Global Service Trust Fund – A Way to Help Bridge the Global Digital Divide

1. Global Service Trust Fund– A Way to Help Bridge the Global Digital Divide Peter Knight, Joseph Pelton,Francis Method, and Takeshi Utsumi Telematics for Education And Development

2. Overview of Presentation • Objectives • Measures Needed to Achieve Objectives • Background and Rationale • Finance and Organization • Next Steps – Recommendations of the CITI Working Group – February 2000 • A New Proposal developed at June 2000 international conference on “Saving Iridium” Telematics for Education And Development

3. General GSTF Coalition Objectives • Expand educational opportunities and improve health in developing countries by enabling these countries to • Make full use of electronic distance education and telemedicine • Participate actively and fully in data-intensive and media-intensive exchanges with both developed countries and other developing countries • Participate interactively and fully in joint research, professional development, and knowledge-building activities with institutions and organizations in other countries Telematics for Education And Development

4. Specific GSTF Objectives • Make available sufficient broad bandwidth at free or highly reduced cost to enable a significant number of developing countries to undertake major new initiatives in distance learning and telemedicine. Telematics for Education And Development

5. Measures Needed to Achieve GSTF Objectives • Reduce the cost of broadband connectivity to a level poor countries can afford. • Create policy and regulatory frameworks conducive to the development of sustainable distance education and telemedicine programs. • Establish high-quality applications in sufficient developing country sites to demonstrate technical feasibility, increase demand, and build support for more extensive use of such technologies in developing country contexts. Telematics for Education And Development

6. Background and Rationale • The Internet, with its rapidly expanding and improving infrastructure, will be the main telecommunication media of tomorrow. • The full potential for achieving revolutionary advances in education and healthcare in developing countries cannot be realized with the currently available information delivery infrastructure and at currently prevailing market prices. Telematics for Education And Development

7. Background and Rationale II • Improved distance education requires much better ways of presenting information and of enabling learners to interact with facilitators to enable the learners to process that information into personal knowledge. • What is needed is both high quality audio/video delivery and high quality interactivity. • Developing countries need broadband Internet via international satellite and fiber-optic cable. Telematics for Education And Development

8. GSTF Finance and Organization • A voluntary international e-rate for education and health • Two separate contribution “funds” or “sources” would be established • an in-kind bandwidth transmission source • a financial assistance source • The Coalition: a broad coalition of commercial and governmental sources Telematics for Education And Development

9. Incentives for Contributors of Underused Transponders and Dark Fiber • Money from the “money fund” will be used to purchase more bandwidth from the companies that donate free bandwidth. Telematics for Education And Development

10. Sources of Funding • Overseas Development Assistance funds of OECD countries • Cash contributions from the profits of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the RDBs • Cash contributions from foundations and companies • Contributions in kind from companies owning underused satellite transponders and/or fiber optic cable (marginal cost near zero, builds future markets) Telematics for Education And Development

11. GSTF Policy Conditionality and Operational Policy • GSTF allocations only to countries with “good” telecommunications, education, and health policies • A participatory process to define “good”, with ITU, UNESCO, and WHO convening working groups including all key stakeholders • World Bank to convene working group on GSTF operations – possible use of infoDev legal precedent for multidonor grantmaking organization Telematics for Education And Development

12. Allocation of GSTF Bandwidth and Cash • The Fund’s bandwidth source might be allocated through a variety of means that might even include an auction process to organizers of distance education and telemedicine projects in qualifying countries. • The cash source might be used for grants to fund access to bandwidth for such projects, with rules favoring poorer countries and end beneficiaries, assuring a certain geographical distribution of benefits between regions, and so forth. Telematics for Education And Development

13. Working Group Recommendations:Next Steps • A more polished and developed draft of the proposal be put before major international conferences in 2000 • An intensive effort be made to enlist the support of the leadership of the key international institutions • Working groups on telecommunications policy conditionality, education policy conditionality, healthcare policy conditionality, and operational aspects of the Fund and the Coalition be convened respectively by ITU, UNESCO, WHO, and the World Bank. Telematics for Education And Development

14. See the CITI Founding Conference and the GSTF Proposal • Objectives, photographs from the conference and full proposal • knight-moore.com/projects/projectsindex.htm Telematics for Education And Development

15. A New Proposal • CITI prepares a proposal to get seed money to convene workshops, prepare background materials • Workshops would be held under the auspices of international organizations to establish policy conditions for GSTF funding • But if international organizations don’t move, CITI could convene, inviting all key stakeholders to participate • Summit Conference early in 2001, convoked by CITI and/or other organizations Telematics for Education And Development

16. Clarkeinstitute.com knight-moore.com www.unesco.org www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS Telematics for Education And Development