[paper-contrib] Fwd: [Reader-list] Villages Online - ePoor.org from Pakistan
hugh trevelyan
hugh.trevelyan at mail.com
Tue Jun 19 05:01:24 IST 2001
I was keen to check this out and pass it on, but it might be a bit
premature to be publicising it. Not one of the links on the snazzy-
looking website worked. I only got "The page cannot be found".
Best I could get were postal addresses & phone numbers for their
website design company in Pakistan and the US.
I hope we all hear that it was temporary or has been fixed.
cheers,
hugh trevelyan
Editors - The Paper wrote:
>
> Could make an interesting story - someone want to follow it up?
>
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> >From: "Zubair Faisal Abbasi" <zubair at isb.sdnpk.org>
> >To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
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> >Subject: [Reader-list] Villages Online -------- ePoor.org from Pakistan
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> >Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 09:37:32 +0500
> >
> >
> >Greetings from Pakistan and ePoor.org!
> >
> >ePoor.org a non-profit civil society initiative has developed and working on
> >a flagship Programme in Pakistan by the name of Villages Online (VOL). The
> >Programme,
> >rooted in community development approach, aims at bridging digital divide
> >with pro-poor perspective and strives to make IT relevant for the
> >socio-economic needs of the poor communities. Attached is a brief outlook of
> >the programme and basic facts about IT and Inequality (Annex: 1).
> >
> >Looking forward to hearing from you for.
> >
> >Zubair Faisal Abbasi.
> >ePoor.org
> >IT empowers
> >
> > Villages Online
> > A Programme of ePoor.org
> >
> >Never-ending poverty, poor opportunities, poor social services, and poor
> >governance, are some of the peculiarities that form the overall aura of
> >rural life in Pakistan. The VOL (http://epoor.org/vol) initiative of
> >ePoor.org, is spearheaded to change the development scene, increase social
> >well-being, and expand opportunities of wealth generation by making IT
> >relevant to community needs at the village levels.
> >
> >The Concept:
> >
> >In order to increase the potentials of socio-economic growth and development
> >in the rural areas, there is an urgent need to harness the innovative
> >solutions of IT for poverty reduction, better service provision (like health
> >care, education, information on rural and urban market situation), and good
> >governance.
> >
> >In other words the concept stresses upon the urgent need of bridging digital
> >divide between the rich and poor, between urban and rural, and increasing
> >digital opportunities at the village and community levels.
> >
> >The Key
> >
> >The key to make IT based solutions effective, efficient, and relevant for
> >communities lies in harnessing both the technical and social side of human
> >expertise and knowledge. This means creating a synergy between the
> >experienced and intelligent social-ware and increasingly capable
> >technical-ware developed by IT professionals. The social-ware is available
> >in the shape of networks of pro-poor individuals and organizations at the
> >village and community levels while the technical-ware is actuated and
> >customized in the hi-tech IT parks. Both of these -wares offer innumerable
> >opportunities of innovative work and mutual linking. ------ VOL is striving
> >to bridge the two sources for greater development effectiveness.
> >
> >The Philosophy
> >
> >The philosophy of ePoor.org, in carrying out VOL, is to work on the demand
> >side of information, namely by enhancing peoples' capacity to use knowledge
> >(through creation of social capital), rather than purely on the supply side
> >of the process (of which a good example is the creation of IT training
> >schools without attention to creating the demand for such information in
> >rural areas). This builds upon the rural community development approach,
> >which has focused similarly on the demand side of other interventions. The
> >philosophy of ePoor.org is based on the highly successful efforts of
> >community development led by such pioneers as Akhter Hameed Khan and Shoaib
> >Sultan Khan. These efforts revolve around the creation of social capital to
> >enhance the coping and adaptive capacities and strategies of the poor.
> >
> >The aims of VOL includes:
> >
> >· Make IT relevant and contributive for socio-economic uplift including
> >decision-making support, better services delivery, and improved digital
> >reach-out (networking etc.) for participatory development and growth.
> >
> >. Increase village level capacity to absorb, generate, disseminate, and
> >navigate information and knowledge repositories.
> >
> >Strategies and Deliverables
> >
> >In the present shape, the process and structure of IT spread in societies is
> >giving rise to digital divides at the local and global levels. For example,
> >There are more Internet account holders in London than in the whole of
> >Africa. About 80% of the world's population has no access to reliable
> >telecommunications and about one-third has no access to electricity,
> >according to the Panos Institute http://www.oneworld.org/panos/. As a matter
> >of fact, IT has innumerable implications in distributing the opportunities
> >of wealth generation, resource allocation, and social development.
> >Not-so-surprisingly, according to the 1999 Human Development Report issued
> >by the United Nations, information technology is actually widening the gap
> >between the world's haves and have-nots, not narrowing it.
> >
> >In Pakistan, the IT Policy, is primarily geared to create an enabling
> >environment for IT sector growth and leaves room for pro-poor perspective;
> >the link between IT and poverty eradication has to be explored further and
> >vigorously perused. This situation gives opportunity to analyze the
> >long-term implications of a predominantly urban-centered IT incidence in
> >sharpening the digital divide and generating distorted digital opportunities
> >between rural and urban areas.
> >
> >Keeping in mind the above scenario, and the core themes of ePoor.org
> >programmes, the Villages Online initiative would like to spearhead the
> >following strategies and deliverables so that the wizardry of IT expands
> >horizons of opportunities for poor communities:
> >
> >1- Policy Advice and Advocacy
> >
> >VOL would actively develop policy advices and advocate the need of pro-poor
> >IT solutions, policies, and practices. With emphasis upon local content
> >generation in local languages.
> >
> >2- Partnership Development
> >
> >With the vision of pooling technical and social resources, VOL would develop
> >strategic partnerships with other pro-poor organizations, institutions, and
> >individuals and those excelling in the IT sector. This would be designed for
> >an effective outreach to the poor groups, networking, resource and knowledge
> >sharing so that VOL meaningfully enables the poor communities to benefit
> >from the IT route.
> >
> >In the specific sense, these partnerships would aim at ensuring to deliver:
> >
> >A - Regular, sustainable, and egalitarian access to IT infrastructure at the
> >village levels.
> >
> >B - Regular, sustainable, and egalitarian access to relevant information
> >about services (health, education, sanitation, development schemes, etc.),
> >market situation (local, provincial and national for rural produce and human
> >resource) and credit availability (government and non-government scheme for
> >poverty reduction).
> >
> >C - Most importantly, ePoor.org sees kiosks and cyber cafés not only as
> >passive information consumers but relevant information generators so that
> >poor communities really benefit from IT route the route which would be there
> >own.
> >
> >3- Online Information Repositories and CD ROMs
> >
> >VOL would collect information on poverty profiles, demography, economy,
> >history, social services profile (like health care and education),
> >governance structures, marketable produce, and development schemes from the
> >rural areas including individuals and organizations. Then it would digitize,
> >create online databases, and make it available for navigation through
> >websites and CD ROMs.
> >
> >4- Meta Portal of ePoor.org
> >
> >VOL will be cyber-linked with other projects of ePoor.org. For example it
> >will receive a complementary navigational support from the following:
> >· eHealth: Expanding Health Care Services
> >· eM at RT: Expanding Market of The Rural and Traditional
> >
> >ANNEX 1.
> >
> >B A S I C F A C T S
> >· The global online community has grown rapidly --- from about 16
> >million
> >Internet users in 1995 to an estimated 304 million users in March 2000.
> >· In 1998 more than 26% of all people living in the United States were
> >surfing the Internet, compared with 0.8% of all people in Latin America and
> >the Caribbean, 0.1% in Su-Saharan Africa and 0.4% in South Asia.
> >· South Asia, with 23 per cent of the worlds people, has less than
> >one per
> >cent of the worlds Internet users.
> >· The typical Internet user worldwide is male, under 35 years old,
> >with a
> >university education and high income, urban based and English speakinga
> >member of a very elite minority.
> >· A computer costs the average Bangladeshi more than eight years
> >income,
> >compared with one months wage for the average American.
> >· The assets of the 200 richest people are more than the combined
> >income of
> >41% of the world's people. A yearly contribution of 1% of their wealth or $
> >8 billion could provide universal access to primary education for all.
> >· Among 159 countries with available data, 50 had negative average
> >annual
> >growth in GNP per capita in 1990-98, and only four Sub-Saharan countries had
> >minimum rate for doubling incomes in generation.
> >
> >< SOURCE: UNDP Human Development Report 1999 and 2000>
> >
> >
> >Regards,
> >Zubair Faisal Abbasi.
> >CEO/Project Director,
> >ePoor.org
> >Waheed Plaza, West 52, First Floor,
> >Blue Area, Islamabad, Pakistan.
> >Ph: 092-051-2201484, 0303-7759274
> >++++++++
> >Pro-Poor means enhancing capacity of the POOR to perform PRO i.e., 'Poverty
> >reduction', 'Remoteness reduction' and 'Opportunity generation'.
> >
> >
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--
-=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~ -=~
"civil disobedience. . . is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience.
Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed
the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war,
and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem
is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and
starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people
are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the
grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
-----Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit", p. 45
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