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Tag Archive for: partnerships

GLOBE: Connecting Students Worldwide

Science teachers, looking for an engaging way to get students acquainted with inquiry-based investigations? GLOBE is an evolving worldwide network of schools and scientists interested in expanding enthusiasm for environment and earth system learning.

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) mission is to promote the teaching and learning of science, enhance environmental literacy and stewardship, and promote scientific discovery. The program desires to enhance awareness, contribute to scientific understanding, connect and inspire the next generation, and promote student research in environmental and earth science.

GLOBE began in 1995 by numerous governmental agencies and other partners. Since then it has expanded through U.S. government bilateral agreements to over 100 other countries. Since its inception its received numerous awards including the 2004 Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education. GLOBE is believed to have reached over 24,000 schools and 1.5 million students worldwide.

GLOBE allows students, teachers, and program partners to:

share data with others via the Internet
publish the results from research projects
create maps and graphs of GLOBE data on the GLOBE website
collaborate with other GLOBE students and scientists around the world
professional development workshops
Teacher’s Guide, “how-to” videos, and curriculum materials
Train-the Trainer workshops

GLOBE has been found to increase student scientific awareness of their environment through numerous hands-on local research projects that involve measuring, analyzing data, and participating in research in collaboration with scientists. GLOBE hopes to inspire potential future scientists and researchers for industry, academia, and government through its worldwide community of students, teachers, scientists, and citizens working together to better understand, sustain, and improve Earth’s environment at local, regional, and global scales.

April 23, 2012/by actualize

Environment, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

WISDOM: transferring watershed knowledge

Integration of environmental data is critical for water. WISDOM, a Vietnamese-German project, is an inspirational model of how watershed management leads to sustainable use and preservation of water resources. WISDOM combines information from hydrology, sociology, information technology, and earth observation for its implementation of an Information System for the Mekong Delta.

The Mekong Delta struggles against population increase, changing climatic conditions, and regulatory measures. Because of these challenges, extreme flood events occur more frequently, drinking water availability is increasingly limited, soils show signs of salinization or acidification and species and complete habitats are diminishing.

WISDOM’s integrated information system contains available and newly generated data from multiple disciplines, open to users through an accessible query. The IS allows a feed of input from remote sensing, GIS, digital maps, in-situ, interpolated point measurements, and other sources. Available data includes flood and drought risk, water quality, sediment load, discharge, and land use changes.

Lessons learned from this initiative include that the cooperation of national institutes and regional or local authorities needs to be strengthened. Successes include the knowledge transfer provided between German institutions and Vietnamese doctorate candidates and the user-friendliness of the IS that can answer specific and complex questions that support regional planning activities.

April 3, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

What Big Aid Can Learn from the Ugandan Ministry of Health

“If you want to do M4D in Uganda, you have to be willing to coordinate.” This is the underlying message of UNICEF Technology Specialist David McCann’s blog, “A Ugandan mHealth Moratorium Is a Good Thing.” According to McCann, proliferation of Big Aid-supported mobile interventions, coupled with a severe lack of integration and collaboration, has hindered Uganda’s ability to take ownership of its development.

The Ugandan Ministry of Health, on the other hand, is quickly becoming a leader in mobile integration. By migrating its databases to free open source District Health Information software (DHIS2), the Ministry is encouraging community collaboration and reducing dependency on the tracking of aid-biased health indicators. According to McCann, the Ministry’s adoption of DIHS2 is now forcing Big Aid to “do M4D in a more coherent way.”

To learn more about this pioneering initiative, read McCann’s blog here.

Initiative:

mHealth Systems Integration

March 1, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

AMIS-Cameroon for UN’s MDGs 1, 3, 7, and 8

Photo Credit: AMIS-Cameroon

AMIS-Cameroon is bridging information gap in the African country of Cameroon by connecting farmers with vital information through SMS thereby boosting sustainable agricultural activities that promote the UN’s Millennium Development Goals 1 (Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger), 3 (Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women), 7 (Ensure environmental Sustainability), and 8 (Develop a Global Partnership for Development).

AMIS-Cameroon uses information and communication technologies (ICTs) to create connections between farmers and agricultural technicians to encourage them to support each other through mutual advice and knowledge sharing. Through information hubs that are located in the rural farming communities, AMIS-Cameroon gathers product information and send via SMS to consumer groups who buy at farmers’ prices.

The project is using a fully coded, fully automated 24/7 information feedback loop which farmers and consumers can consult for their different needs. The concept has undergone a thorough field investigation sponsored by SPIDER.ORG and currently seeking financial support to carry out a massive outreach that would enable scaling to serve the over 12 million Cameroonian farmers. The model is simple and is replicable.

GBI followed up with AMIS-Cameroon to understand how such a simple SMS innovation can help address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals 1, 3, 7 and 8. Below is the response from Tambe Harry Agbor, the Executive Director of Amis-Cameroon.

Photo Credit: UN MDGs

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
The problem of Cameroonian farmers is a small reflection of what African farmers in general suffer from – acute lack of information. This lack of information means that from planting, to harvesting through location of markets to sell their products, farmers are not expose to information that predisposes them to carry out informed investment decisions to create wealth for them and their families. Given that the shelf-life of most of these agricultural products is very short, any unsold products end up as waste within the immediate vicinity of the farming population, since they do not have information about far flung markets where their products are in demand for a better price. Thus both farmers and consumers remain confined to a vicious cycle of poverty (for the farmers-since they cannot sell their products to create wealth) and hunger (for the consumers-who do not get these products which the farmers dump or give to animals)

At AMIS-Cameroon, we use SMS technology to target these alienated groups with information that brings them together in a mutually beneficial relationship where farmers can sell their products profitably and use the money to take care of life’s basic necessities such as the health and education of their children on the one hand, and on the other hand the consumers get information about where to locate nutritive products which can keep starvation and hunger at bay.

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

AMIS-Cameroon democratizes the process of information dissemination. Most of our cultural values in Africa relegate women to the role of passive observer even if it is “she” who has the ideas that would take her family out of the stigma of poverty. Thus when we send the same information to both men and women, informing them how to plant crops formerly reserved for males, we are in effect giving both groups the impartial possibility to make use of the information at their disposal to best advantage. Some women farmers have till date not been able to carry out the production of certain food crops which are considered crops for men.

Furthermore, the possibility to earn stable incomes from agriculture has caused some parents to rethink their position on girl child education. When the family is poor, everything is done to make sure that the girl child stays at home and work so that her brother can get an education. But when we send out information which has the ability to connect farmers to markets, and increase the revenue streams of the family, parents then tend to feel more comfortable to invest also in the education of their girl child. Hence educated women can also vie for public office based on the possibility of their families to crawl out of the $2 per day curse to earning higher income returns that prioritizes girls’ education on the same level with boys’ education.

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 7: Ensure environmental Sustainability

For the past decades, farmers have essentially been farming in the dark. Through ignorance, they have continued to deplete irreplaceable ecosystems and damaging the essential web of life so central to our very existence. It is not uncommon in most Cameroonian villages today for families to walk for very long distances before getting wood to cook their food, or even fauna to spice their delicacies. The fast encroaching desertification in most of our Sub-Saharan countries is a testimony of the extensive damage done to the environment through irresponsible farming practices where whole forests are destroyed, soil-enriching microorganisms killed, and loosed sub soils washed away by erosion.

In collaboration with sustainability experts and agronomists, we deliver timely advice via SMS to new entrants into the farming profession so that they can carry out responsible practices that preserve the fragile ecosystems which have been stretched to their limits by centuries of uncontrolled practices that harm none other than the farmers themselves.

AMIS-Cameroon and MDG 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

When we started the AMIS-Cameroon Project, one of the most recurrent complaints we encountered in the field was that experienced farmers have always refused to share their know-how with younger inexperienced farmers. We instituted an information exchange forum for farmers whereby farmers in region A tell us what must be done for a particular crop in order to enhance its productivity. When we visit Region B we shared this information with them, and those in Region B in turn become more willing to share their own experiences which we take back to farmers in region A. Through this practice we got farmers to understand that they are winners when they share agricultural technologies with one another, and that they stand to lose everything if they hide their knowledge. By encouraging them to ‘Think Development locally’ we let them see just how possible it is for them to ‘Develop Globally’.

Through our portal at www.amis-cameroon.org, we receive product requests for farmers in Cameroon from consumers from abroad. We then blast such SMS locally and farmers are rallied at short notice to supply their nearest product depot where our chain of organized transporters pick them up and deliver for onward delivery to clients.

Impacts of AMIS-Cameroon

In conclusion, AMIS-Cameroon has developed 10 business models which if sponsored shall generate direct employment and create sure revenue streams for all actors involved along the value chain. Some of the significant achievements of the project so far include increased in subscriber base from an initial 200 farmers in 2009 to well over 1500 by 2010 by providing 4 SMS per week to these users. In 2011, bee farmers in Kumbo village in Cameroon were connected to new markets enabling them to increase their sales by over 50% in markets that knew nothing about their natural honey. The project has also created a very important partnership with KIP Solutions, a firm based in the USA that is helping to define better strategies to further the vision of the project.

For more information and to support this vision of bridging information gap for African farmers, visit AMIS-Cameroon.

February 29, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Best Practices in Creating and Maintaining mHealth Partnerships

During the most recent mHealth Working Group, Kelly Keisling, Co-Chair, passed out a publication of mHealth cases studies developed by GBC Health. Entitled “Building Partnerships that Work: Practical Learning on Partnering in mHealth” and created in collaboration with Dalberg Global Development Advisors and the mHealth Working Group, its goal is to provide best practices for future mHealth partnerships. GBC Health sees partnerships as playing a key role in expanding mHealth into the mainstream of global health.

Photo Credit: The University of Akron

The case studies focused on diverse set of organizations, ranging across multiple sectors – technology, NGOs, and multilateral institutions. Those included were the Carlos Slim Health Institute, Deloitte, HP, Intel, Nokia, Novartis, the Stop TB Partnership, UNICEF, USAID, and Vodafone. The research revealed overlapping topics and ideas that could be used to create sustainable partnerships for mHealth programs. Below is a list of best practices that the publication pulled from the case studies:

Partnership Selection

Shared Agenda and Vision: Look for partners whose vision is aligned with yours.

Organizational Capacity: Make sure that your prospective partner will be able to adequately support the initiative at all stages of relevant involvement – from development and implementation to scale-up.

Local Expertise: Work with partners who are already working in-country and possess relevant local expertise.

Complementary Assets: Identify partners who can bridge gaps in your organization’s expertise and knowledge.

Reputation and Integrity: Consider referrals from trusted partners to identify new partners with a good reputation in the market.

Structuring for Success

Clearly-Defined Problem and Solution: Solidify and remain transparent about objectives from the beginning of your conversations with potential partners.

Roles and Responsibilities: Ensure that each partner has unique core competencies to contribute.

Shared Value: Create shared value by ensuring a ‘win-win’ for all partners.

Leadership: Identify a “champion” in each of the partner organizations to lead the campaign within their organization.

National Priorities and Program: Align projects with government priorities at the outset to help with scale and rollout.

Community Involvement: Engage the end-users in the design and on-going feedback loop to continually refine the program.

Multi-stage Planning: Establish a clear and committed plan for funding, implementation and maintenance among partners, from the beginning.

Strict Project Management Process: Develop a structure project management plan with supporting documentation.

GBC Health is a worldwide coalition of over 200 companies and organizations focused on using their resources to improve global health. Dalberg Global Development Advisors is a strategic consulting firm that works to raise living standards in developing countries and address global challenges. mHealth Working Group is a collaborative forum composed of 150 global organizations and more than 500 individual, for sharing and synthesizing knowledge on mHealth.

February 2, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Extension Service, Farmer to Farmer, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Reflections on mAg. Services: Partnerships Between MNOs and APs

Photo Credit: GSMA

NB: This is my personal analysis of contributions to question one from the forum. This post is the first in series of six, analyzing each of the six forum questions that were discussed.

Partnership, being one of the key criteria for selecting mFarmer Fund beneficiaries, the introductory question (below) for the forum was about partnership.

Question 1: In a partnership between a mobile network operator and agricultural partners, what unique value proposition does each partner bring, how can they leverage of each others’ strengths and what roles should each play in delivering a service to farmers?

Quick Summary of Contributions to the Question

With regard to the unique value propositions that each partner brings to the partnership, most of the contributions centered around the fact that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs):

Are providers of the mobile technology platform for the delivery of agricultural services
Have crucial role in ensuring access to the telecom network (adequate)
Have the responsibility for developing products that are affordable for farmers
Are responsible for addressing coverage issues
Need to ensure that they provide credible and dependable service
Have the responsibility of charging users and share the generated income with external Value Added Service providers
Are to be in charge of marketing and communicating the services to users (branding).

On the other hand, the Agricultural Partners (APs):

May be considered as content providers
Be able to clearly identify who the target farmers are and what their real information needs are
Must have rich experience of quality content for the farmers
Must have clear distinct experience and expertise in the areas of understanding farmers need
Shall have the ability to solve farmers’ problems and ultimately help them with inputs and services to implement the solutions
Must have the skills of connecting with farming communities
Be able to understand which format is best suited for the collection and delivery of information
Be able to collect, analyze, refine and disseminate (or make available) relevant agricultural information to the target audience
Be able to market available information services in the field, including through networks of extension workers
Shall ensure that the MNO fully understands that there is a real business behind Value Added Service (VAS) targeting farmers, even if the information service may take a longer time to take off
Be responsible for formatting of the content, reformatting, sometimes translating to be delivered and understood by the end user
Be responsible for quality assurance of the content – including sources, processes and final advice delivered
Are most likely in the best position to make sure that the mobile “channel” is used well to augment other info delivery channels.

Part B & C: How can the partners leverage of each others’ strengths and what roles should each play in delivering a service to farmers?

Contributions from the forum emphasized the importance of utilizing the existing infrastructure and assets including the mobile channels such as call center, SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) infrastructure, short-code, and billing and revenue collection facilities. The partners can also utilize their respective brand strength and marketing expertise. For example MNOs have some of the strongest brands and trust with the users which can be powerful agents for marketing and driving awareness and the APs can also through their Agriculture VAS, help the brand and increase the market share of the mobile operator. Also pointed out was the possibility of MNOs to provide Agri VAS access via basic Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) menu service which could drastically decrease the barriers for the rural users to access the service and increase the usability. Potentially MNOs have the capacity to blend Agri VAS with mobile money solution and compliment advisory with agricultural financial services, such as loans and crop insurance.

Reflections on the Discussion

My take on this first question is that the understanding of the “AP” and “MNO” has not been made clear at the start of the discussion leading to all kinds of interpretations, assumptions and labeling. A first look at the question makes it simple and obvious but a critical analysis reveals how complex it is especially with the key terms – MNOs and APs.

In my first post at the forum, I did call for the definitions of these terms that seem obvious to the e-agriculture community. Fro example with the APs, are we talking of any group or organization involve in agricultural development services such as NGOs with agricultural service provision; community-based organizations involved in agriculture; farmer-based organizations; national agricultural units such as extension services, or research institutes?

A key argument that ran through the discussion and confirmed my argument was the call for a third party organization for the partnership. The issue of third party partners such as software developers, technology developers, new start-ups, research institutes, international organizations, etc. partnering with MNOs and APs to ensure the success of good mobile services for users came up. The case of IKSL was mentioned where other agencies and institutions which generate actual content – like Agricultural Universities and Research Institutes, International agencies like CABI, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Agmarknet for market information were involved in the partnership as third parties.

So a successful partnership for the mFarmer Fund may need more than MNO/AP partnership by reaching out to other institutions and organizations that have expertise in the Initiative’s Core Service. Alternatively, the APs and MNOs may be able to subcontract some of these services, but the positions of these different expertise need to be recognized.

The four points below could summarize the components of the partnership, whether two, three or more partners are involved:

Demand Articulations – partners that have skills and expertise of understanding the users (needs and potentials), understanding the content dynamics for users, etc. (e.g. NGO, CBO)
Network Formations – partners who are able to help connect other partners together and also connect users to product developers, ensure boundary spanning and information filtering (e.g. social media firms)
Process Management – partners that have the capacity to ensure infrastructure development, management and maintenance, generation of revenue for sustainability, quality assurance, formatting, etc. (e.g. MNOs, Software companies, IT firms, Universities, etc.)
Supply Activation – partners that have the skills to train and educate users on the products and services, who understand the language of the developers, able to communicate VAS, (e.g. extension services, NGOs, research institutes, etc.)

These are quotes from some of the experts at the forum:

“The Agricultural partner might not have an immediate capacity to do this in-house, as Agricultural Partner is usually an NGO or Ag. institution and not a VAS provider it its traditional sense.”

“For this, independent agronomists/ SMEs might be recruited if for example the agricultural partner has extensive experience on the ground but not so much access to the latest deep research around each individual crop/ animal.”

In otherwise, it has been acknowledged that partnership is necessary between AP (s) and MNO (s) but other views are that, the role of the MNOs, should be seen as roles being played by Internet Service Provider (ISP). That is providing the platform or network that could enable start-ups and VAS providers to utilize their services and innovations. VAS provision should remain independent of the MNOs.

Other Important Points and Questions Raised on this First Question!

The mobile channel is great for delivering certain types of information, but not all.
The profitability and success of the partnership is key
How would a model work that included two or more MNOs as the service delivery partners?
Sources of funding for the partnership – governments or on business models for profitability?
Would an MNO go into massive infrastructure investment just because of a partnership with AP for delivering agricultural services?
Where are the farmers in the partnership?

NB: The next in series is “Reflections on Mobile Ag. Services: Barriers to Scale“ and available on 12/26/2011.

December 22, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How Broadband Will Get To Somalia Before You Know It

Child participates in USAID's Interactive Radio Instruction education program, the only possible ICT project currently in Somalia.

Last week, I interviewed Mohamed Ahmed Jama, CEO of Dalkom Somalia and board member of Frontier Optical Networks Ltd (FON) in Kenya. Mr. Jama described four potential Broadband cables that could be a part of a terrestrial backbone throughout East Africa, including in Somalia. A fifth was announced yesterday in Somaliland.

Though all three of these proposed links are just that—proposals—they are indicative of the rapid growth of Broadband connectivity in the region. Most East African governments are actively engaged in rolling out backbone terrestrial networks, while four years ago the World Bank called East African connectivity the world’s only “missing link.” South Sudan is working with the CTO to develop an ICT strategic plan, Burundi recently received funding from the World Bank, and Uganda has also invested as well. And private companies are facilitating the expansion of Broadband cables as well; they are working with the national governments to lay the cables and to fund the projects. The East African Backhaul System, recently announced as a combined $400 million partnership between Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo governments and a variety of private telecoms. The unique partnerships between the public and private sector make the ICT space in East Africa distinct from other regions.

Potential backbone networks in Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan are listed here and can be seen on the following map (forgive the rough estimations, I did not draw this exact):

1. Somalia’s Connection to EASSy Cables (blue line)

According to Mr. Jama, Dalkom Somalia has built two cable landing sites in Somalia from the EASSy submarine cable, one in Somaliland and the other in Mogadisho, Somalia. Unfortunately, the government of Somaliland revoked Dalkom’s license last year before the cable was completed (scheduled to be finished in October, 2010). The Somaliland government claimed that they had already signed an agreement with a local company, SomCable. However, no additional work has been carried out since last year, leaving construction at a stand still and the region unconnected. In Mogadisho, on the other hand, the landing cable lays ready to be used, but remains unconnected due to security issues at the site. To make matters more frustrating, Dalkom has funding, contracts awarded and the regulatory approval to extend the cables from the landing site inward, creating a national terrestrial backbone. Security issues in the area are the only contingency.

2. Mombasa—Nairobi—Moyale, Ethiopia Cable (green line)

The EASSy submarine cable has been extended inland previously from Mombasa to Nairobi. For the past year, discussions have been underway been the Kenyan and Ethiopian government on possibly constructing a terrestrial cable from Nairobi to Moyale, on the Ethiopian border. However, with FON’s assistance, the cable has been built, but is yet to be lighted. The only remaining holdup is to sign an agreement of understanding with the Ethiopia government, which has historically been reluctant to work with private sector ICT companies.

3. Somalia—Kenya Connection (black line)

According to Mr. Jama, there is 560 km remaining between fiber optic terrestrial backbone cables in Somalia and the state of Mandera in Northeastern Kenya. Mr. Jama proposes that the Kenyan government bring the fiber to the border, and then Dalkom Somalia would complete the Somali side. This connection would connect Somalia to the African backbone network. However, there has been intermittent violence on the Kenya-Somalia border in Mandera, with the most recent issue being a land mine blast that killed eleven Kenyan officers. The volatility of the border could potentially lead to another security standstill before lighting the fiber, like in Mogadisho. Dalkom and the governments, then, need to concern themselves not only with the technical issues and construction of the remaining fiber, but also on the political instability of the region.

4. Juba—Lokichogio Link (red line)

Southern Sudan and Kenya plan to construct a fiber optic cable link between the two nations as part of a larger project entitled “four-in-one.” The project includes the construction of a railway line from Lodwar-Lokichogio to Juba, road rehabilitation, an oil pipeline, and fiber optic cables. Currently, the governments need to conduct a feasibility test given the mountainous nature of the route, especially the Great Rift Valley. In all likelihood, the project will not be finished before 2015.

5. Djibouti—Somaliland SomCable (orange line)

SomCable, supported by the interim government in the territory of Somaliland, reportedly signed an agreement to buy the necessary buildings and licensing in Djibouti to route the EASSy cable into Berbera and throughout Somaliland. The President of SomCable, Mr. Mohammed Gueti, announced his recent acquisitions just yesterday. Mr. Gueti has strong ties with the president of Djibouti’s family, arguably giving his company an advantage over Dalkom Somalia at winning the contract. However, as Mr. Jama points out, construction has yet to begin on this cable line, possibly suggesting that the announcement is merely a political move by the government of Somaliland as Mr. Gueti does has any rights to extend the EASSY Cable. Neither purchases any capacity from the members of the Consortium.

July 14, 2011/by actualize

Business Enabling Environment, Economic Growth & Trade, Enterprise Development, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Workforce Development

Planting CEEDs of Growth in Moldova with ICTs

The ICT sector is one of the most dynamic in Moldova’s economy. Recording a vibrant growth over the past years, today it represents nearly 10% of the national GDP, on par with agriculture production.

There are about 40,000 people employed directly and indirectly in ICT, making the ICT sector one of the major employers in Moldova. It is also one of the highest paying industries, as jobs in ICT pay on par with those in the financial sector, historically the best paying jobs in the country. Most importantly, the ICT industry employs the young generation, offering an exciting, fast-growing and rewarding career for the next generation.

Moldova has already chosen the pathway of ICT. All players – the Government, the business community, the citizens and the ICT industry itself – have acknowledged the importance of information technology as a catalyst for growth, and as a tool of growth enhancement in all other economic sectors.

Technical assistance from USAID Moldova through the Competitiveness Enhancement and Enterprise Development (CEED) project over the past five and a half years has enhanced the competitiveness of the ICT sector through initiatives meant to consolidate the quality of companies, to strengthen ICT education so that it meets the needs of business, and to align the industry towards common goals.

Just last month, USAID Moldova sponsored the Moldova ICT Summit 2011, featuring the Association of Private ICT Companies in Moldova, as well as the recently launched national E- Government Center. The event focused on the e-transformation of the Moldovan economy, and the importance of e-transparency, among other topics.

Since the initiation of the first phase of the CEED project, USAID Moldova has been involved in numerous efforts. They facilitated the formation of the Association of Private ICT Companies in Moldova, established relationships between the national government and the private companies in the ICT sector, helped private firms to become IT-Mark certified ICT companies under CMMI methodology (encouraging foreign investment and trade), and set up talks respecting the formation of a “Cloud-Moldova” e-government system.

Additionally, a need for more trained and educated IT professionals in Moldova has arisen. To meet this need, USAID Moldova connected the Moldovan Minister of Education with large ICT firms. The ministry signed memorandums with Microsoft, Cisco, and i-Carnegie (Carnegie Mellon University). New IT focused courses and degrees are being offered in the Moldovan education system, providing the ICT industry with the professional staff it requires.

A man and a woman watch as a man repairs a computer.

Photo: Sergiu Botezatu

Despite these advancements, a few large boulders block continued development of the ICT sector in Moldova. The national government’s telecommunications company, Moldtelecom, still controls the majority of the market. Additionally, Moldova is unknown in the region as a destination of IT, this holding back investment. Thankfully, however, steps are in place to remove these barriers. The national government is beginning to investigate selling Moldtelecom and a strategy for ICT sector positioning and promotion is underway, which is intended to put Moldova on the regional and global ICT map.

June 29, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Fiber Optic Cables To Extend to 3 More East African Nations

In today’s headlines, African Telecoms giant Seacom announced that it will be laying fiber optic broadband cables in the coming year in three African nations: Burundi, Somalia, and Southern Sudan. Fiber cables will first be laid in Burundi with the assistance of a $10.1 million dollar grant from the World Bank, and later in Southern Sudan and Somalia.

Attempting to connect all of East Africa together, Seacom has successfully completed fiber construction in Uganda, Djibouti, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Kenya, which is the headquarters of the region. East African governments have been key partners with Seacom and other private telecommunications companies, including Korea Telecom in Rwanda. In fact, the East African Community (EAC), a group of five nations, will invest a combined total of $400 million in laying broadband cables in the coming years. With the undersea and terrestrial fiber cables laid, the groundwork will be in place for all of East Africa to be connected directly.

African Undersea Cables — A History

View more presentations from Steve Song

In Burundi, the reported plans include laying 1,300 kilometers of fiber optic cable, partially funded by the World Bank. The funding for Southern Sudan and Somalia, however, is less concrete at this point, as governments and private sector players are only at the formation stage, with Seacom leading the way.

Seacom’s announcement came despite the spread of land fighting on the border of North and South Sudan this past week, where reportedly more than 53,000 Southern Sudanese citizens fled their homes. Despite the fighting, Seacom spokesman Julius Opio remained optimistic.

However, Mr. Opio has expressed other concerns, including the low portion of the Internet community that is owned and produced by Africans. Establishing broadband infrastructure in Africa, Mr. Opio argues, will increase African ownership and power in the Internet sphere.

“Today, the majority of internet content consumed in Africa is non-African, flowing from Europe and North America into Africa. …We believe that the growth of the African ICT market, including mobile penetration and the eager adoption of social networking, coupled with the development of cloud services will result in a rapid increase in content on African soil.”

Slideshow from Steve Song, and video from Seacom and CreamerMedia.

June 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Serious Gaming—It Plays to Develop

Screenshot of the game Peacemaker

You can now play an active role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as either the Israeli Prime Minister, or the Palestinian President, straight from your living room.

Will you put pressure on the United States to publicly condemn your enemy? Will you withdraw your settlements from the Gaza Strip? Your decisions will render a live computer generated response. Similar to the importance of real life, timely decisions in the Middle East, your decision will affect if the entire region will be at peace or explode in violence.

”]This is the aim of the “serious game” called the Peacemaker developed by Asi Burak, and co-founder of GamesforChange.org.

These “Serious Games” are burgeoning agents for social change being used in the development world by advocates, nonprofit groups, and technically keen academics searching for new ways to reach young people.

The main idea is the player becomes immersed in a real-world situation where human rights, economics, public policy, poverty, global conflict, news, and politics are some issues confronted in the games.

The player deliberates and makes conscious choices while they play and those actions either benefits one side or harms another, making a complete resolution difficult.

Objectively, the player can play as many times as they need to resolve the issue to win the game.

As Jarmo Petäjäaho from Finland, states in a review after playing Peacemaker, “Making the policy decisions in the game and pondering the possible ramifications on all parties really makes the issues hit home and stay with you. It is a wonderfully efficient and fun way to study the real world.”

That is the true beauty behind all the efforts: games are innately helpful in simplifying large, complex systems and teaching them to people.

Two weeks ago Tech@State had a two-day Serious Games conference where game creators, technology executives, and social entrepreneurs, exchanged ideas and experiences on the best mechanics of games for social change.

While most of the games focused on issues of international affairs, public policy and diplomacy, one group focused on how to leverage this educational tool for developing nations lacking computers.

Playpower, created by a group of programmers and researchers, is a great, simple educational tool to bring video gaming to developing nations.

By constructing a $10 TV-compatible computers out of discarded keyboards and outfitting them with cartridge-based educational games, the Playpower team aims to make learning games affordable for “the other 90%.”

The Serious Games shown at the conference is rowing as a tool used for social change, but no one knows how sustainable the method may be.

USAID is interesting in exploring the effects of the gaming venture on development.

An Innovations for Youth Capacity & Engagement (IYCE) game is currently in development with the Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) Bureau in conjunction with Nethope. The game targets resolving youth and social issues in Jordan.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

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