UNDP ICT Programme Officer/Focal Point

ICT Programme Office/Focal Point A

Full Name

Edo Stork

Designation/Position

Thematic Analyst/JPO

Station (UNDP Country Office)

UNDP Fiji Multi Country Office  (www.undp.org.fj)

Email Address

edo.stork@undp.org

Telephone Number

(679) 3312 500 (Ext. 607)

Fax Number

(679) 3301718

ICT Programme Office/Focal Point B

Full Name

Designation/Position

Station (UNDP Country Office)

Email Address

Telephone Number

Fax Number

Government Agency(ies) with Primary Responsibility

Ministry/Agency

Ministry of Finance and Communications

Contact Person A

Full Name (First, Last)

Mr. Joshua Turaganivalu

Designation/Title

Director Telecommunications

Email Address

info@fiji.gov.fj (email not effective with him)

Contact Person B

Full Name (First, Last)

Mr. Sailasa Taganesia

Designation/Title

ITC Services, Ministry of Finance

Email Address

taganesia_s@itc.gov.fj

National Development Priorities

Please list the Government’s primary developmental and sectoral priorities:

There is no approved national ICT strategy. This is under development. The following are the priorities for the Fiji government according to their first draft ICT plan:

• telecommunications services liberalization and competition,
• pricing and tariff rationalization,
• restructure of the regulatory framework,
• provision of access to all communities,
• creation of national information infrastructure,
• provision of incentives to attract more investments into IT development,
• Human resource development,
• regional cooperation
   

e-Readiness Assessment

Has the Government (or any third party or donor) conducted a multi-sectoral ICT or e-readiness assessment of the country?

YES

·         UNESCAP: Diagnostic Assessment of Fiji, 2001, by Paul Kimberley, Consultant, ICT and Trade Development in the Pacific islands Region.

·         UNESCO: 2002, Report Internet Infrastructure and e-Governance in Pacific Islands Countries, http://www.unesco.org/webworld/publications/2002_internet_survey_report.rtf.

·         Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is now conducting a quantitative ICT survey which will be presented in January 2003.
 

Existing e-Policies, -Strategies, Acts, Decrees, etc

Has the Government developed, or is the Government planning to develop, ICT policies?

YES

·         Is now in the process of developing a national ICT strategy and policy facilitated by the E-Pacifika project.

·         None of the other 9 Pacific island Countries have national ICT strategies in place and many are working on this. Tonga and Niue are also drafting national strategies.
 

Ministry/Agency in Charge of ICT Policy Formulation

Ministry of Finance and Communication (recently ICTs have moved from Ministry of Works, Transport and Telecommunications.)

Scope of ICT Policies

The policy in development covers a wide scope. The impression I have is that all ICT sectors are taken care off. Whether this policy also connects well to national development policies in non-ICT related matters remains a question.

Was the process of ICT policy formulation participatory in nature, and did it involve stakeholders?
YES

It is still in development but involved where:

• various government ministeries,
• NGO's,
• regional organizations based in Fiji,
• private sector,
• University of the South Pacific
• donor agencies
   

Does the Government have an official policy on ICT and Gender?

NO

Not actively. the UNDP/UNOPS E-Pacifika project is already facilitating government on their national ICT policy. If government want to pursue gender issues E-Pacifika will facilitate.

Does the Government have an official policy on Open Source Software?

NO

List the principle governmental and non-governmental players in Open Source in the country:

• ITC services of government,
• SOPAC
   

Access

How is the Government addressing the issue of equitable access to ICT for all of its citizens, especially marginalized groups and those in rural communities?

·         it is specifically pursuing this issue according to their policy guidelines,

·         Telecom Fiji (partially government owned) is involved with a pilot telecenter project in Fiji for access for all,

·         a task force for telecenters has been formed.
 

What is the Government planning to do to increase local connectivity to the Internet?

Pilot Fiji telecom telecenter project
 

Has the Government implemented, or is it planning to implement, e-government/e-governance initiatives to better deliver government services through the application of ICT and to improve government transparency and efficiency?

YES

The Fiji government wants to do an "e-government project". As I understand it this basically is connecting all government ministeries and facilitating exchange of information (emails, Internet). Content creation and interusable databases seem to be the next step.
 

Local Content Development and Knowledge Management

Is the Government aware of or is it active in standardization and localization of ICTs (e.g. local input/output conventions and standards for digital exchange, development of local language character sets conforming to international UNICODE and other standards) for fostering local content development and knowledge management?

NO
 

Please suggest how UNDP can assist in further developing local content development.

Government web sites are being developed by ITC services within government. UNDP might be able to assist this division with strategic planning.
 

International Donors of ICT for Development

Please list (in order of total contributions for 2002) the top five donors who have invested in ICT for Development.  DO NOT include UNDP.

Donor

Specific Area of Support

Amount (USD)

1

JICA, Japanese Government

ICT Education at the USP and distance education

3 million

2

UNESCAP

Usage of ICT in Trade

3

AusAID

Education, Virtual Colombo Plan

> 50,000

4

ITU

ICT Legal regulatory framework

150,000

5

New Zealand NZAID

Library Systems

Please list (in order of priority) the five top areas of ICT for Development for the donor community.  E.g. e-Government, e-Commerce, e-Learning, ICT policy, etc.

1

National ICT strategies development/ICT policy

2

Telecenters/ Equal access

3

Distance/ICT education, awareness

4

Telecommunication monopoly

5

Regional IT Center of Excellence (submitted to Japanese by Fiji Government)

Check List: Please provide additional comments where applicable.

UNDP has played or is playing a crucial role in assisting the national government with ICT policy formulation.

YES

Through the E-Pacifika project
 

ICT for Development is a well established programme area within your UNDP Country Office.

NO 

It is a new programme area within the UNDP CO. It is not considered a priority programme area but a mainstream programmatic area. No method for mainstreaming ICTD has been defined. For resource mobilization many ICTD areas would be accepted. Please note that we serve 10 countries, not just one!
 

The UNDP Country Office requires assistance in identifying UNDP’s potential niche in ICT for Development interventions in the country.

NO
 

The UNDP Country Office is in partnership with the local government in ICT for Development initiatives/projects/activities.

NO
 

What are the major external obstacles in delivering ICT for Development outputs, thus far?  And how has the Country Office overcome these obstacles?

Very limited resources from the CO to build portfolio. No introduction of CO to key players/government focal points/donors.
 

Project/Activity Information

Project Title

RAS/99/064 - Development of Information and Communication Technologies in the Pacific (E-Pacifika)

Start Date

1 July 2002

End Date

1 Feb. 2003

Objectives

Support to conflict prevention and peace-building through improved access to peace related information and increased capacity for communication for rural population.

Description (200 words maximum)

Project background and rationale: The People First Network, or PFnet, is a UNDP/UNOPS-established Information and Communications Technology project comprising a rural email network aimed at promoting and facilitating equitable and sustainable rural development and peace building by improving information sharing and knowledge building among and across communities forming the Solomon Islands.

This project contributes to Objective 1 of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for the Solomon Islands: "Improved governance, security and human rights" (see page 12 of the Multi Country Programme Outline document). See also the Solomon Islands UNDAF document

UNDP Project Officer

Edo Stork

edo.stork@undp.org

National Project Officer

Randall Billiki, PFnet project manager National Contact

pfnet@pipolfastaem.gov.sb

Partners (National)

Rural Development Volunteers Association (RDVA), NGO in the Solomons, Japanese Grassroots Assistance Programme, University of the South Pacific, Embassy of Japan in the Solomons, British High Commission in the Solomons, Australian High Commission in the Solomons

Partners (International)

APDIP

Cross-Cutting UNDP Themes

Democratic Governance

Geographical Scope

Solomon Islands

Target Beneficiaries

Rural population in the Solomon Islands Expected

Expected Outputs/ Results

1) Training of PFnet Staff and Partners
(2) Finalisation of a next phase proposal, and
(3) Information Management and Content Capacity Building for the Solomon Islands.

Project URLs (websites)

http://www.undp.org.fj/PFnet.htm; http://www.peoplefirst.net.sb/

Budget (USD)

UNDP Contribution (USD)

National (USD)

Other Donors (USD)

66,782

Keywords

Rural access, email stations, conflict prevention and recovery

Additional Comments

Very succesful project, was finalist in the ICT stories competition 2002 and the Stockholm Challenge 2002.

Project/Activity Information

Project Title

Telecommunications Sector Governance in Pacific Islands Countries

Start Date

January 2001

End Date

December 2002

Objectives

Project development goal:The Project Telecommunications Sector Governance in Pacific Island Countries aims at creating policy, legislative and regulatory environment favorable to development of telecommunications and information services throughout the region, thereby creating conditions for bringing all benefits of these services to the economy and people of the Island Countries.

Description (200 words maximum)

Project background and rationale: In most countries governments are undertaking telecommunication sector reform to adequately introduce and manage these changes. The success of reform is directly correlated with the success of extending the benefits of telecommunication and information technology to all mankind. The process of reform has started also in the Pacific, although with slower pace and in a smaller scale. In order to assist the Governments of Island Countries to carry out the reform process, ITU, in partnership with the Pacific Subregional Governance for Sustainable Human Development Programme, executed a telecom governance workshop through the project PMI/97/002. The workshop brought together representatives of Pacific island countries' governments, the private sector and NGOs to discuss the results of the case studies on telecommunication sector governance, prepared by the ITU (under a separate project), and to review future actions to carry our the sector reform in the Pacific.

Following the workshop, a number of Pacific countries initiated more substantial institutional changes and the reform process, but many of them still need external support in carrying forward the process. In particular, there is demand for assistance in establishing national sector policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks and in developing competence in these areas.

Therefore this project represents a follow-up on the findings and recommendations of the ITU case studies and the related workshop. It represents also a collaborative response by UNDP, ITU, APT, Australian Government, Forum Secretariat and PITA, to the requests for assistance received from individual countries.

Project development goal:The Project Telecommunications Sector Governance in Pacific Island Countries aims at creating policy, legislative and regulatory environment favorable to development of telecommunications and information services throughout the region, thereby creating conditions for bringing all benefits of these services to the economy and people of the Island Countries.

UNDP Project Officer

Edo Stork

edo.stork@undp.org

National Project Officer

ITU executed by Mr. Wiliam Withers

william@itu.or.th

Partners (National)

Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA)

Partners (International)

Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), Australian Government, ITU.

Cross-Cutting UNDP Themes

Democratic Governance

Geographical Scope

the Pacific sub-region (14 countries)

Target Beneficiaries

Fourteen Countries of the Pacific including  5 LDCs (Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Samoa)

Expected Outputs/ Results

Project immediate objectives and expected outputs:The immediate objectives of the project include elaboration of telecommunication sector policy, legislation and regulatory frameworks in participating countries, fully harmonised in the region and development of national competence in these areas. Output are for each participating country:

(1) A balanced national sector policy and regulatory framework, fully harmonised at the regional level.

(2) Competence developed in the area of telecommunication policy regulation and legislation capable of carrying out the sector reform independently and competently.

Project URLs (websites)

http://www.undp.org.fj/ITU_Sector_Gov.htm; http://www2.itu.or.th/governance03/

Budget (USD)

UNDP Contribution (USD)

National (USD)

Other Donors (USD)

140,000

230,000

Keywords

Telecommunciations sector reform, policy development, telecommunications regulators

Additional Comments

Apparently project has been extended into 2003 with a few months but have not received an official message yet.