SDNP Jamaica Information Technology Comes to Community Centers
"IT can level the playing field, but you have to have a mechanism for making it available, otherwise it widens the gap."- Valerie Gordon, SDNP, Jamaica Jamaica’s Minister of Communications and Technology had long talked about the concept of universal access involving not just a telephone in every home, but of allowing everybody, especially in major public areas like libraries, post offices, and schools, to have complete access to the Internet.Post offices were slated to be major internet access points but the Postmaster General had no idea how to make this happen. "He was tearing out his hair because he didn’t know how to do it and anyway he didn’t have the money to train his staff," says Ms. Gordon, the Jamaica Sustainable Development Networking Programme (JSDNP) Co-ordinator.
So JSDNP agreed to help provide equipment and training in IT to the Liguanea Post Office staff. In exchange, the post office agreed to contribute a furnished, rewired, training facility -- rent free -- and pay the utilities. This is just one example of synergistic collaboration that JSDNP, one of SDNP’s newest national programmes has established, doing its part to make this
vision a reality. The collaboration also works to make JSDN's activities more sustainable. The cost of the facility the post office is providing is roughly equivalent to the cost to JSDNP of training 100 postal employees a year in the use of email and the Internet. SDNP will be able to recover costs by charging US $70-90 for a 16-hour course -- from the general public, students (who will pay reduced rates) and groups for whom sponsorship will be provided. It is now trying to forge an alliance with a hardware supplier who, together with the Post Office and itself, can help establish training centres and Internet access in the rest of the major Post Offices.
A network of community cyber-centres
Basic connectivity in Jamaica is not a problem; there are a total of eight commercial ISPs. That's why JSDNP has focused on providing equipment and training to those who need it most, promoting IT among the development community as a networking tool to support sustainable development. JSDNP has been training school-teachers, sponsored by the Insurance Company of the West Indies, as well as members of environmental NGOs clustered together under the National Environmental Societies Trust (NEST). Their goal at present is to train about 150 representatives of NGOs per year, gradually establishing a network of trainers.JSDNP's idea has been to locate its "focal point centers" out in the community, in places which have a mandate to provide information. Places like a library where people would ordinarily come to for information. The process of choosing locations for the community centres has been highly participatory, based on meetings with local groups all over the island. Of the six community cyber-centres JSDNP planned, two are already operating. Three will be housed in local libraries, to take advantage of existing skills and infrastructure.
"We will train their staff," says Ms. Gordon, "and we've also asked them to establish a sub-committee that will collect information on activities in the area to feed into the network." To promote sustainability at the library cyber-centres, JSDNP asks that the nominal fees collected from users "be reserved to maintain their system, so their system doesn't have to depend on us forever," says Ms. Gordon.
Like other SDNP centres, these cyber-centres are not only sites to house computers, but are places where staff will be trained to provide information in a form that actually meets the needs of users in practical ways. JSDNP has no illusions that every single person will actually learn to go on line. But by empowering teams from the community resource centres, other focal points, and library staff - such a person could come into a library or a resource center and just say "I really need this information". Then the librarian or the resource person who has been trained and equipped to find information can deliver it in a way that the individual requesting it can understand and use it.
The power of a Radio-IT Link
SDNP’s work in information technology builds on and aims at strengthening and expanding the reach and power of other forms of communication. An example of how this might work comes from Jamaica’s Southwest coast, where one of JSDNP’s first cyber-centres has opened.The Community Resource Association there has already been designated by the Scientific Research Council in Kingston as a major focal point for disseminating information to the communities around them. As new developments occur within the field of agro-processing technology, for example, the Council sends information to the nearby town of Bluefields enabling local farmers to keep up to date with the latest agro-processing news. The Association also has a very active environmental education programme at schools in the area. Another exciting communication enhancement in the area is that Bluefields has received funding from UNESCO to establish a community radio station.
Though Jamaica has a literacy rate of 85 percent, the JSDNP co-ordinator Ms. Gordon notes that "We’re not really a reading society, but people love to listen to the radio. They love to talk and expound. But when the radio program is finished, it's finished. If it was on line, you can get it after the program is finished."
Linking radio to IT therefore opens up amazing possibilities. "Suppose", she says, "a farmer comes into the Bluefields resource centre looking for information on how to process and market a certain crop. It’s likely the radio station will have produced a programme that will answer his questions, and he can hear a replay of the programme or read a transcript of it. Then he can go on line and find a list of companies that buy his product. And of course, Bluefields radio will advertise the public access computers at the resource centre."
Unlimited possibilities
The Jamaican SDNP programme is still very new, but all the indicators point to its being one of the most successful. "Our programme has a particular focus on rural and marginalized groups," said Ms. Gordon, "and information technology can do much for these far-flung communities. These are the dynamic development opportunities that this technology offers. IT can level the playing field a lot, but you have to have a mechanism for making it available, otherwise it widens the gap. This is why we have to make sure it is right there on the ground."More About JSDNP
JSDNP was launched in 1998 with the blessing of a very enthusiastic UNDP Resident Representative, who originally allocated US $100,000 to the project. Other needs intervened, however, and the total amount received was US $75,000. But UNDP also arranged for an additional grant of US $40,000 in cost-sharing "Trac" funds from the Government of Jamaica. This too was evidence of strong commitment, especially on the part of Jamaica's Minister of Communications and Technology.The program aims at benefitting all sectors of the Jamaican society, with a focus placed primarily on the needs of community-based organisations (CBO's) in rural areas as well as farmers, women's groups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Other primary beneficiaries include partners in development such as government agencies, the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) international donors, teachers and students, research institutions and persons who wish to acquire information on markets and investment opportunities, environmental protection, pollution control and natural resources management, as well as sustainable development policy and programme information.
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For more info: info@sdnp.undp.org
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