Telecenters and the Incubation of Public Policy

Telecenters and the Incubation of Public Policy TELECENTRES AND THE INCUBATION OF PUBLIC POLICY Johan Ernberg The process of national policy-making One would like to believe that national policies are formulated by governments on the basis of their visions of what is best for the development of their country and its people. However, at least in democracies, politicians must also take public opinion into account when formulating policies. Moreover, in most societies, there are powerful pressure groups that lobby for policies they view as promoting their specific interests. In most countries, the government’s vision of what is best for the country is based on more or less thorough research involving studies of the effects of current policies, or the lack of them. The world is constantly changing and when new phenomena of social, cultural, economic or technical nature emerge, policies often need to be developed or changed. If other countries have already developed policies to cope with the new developments it makes good sense to study the effects of these policies in those countries as well. Public opinion makers, who reach their audience through media and publications, are often those who trigger this process of policy-making or revision. This is perhaps the way it should be. But is it? The answer to this question varies from country to country. In the majority of countries, policy-making probably follows broadly the steps outlined above. However, some governments seem not to bother about public opinion or about other countries’ policies and regulations. This may be the case when decision makers lack awareness or understanding of the issues, particularly when it comes to technical issues. Some governments are also isolated from their own people because the latter have no means of expressing freely their opinion publicly. This may be due to cultural (including religious), political and socio-economic factors, geographical isolation or language problems. The role of international organizations in policy-making Governmental international organizations, such as the UN agencies and the World Bank, play an important role in shaping national policies. They provide forums, where member states can share their experience and jointly identify good practice, based on research done in (some of) the member states. International organizations are also usually charged with the task to disseminate “Best Practice” and success stories and to develop guidelines and standards, which are intended to help member states to develop their national policies and to harmonize policies globally, when required. To enhance the probability that these guidelines actually would be used also by less developed countries, international organizations invest heavily in awareness and capacity building (including training) of policy and decision makers in such countries. Some critics argue that the process, outlined above, of policy-making based on international “consensus” enables economically powerful nations to “persuade” the rest of the world to adopt policies that suit the formers interests and culture but are not necessarily the best for all nations. If there is some truth in this, policy guidelines must be flexible and adaptable to different social, economic and cultural conditions. Countries, which adopt policies based on argument provided by those who have implemented them in other countries should ideally test these policies in their own environment to see their effects and subsequently adapt them to suit their needs. 1 Sectoral approach vs. cross-sectoral In many cases, each government department, such as the departments for health, education, finance, telecommunications, broadcasting and information, trade and commerce, social affairs, and foreign affairs, are developing policies for their own sector in isolation. However, increasingly, issues are becoming cross-sectoral and policy-making would then need to involve several government departments. An example par excellence of this are information and communication (IC) policies and regulations, which involve virtually all sectors. Some examples of issues that must be addressed in this case are policies and regulations regarding: , Publication of – and access to – Information (data security, copyright, protection privacy and individual integrity, protection against undesired content, freedom of speech and expression, etc.); , Telecommunications (monopoly vs. liberalized markets, tariffs, coverage, competition, spectrum management, trade in services and equipment, Internet, etc.); , Access to information and communication technologies – ICT (trade in IT equipment, import duty tariffs, subsidies for the poor, etc.); , Capacity building (role of ICT in general education programs, other means of capacity building for those above school age); , E-learning (access to distance education, certification, etc.) , E-government (access to public information, means of communicating with political instances, public departments and institutions, etc.) , e-commerce (secure payments, delivery, taxes, etc.); , tele-healthcare (data protection, liability in case of medical malpractices or mistakes, sharing of charges, etc.) The above examples indicate that a number of different government departments are directly concerned. The resulting set of policies and regulations would need to be coherent and comprehensive if the desired effects are to be brought about. If policies are wrong or lacking in any of these sectors the overall goal of the policies may be jeopardized. Furthermore, information and communication are not only cross-sectoral issues but also cross- border issues. The Internet, for example, does not recognize any borders and information generated anywhere is, in principle, available wherever there is connectivity with the global networks. National policies and regulations must therefore also consider other countries policies and regulations in this field. Many UN-agencies have been involved in the development of different aspects of IC policy guidelines, sometimes on their own, sometimes in close collaboration with concerned sister organizations. Thus, for example, Unesco and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) have dealt with policies regarding publication of, and access to information. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has been principally involved in the development of telecom regulatory frameworks, the World Trade Organization (WTO) in all aspects of trade of telecom and IT services and in e-commerce, and the World Bank in virtually all of the subjects indicated in the above list. The Global Knowledge Partnership is a forum for collaboration in this field. One would hope that this partnership would overcome the difficulties to effective interagency collaboration, which, in 2 the past, has been rather poor, reflecting the lack of cross-sectoral collaboration in the member states, indicated above. The ITU and others have also strongly recommended that countries establish cross-sectoral committees to develop harmonized sets of national policies and regulation in the field of ICT. This is easier said than done. In many countries, ministries and government departments are mandated to establish policies and regulations in their respective sector and sometimes do not like interference in policy-making from the outside. Moreover, even if they would like to collaborate with other sectors, there is usually no mechanism established for such cross-sectoral collaboration in policy-making. The role of telecenter research in policy-making Many of the telecenter pilot projects, which are currently implemented (mainly) in developing countries, are so called Multipurpose Community Telecentres (MCT). This means that they are intended for all members of a rural community or a deprived urban area, i.e., that the objective is to provide universal access to ICT (which is already a policy that may be debated). It further means that MCTs will provide a wide range of ICT-based services, ranging from simple information services, government/community-on line and e-learning to e-commerce and tele-medicine, besides user training and support. In addition they may provide many other services, such as library services, business support and a forum for all those involved in community development, which are not necessarily ICT-based. Thus, MCT projects are inherently cross-sectoral and, as such, provide a test bed for development of policies regarding practically all the issues that need to be addressed in a comprehensive set of national information and communication policies. These projects are supposed to be demand driven. Therefore needs analysis is usually carried out in the concerned communities before the project's design is completed. However, it is unrealistic to expect that people, who are unaware of the possibilities offered by ICT, would be able to identify all their potential needs for such technologies. Only when the access to ICT and the skills to use these are available can one expect to get an accurate picture of the real needs for ICT, based on an analysis of how the people use the facilities and why they do not. When a telecenter is being implemented it will also be possible to assess the needs for capacity building, subsidies or other mechanisms required to allow universal access to the facilities. In these projects, different tariff and subsidies schemes, as well as policies for applications, such as Government-on-line (GoL), distance education, tele-trading and telemedicine could be tested. They also provide opportunities to identify possible harmful effects and remedies for these, which will also help decision makers to develop information policies adapted to their economic, social and cultural environment. These projects also provide platforms and, thus mechanisms, for cross-sectoral collaboration at the local, national and international levels. At the local level, a stakeholders’ steering committee is usually established. At the national level, efforts are made to involve all concerned ministries and department in the development of relevant content and stimulate them to develop policies, which will enhance the sustainability of the telecentres. At the international level, the partner organizations collaborate in the execution of the projects, and share experience and content developed and lessons learned. Based on the evaluations of the projects “Best Practice Models” are expected to emerge. These can then be incorporated in policy guidelines developed by the organizations and disseminated globally through the organizations’ traditional means and 3 channels of communication with their members, including conferences, the Internet and printed publications. Experience indicates that cross-sectoral collaboration works best when the stakeholders are actively involved in a joint project or activity, where all of them have a role to play. Furthermore, in this case, the technologies themselves provide the tools for anybody with access to ICT to make their voice heard through the Internet and, thus, participate in the policy-making process. The evaluation of these projects should answer research questions, such as: , Does (universal) access to ICTs in rural and deprived areas contribute to social, economic and cultural development, including gender equality, and, if so, how and what are the benefits? , Are there any adverse effects and, if so, which? , Do MCTs provide a sustainable way of providing universal access to ICTs and what are the conditions that must be met to make them economically viable and replicable? If not, will they ever be and under which conditions? Are there other better ways? , What are good practice models for the set-up, organization, management and operation of MCTs, under different conditions? , What policies and regulations are required to promote the replication of such centers at the national scale, based on private sector investment? , To what extent did established mechanisms for collaboration at local, national and international levels achieve their objectives and how did they contribute to sharing of resources and to the development of a national ICT strategy? , What were the key success factors and what were the reasons for failures (if any) of the MCT pilots and associated activities (lessons learned)? Evaluation of these pilot projects is obviously the key to provision of a sound basis for policy-making in this field. Researchers need to collaborate very closely with stakeholders at all levels (local, national and international), including the private sector, to ensure objectivity and acceptance of the results. Impact on social, economic and cultural development will normally not be discernable in the short term and can therefore not be evaluated until considerable time has elapsed. Comparative studies of similar communities which do not have MCTs would be required to facilitate the difficult task of isolating impact attributed to the MCTs from other factors contributing to change. Clearly telecenter pilots are not the only type of projects that provide inputs to policy development in the field of ICT. In many other projects in areas such as e-commerce, e-learning, telemedicine and GoL, policy makers can learn from experiences in their own environment. However, in contrast to sectoral projects, the telecenter pilot projects provide a platform for cross-sectoral collaboration in policy-making as well as a test bed for new policies in all the above areas. The fact that that they address the needs of marginalized people in isolated areas makes them especially interesting for policy makers in countries with a high proportion of people in such areas. The above implies that the process of policy-making could be rather slow. Of course most countries do not wait for evaluations such as those described above to be completed but develop gradually policies and regulations as they learn from research results and “success stories”. It should be borne in mind that “Best Practice” (more appropriately called “Good Practice”) in a specific country and point in time, may not be the best in another country with 4 different conditions and/or at a later time, considering the rapid pace of development in the ICT sector. This again underscores that policy guidelines should be flexible so that they can easily be adapted to different environment and accommodate new ideas and technologies in a rapidly changing world. How are policies utilized? The degree to which established national policies are actually applied varies from one country to another. In some countries policies are applied strictly, in others less rigidly. Lack of enforcement may be due to many factors. It could be because the policies are poorly adapted to the environment and therefore not supported by major stakeholders. Other reasons may be that the human and other resources required to implement the policy are not available or those who are supposed to enforce policies are poorly trained and informed. In some cases, corruption may be the reason. Here is another area where more research may shed light and find ways to improve the situation. 5