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From PIDO

2006.11 Final draft

Three-year (2006 - 2008) Activity Plan of the Pacific Islands Digital Opportunity (PIDO) Special Committee: A Special Committee to the SPINF Steering Committee

1. Background

1) Japanese contribution to the ICT development of Pacific Island Region since 1980s. Since the 1980’s, several Japanese universities, such as the University of Electro-Communications and Tohoku University have been developing cooperative relationships with PEACESAT (Pan-Pacific Education and Communication Experiments by Satellite; developed and managed by the University of Hawaii). A former Posts and Telecommunications Ministry also organized a study on the electro-communication in the Pacific Island region and some Japanese researchers consistently studied USPNet (the University of the South Pacific distance education network).

In 1988, on the occasion of the Pacific Islands Nations Conference, Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund (SPINF) was established. During the Conference, the First President of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, revealed his wish to launch a telecommunications satellite for welfare education in the Pacific Island region to the late Mr. Ryoichi Sasakawa, then Chairman emeritus of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. In response to his wish, SPINF supported a policy meeting for the recommencement of the PEACESAT in Sendai in 1992, and made an effort to promote USPNet as a collaborative project among Governments of Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, a plan that finally succeeded in 1998. Overall, SPINF spent about 200 million yen over 15 years from 1990 to 2004 to support distance education in the Pacific Island region.

Since 1992, the Pacific Island region has also been included for the international collaborative project, PARTNERS Plan which mainly targeted Asian countries using Japanese Communication Satellite.

2) Current progress in ICT support since 2000

Japanese ICT cooperation projects started their full effect in the millennium year of 2000. For example, the Okinawa Charter on the Global Information Society was adopted through the initiatives of the Japanese government at the Okinawa Summit in 2000. On this occasion, the Japanese government announced “a Comprehensive Co-operation Package to address the International Digital Divide”. Major support plans included the following 4 items:

(1) Raising Awareness of IT Opportunities and Contributing Intellectually to Policy-making and Institution-building

(2) Developing and Training Human Resources

(3) Building IT Infrastructure and Providing Assistance for Network Establishment

(4) Promoting the Use of IT in Development Assistance

In the Pacific Island region, ePacififka was implemented with a financial support by the Japanese government to UNDP（United Nations Development Program）, which assisted national ICT policy formation. In addition, POLHN (Pacific Open Learning Health Network) has been developed by WHO (World Health Organization) with a contribution from Japanese government. However, as a whole, discussions for international aid were focused on Asian countries centered around ASEAN, and the Pacific Island region did not attract much attention.

2. PIDO Committee and its achievements

SPINF set up the Pacific Islands Digital Opportunity Research Committee in 2002 to study the digital divide of PI Region and submitted ICT policy recommendations for Pacific Island Nations to Japanese Government and respective organizations. After 2004, the activities of the committee continued as Phase II to advocate the committee’s ICT Policy recommendations. Four of the most significant achievements of the committee are as follows.

1) Policy proposals

The committee made contributions to raising the awareness of the Japanese government to the Pacific Island Nations and to the development of Asia Broadband Program and the Declaration of the Island Summit by submitting specific policy proposals focused on ICT policies in the Pacific Island Nations at the drafting and revision stages of the original plans by the Japanese government.

2) The Committee organized the meeting for the Pacific Island Nations as a side event of the WSIS Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Tokyo in January, 2003. Joint proposals by the Pacific Island Nations were compiled as a result of this meeting and submitted to WSIS Asia Pacific Regional Conference. Further, the committee submitted proposals stressing the importance of the Pacific Island Nations at the side event of the WSIS Geneva Conference in November, 2003. The Committee also offered advice at the POLHN meeting in December, 2004.

3) The Committee supported the formation of national ICT policies in Samoa, Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia.

4) The Committee organized telecentre workshops with international organizations including FDC (Foundation for Development Cooperation; an Australian NGO for development), UNESCO New Zealand, IDRC (International Development Research Centre, a Canadian public corporation), and GKP (Global Knowledge Partnership, an international organization for ICT development support) and NGOs to support the development and sustainable management of telecentres, which play effective roles in resolving the digital divide in rural and remote islands areas.. The telecentre workshops were held in: Brisbane, Australia in December, 2004, and Auckland, New Zealand in February, 2006. Many project leaders and government officials attended the workshops and had opportunities for information exchange and learning each other. At the Auckland workshop, participants agreed on the formation and management of a virtual platform (wiki Web), PacTOC (Pacific Telecentre Online Community, Pactoc.Telecentre.org) for information sharing and exchanging opinions.

Another notable topic is the trial and success of the Asia Pacific Initiative, a distance course in environmental studies at the post-graduate level (Master’s degree level). The project became an international collaborative project by the participation of United Nations University, Keio University, Ryukyu University, the University of Hawaii, the University of South Pacific, and the Asia Institute of Technology. 　

3. Concepts of the activities of the PIDO Special Committee

Through conducting research from the following viewpoints, the Special Committee aims to submit recommendations concerning effective policies and methods of ICT support by Japan, and policy recommendations to Pacific Island Nations and international organizations such as ITU and APT. The PIDO Special Committee also aims to provide the SPINF Steering Committee with recommendations that will help the Steering Committee plan the third programme guidelines.

1) The Special Committee will actively engage in the implementation of proposals and advice submitted by the former PIDO Committee (Phase I and II of the PIDO activities). At the same time, the PIDO Special committee will study relationships between the unique conditions of the information and communication systems of the Pacific Island Nations (small size economy, colonial type management, and so on) and the air-pocket state caused by the delayed catching up in technical innovation and deepening digital divide, evaluate aid projects financed by the Japanese government and other organizations, and present policy recommendations. For this, the Committee will evaluate new projects derived from the Okinawa Partnership program declared at the Fourth Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in May 2006, which include the USPNet and ICT Centres project of USP, Asia Broadband Program, and the WINDS satellite (ultra high speed internet satellite) project. The PIDO Special Committee will support the Pacific Island Nations so as not to miss the waves of ICT development.

2) The Special Committee will actively engage in supporting current SPINF projects, including the “ICT Policy Reform and Sustainability in the Micronesian Region” and “Enhancing Distance Education for the Pacific Island Community” projects, by participating in the projects as instructors as required by the grantees and offering information and opinions. The Special Committee will also evaluate the projects and offer advice in coordination with the SPINF secretariat.

3) Development and maintain of networks with domestic and foreign organizations forconducting research and information exchange on IT projects.

The Special Committee will maintain and strengthen networks with WSIS, PacINET, Pacific Plan (Regional Cooperation Strategy which made by PIF October 2005), POLHN (WPRO), and GKP.

4) The Special Committee will evaluate the ICT relevant projects conducted by SPINF in the last 15 years, and consider effective means of ICT support for the future.

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3. Members of the PIDO Special Committee See attached paper

4. Annual activity plans

1) Appointment of the Special Committee members: July, 2006

2) Study Meetings:

(1) First Regular Meeting: Planning of annual activities (August, 2006)

(2) Second Regular Meeting: Reporting activities of the year and planning the next year’s activities (January, 2007)

3) Activities

(1) Site visits, evaluation, and attending meetings

(2) Workshops and study meetings, reporting site visits and evaluation. A study meeting will be held to meet the schedule of the visit to Japan by Vice Chancellor of USP.

(3) Other (releasing activity reports on the web)

4) Compilation of activity reports

5. Budget

1) Meetings: 200,000 yen (2500 yen x 20 persons x 4 times)

2) Honoraria: 300,000 yen (10,000 yen x 15 persons x 2 times)

3) Travel: 2,400,000 yen (400,000 yen x 2 persons x 3 times) The above budget is appropriated and extra costs can be negotiated with the SPINF office if necessary.