, policy support is the responsibility of a national ICT committee, but such a committee lacks both staff and financial resources to carry out research, or to implement and monitor new ICT policies. Thus, there was a critical need to strengthen institutional capacity in the country to conduct research and assist in planning and implementing the ICT strategy.
In this setting, the Mongolian Information Development Association (MIDAS), an NGO, approached PAN to help build such capacity. MIDAS aims to influence ICT policymaking and contribute to implementing the country's action plan for ICT development. In its PAN-supported project Strategy for National ICT Policy, MIDAS assembled a research team with expertise in government and the public sector, ICT infrastructure, business and industry, education and science, health and social welfare, the natural environment, and international organizations. The team has done literature reviews, consulted stakeholders, and conducted baseline studies in these same sectors. The project also set out to increase awareness throughout Mongolian society about the opportunities offered by ICTs, to develop guidelines for collecting data relevant to policymaking and for monitoring and evaluating policy implementation, and to study the experiences of other Asian countries.
A significant result of this project was a national strategy and action plan to use ICT as a tool for human and economic development, presented to the government for assessment and endorsement. Another result reported by an external evaluation was the success of the project team in convincing the government that it could reduce charges for local calls in Mongolia, thereby lowering costs for customers and permitting wider use of the Internet.
Another positive development since the start of the project was the establishment by the Government of Mongolia in 2004 of the ICT Agency (ICTA). Under the auspices of the prime minister of Mongolia, this agency has taken a leadership role in promoting and developing ICTs in Mongolia. ICTA is working with other ICT stakeholders, including MIDAS and the Mongolian Information Technology Association, another NGO with which MIDAS recently merged.
The policy environment for
e-commerce in Viet Nam
One of the obstacles to growth of the e-commerce sector in many countries is lack of policy that addresses its many facets. Early in this decade,
Viet Nam faced such a policy vacuum. Policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs disagreed on an appropriate e-commerce strategy for the country, and the lack of a supportive policy environment hinders Viet Nam's efforts toward economic integration and addressing problems of globalization.
In response to this problem, PAN funded a study led by the National Institute for Science and Technology Policy and Strategy Studies (NISTPASS), a government agency. The study was headed by
Dr Tran Ngoc Ca, deputy director at NISTPASS
(a full chapter on the study can be found in
Lafond and Sinha 2005).
A review of ministries and government agencies to determine their understanding of issues related to e-commerce revealed a variety of views, some of them contradictory. For instance, some ministries (foreign affairs, commerce, science, and technology) favoured faster integration of e-commerce into the national economy, while others (culture, information, security) took a cautious approach. The regulatory system in Viet Nam was also studied and found to be deficient in many areas critical to e-commerce development, including taxation, customer protection, enforcement of intellectual property rights, technology infrastructure, training, and human resource development. A sample set of businesses was surveyed to gauge the readiness of firms to adopt e-commerce; almost all thought e-commerce was important to their business and would engage in such activity if possible.
Case studies in nine traditional villages with small enterprises specializing in such products as ceramics, porcelain, and fabrics showed that few of the villages would be willing to adopt ICTs and
e-commerce, even in a limited way. Their reluctance was owing to inadequate ICT infrastructure, human resource issues, and lack of purchasing power. One interesting exception was a village called Bat Trang, near Hanoi. In this village, about 20 enterprises used web sites to showcase their ceramics products and establish contact with foreign markets. Many residents had completed computer training courses and there was great demand for more such training.
According to project leader, Dr Tran Ngoc Ca, an immediate impact of the project was the creation of a new department in the ministry of trade, which changed the direction of policymaking and institutional arrangements. Dr Ca says the project also created movement for changing the overall policy environment for e-commerce development. The project findings helped clarify issues, reinforce messages to policymakers, and prepare the legal framework for e-commerce development. The project's survey of enterprises provided impetus for developing policies to address the issues it raised.
Dr Ca believes that although progress has been made in the policy environment for e-commerce in Viet Nam, what is still lacking is a policy that would promote competition in telecom services rather than the monopoly that now exists. He also thinks the country needs an impartial, independent body that would act as a watchdog to ensure fair competition in telecom services.
Every Indian village a knowledge centre
India's VKCs in the Union Territory of Pondicherry represent an international success story of innovative approaches to making ICTs serve the interests of poor, rural communities (see chapter 3 for more detail). The story has been reported by magazines, newspapers, and television networks all over the world and analyzed at length in academic papers. IDRC/PAN can justifiably claim to be part of this story, as it has been supporting the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), which created the unique approach, at different phases of the project since the beginning (the Canadian International Development Agency has also been a donor). Not only did the MSSRF's innovation benefit the villages in Pondicherry where the knowledge centre model was established, but its policy impact is also now rippling out over the entire nation.
In 2003, PAN supported a workshop for policymakers organized by the MSSRF that would focus on the Foundation's 6 years of experience implementing VKCs. The workshop allowed rural project leaders to interact with officials of state and national governments and develop policy recommendations on such issues as self-help groups, domestic software development, virtual academies, and strategic alliances between the public and the private sectors. The outcome of this workshop and subsequent meetings is the ambitious Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre - A Road Map. The objective of Mission 2007 is to build a multistakeholder alliance in India that would enable the establishment of up to 600 000 VKCs by 2007 (to coincide with India's 60th anniversary of independence). According to MSSRF, "We can easily cover the 600 000 villages of our country by 15 August 2007 by generating synergy between different technologies, particularly between the Internet and the community radio and symbiosis among all institutions engaged in the field of technological and skill empowerment of the poor."
The MSSRF also joined with the Tata Social Trust to establish the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity. The goal of the academy is to identify a million grassroots knowledge workers to be enlisted as Fellows. They are to become the cornerstones in ensuring the success of the 600 000 VKCs.
A national alliance for Mission 2007 was formed, with informal organizational structures at national, state, district, and local levels. Through a contribution to MSSRF, PAN is supporting the Mission 2007 secretariat that will facilitate and serve the partners and stakeholders in Mission 2007. Task forces in five sectors have been formed and a steering committee was created with representation from government, civil society,
the media, the private sector, and academia.
Learning from ICT4D research to enhance policy in the Philippines
Among Asian nations, the Philippines is a leader in ICT adoption and use. In this country of almost 90 million inhabitants, mobile telephony is widespread. The Philippines calls itself the capital of the world in short messaging system use, with some 12 million daily text-message transmissions. But about 42% (as of 2001) of the country is judged to be underserved in terms of access to personal computers and the Internet, with rural communities being especially disadvantaged.
Over the past decade, many projects in ICTs for development have aimed to improve access to ICTs. But little effort has been invested in capturing the results and knowledge gained from these projects, an investment that could be invaluable for policy development. A better understanding of ICT4D projects and the knowledge they have generated is essential if policymakers are to know which areas need greater attention and to formulate appropriate ICT policies.
Since 2004, PAN has supported the Philippines Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in
a small grants program for ICT4D research, particularly to address the learning acquired from past and ongoing projects. An eminent committee reviews the proposals and emphasis is placed on studies that address themes in ICT access, social services, participation, governance, empowerment, economic development, and gender. Selection criteria are weighted toward initiatives that would lead to empowerment of communities and marginalized groups or sectors. One of the first steps has been to create an inventory, or database, of ICT4D projects undertaken in the country. Then the project team (led by Professor Fortunato de la Peña, undersecretary for science and technology services at DOST) will analyze the lessons learned from these projects to articulate recommendations - supported by research evidence - to ICT policymakers and, thereby, help in ICT policymaking that benefits the underserved.
The project team's definition of ICTs included not only digital technologies but also radio, television, and telephone since there has been a convergence of technologies, where radio can be played in computers and TV shows on cable are digitally delivered. The inventory of ICT4D projects has been completed and is available in a database on the project's web site (www.ict4d.ph). Criteria for inclusion in the database included a requirement that the project have a direct impact on empowering people in poor communities, helping alleviate poverty, or addressing key millennium development goals. As of February 2005, the database contained 490 ICT projects, over half of which are in the category of government and governance. Projects in this category include local government websites that provide information on services to residents and applications of geographic information systems to local governance. Other significant project categories are education and learning, science, business, and environment. Smaller numbers of projects were found in agriculture, health, and employment.
The results of the project's inventory component were presented at a series of ICT4D conferences in Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao that brought together stakeholders, practitioners, and advocates of ICT4D initiatives from government, the private sector, academia, and civil society. Participants provided feedback on research themes for the formulation of a Philippine ICT4D research and policy agenda.
References
Lafond, R. and C. Sinha (editors). 2005. E-commerce in the Asian context: selected case studies. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Pasir Panjang, Singapore, and IDRC, Ottawa, Canada. 105 pp.
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