Progress report for
ICT4SIDS Partnership: Rapid Implementation of SDGs Through Latest Digital Innovations
Achievement at a glance
NOTE: This is an updated version of the 2018 Status Report.We are operating a powerful computer aided planning and capacity building organization that is concentrating on rapid implementations of SDGs (Goal 17) through “Smart Collaborating Hubs” and Pilot Projects. Specifically, we have done the following.
FIRST: We have expanded our Partnership to include UNESCAP, IKDAR.org (a large philanthropic enterprise concentrating in Southeast Asia), Programos Foundation (a large Nigeria-based foundation with interest in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and other countries in Africa), and Sri Lanka ICT Agency.
SECOND: We have implemented 4 Smart Collaborating Telemedicine Centers in Pakistan, 5 Smart Collaborating Hubs in Srilanka (2 in fisheries, 2 in agriculture, 1 in plastic waste recycling, and 1 in education), and 12 collaborating hubs in 6 regions in Nigeria (6 telemedicine centers and 6 in education for school teachers). At present, we have a total of about 36 collaborating smart hubs in a dozen countries. We plan to significantly expand this network to almost 100 smart hubs by the end of 2018.
THIRD: We have integrated all of our tools (an SDG Advisor, Computer Aided Strategic Planner, Entrepreneurship Portal, and educational materials) into a highly flexible Computer Aided SDG Implementation Methodology that is supporting the current and future pilot projects. FOURTH: We have developed a unique hands-on training workshop for “Rapid SDG Implementation” that systematically guides the users to assess their SDG status, evaluate the type of services needed to improve their status, and even launch the needed services through a computer aided planner.
FINALLY: The ICT4SIDS work on Smart Collaborating Hubs has been published widely through a paper published in an academic journal, a paper published in the prestigious IEEE Conference on Technology and Engineering Management, and numerous reports and presentations published on our website (www.ict4sids.com, Learning Corner).
Challenges faced in implementation
FIRST CHALLENGE-HIGH FAILURE RATES OF ICT PROJECTS: Many ICT projects, especially in developing countries, face failure rates of 60-85% due to expensive retries. Smart hub projects are no exception. In response, we have developed a careful methodology that is supported by an integrated set of tools to do more (provide more services to more users) with less (time, money, trained staff and risk). This methodology and the associated tools have been improved and enriched successively through the hands-on experience and practical insights gained through more than 30 pilot projects. At the time of this writing, the first 2 phases of the methodology are practically error free due to sophisticated use of Big Data and artificial intelligence. However, the last 2 phases are still prone to failures. We are working on these 2 phases at present.SECOND CHALLENGE – THE PERSISTENT DIGITTAL DIVIDE: Innovative solution approaches based on people-process-technology tradeoffs are needed to ameliorate the digital divide and other unique challenges facing the SIDS. Based on the lessons learned in the last 3 years, we are focusing on “Smart Hubs” to ameliorate the digital divide in rural and isolated populations. Specifically, smart hubs are supported by powerful portals that provide highly specialized region and population specific services for SDGs and also fully support the vision of widely distributed information hubs as specified in the Samoa Pathway Declaration (Para h, Section 109). These smart hubs are designed to collaborate with each other for rapid regional growth. Based on our work this year, we feel that carefully designed collaborating smart hubs that serve different populations in rural as well as urban areas can ameliorate the digital divide and significantly accelerate the progress towards the SDGs.
Beneficiaries
The main beneficiaries are:
1) patients in remote areas who can get help from nearby smart healthcare hubs,
2) poor fishermen in remote islands who can increase their income by getting satellite-based information about accurate fishing zones from nearby smart fishery hubs,
3) young entrepreneurs who want tangible business opportunities as Hub Masters,
4) students who want to specialize in ICT for better employment opportunities, and
5) SIDS officials who want to rapidly implement SDGs in their countries.
Actions
We have implemented over 36 pilot projects that span 12 countries with a mixture of SIDS and LDCs in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. The objective of our free pilot projects (about 3 months each) is to provide educational and entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth and poor populations. We are specifically employing local youth as Point of Contacts (POCs) who are given tangible educational and entrepreneurship opportunities in different rural and urban areas around the globe. Specific examples:FIRST: Our Healthcare Centers are currently supporting populations in Bangladesh and Nigeria.
SECOND: Young nursing school graduates are being given opportunities to run Telemedicine Centers as “Hub Masters”.
THIRD: In Tanzania, we launched an educational hub for educating high school teachers in ICT (a highly valued skill in extremely short supply). This hub exceeded our expectations by becoming financially independent in just 2 months because of much higher than expected enrollments (we were expecting 30 students, we enrolled 120 students).
FOURTH: The POCs of each hub are required to communicate and collaborate with at least 3 other hubs as part of the training program. They initially exchange educational materials and lessons learned but later start exchanging other vital information such as evacuation procedures in case of a disaster and digital marketing approaches for cottage industries.
FIFTH: Even in its formative stages, the collaboration between hubs provides a rich educational source for interactions between different hubs in the same country (e.g., all hubs of the Solomons), collaborations between different countries but on the same topic (e.g., healthcare hub in Bangladesh collaborating with the one in Pakistan), and mixtures (e.g., micro-entrepreneurship and micro financing in different countries collaborating with each other).