Pacific Islands Urged to Use Internet As Development Tool
8/11/99
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Title: Pacific Islands Urged to Use Internet As Development Tool
Source: SIDSnet
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 11, 1999
Byline: Debbie Singh
SUVA, FIJI (Aug 11) -- One of the few Pacific Island experts on the
Internet has described the medium as 'God's gift to the islands' in
terms of its addressing two issues pertinent to Small Island
Developing States (SIDS) - those of isolation and of small,
fragmented markets.
Taholo Kami, Manager of the United Nations New York-based Small
Island Developing States Network (SIDSnet) Internet project says
despite being relatively expensive for the Pacific Islands in terms
of access costs, the Web still works out cheaper in the long term as
it provides instant access to over 150 million people in relevant
markets and greatly reduces communication costs.
'In the Pacific, we are on the tip of the iceberg and are still yet
to see applications apart from email and Web pages that will directly
impact development. This is something that SIDSnet is interested in,'
he says.
'A lack of appropriate infrastructure has meant higher costs and lack
of interest in development in areas most needy such as education,
medicine, health, governance and even e-commerce.
'We need,' says Kami, 'applications that work in today's limited
Pacific island infrastructures, not just tomorrow's ideal affordable
and fast connections.'
SIDSnet has managed to obtain some 153,000 hits on its website from
over 90 countries in the past month - a total of 50,000 more than in
the preceeding month.
The SIDSnet programme has been highlighting success stories from
small island states and also acting as a catalyst for specific
initiatives. The network's newswire provides the only means of
obtaining development news from island countries.
'For instance,' explains Kami. 'A Fiji-based NGO can access SIDSnet
development news from Mauritius or Jamaica or the NGO can post its
own news on the site. SIDSnet has also filed reports from key global
conferences leading to the UN Special Session for Small Island
Developing States to be held in New York next month, including the
1998 climate change (COP4) conference held in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
'The network sees a future role in providing a reporting mechanism
for regional meetings through a pool of trained journalists with a
development-focused mandate covering international and regional
meetings.'
Kami both endorses and advocates the idea of training and
institutional strengthening in the Pacific to make the web
friendlier, more accessible and to provide women and women's groups
with the basic skills and understanding needed to effectively utilise
and become directly involved in this medium, particularly in light of
next year's Beijing Plus 5 conference, marking five years since the
last World Conference on Women in China in 1995.
SIDSnet is a community of 42 Pacific, Caribbean, Atlantic, Indian
Ocean and African small island nations connected through a global
Internet based network. It aims to improve the way in which people in
developing countries live, work and communicate through increasing
access to information, in particular on sustainable development
issues and provides for virtual global connectedness.
In the Pacific, the project is working in the Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati,
Nauru, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands and Tokelau.
Workshops planned for the Pacific region between now and December
include the use of the Internet as a development tool in the areas of
distance education and tele-medicine and general overviews of the
SIDSnet project. SIDSnet is also working with the government of
Tokelau to provide local email access before the end of 1999.
When the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) agreed on the
Barbados Programme of Action following the SIDS meeting in
Bridgetown, Barbados in 1994, they underscored the importance of
information and information technology in the process of achieving
sustainable development. This resulted in the concept of a global
information network being developed and implemented through SIDSnet.
Last year, Pacific island leaders from the region's 16 independent
South Pacific Forum member states also endorsed SIDSnet activities in
the region as part of efforts to implement the Barbados Programme of
Action.
Contact: Debbie Singh
SIDSnet Content & Training Associate
United Nations Development Programme/SIDSnet
Phone: (679) 312-500
Fax: (679) 302-994
Email: