The Concept
The usage and deployment of ICTs assist in creating benefits in all
aspects of daily life and entail skilled personnel to employ newly
developed ICT applications. ICTs also contribute to sustainable
production and consumption patterns, as well as reduce traditional
barriers, providing an opportunity for all to access local and
global markets in a more equitable manner.
The new markets structures have necessitated a new set of skills
which assist in the development and use of ICT services. ICT
applications are now user-friendly, accessible to all, affordable,
adapted to local needs in languages and cultures, and support
sustainable development.
To this effect, local authorities play a major role in not only the
provision of ICT services but also delivering the requisite training
to empower professionals to use ICT services for the benefit of
their populations. This new usage of ICT Services has made unmatched
progress in rural areas and in
Extend the benefits of Information Technology and Telecome (ICT) to
the door steps of rural population of
Aims and Objectives of E-Village
A.
Minimizing Digital Divide in
B.
Empowerment of local communities.
C.
Establishment of a "
D.
Provide a technology base Complaint Reporting Service ( E-Shikayat )
E.
Provide joint platform to farmers to discuss problems of their
INTERESTS(e-Mushawara)
F.
Using Internet and telecom to provide daily life services in
villages like:-
v
Increase farmer’s productivity by informing him best world practices
to grow more from same land.
v
Provide education to rural population in current trades and skills
v
Provide job matching services to rural population
v
Provide latest healthcare information and services (tele-Medicine)
v
Enhance farmer’s decision making power to sell his products on
better rates
v
Facilitates collaboration between public/private organizations
presently working to provide services to farmers
v
Provide quick inbound/outbound very cheap email system in each
v
Establish social links between urban and rural population of
v
Less procurement cost for buyer for high quality goods and farmer
gets better price (win-win situation)
v
Through e-real estate services bring foreign investors close to
buying facilities
v
Promote best practices among farmers and thus enhancing their
productivity
v
Crop information services.
v
Local and foreign market information like demand, world production,
volume, process. Farmer can make more informed decision well in
advance not under pressure
v
Re-engineer traditional supply chain by introducing price
transparency and competition
v
Obtain direct access to larger rural consumer base
-
Pooled purchasing gets wholesale price for farmer
-
Major companies take part in pilot project to sell services and
goods to the rural community via e-village
-
Sell everything from micro credit to tractor via e-village. Rural
market of
Opportunities
- Fast increasing teledensity.
- Encouraging PC Growth rate.
- Internet usage and growth
of Internet-cafes even in remotes towns.
- World class technical
manpower having required skill sets in ICT
- Pakistani professionals in
ICT living abroad
- Government commitment and
available funds
- International focus on
using Knowledge of ICT for development (UN top priority Agenda)
Challenges
- Due to fast population
growth rate there is an urgent need to use some fast track strategy
for development.
- Extension of economic
activities and benefits of development every where in
- Understand and utilize the
fastly developed models of best practices of knowledge based
economics in other developing countries.
-
Localization…..Web Contents in Local languages
-
Enabling environments.
-
Partnerships and human networking.
Paradigm Shift in Development of Societies.
During world summit on the Information Society (WSIS) under UN in
TUNIS in November 2005 role of ICTs has been recognized not only as
a medium of communication, but also as a development enabler and as
a tool for the achievement of the internationally agreed development
goals and objectives such as:
-
Education for all
-
Equal opportunities for health care
-
Minimize Digital Divide and Gender Divide
-
Equal opportunities for all and any where to participate in economic
-
Growth of a country.
-
Intellectual Property Rights
-
Internet Governance
-
E-learning
-
E-Commerce
-
E-Governance
Some
International Initiatives.
-
UN initiative to give development funds to only those countries who
would use ICTs for development (WSIS)
-
Internet Governance
-
Focus on development of internet tools and services in Local
languages.
-
Huge Investments in fast networks still continuing….. Internet 2,
Web 2.0 etc
-
Projects like Smart-Village Egypt, tele-centers, digital villages
Africa etc.
-
IT Investment moving to networked villages only.
-
Special focus as Information Security and IPR
-
Knowledge based economies ( Now Jobs would travel NOT humans )
Current
Scenario in
-
Large population (over 45%) is employed in agriculture sector of
Pakistan so in order to meet the increasing demands of food stuff
and to produce more for our economic progress it is of vital
importance that while taking advantage of our local knowledge base
we must use world proven best practices to build the capacity of
their rular areas and use of ICT for social and economic development
of societies. Production from agriculture in
-
Easy to use communication systems like SMS messages and push driven
internet based information systems can be used to provide this
timely information. Our Uneducated farmers are locked in
unproductive cycle. This encouges middle men to exploit the formers
and thus the grower earn less and being discouraged does not work
hard and invest more (even with incentives from soft Government
loans).
-
Weak communication infrastructures and Intermediary dominated
markets make the rural communities isolated and due to lack of
sufficient outreach formers are not encouraged to invest in new
incentives to grow more and earn as per challenging economic needs
and with increase due to economic pressures, our village grower is
becoming victim of number of exploitations. To save him Government
rescues with support prices which bring more economic pressure on
Government resources. This unproductive chain is in cycle for the
last SIXTY YEARS and it is now right time to come out of it on
PRIORITY basis.
-
We need to have some "OUT OF BOX" solution and there must be a forum
for small farmers to save them from exploitations. Project
"E-VILLAG" provides a technology based forum based on best world
best practices.
ICT as vehicle of Good Goverence. ( Agenda point of United Nations )
-
Today we are living in a connected world; we can not keep our less
developed societies away from reforms and developments being made in
other parts of the world in similar environments.
-
Media, internet and other high speed technologies have made this
world a real global village. At one end this is an opportunity and
if not utilized intelligently can also be counter productive as
while its fruits are visible on media for other countries having
similar environments, but not utilized in your own country bring
discouragement to local population. This discontentment may lead to
a serious reaction against the Governess system of the country
-
As the concept of local Governments and democracies is maturing
gradually, feeling about local empowerment and specially eliminating
the Gender differences is also getting matured gradually.
-
After lot of experiences the societies in general have realized that
their strength lies within them self. They have further obtained the
desired knowledge that technology can play an important role in
bringing change in all walks of their life.
-
During the process Societies in developing countries have further
realized that they need to share their best practices and success
stories with regional societies and also with regional countries.
All this coordination and cooperation became possible due to
extensive use of Internet at gross root level in under developed
countries and also high level Importance given to Information based
societies for their empowerment by United Nations as an important
Agenda Item
Implementation Strategy
§
"E-Village" project offers a complete Social change and envisages to
involve large number of partners to bring the real Change.
§
Project "E-Village" has been conceived and being implemented by
Pakistan Social
Association (PSA), a Government Registered NGO since 1963 and
having its functional presence in all provinces of Pakistan and AJK
also.
§
PSA is implementing this project with teaming efforts of different
technology stake holders, local and provincial Governments, civil
society of rural areas and Internet services providers.
§
PSA has become an "Enabler Organization" for bridging the Gaps
between technology provider, service providers, civil society,
public organizations/departments, Universities academia, students,
inventors etc for achieving the objectives of E-Village with a
vision and
long term commitment.
§
Empowment of village people is the ultimate target, it can not be
achieved unless ownership
of all resources under e-village project is not given to village
leader ship only then they would protect computers, furniture and
every resource in the "Community Center"
§
Step wise executation of "e-village" Project.
Step-1---> Identification of a Village
- Identification of a
suitable village.
- Initially try to
identify a village which in the range of a broad band connection.
Step-2 ---> E-village Rabata Committee (EVRC)
- Selection of EVRC headed by a chairman and having known trust of
the village community.
- Committee would have
Five members and they should be well reputed in social services and
must have a track record of such services
- Chairman and members
of EVRC must be economically sound and willing to fill the GAPs
where needed. They should be able to travel to
Step-3 ---> Preparing to take off
- Selection of
Community Center space by EVRC
- Training of EVRC by
team of PSA Members (NGO) on the concept and long term vision of
E-Village.
- NGO would identify
near by University/college and establish links between Academia and
students with E-village.
Step-4 ---> Sharing the Vision of E-village
- Members of EVRC
would explain the concept of E-village to every one in the village.
- Confusions
would be explained with best practices already successful in
Step-5---> Setting up of
-
NGO would approach the partners (PROV-GOVT or a private
sector companies to provide ten Computers)
- University
would assess the training needs and encourage its students to impart
this customized training.
- NGO would work
with partner companies for Internet connectivity (Preferably Broad
Band)
Step-6---> Setting up of a Tele-Medicine center
- If already a
medical facility exist in village, tele-medical center would be
established there with the help of Technology partners.
- If no medical
facility exists then NGO would work with Partners to first establish
a Medical center.
Step-7---> Putting all together
- NGO
would arrange to facilitate the installation of NADRA Service
Station for payment of bills and verification of ID Card.
- NGO
would Coordinate with partners for the establish of a basic LIBRARY
facility with would be converted into e-library.
Step-8 ---> Monthly Review of Progress
-
EVRC would take all local decisions about the project in the light
of VISION given by the NGO.
-
Progress would be sent to NGO regularly on monthly basis.
-
EVRC would ensure to make the project self sustained in the light of
guidance from NGO.
Step-9---> Web Based services
- NGO
is working with technology partners to provide Web based Services to
E-village Project like:-
Step-10---> Way For Ward
All E-Villages would be linked with Web Portal services of the
Project.
By bringing all relevant stake holders on single platform the
real concept of ICT for development would be implemented.
National
level workshops and seminars would be made to attract other
technology and resource partners to take latest technologies and
support services to our villages and obtain all objectives of
E-village Projects.