<TITLE: Global Challenges of eDevelopment Conference 1
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: technology
DISCIPLINE: information sciences
EVENT TYPE: conference presentation
FILE ID: CPRE08H
NOTES: continuation of and continued in CDIS08A, session also includes presentations CPRE08A-F (CDIS08B and CPRE08I/L/P are part of the same conference)

RECORDING DURATION: 26 min 35 sec

RECORDING DATE: 14.3.2005

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: circa 40

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 1

S13: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Bengali; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: 31-50

SU: unidentified speaker>


<S13> perhaps with er some of you i'm also overloaded with the information <SU> mhm-hm </SU> er since morning we have been listening to some fantastic fascinating theoretical presentations i was very charmed with er particularly <NAME S16>'s presentation so much of er abstract yet related to so ground realities er er also with er <NAME>'s context setting with the UN policies efficience and so on and in this parallel session we have had discussions on a number of issues erm er across the board and also covering so many regions right from latin america to africa to south asia and now united states very fascinating indeed what is left for me perhaps is to talk about er , from my very er undone unfinished research i might say on the relationship between if you like ICT e-governance and poverty in fiji fiji as you all know is a fantastic beautiful country for travellers but er underneath that beauty is er profound poverty which is not visible to tourists oftentimes you've got to stay there see the realities visit people talk to them and then perhaps you'll have some sense of the forms of poverty fiji is living under this research is basically based on some quick rapid as you call it RFA rapid field appraisal talking to people of various social strata , also looking at the policy documents and . i will i'll be quick so i'll skip some of the slides i've developed in er in line with my full paper so the interest we had and i worked with the one of my graduate students who's also working with me in er the university of south pacific in fiji is basically to conceptualise e-governance with this relationship to poverty reduction and having a sense of the community perception of that particular country and possibly looking at the policy implications for these three scope of research i parallelly used the three er traditional sort of tools one is reviewing literature and documents for perception and analysis basically the RFA which i just mentioned and to examine policy implications we've called it policy characteristics analysis , poverty as we know is a multidimensional issue we can't really er measure poverty from food intake or housing or er other economic indicators you have to look at it more comprehensively in order to get a feel of what poverty really is in a given society so all parameters are really er quite er wide-ranging so we looked at income poverty absolute poverty as well as some of the social problems of poverty in terms of access powerlessness and so on psychological we looked at the disability problems of environmental refugees and so on loss of spirit is a very interesting poverty issue i er i attended one of the seminars in in new zealand a few years ago the maori communities they don't feel poverty because they lack er essential resources or basics of life but they feel that woe because they have lost their spirit because of european intervention into their lives and so on , looking at the relationship between ICT poverty and governance ICT i i don't think we should talk about that we know what it is but i'd like to look at basically the issue of bad governance and how it might er re- do the opposite er in in view of what good governance can do using ICT as a tool for poverty relation po- poverty reduction bad governance can do just as bad as er it can er in terms of er not really addressing the real issues of poverty yet er keep the people lived il- living in poverty in the trap of poverty and not addressing the real issues er what is theoretically er very attractive for ICT users in poverty reduction is to create a smart government what they call meaning simple moral accountable responsible and transparent government to deal with poverty reduction and rural development but if you look at the political economy of that theoretical er construct this is what really is er more critical , and what is central here is the one-way relationship between state and the impoverished but a steady sometimes fragile imagine a relationship with the other actors in state such as the third sector the NGOs the affluent community and the private sector <P:05> looking at fiji , very quickly it's a country with as many as 300 islands in which you have only a little less than er point one million people living basically in 25 to 30 islands all others are not er habited by human beings independent in 1970 , and er politically in terms of political governance it's a very unique situation like in other island societies you have a westminster which they are trying westminster democracy with chiefly structure fascinating about fiji is the chiefs have a <FOREIGN> (kepes horam) </FOREIGN> they call it GCC a great council of chiefs they are the ones who are highly undemocratic the traditional elites from different regions of fiji this forum basically appoints the president and also can sack the president it's not- nothing to do with the parliament although there is a parliament running side by side with limited degree of authority , in terms of fiji location as as you know that it's little bit er northwest from australia and north from new zealand fiji is relatively essential in essential location on the south pacific surrounded by as many as 20 countries , but these are the other islands er which are er around the two main islands where the human habitation is more suva is right here the population is roughly about 30 per cent of the total population . what capital GDP wise it's is doing quite well if you look at er the data the developing country average of per capita in 2001 was something like 1270 fiji's well above that and it's (for sure) above most of other neighbouring states in the south pacific , still doing well in terms of economic growth rate which was 5.1 consistently increasing since 2000 er in which there was attempted coup and you know that that really er disrupted its economic growth and so on it is er consistently consistently doing better and also in terms of other countries in 2003 it's a leading er (work) country in the region , but if you compare fiji with some other countries in er in asia like china india russia sri lanka and so on the reason why i picked china india russia and sri lanka along with fiji is because they they all belong to so-called in the hu- HDI index of UN they all belong to the medium range and the other reason they of course china india russian federation and sri lanka have different economic backgrounds some are er transitional economies some er former er soviet some are mixed economy sri lanka selected for its spatial mhm similarity as being a another island country in er south asia , HDI is even doing better than all those four countries selected who are otherwise economically doing better than fiji fiji is er enjoying 81st rank in a country of 175 , but if you look at poverty you find a different picture altogether , poverty has been consistently rising since 1977 and this is income poverty which is the parameter is people earning one or less than one US dollar a day is it's it it has been in- increasing er very consistently since er 1970 so over the last so three er decades , no- poverty is actually er a very er localised issue there it's more er in the female-headed households and the settlements er slums and so on ethnic fijians in living in remote islands and the landless indians and you know that fiji is an unique er er sort of society ethnically because 40 per cent of fijians are actually of indian origin and 60 per cent are fijians these indofijians were brought by the british for working as contract labourers in the sugar cane er sector , er these are some of the anti-poverty responses so far taken by the government one is the SGB taken just er two years back er with an aim of reducing er poverty five per cent annually and so on giving grants to NGOs remission of school fees forming assistance micro finance and so on the problem of this approach is it is working on basically an ethnic line so there's a disproportionate distribution of benefits , er between the two communities in fiji between the indians and the fijians unfortunately in fact er shouldn't make any comment because it's it's just er started the whole plan er vision has been er you know started as an as a an overall development programmes last year so i would say that er still having the we need time to do more research erm but the negative trend which is very er very much existing is er the family assistance application for er so (high-level) assistance in all those kind of family support assistance has just er increased in 2004 which is not as much as in last year , in terms of ICT and e-governance government is quite vocal but most of which is rhetorical at the same time like er tele-access to rural areas or tele-he- tele-help and so on ICT centre for business t- solutions programme er there is er this is a private sector initiative the third one is a 50 million tele-path just er started er being con- constructed now in suva in terms of e-governance minis- all the ministries have their websites for receiving ideas complaints and so on from citizens central information centre which is producing data and distributing data to different ministries for development planning and poverty reduction er programmes , er the problems constrained so far with that approach if there's to be an e-governance is that fiji is probably one of the countries in the world where internet and telephone is very very expensive it's even for the urban middle class it's quite hard to afford that kind of internet er expenses for the rural dwellers it's out of er a reach at all er exclusively like telecom and fintel are the two only monopolised er (phone operators) that are operating in fiji as er internet and telephone providers , there is no ICT network within the government although that C-I-C the computer generating er the data generating er er company is is doing a lot of work but there is no network between ministries in terms of data governation in terms of er development planning and so on . er there are recent er some cases of fraud and er cases of mismanagement financial mismanagement with er poverty allegation funds in fiji by the ministry of social welfare as well as er health in recent times , so these are some of the preliminary observations before i share with you my slides on that er er field appraisal apparently the grass roots is er disconnected from governance and development because of the social structure because of the isolation because of the problem of access because of the state's top-down approach in planning and so on , so people are getting very marginalised it's although the economy growth is there HDI is there but it's basically the disconnect is basically because of isolation basically because of government's inability and inertia to address the bottom level poor the hungry poor the you will find in suva this capital city hundreds of beggars government has no plan whatsoever to get them into some kind of projects income generation skills development er sustainable development mainstreaming them into society there is nothing like that , ethnic er discrimination of course which i mentioned before in terms of training and e-education is the ethnic is a fijian er native fijians are getting more privileges erm there are two ministries one is they call fijian affairs ministry the other one is ministry of er education er ministry of education provides some funds to indian er to indofijians for the tertiary level education but we they created a new ministry called fijian affairs ministry which er without any coordination of with with the ministry of education provides special kinds of education allowances and assistance to indofijians this has created a big problem even for the donors like (oceit) and midland or (dief) . coming to the perception should i should i just continue another five minutes or so <SU> yeah </SU> okay a citizen's perception er we we conducted this quick research in in suva the capital city and (nassee) and (nassouri) two peripheral towns social clusters are seven sample size 50 and (xx) the focus group discussion and some individual one-to-one meeting discu- er meeting the purpose was basically to measure the level of awareness and knowledge of ICT their application and use of ICT if they have any policy recommendations and the overall position as to whether they're frustrated they're enthusiastic and so on , with the seven groups the first one the ordinary villagers who are basically the farmers fishermen carpenters housegirls and cleaners living in in villages typically they have no knowledge whatsoever they don't know what is ICT or e-governance at all they still use some old forms of ICT if you like like the radio and TV , on e-governance role in poverty they have no comments policy recommendations they can't help because they have no knowledge of ICT and e-governance so this is really irrelevant for them to make any comment on that overall position highly frustrated with government policies and role in poverty er reduction teachers , we basically approached primary and high school teachers and principals and middle class professionals they're familiar with ICTs but not with e-governance they do use some technologies er in their school and colleges like computer scanners and so on they say that it's good ICT is is is good in terms of , in terms of generating employment for the youth who are passing out from university and so on , but they're also critical of the government er policies in terms of er not reaching out to the poor they say that they sh- the government should have more dissimilation and awareness programmes to integrate the rural communities into whatever they are trying to do with ICT approach so they have measured enthusiasm , the vulnerable poor on the other side of the flip the beggars slum dwellers very disadvantaged housewives single mothers and widows we approached them they have no idea at all they've only they some of them use radio as an ICT er form no comments on e-governance role in poverty policy recommendation is again like the first group they're unaware of any progress so can't make any recommendations of on as to how policies can be improved and discontent with government policies as usual working women public officials company staff this is again the middle class back in the gender group like the school teachers they're aware of ICTs and e-governance they use PCs and internet in the offices and so on policies are inconsistent they say many poor are are excluded from the mainstream ICT development women's accessibility and poor participation they're more vocal on gender er mainstreaming of ICT development er critical they're a little bit critical of the government's rhetoric the business class fully aware utilise everything that is available but they're a little bit er critical of the government's inability to include the excluded er they also they make recommendations that ICT should have long-term vision supported by political will and market competition they're enthusiastic group students mostly they were students in the university er fully aware of both use everything that is available in the university labs er they say the DFL type programme which is a success er which is a which is an apparent success in fiji you know fiji's university where i'm working is one of the er two regional universities in the world the other one being er university of west indies that er actually er , is a university owned by 12 member countries in er in in south pacific including solomon islands and they have a programme they call it DFL distance and flexible learning through their own network they call it U-S-P net all the 12 countries are connected through the audiovisual equipments er internet satellite er er digital systems of education web CT and so on and all the 12 countries actually do have students in in their own local centres the students don't have to you know come er physically come to fiji to study they can do some of their foundation course sitting in home working in offices and so on in their free time it's only the th- third year and fourth year when for doing some courses they have to come to fiji so that's cost effective in many ways so this is a great a success in the last er 10 years or so , so we basically approached the DFL students and non-DFL students as well who say that it's it's it's a good idea to to carry on with ICT work they basically narrowed their their responses to education only not poverty , they say there should be improved access to education health and decision making they're hopeful but critical as well like the women professionals NGOs the last group mostly the charge groups in in fiji which er the charge group actually dominate the NGO community there they're familiar with ICTs they also use occasionally computers and so on er they er refer to the problem of corruption in governance and they say government should be more prea- proactive rather than reactive and rather than passive and they're quite explicitly critical of the government position , key findings basically speaking er these are not very conclusive from one survey without any extensive quantitive survey from a very qualitative assessment er unlike what you have done a very thorough project analysis and so on er of course is very er inconclusive so we need further research and so on but as it as it er seems to us that poverty is still there more to do with access remoteness and so on the gender element then of course is very essential there the government efforts including ICTs and e-governance is continuing though largely rhetorically e-governance looks fine on table but not really transformed into action like those websites and the follow-up in the ministries and the network in the problem of networking in the ministries er people are unaware disappointed particularly those four groups erm gap between policy makers and grass roots there is a digital divide between the intelligent few and the large many in the in the rural areas e-governance and ICT is is still a rhetorical service by state and the poor are unable to reap the benefits so far so that's kind of a picture the excluded and the privileged in the privileged group you might have these er institutions like public agencies ICT experts and ICT advisers the product of the universities mostly corporate partners like er telecom like fintel and so on professionals like teachers working women students and NGOs they're on that side on the flipside you have marginalised people disadvantaged women rural dwellers islanders and indigenous communities . so these are er you know a little bit of policy implications ideas policy thoughts er community involvement and sustained participation through decentralized governance er , policy restructuring we need political will and sustained political backup shared governance i was fascinated with the e-tampere project today because so much of networking so much of collaboration between the between the partners like er the government the business and so on and providers so that that is kind of a model of course what (will work) in tampere in the context of fiji would be very difficult but we need some kind of a revision of that model in order to bring in this kind of shared governance there human capacity building of all ethnic groups is very important including the indians and hardware support to communities which is absolutely nil there so far even er worse than solomon islands i must say networking the government agencies er e-governance mismanagement must be addressed properly with anti-corrupt er models this is the model i'd finish my presentation with prahalad's citizen centric model as opposed to institution ce- centric model this is a citizen centric model in which citizens actually take role of government's services in terms of er designing programmes in terms of consulting in sa- in terms of privatising what they need this is why there was a failure by ministry of health they overspent some money in some locations like lautoka and lambasa in the outer islands not really assessing the real needs of local communities and that really raised a lot of criticism against the government's er existing e-governance so if you have ce- citizen centric then the state (xx) investments will inflow from the collaborative partners from the shared governance i was referring to e-governance would be the main tool for good governance which would lead to improved quality of life and ultimately reducing poverty . that's it thank you very much </S13>
<APPLAUSE>
