CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana – A Draft Regional Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) Strategy, designed to create a Single ICT Space for the Region is under review at the Fifth Meeting of the Regional Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Steering Committee in Barbados.
Over the period of the meeting (16-17 November) at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in St. Michael, members of the Regional ICT Steering Committee; representatives of Member States and regional institutions and organizations will be locked in discussions on the governance and the implementation mechanism for the Regional ICT Strategy, as efforts intensify towards the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) becoming an Information/Knowledge economy by 2015.
The development of the Draft Strategy was coordinated by the ICT4D Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat and funded by the European Union under the Caribbean Integration Support Programme. The CARICOM Heads of Government in July 2009 had mandated that the CARICOM Secretariat coordinate the formulation of a five-year Strategic Plan that would consolidate and guide activities towards ICT development in the Region.
Among the broad objectives of the Strategy is to build a digital Community and increase the value and volume of the trained ICT workforce that can create, develop and use ICT towards improved lifestyles and add economic value for all in the Community.
The Strategy also seeks to provide a structure for the establishment of modernregional regulatory and open telecommunications infrastructure with affordable networks using converged technologies to provide inexpensive and ready access.
The draft outline was presented at the Fourth Meeting of the ICT Steering Committee last March in Grenada, after a consultative process led by the Strategy’s Consultant, Dr. Camella Rhone, and involving the CARICOM Secretariat; the Regional ICT4D Steering Committee; and Officials responsible for ICT from CARICOM Member States; stakeholders of the private and public sector, academia; and Civil Society in the CARIFORUM Region.
The opening of this weeks’ meeting in Barbados featured a presentation on the Draft Strategy by Dr. Rhone, who said that it was contextualized on the four pillars of the Caribbean Community: Foreign Policy Coordination, Economic Integration, Human and Social Development, and Security. Its overarching focus, she said, was to use ICTs to increase and sustain economic and social development in the Region through research and innovation.
Dr. Rhone said that the key areas the Strategy addressed were e-Business and ICT industry development; legislative and policy framework; e-Government; cultural content and creativity; and education and training.
In the building of an Information Society in the Region, she said that the Regional ICT4D Strategy was formulated to encourage entrepreneurial activities based on applications, content and skill development.
She said that the Strategy also underscored the use of ICT as a tool for good governance and the efficient functioning of the Region’s institutional framework in respect of rationalizing overlapping functions of multiple agencies. In this context, she said the Strategy addressed key issues pertaining to the network readiness and infrastructure development to tap into the potential of ICT.
Included on the meeting’s agenda is a discussion on the mechanisms to implementation, under three strategic components: access, connectivity and governance.
Mr. Kenneth Sylvester, Chairman of the Regional ICT Steering Committee and Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN) in his remarks, urged the multi-sectoral grouping to identify the requisite resources and priorities, and provide useful recommendations and creative guidance on the finalization of the Strategy and its Implementation Plan.
He said that he was hopeful that the meeting would strengthen the stakeholders’ resolve to work “even harder” to lead the Region into a knowledge-based and Information Society in the near future.
The meeting will also feature a launch of Caribbean Information Society (CARIB-IS) Portal which is funded by the European Union to promote the adoption and use of ICT in the implementation of the Caribbean Information Society within CARIFORUM Member States. The Portal seeks to provide access to other resources (Portals, websites, databases) in the Region as it relates to the use of ICT as a development tool.
Also participating in the meeting are representatives of the European Commission’s Barbados Delegation and the World Bank.
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