(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater 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 modern regional 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 the 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.