Towards a Vision of a Caribbean Information Society
A Contribution to the WSIS
From the Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC)
Final Draft
February 19th 2003
The following document has been collectively written by participants of the emerging Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community, CIVIC, and subsequently endorsed by all its members, who are from the private sector, governments, civil society organizations and regional development organisations.
For more information on the CIVIC check
http://www.icamericas.net/workshops/caribbean/
to contact the CIVIC write to
1. Introduction...................................................................................2
2. Caribbean perspectives..................................................................2
3. Infrastructure and Access...............................................................3
Status........................................................................................ 3 Recommendations......................................................................4
4. Human Capacity......................................................................... 4
Status...................................................................................... 4
Recommendations....................................................................4
5. Policy.......................................................................................... 5
Status...................................................................................... 5
Recommendations....................................................................7
6. Enterprise.................................................................................... 8
Status...................................................................................... 8
Recommendations.....................................................................9
7. Gender and Youth........................................................................ 9
Status....................................................................................... 9
Recommendations......................................................................11
8. Content and Applications............................................................... 12
Status........................................................................................ 12
Recommendations...................................................................... 13
This contribution provided by CIVIC aims to provide an up to date perspective on the status of development of ICT in the Caribbean and recommendations on how WSIS and the processes to follow can be used to accelerate integration of ICT applications for human development in this region of the world.
Caribbean ICT
Virtual Community (CIVIC) is a permanent virtual forum of Caribbean ICT
stakeholders. It is a venue for sharing information, holding discussions,
networking and linking ideas, actors, projects or initiatives on ICTs and
development in the Caribbean, which is Caribbean managed. It aims also to
contribute to build a common vision/perspective on ICTs, and to promote a
Caribbean strategy and Caribbean wide actions.
It initially
gathers the participants of the Caribbean ICT Roundtable
held in the Barbados on October 28-30 2002, but it is open to all active
Caribbean ICT stakeholders.
The Caribbean
ICT Roundtable attracted representatives from different
sectors of Governments, Civil Society and the private sector from a wide
cross-section of English-speaking
Caribbean countries, and including some persons from Haiti, the Dominican
Republic and Cuba.
The Caribbean represents 30-plus island nations, dependencies, as well as Independent countries in Central and South America, speaking creole as well as English, Spanish, French and Dutch. Social, economic and cultural conditions are also diverse. While some countries may claim to have living standards that appear to compare with some in the developed world the vast majority of its citizens, who hail from countries such as the Dominican Republic and Haiti, are faced with growing social challenges, including inadequate access to basic education.
Addressing
social needs, including a regional focus on poverty alleviation, while
implementing programmes to deal with diverse, pressing issues such as putting a
hold on HIV/AIDS and providing more opportunities for women and the youth are
of paramount importance in any development agenda. While health and education
standards are quite diverse, so too is access to basic telephony.
Education
reforms and the goal of bringing computer-aided training into the class room
and to communities are efforts being attempted across the region with limited
national success. In communities across the region access to electricity, like
good health care, and basic telephone service, is non-existent.
A major challenge has to do with the lack of financing to support these programmes.
But far too often, as well, financing is utilised inefficiently and communities are not involved or empowered under these various programmes. Many projects also fall short of being comprehensive in addressing social concerns.
As the digital divide expands between low income and upper income, and between rural and residential communities, so-called free trade and trade liberalisation have left countries that still depend on agricultural produce for hard currency facing hard economic times. When translated, many countries have a reduced capacity to finance social development.
Providing demand-driven information which is relevant to the needs and conditions experienced by local people is also be recognised as an imperative. Sources for such information may be Government, the private sector, local and regional institutions and Civil society. One of the challenges facing the region is in the area of language needs. Information, albeit of an educational nature, information from various sources, including the media, needs to be disseminated in ways that citizens of all Caribbean countries, French, Dutch and Spanish-speaking, as well as English and Creole-speaking, will benefit. There is a need for further development of, for example, educational material as well as modes of information sharing, such as Internet forums, that allow all citizens to participate, irregardless of their national language.
In the Caribbean islands region, infrastructure challenges exist on two levels, firstly the need to expand and upgrade the inter-regional backbone in terms of satellite and undersea fibre optic cable and secondly to expand national backbones to accommodate entrance of new providers. At present backbone infrastructure both regionally and nationally is generally owned by monopoly carriers.
There are a growing number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in some but not all countries, but service is largely available in urban areas. A concern of providers is that they are up against inordinately high costs from monopoly carriers which constrain their ability to grow their businesses and expand service nationally.
While there is also a shift to opening the cellular market policy makers and regulators in the region face the challenge of ensuring that backbone infrastructure expands in a manner that facilitates affordable access to this infrastructure for providers and consumers. This is also particularly critical in urban areas. In many countries so-called ordinary consumers are unlikely to have access to high speed data communications at affordable costs.
At the national level, access to various types of communication including the Internet varies from being limited overall, to being available to some degree in urban areas but non-existent in rural areas.
There is also a need to promote use of innovative access technologies and to ensure interoperability among the services offered by different players.
Building a critical mass of knowledge workers in Information Technology and related services, as well as increasing technical skills among users and strengthening local entrepreneurial and managerial capabilities remain as priorities for the region.
A major challenge is to increase the number and skill level of knowledge of workers, which would allow them to earn higher incomes in ICT fields. Providing an expanding opportunities for workers in traditional arras such as agriculture and fisheries should also provide them with the potential for income generation and skill development.
At both the higher levels, such as software development, and basic levels, where citizens needed to be trained for Information Technology-related jobs, there is a dearth of training opportunities. This goes back to an earlier point, that of the absence of connectivity as well as training institutions.
While distance learning has an important role in increasing educational opportunities it still needs the networks, either terrestrial or wireless to deliver the content.
But teachers and education authorities still suffer from a fear of the computer and there is often a reluctance to embrace the benefits of the technology.
1. Funding should be identified to facilitate increased education and training opportunities in the form of human capacity building by starting with building a critical mass of citizens who are aware of the importance of information services. Awareness of the societal impacts of ICT for citizens should include, as a priority, strengthening civil society capabilities.
2. Emphasis should be placed on identifying funding for training of trainers projects, including teachers and community leaders. This training should be of an indigenous nature, thereby ensuring its acceptance by those in need of training.
3. Any initiative in education should recognise that economically poor countries lack high level education, especially, but not only in the technology fields. Recognising that as long as the content of educational programmes are in English and exclude a large part of the Caribbean (French and Spanish-speaking citizens), it is recommended that consideration be given to development of multilingual programmes, including partnerships with educational institutions to facilitate this.
International best practice suggests that ICT policy should aim to develop transparent and inclusive policy processes that promote fair and open competition, and strengthen institutional capacity to implement and enforce policies.
For general
economic advancement, ICT’s are indispensable. In turn, for
the development of ICT’s, appropriate and adequate laws and policies are
imperative. Such laws and policies must be pertinent to the national
and Regional requirements and conditions, and must therefore be
primarily developed with the assistance and participation of national
and Regional professionals who are/would be better informed about the
aspirations and interests of the Caribbean countries. For the long term
planning and operation of all ICT services in the Region, the Caribbean
countries should rely more on their own (in-house) professionals than on
sporadically invited foreign experts. Since expertise in ICT regulatory
policy is seriously deficient (if not totally non-existent) in the
Caribbean region, significant efforts must be made urgently to fill that
gap.
The absence of telecommunications competition has also been recognised in many markets as a hindrance to social and economic development in the region. Additionally, even where some competition has been introduced the absence of clear rules and a strong, independent regulator has led to limited benefits. In Haiti, for example, the absence of clear interconnection rules meant that there was no efficient system for payment of access charges for cellular calls.
The Antigua and Barbuda government continues to baulk at liberalisation of its market because as the state monopoly it enjoys a lucrative return in the form of access charges, to the chagrin of Cable & Wireless.
Governments have come under political pressure to liberalise their economies in keeping with commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). And on the domestic front, because telecommunications is such a lucrative industry, there are many indications of significant lobbying of governments on he question of rules and the award of licences. Hence, the need for the establishment of independent regulators with transparent mechanisms for competition remains a bone of contention in any effort to promote ICT objectives.
But liberalisation of an industry that has historically been a comfort zone for monopolies is beginning to take shape amid a paucity of funding for the implementation of competition and the need to build human resources in new areas of government management, namely regulation.
In March, Jamaica will be able to take a major step by granting licences to operators to by-pass the old exclusive licence holder, Cable & Wireless. Satellite options will legally be viable for licence holders such as cellular and Internet service providers. Digicel in Jamaica demonstrated within two years that it could tackle Cable & Wireless effectively, force it to compete on price and upgrade its technology.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), minus the British dependency of Montserrat and Antigua and Barbuda opted for loan financing from the World Bank to help put its regulatory system in place and licences have gradually been handed out while Barbados was on the verge of announcing the names of successful cellular applicants in a field dominated by foreign companies. Some observers have however questioned the emphasis on cellular competition, rather than for broadband communications, where there is the prospect for more companies offering alternative technology options with the scope for increased connectivity at lower prices and attraction of investment from overseas are seen as very achievable goals.
The need of resources to build capacity in legal and other regulatory elements of competition however remains. Most governments for example lack a policy on ICT, with Grenada believed to be one of the few. This is also evident in the French and Spanish-speaking territories as well. There are several efforts and plans on paper that relate to ICT but very few are integrated. So, while most Governments recognise that Information Technology, a shift to telecommunications competition and the presence of I.T resources in schools and communities are important to development, particularly at a time when economies are under pressure from globalisation trends that have made sectors based on traditional cash crops and manufacturing increasingly uncompetitive.
Dominica, which for example, has a vision for ICT as a contributor to social development, was forced to turn to its Caribbean colleagues for financing to ease its economically parlous position.
The issues of transparent policy designed to facilitate competition and enable efficient business processes, thereby stimulating domestic demand for ICT are all related to the development of the ICT sector in the Caribbean
But opening the doors to all and sundry might not be the best approach.
For example, in Haiti there are around ten ISPs (Internet Service Providers) with each owning a satellite link costing on average at US$30,000 monthly. Many of these providers are struggling to stay in business because they are competing in a small market. Consequently, prices have stabilised, but they are still high. In a number of instances the quality of service has declined.
Market economics might not, therefore prove to be the best way forward. Each country needs to look at its peculiar situation and implement policy that is relevant to its social and economic circumstances.
As the region opens its doors to competition and gains more experience in regulation, the ongoing development of Caribbean ICT could include work to harmonise regional regulations for ICT in general and telecommunications in particular.
And while attractive rates for high-speed capacity is regarded as essential to investment and growth of entrepreneurial talent, access to basic telephone service remains a missing link in most countries. This is perhaps more stark when the lower numbers of rural telephones, for example, are compared with the figures for urban areas. Policy mechanisms such as the regulators also need to address the issue of how competition can make universal service and universal access, in areas such as telephony but increasingly, so-called new communications media such as the Internet, accessible to rural communities. And these policies need to be transparent as well.
In the area of strengthening institutional capacity, support is needed for agencies such as the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU), a regional government-funded organisation. The CTU is one of several agencies that can play a formidable role in promoting the development of ICT policy in the wider Caribbean region once it is properly funded and managed.
The Caribbean needs to recognise that it has a human resource, and can utilise experiences in all countries. This can spur ICT development at the policy and regulatory levels.
1. Given the prospective benefits that telecommunications liberalisation can bring to ICT development initiatives in the Caribbean, it is recommended that regional governments accelerate efforts to create a liberalised market. Liberalisation should encompass a policy of Universal Service and Universal Access obligations.
2. Given the general absence of cohesive ICT policies in the region it is proposed that Caribbean governments allocate resources to develop such policies which can aid their efforts in areas such as poverty alleviation and provision of e-government services.
3. The universal
service obligation of both monopoly incumbent telecom carriers and new market
entrants - wireline, wireless, and even ISP’s - should be designed and managed
to contribute proportional (prorata relative to market share) resources to
distance learning and tele-health facilities and services proliferation in
the Caribbean.
4. In this
respect, it is recommended that a permanent and dedicated institution (say,
"Caribbean Institute for ICT Regulatory Policy (CIREP)”, should be created
for (a) teaching and training, (b) holding conferences and seminars, (c)
conducting detailed
studies of regulatory aspects ICT and implications for the Caribbean countries,
(d) helping the Caribbean countries in formulating of national and regional policies and positions on major ICT issues
and (e) assisting them in developing and drafting appropriate policies, laws
and regulations. WSIS should ensure the timely availability of sufficient
financial and physical resources for the creation and operation of CIREP
in a very near future. Any approach to support regulatory reform should also
identify ways to involve civil society as participants in the evolution of such
reforms.
From the
perspective of the Caribbean private sector, as expressed by the Caribbean
Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) to CARICOM Heads of Government in
Nassau, Bahamas in June, 2001, two major issues are of particular concern to
them regarding ICT in general and telecommunications in particular.
First and most fundamental is the issue of bandwidth cost and availability. This artificial (from a market perspective) price inelasticity of spectrum or bandwidth in the Caribbean is due to the monopoly structure of ownership of the region's information infrastructure and telecommunications networks.
This is the priority concern of the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, which has appealed to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to liberalise and regulate the telecommunications sector to make bandwidth more competitively accessible.
Internet-based e-commerce, e-government, e-trade and negotiations in these
sectors at the international levels in the World Trade Organization, the Free
Trade Area of the Americas, the European Union, etc... will remain theoretical
in terms of competitiveness until the sector is liberalized regionally. A
Single Market and Economy cannot be competitive (in Hemispheric Free Trade) in
the digital age without competition in all ICT services - from infrastructure
provision to tele-centres or cable television to tele-medical service providers;
ISP's and audio visual teleconferencing.
For competition
to result in economic competitiveness and regional prosperity, harmonized
regulation and "common rules" for investors in various services, must
be made known. This can be done with ICT resources now available in the region.
Similarly, for a Caribbean Stock and Securities Exchange to be born/spawned,
for on-line transactions, cryptically-secure stock settlements from the
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States to CARICOM, bandwidth must be more
readily available and affordable as provided by competition among carriers.
The second key area of concern for Caribbean enterprise in the Information and Communications Technology sector is the current and prospective participation from regional investors. From cooperatives and consultants and credit unions to carriers, web casters and advertising and entertainment firms, opportunities for investment by regional entrepreneurs have been extremely limited.
Market access opportunities must be as readily available to regional companies,
professionals and knowledge workers in regional markets as they are to
similarly-qualified transnational firms. Reciprocity is necessary to enable
Caribbean ICT enterprises to gain market access to metropolitan markets.
Because control of information infrastructure determines bandwidth availability and consequent economic competitiveness, market-entry opportunities for micro and small business ICT service providers is vital. This must be a point of policy and action for regional governments and be reflected in the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery's negotiations.
1. In order to appreciate the economies of scope and scale inherent in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy in the ICT sector, it is recommended that funding be identified to support the compilation of "best practices" in Caribbean telecom and ICT regulatory policy to lay the groundwork for harmonised regulatory environment for investors and consumers of ICT products and services;
2. In view of the economic and social imperatives of diversifying and transforming the Caribbean social formation from dependence on the export of primary product, the loss of preferential market access for those products in Europe (under Lome Convention) and the US (under CBI), the fundamental condition and prerequisite for electronic commerce and electronic government in the region - affordable access to bandwidth - must be met. It is recommended that a multi-tiered CARICOM/ACS diplomatic network be funded to establish secure regional negotiations and other sensitive communications in the Caribbean.
3. Moreover, it is recommended that this intergovernmental electronic network be expanded by a consortium of public and private resources, to extend the infrastructure for bandwidth access to make B2B and B2C electronic transactions, extending to support for a regional stock exchange, more competitive.
The Caribbean Islands Countries are divided in three categories French-speaking - Haiti; English and Dutch speaking Caribbean (19 Islands countries, Suriname, Guyana and Dutch Antilles); and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean (Cuba and Dominican Republic). The Caribbean is not a compact entity. Networking, exchange of experiences and good practices, and partnerships within the region have to take into account these specificities since gender issues correlate to the reality of regional
disparities.
At the regional level, poverty, environment, governance, HIV/AIDS, disaster management and, access and control of ICT, represent strategic challenges in terms of gender equality and the advancement of women. Key issues of concern for gender mainstreaming in the region range from public policy (macro-economic policy planning and social planning), social integration and the eradication of structural poverty affecting women in particular, the fast spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic (the Caribbean is second after Sub-Saharan Africa) to the negative impact of globalisation.
In terms of human rights, the LAC region is the only region in the world where the CEDAW Convention was ratified by all countries. Additional regional mechanisms (Inter-American Convention Belem do Para) are also in force, focusing in particular on the eradication of violence against women. Nevertheless, the strengthening of reporting and monitoring mechanism for the CEDAW Convention remain important components for gender mainstreaming policy planning.
The persistence of gender discrimination in the Caribbean takes on complex forms. For example, while the education indicators for the entire LAC register higher enrollment of girls compared to boys, the occupational segmentation of the labour market, job insecurity, wage gap, and poor labour conditions remain as specific issues that affect the status of women both in the industrial and service sectors. In the LAC region, gender relations are classified along racial, ethnic, and class categories. Basic gender inequalities persist with varied intensity from one country to another. Gender-based violence is an important issue at the LAC level. The Caribbean region is treating the issue as a human rights issue correlated to the protection of women's human rights.
[Based on Gender Beat # 35: Latin America Special, publication of UNDP]http://www.undp.org/gender .
For further details, see : The Lima Consensus is the pre-Beijing+5
Declaration of the LAC Region for Gender Equality:
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/unidadmujer/7/lcg2087/lcg2087i.pdf
Gender Mainstreaming Capacity-building and Gender & Governance:
http://www.eclacpos.org/cdchtm/G0607.HTM and
http://www.eclacpos.org/cdchtm/G0626.htm)
The “digital divide” in the Caribbean is particularly exacerbated as it relates to the differential levels of access and participation of women, and rural women in particular in the ICT sector. Currently in the region girls excel boys in most subjects areas except in science and technology. These disciplines provide a foundation for further education and training in electrical and electronics engineering and computer science, which are critical for sustainable competition both in the job market as well as in invention and manipulation of ICT technology. Caribbean women’s organisations are not particularly well represented in the policy and regulatory processes which guide the sector reform in ICTs. Women’s access and control of ICT is distributed along economic class lines, with rural women and poor households faring badly. Caribbean youth are keen to be involved in the Information Society. There are examples of leadership among Caribbean youth leaders, e.g Makonnen Blake-Hannah, a 17 year old Jamaican technologist who has been involved in many technology networking projects among global youth and serves as an advisor to the Minister of Communications. The need for free Information Technology guides for the have-nots or low-income and rural communities on how to purchase the right programmes suitable to their needs, online training of volunteers, local language for women farmers and others with little education, to encourage more women and girls, encouraging the youth to use the technology in productive ways, other than playing games and become involved with information technology as knowledgeable users and professionals in the field should also be on the front burner..
The challenges faced by Caribbean women and youth to make a full and meaningful contribution to the Information Society can be addressed by policy interventions and by providing accelerated and expanded education and training programmes.
It is necessary to :
In addition, ICT reforms should include licensing requirements that mandate successful licensee or grantees to develop incubation programmes for women run SMMEs, on the job training programs and partnerships with women’s developmental organisations
The area of content and applications development provides an opportunity for the Caribbean region to contribute its perspectives to the World Information Society. By encouraging and promoting development of local content and applications which are designed around Caribbean cultures (visual, literary, music and lifestyle) it is possible that the region can contribute to an improved understanding of how computer mediated technologies can be better integrated with traditional forms of information exchange and communication. Projects to promote and encourage regional content and applications development should be based on partnerships among Caribbean musicians, artists, ICT designers and knowledge producing institutions such as the University of the West Indies and national technology universities and colleges.
In some countries attention is being paid to implementing legislation that facilitates electronic transactions. But work produced by artists as well as software programmers is often not covered by legislation. There is also little recourse in some places to malicious damage of computer records stored electronically. In this vein there is also the related issue of introducing or extending legislation for protecting the privacy of electronic records.
1. The expansion of content and applications development programmes should be pursued, in particular those that encourage the integration of traditional information and communication tools with electronic based ICTs. In the Caribbean region, which has a diverse wealth of music, literature and visual imagery, ICTs can be used to promote innovative partnerships among crafters, artists, ICT technologists, entrepreneurs and citizens.
2. Mechanisms should be identified to expand international market access for Caribbean ICT cultural products with appropriate protection of indigenous knowledge.
3. Recognising the new ways of doing business facilitated by ICTs, it is imperative to support legislation that would allow electronic records and ICT resources to be afforded the same level of protection as any form of property.
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This document has been adopted by the CIVIC membership as its contribution to WSIS prepcom2 meeting in Geneva. It took into account the views and perspectives of participants in the Caribbean ICT Roundtable expressed in the virtual forum and the subsequent deliberations. There were direct, written contributions by participants as well as constructive critiques on the content. It is also intended as a contribution to the ICT debate in the Caribbean.
CIVIC members thank especially Hallam Hope who volunteered to compile all inputs to draft the document until its final/actual version.
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