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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
New Technologies Are Helping Poor Countries Leapfrog into the 21st-Century Economy
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Women assemble shoes at a factory in Bangladesh. The Jobs Opportunities and Business Support (JOBS) Program, funded by USAID, helped shoe factories such as this one boost shoe exports from Bangladesh to Japan using the Internet, thus creating hundreds of new jobs.
USAID/Bangladesh
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From Guatemala to Nepal to Mali, remote corners of the world are leapfrogging into the modern world through high technology, and U.S. foreign aid is helping them bypass decades of old industrial development and speed into the 21st century.
Villagers in Brazil can now sell their goods—wallets and purses—on the world market through USAID-funded telecenters powered by solar energy.
And teachers in Guatemala's El Quiche province are using computer software to preserve local traditions by teaching K'iche and Ixil literacy of Mayan languages spoken by 95 percent of the region's inhabitants. The software won a prize at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva in December 2003.
These are some of the uses of information and communication technology (ICT) in development.
"There are really only two main elements to development: physical commodities like roads, condoms, or food, and there is technical assistance and capacity building," said Lane Smith of the Bureau for Africa. "In every one of those activities—besides the tangible stuff—what we are really doing is helping the flow of communications and information to people in developing countries.
"We've been doing that for 50 years: it's the heart and soul of the development process. That hasn't changed. What has changed is the ability of technology to deliver communications in much cheaper and more efficient ways."
In 2002, the Office of Energy and Information Technology (EIT) was created within the Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Trade. About one-third of the $12.4 million EIT budget goes to ICT work. The office has 30 staff members; 10 specialize in information technology.
Most USAID programs today have an ICT component, ranging from teacher training centers in Namibia to courtroom automation software in Mongolia.
ICT can be used in agricultural production, democracy and good governance, economic growth, education, access to energy, environmental protection, public health, and poverty reduction.
The Leland Initiative, a USAID-managed effort to bring ICT to Africa since 1996, has helped 22 African nations formulate internet policies, liberalize existing ones, and spur competition among telephone companies and internet service providers.
The Agency has helped dozens of countries shape their ICT policies, exposed them to competitive markets, brought satellite and high-speed cable connections, and helped teach technicians and users to work with the new equipment.
Working with Cisco Systems, USAID has expanded workforce training for ICT technicians in 32 countries.
EIT has a "congressionally earmarked activity that provides free training for telecommunication and information technology, policy leaders, and professionals," said Stephen Tournas, a USAID education specialist. "Through another agreement with the State Department, the office provides technical assistance to help developing countries create the optimal conditions for better and cheaper telecommunication services such as telephones and the internet."
One of the largest ICT efforts is the Administrator's Last Mile Initiative, through which the Agency this year is investing $3 million in six countries to help improve telecommunications and internet service.
www.dec.org/partners/ict/ICTsearch.cfm
Digital Initiative Helps Senegal Spread and Speed up Internet Access
| Region |
Pct. |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
32% |
| Asia and the Near East |
32% |
| Eastern Europe and Eurasia |
20% |
| Latin America and the Caribbean |
16% |
DAKAR, Senegal—After decades of poor telephone service delivered through an inefficient state-run monopoly, this West African country opened its doors to competition in the telecommunications industry at the end of July.
Startup phone companies and multinationals are expected to bring cheaper services, new technologies, and the birth of wireless broadband and internet service provider industries.
The move is the latest in a series of steps taken by the Senegalese government—with the help of USAID—to bring modern technologies such as the internet to its people.
"We try to work with countries with progressive ICT policies, and try to bring about changes," said Lane Smith of the Bureau for Africa. "Senegal is an excellent example of a place where the evolving policies look to be really good."
Senegalese internet users in cities mostly log on to the web at cybercafés and telephone shops; dialup prices are high and few people have computers at home. Rural residents rarely have access to the web.
The government has taken steps to bridge the country's digital divide by linking the country to modern high-speed undersea cables, which allow for the fast transmission of large amounts of information. Progressive policies have encouraged a telephone shop industry that numbers more than 12,000 internet outlets.
Nevertheless, the existence of a national telephone monopoly means that the typical Senegalese has not benefited from the price reductions and increase in services that should have accompanied large leaps in infrastructure building, said Smith.
Through the Digital Freedom Initiative (DFI), USAID has been providing technical assistance to promote competition in the telecommunications sector. Nine volunteers—all IT experts from the technical and legal fields—have been working with the Senegalese government since last year. One is an international law expert who helped refine the draft of a legal framework to make the telecommunications sector more competitive.
"Here is a country that has recognized the need to modernize its approaches and strengthen the playing field for competitors, and we've been helping with the key elements," Smith said.
"The two absolutely critical elements of effective policy are transparency and a participatory regulatory process."
DFI helped Senegal's telecommunications regulatory agency create and launch a website that displays the country's laws regarding ICT, identifies industry players, and explains regulatory policies.
Agency-funded efforts are also helping the Senegalese government lay out an adequate IT infrastructure and pilot new wireless technology. Through various alliances, USAID is also bringing computers to schools and research centers and introducing IT applications that would be helpful to businesses.
As part of DFI, Hewlett-Packard is working with a Senegalese firm to introduce e-money applications. This would offer an option to rural entrepreneurs who have no access to banks and must carry their cash back and forth to banks in Dakar via crowded public buses in order to make deposits.
To help maintain an ICT infrastructure, Cisco Systems launched 12 centers to train Senegalese computer specialists in installing, managing, and maintaining modern networks.
Computer-Generated 'Mishko' Interests Macedonians in Technology
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An advertising poster for the 3D@E-schools program urges students to enroll in technology courses. "Become an animator," it says.
USAID/Macedonia
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SKOPJE, Macedonia—"Mishko," who greeted guests at a May 28 presentation, is a fictitious, three-dimensional, animated character created by high school information technology teachers during computer training in Skopje.
Faced with a youth unemployment rate of 50 percent, the animation industry is emerging as one of the rare sources for jobs in the former Yugoslav Republic.
U.S. foreign aid programs have created the 3D@E-schools program to steer creative youths to the global entertainment industry.
High school juniors and seniors are the focus of the program. They receive basic training, and the most talented go on to learn advanced animation skills. They then are considered for employment at companies such as 3X, which recently said it plans to hire 100 program graduates.
Another program, Macedonia Connects, is outfitting Macedonian high schools with broadband access with funds from USAID's Last Mile Initiative, which is also paying for satellite dishes, base stations, and technical assistance. The initiative is providing support to six countries to help bring ICT services to rural areas.
"Broadband connectivity is essential in accessing the global entertainment market, since large files must be rapidly sent between Macedonia and other countries," said Leigh Shamblin, director of the Social Transition Office for USAID/Macedonia.
Once all high schools are linked, training through 3D@E-schools will roll out nationwide. And as more youth enter the business, international companies will tap into Macedonia's youth talent, Shamblin said.
Macedonia is one of the first countries to receive Last Mile Initiative funding, she said.
Total Agency funding for ICT in Macedonia has exceeded $18 million over the past three years, coming from the mission, the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, the Global Development Alliance, and the Last Mile Initiative. Through public-private partnerships, the Agency is leveraging $7 million over three years to provide broadband access throughout the country.
The 3D@E-schools program constitutes three USAID projects—EDC E-school, Community Self-Help Initiative, and Macedonia Competitiveness Activity—as well as a Macedonian NGO, Digital Media training center.
U.S.-Backed Group Wins Petersburg Prize for Development Projects
This market in Kati, Mali, is monitored regularly by Observatoire du marché agricole (Agricultural Market Watch), a market information system set up with help from Michigan State University under a USAID grant. The organization reports on prices and supplies of agricultural products.
John Staatz, Michigan State University
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The winner of this year's prestigious Petersburg Prize for the best development project related to ICT is the Grameen Bank-Village Phone program, which is receiving some USAID funding as it expands from Bangladesh to Uganda.
In fact, some 30 of 220 projects that competed for the prize this year and four of eight finalists received Agency support.
The Petersburg Prize, which carries a 100,000 euro cash award, is given out by the Development Gateway Foundation. Winners are encouraged to use at least half the money to train prospective leaders in ICT.
Aside from Grameen's program (see page 6), the other three USAID-funded finalists are:
- The Mali Agricultural Market Information Support Team. Known by its French acronym PASIDMA, it helped set up a system of market watchers who use email, solar-powered computers, and radio broadcasts to help farmers find the best prices for their produce and supplies.
- Radio News Agency 68H, a project in Indonesia that created the nation's only nationwide independent radio news agency. It uses a mix of satellite and internet technologies to provide news and public service programming by radio, with 20 million listeners tuned into 340 radio stations.
- Marco Cáceres's Projecthonduras.com. It brings together organizations and individuals to form alliances, publicize needs, and better coordinate aid and relief resources for one of the poorest countries in Latin America.
Satellite Radio Sends Health Talk over Nepalese Peaks to Remote Villages
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A women's listening group in a village outside of Hetauda in the Terai region. The village is near a highway that traverses Nepal and is a priority for women's empowerment and HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Many women are married to or interact with truck drivers, and many young women fall prey to traffickers and promises of opportunity in India.
Michael Bosse, Equal Access
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KATHMANDU, Nepal—Radio programs broadcast by satellite are reaching people in hundreds of remote villages that dot much of the country's mountainous landscape, educating them about prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other crucial subjects. For many villagers, it is their first time hearing the radio.
Radio has long been used to deliver health, agricultural, and governmental information to rural people, who are often illiterate. But only half of Nepalese are reached by FM or shortwave radio, which cannot transmit a signal over mountains.
New satellite radio technology, which transmits its signal from space, can reach even the most remote regions.
"Satellite radio technology presents an opportunity to bridge the geographic barriers that isolate so many rural communities in Nepal, promising an information link that could become a useful tool for mission programs," said Jonathan Metzger, internet development advisor at the Bureau for Asia and Near East, which invested $110,000 in the program.
The Digital Broadcast Initiative (DBI) is an 18-month pilot project bringing radio programming about HIV/AIDS prevention, antitrafficking, and women's empowerment to some 400 listening groups in 19 Nepalese regions.
Each listening group—one per village—received a digital radio and a tape cassette recorder. Residents meet daily or weekly to listen to and discuss the broadcasts, which are often built around drama programs.
Early interviews with listening groups showed a robust appetite for information. Satellite radio has been especially successful in reaching women because many of the listening groups were previously part of a USAID-funded women's program.
After listening to the programming, a girl in the 7th grade asked, "Please talk more and talk directly about HIV/AIDS. Talk about it in a way that I can listen with my family. Then I will feel more comfortable to discuss it in my home."
HIV/AIDS is nowhere near as prevalent in Nepal as in African counties. But the epidemic has been spreading quickly throughout Asia.
Satellite radio can be enhanced if receivers are attached to computers, allowing programming to be stored and replayed at any time.
Home to the world's tallest peak, Mount Everest, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in South Asia. Its population is 24 million. There are few roads, and much travel is done on foot or by ox cart. Agriculture and tourism are mainstays of the economy.
DBI has leveraged $12 for every $1 that the Agency has invested.
Satellite access for the project is provided by World Space, a company that has satellites covering Asia and Africa.
Equal Access, a nongovernmental organization, designed and is implementing the program with funding several organizations such as the United Nations.
DBI won one of this year's top five awards for technological innovations benefiting humanity from the Tech Museum in California.
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