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Contents

Vol. VI No. 11

Features 5

Editorial

Australian Federation of AIDS Ogranisations, New South Wales, Australia

Celebrating leadership in HIV/AIDS control and awareness work

Responses to the Swiss statement Phillip Keen

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

November 2008

Rendezvous 41

Interviews Sen, Trustee, 20 Ashish VOICES, India

Opinion

Visual media content on net

Spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS prevalence in India Data does not tell it all, awareness does Rajat Banerjee

Jana, 24 Smarajit National Programme Officer, NACO, India National efforts for combating HIV/AIDS

Governance: Let’s do it together Rajesh Gopal

Web 2.0 tools for HIV/AIDS awareness Subir Dey

Kiri, 28 Karishma Director, Microsoft

Women’s Information for Development Network, Zard, Zambia

Corporation Promoting Innovation

Women’s groups adopt ICTs in Zambia Chimika Lungu

Belief II The global access point to e-Infrastructure

lab to land, North-East 39 From India e-Arik: using ICT for agricultural extension R Saravanan and T Indra Devi

16 Portraits of Commitment

Climate change briefs

Columns 43

What’s on

Bytes for All

In Fact HIV/AIDS global stats

Linking climate change with trade Subir Dey and Ritu Srivastava

The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi

A clarion call to sustainable energy use

Green IT News

netgov Speak: Lead up to IGF 2008 Coordinator: Jayalakshmi Chittoor, CSDMS Cover artwork designed by James

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South Asia conclave on digital content Ritu Srivastava and Sheenu Rajan

104 novel ideas for global health

Manthan Award South Asia 2008, 16-18 October 2008, New Delhi, India

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Internet Governance i4d | November 2008

Editorial Celebrating leadership in HIV/AIDS control and awareness work ADVISORY BOARD M P Narayanan, Chairman, i4d Chin Saik Yoon Southbound Publications, Malaysia Karl Harmsen United Nations University Kenneth Keniston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank, Bangladesh Nagy Hanna e-Leadership Academy, University of Maryland, USA Richard Fuchs IDRC, Singapore Rinalia Abdul Rahim Global Knowledge Partnership, Malaysia Walter Fust Global Humanitarian Forum, Switzerland Wijayananda Jayaweera UNESCO, France EDITORIAL BOARD Akhtar Badshah, Frederick Noronha GROUP DIRECTORS Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor Content Editor Rajat Banerjee Sr. Research Associates Ritu Srivastava, Ajitha Saravanan Research Assistant Subir Dey

Ten years ago, in 1998, the World Summit of Ministers of Health on Programmes for AIDS Prevention declared December 1 each year as the World AIDS Day. This year, we will be celebrating the 10th World AIDS day. The theme of this year is Leadership. The attempt is to celebrate leaders at all levels that have taken the initiative to do something at their own level, and contributed to the movement to combat this huge pandemic. It is also one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. Over the last one decade, national and international governments, institutes and NGOs took up the issue of HIV/AIDS at a policy level and invested large sums of money in the HIV/AIDS domain in order to arrest and combat the proliferation of HIV/AIDS. The problems relating to HIV/AIDS is not only about the medical or research level challenges that continue to interest scientists across the world, but also in the social and community levels, where much ignorance continues to cause sufficient reason for alarm in some regions. The African continent is by far the most affected by the pandemic, while costs of drugs and access to health care continues to be a challenge in other parts of the world, including in Asia. The unwillingness/prejudice of an HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infected person to share his/her trauma/stigma complicates the situation further. The lack of awareness, capacities among para-medical workers and others who are care-givers is one of the most challenging assignments undertaken by leading HIV/AIDS control/mitigation support organisations across the world.

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According to a recent UNAIDS report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, 33 million people were living with HIV by the end of 2007. The total number of new HIV infections stood at 2.7 million with two million HIV-related deaths in the year 2007. AIDS is endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia with most of the new HIV infections as well as the HIV-related deaths observed in the two regions. The report states that the number of people receiving antiretroviral drugs in low- and middle-income countries has increased 10-fold in only six years, reaching almost three million people by the end of 2007. The report also indicates that globally, coverage of antiretroviral treatment for women is higher than or equal to that of men. How can media tools or integrated information and communication technologies (ICTs) raise awareness on HIV/AIDS? In this issue of i4d we highlight the role of various agencies and institutions working at national and international levels, to address this critical issue of HIV/AIDS. We have also attempted to indicate the deficiencies inherent in the government policies that aim to reverse the AIDS epidemic. This issue is far from being covered completely. We are keen to learn more from you. If you know about an innovative project, please do let us know, and we will be happy to publish it in upcoming issues of i4d.

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

AUSTRALIAN FEDERATION OF AIDS OGRANISATIONS, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA

Responses to the Swiss statement The article is an attempt to outline some possible HIV education and health promotion responses to the Swiss statement which is stirring up a debate around the world

The Swiss statement The headline of the Swiss statement on HIV/AIDS states, ‘After review of the medical literature and extensive discussion,’ the Swiss Federal Commission for HIV/AIDS resolves that, ‘An HIVinfected person on antiretroviral therapy with completely suppressed viraemia (‘effective ART’) is not sexually infectious, i.e. cannot transmit HIV through sexual contact.’ i

The debate Among those who have engaged in debating the Swiss statement, there is agreement that there is strong evidence about the relationship between an individual’s viral load

DEBATE

• Degree and durability of benefit • Breakthrough viral blips • Breakthrough genital shedding of HIV • Intermittent STIs (eg Herpes) • Treatment failure and raised viral load between clinical visits Figure 1: Debate over degree and durability

Phillip Keen HIV Educator, Campaign and Resource Development, Australian Federation of AIDS 0granisations (AFAO) Australia pkeen@afao.org.au

levels and their infectivity, however, there has been disagreement about the degree of benefit from successful Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) in reducing sexual transmission risk, and also disagreement about the durability of this benefit. There has also been debate about whether transmission is possible at any level of HIV viremia – or whether there is a viral load level below which transmission is just not possible. And, in Australia and other countries with large gay epidemics, there have been concerns raised that there is not enough

data to establish whether anal sex is in a different category of risk to vaginal sex – even in the context of undetectable viral load - and should therefore be excluded from the Swiss Statement’s advice. So, if the role of HIV education is to interpret scientific data and understandings about biology, and to use these to craft advice for our communities, then responding to the Swiss Statement presents some challenges!

Australasian response to the Swiss statement In July 2008, an Australasian statement, jointly issued by Australasian Society for HIV Medicine Inc. (ASHM), Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia, National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR), Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia, Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO), Newtown, NSW, 2042, Australia and National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAPWA), Newtown, NSW, 2042, Australia, in response to the Swiss statement, was published on the Australian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM) website. The Australasian response reads as: Consistent use of effective Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) will, in most cases, lead to an undetectable viral load (VL), as measured in blood, semen and vaginal fluids. As a result, the average viral load of the community of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) will be reduced. By reducing the VL, ART will also complement the benefits of consistent condom use and effective sexually transmitted infections (STI) detection and treatment, in preventing HIV transmission that may otherwise occur due to condom failure. However, there are no data to suggest that a population HIV prevention i4d | November 2008

strategy based solely or predominately on the use of ART and associated with a reduction in condom use, will lead to fewer people becoming infected in the Australian and New Zealand populations, especially in the context of rising rates of STI.

Gay men’s sexual cultures and risk reduction strategies

SOME SUMS

• Positive population • • • • • • •

70% on ART 85% undetectable 88.6% adherent 45.8% relationships 54.6% serodisco 30% HSV2 negative Monogamous?

16,000 11,200 9,520 8,435 3,863 2,109 633 ????

Figure 2: Estimated no of people fitting the criteria of the Swiss statement in Australia

In the response, all Australasian signatories – The NCHECR, AFAO and NAPWA, took the position that – at a population level – ART alone will not lead to a reduction in HIV transmissions, so consistent condom use is also required. The Australasian response was not inconsistent with the Swiss Statement, which in fact did not remove advice about continued use of condoms, however, the Australasian response has been more cautious about the potential benefit of ART in reducing infectivity, and therefore the risk of HIV transmission when condoms are not used. Apart from a broad public statement like this, what does a response to the Swiss Statement imply for people living with HIV and at-risk communities in Australia? In fact, among people living with HIV in Australia, the number of people who would fit the criteria required by the Swiss Statement is actually very small. Please refer to Figure 2 for further details.

Responding to the Swiss statement Doctors, sexual health nurses, counsellors, treatments officers, and HIV educators will need to field questions from people who do meet the criteria of the Swiss Statement – if they are not already doing so. Those workers will have to address the specific situations of their clients, and, apart from considering the Australasian response, they will need to address issues like adherence to HIV treatments, viral breakout, STI exposure risk and more. There is also a need to address the broader contexts within which sex happens, including sex in casual settings, where STIs prevalence is high. Rather than just dismissing the Swiss Statement, if we are to be credible, then this work also will need to engage with the content of the statement, and include clarifying information about the relationship between viral load and transmission probabilities, particularly in relation to factors where transmission risk is increased. And, this is where our response gets more complicated. People have also raised concerns that the Swiss statement might lead to a situation where HIV positive people on treatments abandon condom use on a large scale. Now, it will be important that researchers monitor for any such effect, though a November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

sudden big change in behaviour is unlikely, because the general relationship between viral load and infectivity has been known for a long time.

It is known that a significant proportion of gay men have already been using this understanding, combined with information about clinical markers of HIV, such as viral load, to inform the development of risk reduction strategies - such as decisions about whether and when to use condoms, and strategic positioning. And, although there is less data, this is probably also true for sero-discordant heterosexual couples. The work that first documented this practice was done by Marsha Rosengarten, Kane Race and Sue Kippaxii - and many other Australian researchers have built on this work over a long period. The development of such strategies in gay men’s sexual cultures in response to new understandings about HIV has a long history – it dates back to the adoption of condoms for anal sex as a risk reduction alternative to abstinence. Researchers like Michael Hurley and Sue Kippax have noted that such responses usually precede responses from health promotion and policymakers. So, what about health promotion responses to these developments? Well, for a short period a few years ago, we did do work that addressed these issues. In 2001, ACON’s Consider This campaign did go there. Then, in 2002, the AFAO / NAPWA No Worries? campaign was implemented nationally by AFAO, the AIDS Councils and PLWHA organisations. The development of this campaign was led by Dean Murphy. With the exception perhaps of some of ACON’s work, there has not been a lot of attention to this space in social marketing until very recently. Colin Batrouney at the Victorian AIDS Council has developed a new campaign in this area - the ‘Protection’ campaign. But, why did we reduce our focus on work that addressed gay men’s use of risk reduction strategies? Around the time that AFAO and the AIDS Councils were running the No Worries? campaign - in 2002, it became apparent that the data on rises in HIV diagnoses was looking like a national trend, rather than just a rise in one or two states. The response to this new situation of rising diagnoses was a renewed emphasis on promoting condom use, and, although risk reduction work in relation to viral load continued in peer education and outreach settings, it pretty much disappeared from social marketing campaigns.

Some recent research findings Recent social research data has shown that some of the ways that gay men are deploying risk reduction strategies may be increasing HIV transmission risks. Recent work by Garrett Prestage and others - in an article currently under review – has suggested that HIV positive and HIV negative men in sero-discordant relationships may have different understandings of the role of viral load in decisions about condom use and strategic positioning. These surprising findings trouble one aspect of the advice of the Swiss Statement - that it should be the HIV negative partner that decides whether condoms are used at times when the positive partner’s viral load is undetectable.

Other recent work by Garrett Prestage, Iryna Zablotska and others has documented other changes in areas like relationship agreements and serosorting, in directions that may be increasing HIV transmission risks. Also, emerging understandings of risks in cultures of intensive sex partying will require careful responses – probably including addressing questions of sexual ethics.

Conclusion Our responses to the Swiss Statement need to be nuanced and tailored to the different particular situations of people with HIV and their partners. In relation to risk reduction strategies, if we do return to work that addresses these, there will be questions about whether our aims should be to promote a return to condom use in all contexts of sero-discordant sex, or whether a harm reduction approach is more realistic – but, that is a whole other debate. Recent work by David Wilson and others has highlighted the proportion of new HIV transmissions that may be happening from men with undiagnosed HIV infection – these are estimated to account for 30% of new infections.iii The current context of rising HIV infections, significant numbers of undiagnosed, and rising rates of serosorting among presumed HIV negative men, has created potentially dangerous new drivers of further HIV infections. It may be that more attention to these areas of our work will result in a bigger reduction in new transmissions than our fussing about whether 10, or 40, or 400 copies of HIV per ml might enable transmission to occur.iv

References i) Vernazza P, Hirchel B, Bernasoni E and Flepp M. (2008) Les personnes séropositives ne souffrant d’aucune autre MST et suivant un traitment antirétroviral efficace ne transmettent pas le VIH par voie sexuelle. Bulletin des médecins suisses 89 (5). ii) Rosengarten,M, Race K. and Kippax S. (2000) ‘Touch Wood Everything will be OK’ Gay Men’s Understandings of Clinical Markers in Sexual Practice’ iii) Wilson D, Hoare A, Regan D, Wand H, Law M. (2008) Mathermatical Models to investigate trends in HIVnotifications among men who have sex with men in Australia. National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research. iv) 10 copies per milliliter of blood refers to the assumption used in critique of the Swiss Statement by Wilson et al, The Lancet (2008), 372, 314-320, 40 copies per milliliter refers to the current lower limit of common viral load test, and 400 copies per millilire refers to the lower limit of viral load tests used at the time of the studies of HIV transmissions among HIV serononconcordant couples upon which the analysis by the Swiss Federal AIDS Commission was based. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge Colin Batrouney, Simon Donohoe, and many others who I’ve spoken to over the last few days for helping develop some of the thoughts in the presentation. But, of course any errors or omissions are mine.

Unique experiment in Karnataka using ICTs The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), Mysore, makes use of satellite TV technology to bring sex workers across the State and top-level bureaucrats face to face, as a part of its battle against HIV. Satellite TV was used to link up sex workers to a panel of senior bureaucrats in Mysore, in an effort to reach a crucial target population in the battle against HIV/AIDS. As an experiment, it took about 10 months to put together. This is the first time that satellite based interactive communication is being used for HIV-related outreach in India. The SIRD in Mysore is the hub from where the uplinking was done to Insat 2B, and then downlinked to extended C Band antennae at reception centres in the district headquarters. The extended C Band is a robust technology of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) which works well for rural extension. Unlike the smaller, lighter Ku Band dishes which DTH households have, AGM of Ashodaya Samithi, an NGO working with sex workers in extended C Band uses a large, heavy and rugged dish which can Mysore and Mandya districts in Karnataka withstand vagaries of weather. H L Mohan of the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, who conceptualised the idea, describes it as an experiment in bringing a shunned section of the population into the mainstream had reservations about how people will react to the idea but his concerns were allayed as people interacted with the top echelons of the State’s bureaucracy. On the other side were Secretary-level bureaucrats being exposed to the realities of sex workers’ lives for the first time. Sevanti Ninan, The Hindu, 28-09-2008

i4d | November 2008

BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION

104 novel ideas for global health On 22 October 2008, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced 104 grants to explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health. The grants of US$100,000 each will be made to scientists from 22 countries and five continents. They mark the first round of funding from Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to help lower the barriers for testing innovative ideas in global health. The initial set of grants will inject fresh perspective into research for preventing or curing infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and TB, and limiting the emergence of drug resistance. Successful applicants showed how their project falls outside current scientific paradigms and could lead to significant advances. “We were hoping this programme would level the playing field so anyone with a transformational idea could more quickly assess its potential for the benefit of global health,” said Tachi Yamada, president of global health at the Gates Foundation, announcing the grants at the fourth annual meeting of the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative in Bangkok. “The quality of the applications exceeded all of our expectations. It was so hard for reviewers to champion just one great idea that we selected twice as many projects for funding as we had initially planned.” 104 grants were selected from nearly 4,000 proposals, with the geographic distribution of applicants matching the geographic distribution of awards. The applicant details were not provided to reviewers, helping them to focus on the innovation of the idea instead of a scientist’s credentials, geographic location, or organisation’s reputation. Grants were made to universities and other NGOs, government agencies, and six private companies. The winner of Grand Challenges from India is Karthikeyan Kandavelou, Project Leader, Pondicherry Biotech Pvt Ltd. His project title is: A Novel Approach to Prevent or Cure HIV Infection. The project will explore genetic approaches to fighting HIV/AIDS, by attempting to mimic the natural resistance to HIV found in some people. Projects cover a wide range of innovation, including a ‘mosquito flashlight’ to prevent malaria transmission by disrupting wavelengths, self-destructing TB cells, and studying anti-infective properties of the eye to help prevent HIV/AIDS and other infectious disease. Pattamaporn Kittayapong at Mahidol University in Thailand will explore new approaches for controlling dengue fever by studying bacteria with natural abilities to limit the disease. Suzanne Fleiszig at the University of California, Berkeley, in the U.S. will focus on the natural defenses of the human eye to discover new classes of broad-spectrum anti-microbial agents.

Elizabeth Sockett at the University of Nottingham in the U.K. Will study whether the best medicine against some disease-causing bacteria may be a ‘living antibiotic’ made up of microorganisms that naturally prey on harmful ones. Engineering ways to enhance the natural human immune system Leonard Damelin at the National Health Laboratory Service in South Africa will attempt to improve bacteria that naturally line the walls of the vagina and cervix in order to enhance their ability to fight infections. Yen Wah Tong at the National University of Singapore will attempt to create nanoparticles to ‘soak up’ viruses circulating in the body; the particles will be imprinted with the viruses in order to mimic the three-dimensional structure of cells that the virus normally tries to infect. Jord Stam at Utrecht University in the Netherlands will attempt to create ‘two-sided’ antibodies to fight HIV; one side would attach to HIV, and the other side would safely deposit the virus in cells in which it cannot replicate. Sanah Jowhari at TheraCarb, a biotechnology company in Canada, will apply technology to capture and remove the cholera toxin from the body of a host, and validate an approach to developing an effective drug candidate for cholera. Probing unexpected results for global health Elijah Songok at the Kenya Medical Research Institute will explore whether natural resistance to HIV may be linked to genetic markers for type 2 diabetes. Huan Nguyen at the International Vaccine Institute in Korea will follow up on the unexpected finding that a fluorescent green protein originally intended as a research control could be the basis of a highly effective influenza vaccine. Exploring hypotheses that challenge conventional wisdom Mike McCune at the University of California, San Francisco, in the U.S. suggests that the best immune response to HIV may be no response at all, because the immune cells that are marshaled to fight the virus are the same cells that HIV infects. Hiroyuki Matsuoka at Jichi Medical University in Japan thinks it may be possible to turn mosquitoes that normally transmit disease into ‘flying syringes,’ so that when they bite humans they deliver vaccines. www.gcgh.org/explorations i4d | November 2008

HIV/AIDS PREVALENCE IN INDIA

Data does not tell it all, awareness does HIV/AIDS: A Primer It was in the year 1998, that world governments felt the need to initiate joint action to combat and reverse the stigma and impact of HIV/AIDS. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus exists in two strains viz. HIV 1 and HIV 2 and evidences suggest that both the forms of HIV originated in West-Central Africa. Wild Chimpanzees in Southern Cameroon were the initial carriers of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) which jumped from this species to humans to become the HIV 1 strain (the more virulent of the two forms) while the HIV 2 strain jumped from the Sooty Mangabey, a monkey found in parts of Western Africa. HIV, previously known by the names, human T lymphotropic virus-III (HTLV-III), lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) and AIDS-associated retrovirus (ARV), belongs to the lentivirus group of the retrovirus family. HIV is a type of virus that disrupts and suppresses the immunity of an individual to fight against potential infections. HIV affects the most important cells of the body including the T lymphocytes (cells that provide vital immunity to the body), macrophages etc. There is no definite incubation period for HIV and there are no earlier symptoms in the early stages of HIV infection. When an HIV positive individual starts showing symptoms like recurrent fever, diarrhoea, lymphadenopathy, weight loss, etc., the individual is said to be heading towards Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). An AIDS patient turns so immuno-compromising that he/she becomes prone to multiple infections, multiple organ failure, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Septecemia, etc.

Prevalence of HIV/AIDS in India According to 2006 estimates of National Aids Control Organisation (NACO), adult HIV prevalence in India is approximately 0.36 percent, amounting to between 2 and 3.1 million people. On an average, 2.5 million people in India live with HIV/AIDS. As per the 2006 NACO estimates, men, with a prevalence rate of 0.43%, are more prone to HIV/AIDS infection. For females, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is relatively low at 0.29%. The data also suggests that HIV/AIDS is more rampant among sexually active groups and 88.7% of all HIV/AIDS infections occur among people between the age group 15-49. Incidence of HIV is quite high among Injecting Drug Users (IDUs), Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) and Female Sex Workers (FSWs).

Government initiatives and interventions The Indian government, through NACO, has embarked upon a number of initiatives to reverse the HIV/AIDS situation in the November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

country. Various country-wide programmes have been envisaged at the state and district levels through SACS (State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies) in order to protect and rehabilitate those people infected with HIV/AIDS. For HIV positive people, NACO also provides support and care through Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTCs), Antiretroviral Therapy Centres (ATCs) and Community Care Centres (CCCs). At the level of treatment, the Indian government considers antiretroviral treatment (ART) as critical to HIV/AIDS care and support. NACO formalises antireteroviral treatment (ART) in all states and ART centres are located in medical colleges, district hospitals and non-profit charitable institutions. In the last few years, the number of patients receiving ART has risen substantially.

Need of the hour Though the recent programmes and initiatives in the form of campaigns, public announcements, research and documentation, undertaken by the Government of India and its subsidiary organisations could provide some light on this entire discourse on HIV/AIDS, yet many people in the country are still not aware of the disease, the exact causes behind HIV/AIDS, the risk factors associated with the disease, the kinds of treatment available, rehabilitation and support systems available to HIV/ AIDS patients especially women and children, ways of accessing treatment, etc. The need of the hour thus is to: a) Promote sex education b) Foster awareness generation through media and other campaign platforms c) Provide para-clinical and legal information to people infected with HIV/AIDS d) Perform intensive clinical and social research on HIV/AIDS e) Provide care, rehabilitation and support to HIV infected people f ) Develop alternative medicines to reverse immuno suppression that happen because of HIV/AIDS Â&#x201E; Rajat Banerjee, rajat@csdms.in

References a) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV b) 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic UNAIDS/08.25E/ JC1510E (English original, August 2008) Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 2008. c) http://www.nacoonline.org

OPINION

Governance: Let’s do it together The HIV/AIDS epidemic necessitates strengthening and streamlining of systems and fine-tuning of the governance issues as per the obvious requirements in a fairly direct manner

Dr Rajesh Gopal Joint Director Gujarat State AIDS Control Society Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India dr_rajeshg@yahoo.com

The need to delineate and accept the pandemic of HIV/AIDS as a developmental challenge (which necessitates a strategically chalked out and appropriate multi-pronged response) has become an oft repeated statement which in view of its extreme importance, nevertheless, still needs reiteration at all fora. The epidemic of HIV/AIDS is a genuinely cross-cutting issue knowing no real or notional borders in its infectivity or the adverse outcome(s). The experiences of some of the Sub-Saharan nations are in front of all of us where the pandemic has jeopardized the economies of countries playing havoc with the entire socioeconomic infrastructure. As a medical professional and a technical programme manager of AIDS Control Programme in an Indian state for about eight years, I would like to present my personal viewpoint about the need to recognize the pandemic in its true dimensions and proportions and develop appropriate ways for addressing the same. The epidemic necessitates strengthening and streamlining of systems and fine-tuning of the governance issues as per the obvious requirements in a fairly direct manner. The successful efforts of piggybacking on existing mechanism(s) for a different activity in the recent past clearly establish that it is imperative to strengthen the system through addressing the governance issues. The problem of HIV/AIDS can be analysed from the following perspectives and approaches (the list is obviously not exhaustive because of the existence of myriad determinants of the pandemic) in the presumably decreasing order of pertinence: • Communication • Public health • Human rights

Health care service delivery Economic National vs regional/state Political Legal Socio-cultural/religious This epidemic demands that all the stakeholders work in unison and complete synergy so as to ensure an effective response in a mainstreamed manner requiring directed efforts to take HIV/AIDS outside the exclusive domain of just the medical professionals and the health sector per se for that matter. With more than ninety nine percent of the Indian population not being infected, the focus has to be on the ‘social vaccine’ - the right type of awareness to keep that population remain uninfected with simultaneous sustained efforts to strengthen the continuum of care, support and treatment with prevention of HIV as an integral part of those efforts. The outcome of a mainstreamed response through the departments of Human Resource Development (Education), Women and Child Development, Rural Development, Tribal Development, Youth and Cultural Affairs, Home, Defence, Railways, Surface Transport, Labour and what have you will primarily depend on the governance issues in the respective sectors. The author wishes to humbly submit that the slogan coined by him in the year 2005 in a NACO meeting at Jaipur - “HIV/AIDS is Everyone’s Responsibility” found place on the first page of the UNAIDS table calendar for the year 2006. The same is the key mandate of the National Council on AIDS headed by the Prime Minister of India with an emphasis on mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS activities with myriad governmental departments, organisations and the Civil society organisations (CSOs). • • • • • •

i4d | November 2008

In view of the fact that HIV/AIDS does have a strong biomedical component, say in terms of laboratory testing for HIV in Integrated and Counselling Centres (ICTCs) and the blood banks, care of Sexually Transmitted Infections/Reproductive Tract Infections (STI/RTI) and management of AIDS as a chronic manageable disease through the anti-retroviral therapy(ART) rolled out in an impressive manner of late, the strengthening of the health systems and ensuring effective tackling of the governance issues in the healthcare sector are equally pertinent. The issues like promotion of condoms, recommendation of abortions or otherwise, facilitation of male circumcision as a proven strategy for prevention of HIV will, however, have many determinants outside the health sector. The writing on the wall is nevertheless writ large. The strengthening of the health systems is not just an option but an absolute must if we wish to provide the desired vigour and support to the concerted response to the HIV pandemic. At present, the entire National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), being implemented in the 38 States/Union Territories/ Municipal Corporations by the respective AIDS Control Societies, is fully sponsored by the Central Government, for which effective and transparent fund flow mechanism and robust monitoring systems are a must and hence the varying levels of governance across different parts of the country directly affect the level and quality of the implementation of the chalked out activities. The availability of an excellent mechanism for fund flow under the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) from the National AIDS Control Organisation(NACO) [with World Bank being one of the major funders] to the State AIDS Control Societies facilitated the release of grants of several crores of rupees to a different programme for building the capacity of Food and Drugs Testing Laboratories of the respective states under the Capacity Building Project of the World Bank. The governance issues determining robust fund handling, release of grants and monitoring of the incurred expenditure facilitated the important activities which were outside the domain of AIDS control activities are being looked after by the State AIDS Control Societies. All efforts of deliberate and inadvertent strengthening of systems have definitely strengthened the quality of service delivery also. Blood banks and STD clinics in most of the hospitals in our country used to be in a miserable state just a couple of years ago. Thanks to the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and its components of STD care and blood safety, the respective service delivery systems have shown tremendous improvement in last two decades. All this strengthening should have been ensured within the existing health care infrastructure itself. The parent departments of Pathology and Dermatology and Venereology have traditionally neglected these two sub-specialties [Blood Banking and Venereology(STI care)]. As a former MD (Dermatology and Venereology) and MD (Pathology) student himself in the premier institutions of the nation, the author has come across the ‘craze’ of opting for Histopathology and Dermatology in preference to Transfusion Medicine and Venereology respectively as future pursuits/careers by the Post Graduate students, more as a rule than an exception. The ‘bias’ used to be carried over to the senior faculty members of the department and administrators of the teaching hospitals, and thus for the neglect shown to the blood banks and STI clinics. November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

The roll out of the ART centres, establishment of innovative Link ART centres, outsourcing of the essential CD-4 testing (which is a must before the AIDS patients may be put on ART) in a laboratory with NABL(National Accreditation Board for Laboratories) accreditation (ideas which originated from the State of Gujarat and were implemented with perfect quality, transparency and precision evincing the visibly strong ways of governance), etc. have done wonders to the existing support to the present health systems. The National AIDS Control Project-III (NACP-III) which was launched on 6th July 2007, however, necessitates that in recognition to the need of full convergence and mainstreaming within the health sector, the issue of Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) should be taken up in a structured and needs based manner generating support from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and other resources as the outputs will go a long way in generating a reinvigorated response to HIV which may not be exclusively ensured just through the available support under the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP). In India, with many different languages/dialects and different festivals celebrated predominantly by the concerned communities, the government has declared holidays for different festivals. With due respect, such holidays in a year amount to a huge number coupled with huge staff absenteeism, which affects the service delivery of the programme. In view of such a scenario, HIV sentinel surveillance activity (an annual activity carried out for studying the trends and prevalence of HIV in a systematic and scientific manner) which is spread over three months and is an important activity to assess the epidemic and facilitate the estimation, has been shifted to the months of November, December and January (previously the sentinel surveillance activity was carried out in July, August and September wherein a good number of festivals of different communities are observed and due to the staff absenteeism during this period, this important activity used to be adversely affected). Another important issue of governance and HIV is decentralisation. The process of decentralisation definitely helps in most of the situations but in certain areas like procurement of equipments/drugs/consumables, reagents, standardisation of operating procedures/reporting formats and uniform guidelines, etc. and recruitment of the suitable personnel, it is imperative to make the process centralized (because of the extant governance issues of varying nature prevailing across different states) for the benefit of the programme in general. Governance issues at all the levels will decide the quality of healthcare in general and the prevention, care, support and treatment of HIV/AIDS in particular. All the socio-economic determinants of HIV/AIDS in particular and health in general mandate a reinvigorated action on the part of all stakeholders to generate a strengthened response against the development challenge in the most appropriate manner with a clear emphasis on development of social capital and strategic intervention in a mainstreamed way with focused communication in the centre. It is high time we generate concerted collective action to ensure an effective response through addressing the umpteen governance issues in recognition of the fact that ‘HIV/AIDS is everyone’s responsibility’.

VISUAL MEDIA CONTENT ON NET

Web 2.0 tools for HIV/AIDS awareness There is scope for using web 2.0 tools like photo sharing, video content and experiences using the Internet for creating awareness about HIV/AIDS. This article explores the initiatives on the net, especially on YouTube

Subir Dey Research Assistant, i4d CSDMS, New Delhi, India subir@csdms.in

Founded in 2005, YouTube has emerged as the world’s most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com, through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and e-mail. A quality that has led to the creation of numerous similar websites, all emulating the same principles of Web2.0 but none are as successful as YouTube. Today, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. In an effort to embrace non-profit ogranisation to maximise their outreach through the website, the YouTube Nonprofit Programme (http://in.youtube.com/ nonprofits) lets organisations connect with their supporters, volunteers and donors without the expensive outreach campaigns. Currently available only in the US and the UK, applicants for this programme can avail of many benefits like Premium Branding and increased uploading capacity, highlighting of videos under the ‘Promoted Videos’ section throughout the website, an option to include a ‘Donate’ button to drive fundraising and listing on the ‘Non-profit channels’ and ‘Non-profit videos’ page. The website also carries tips for NGOs to maximise the reach of their Non-profit Channel on http://in.youtube. com/t/ngo_tips The endemic of AIDS is gradually emerging as a serious threat to human beings and requires sustained and global awareness. Keeping in mind i4d’s aim to support and improve the dissemination of ‘information for development’ the magazine conducted a small research into the ways the world’s cyber community has harnessed the tools available on YouTube to spread awareness and news on HIV/AIDS through the website.

We were pleasantly surprised to note that there are a number of organisations that are very active in using YouTube for outreach. As detailed above, we noticed a number of Non-profit Channels and channels set up by NGOs working to curtail the spread of HIV and to provide support to HIV+ people around the world. UNICEF (http://in.youtube.com/user/ unicef) has among the most active and vibrant channels working on HIV/AIDS with a number of video stories, coverage of Conferences and awareness videos on the issue. A search of UNICEF among the channels reveals the presence of a number of channels set up by UNICEF offices in different countries which contain localised content for their focus areas. The UNICEF India channel (http://in.youtube.com/user/ unicefindia), for example, showcases the HIV/AIDS anti-stigma Public Service Announcement created in collaboration with UNAIDS and the International Cricket Council (ICC). Another interesting use is visible at the UNICEF’s primary channel wherein they showcase a book written by Jenna Bush, titled, ‘Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope’ a personal account of a 17 year old HIV+ girl who struggles to break free from a vicious cycle of abuse, poverty and illness.

“It is all in the users’ hands to use the powers of the Internet at their disposal.” i4d | November 2008

UNAIDS (http://in.youtube.com/user/UNAIDS) is also present on YouTube with their channel with a few short films for awareness generation which include a music video ‘dedicated to a woman’s fight against the stigma, discrimination and ignorance towards people living with HIV& AIDS.’ The channel also features a short film with the UNAIDS Special Representative Michael Ballack which is part of an online competition (more details are given elsewhere in the magazine). No HIV, No AIDS - Stop This Disease (http://in.youtube.com/ user/NoHivNoAids) - This channel is dedicated to increase people’s awareness about HIV and AIDS. Particularly, information about the early symptoms of HIV infection, signs and transmission, HIV/AIDS virus testing, cure, medication, treatment, services and clinics are available. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation seeks to prevent pediatric HIV infection and eradicate pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention and treatment programmes. Their YouTube channel (http://in.youtube.com/user/ EGPAF) highlights some of their case studies and their work through a video titled, ‘Our Promise: A Generation Free From HIV’, apart from their fund-raising and awareness activities involving celebrities. CD4 The Band is based in Sheffield (UK) and formed by musicians from different cultures and backgrounds. Performing in festivals or Live concerts, the band makes original music with the purpose of raising awareness about HIV prevention. Their YouTube channel (http://in.youtube.com/user/cd4band) carries two of their latest music videos apart from a link to their MySpace page which contains more of their tracks. November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

TextToChange is a non-profit organisation which is devoted to improve health education and medicine adherence via mobile telephony in developing countries. Their YouTube channel, http://in.youtube.com/user/TexttoChange, currently contains videos of the launch of the Text to Change HIV/AIDS awareness quiz in Mbarara, Uganda wherein 15,000 Celtel subscribers participated in a six week multiple choice sms quiz. Taprootsinc is a group of Poets from Chicago who have come together to generate awareness on HIV and AIDS in a creative manner. The YouTube channel of Tapsrootsinc (http://in.youtube. com/user/Taprootsinc) showcases the work of the poets at various meets around the city. Virus Free Generation Hip Hop Tour is an international campaign to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS amongst European and Southern African youth. The Tour visits the capital cities of Tanzania, Malawi, Namibia and South Africa, where established hip hop artists from Europe and Africa collaborate on subject related projects and visit HIV/AIDS related youth programmes, conduct workshops to local youth and musicians, etc. Their YouTube page (http://in.youtube.com/user/virusfreevideo) carried music videos of their performances and links from where people may download their music Get Lippy - MTV and The Body Shop have come together to raise awareness on HIV and AIDS with the creation of the Move Your Lips campaign. The campaign’s YouTube channel (http://in.youtube.com/user/getlippy) currently carries messages from some of their celebrity supporters talking about the importance of spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS. The FacetoFaceAIDS Project’s channel (http://in.youtube. com/user/FacetoFaceAIDS) carries a lot of information about their work in countries like South Africa, Malawai and Cambodia and also informs viewers about how they can assist the Project. The organisation works in documenting the HIV pandemic in its project locations as well as raising awareness and supporting local organisations in their fight against HIV and poverty. These are just some of the channels we came across while conducting a short research on the use of YouTube for spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS. Interested readers are requested to delve deeper into the website and explore more videos and channels on their own. We are sure you will find many interesting videos, which would make you think about how you can use this powerful medium to reach out to your peer groups, to network with like-minded individuals/organisations/agencies. Apart from these dedicated channels, a general search for ‘HIV/AIDS’ under Videos, shows up around 1000 videos tagged with the above-mentioned keywords which are not only uploaded by organisations, Universities and Government agencies working on the issues pertaining to HIV/AIDS, but also by individuals who are interested in the issues. This suggests that there is a lot of scope for networking as well as outreach through this website alone. Readers may also note that some of the channels/videos have links of the organisation’s page/ profile on social networking and photo-sharing websites which expand the organisation’s network and allow it to reach to people who may never have communicated without these Web2.0 tools. As Internet is a democratic medium, its all in the users’ hands how they use the powers that are at their disposal.

Portraits of Shazia Marri: Politician, Pakistan “You’d be surprised that many parliamentarians don’t know what HIV is.” Shazia was married at 13 and entered politics at 29 as a parliamentarian in Sindh province and daringly introduced an AIDS bill.

Malvika Subba: Former Miss Nepal “People listen to what I say.” While competing for Miss Nepal in 2002, Malvika Subba made a speech about the need for AIDS awareness among the young. She won the title and now promotes AIDS awareness as a television presenter. “I want to make it easier for young people to talk about issues so they don’t have to take up drugs.

Jahnabi Goswami: Director of “Assam Network of Positive People,” India “It’s our responsibility as positive people to give information to others.” At 15, Jahnabi Goswami was married to an HIV positive man. He and their child later died. It was two years before she was able to find out about HIV. Her family, friends and neighbours encouraged her to “do something”.

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi: Dancer, activist, India “Many hijras, my friends, started dying and I didn’t know how to save them.” At 14 Laxmi joined the transgender hijra. Hijras are largely shunned and Laxmi turned to campaigning and providing social support. “It was a responsibility I couldn’t walk away from - to make sure no more died because they couldn’t receive treatment.””

i4d | November 2008

Commitment Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev: Spiritual guru, India “This was something we could not ignore.” Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev has brought spirituality and yoga to the treatment of people living with HIV through the Isha Foundation. There are 150 centres worldwide. In the media and among the public, Sadhguru rallies against stigma and discrimination.

Huma Khawar: Journalist, Pakistan “I realised that unless you give a human face to the AIDS story, you can’t convince people that it’s here.” Huma Khawar was the first journalist in Pakistan to look seriously into the scope and impact of AIDS. She has won wide recognition for her work.

Mostafa Kamal Jatra: Drama therapist, Bangladesh “I choose to empower.” Mostafa Kamal Jatra founded the United Theatre for Social Action which addresses community issues and individual therapy through street theatre and one-to-one. “Slum people are not literate, how can they read about precautions? If we make the message visual, they will remember.

Rahul Dravid: India Cricket Captain, India “I knew so little about AIDS but I saw that it was reaching beyond high-risk groups.” Rahul Dravid is ranked among the 10 best batsmen in the world. He has recorded TV and radio messages that aim to reach villages to raise AIDS awareness. “People working on the ground tell me that what we do makes a difference.

November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

“Portraits of Commitment” is a stunning and thought-provoking book of photographic portraits which was launched by the Asia Paciﬁc leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS and Development (APLF). The book

Deepak and Rosy Khadgi: Nepal “We sell my art to raise money for positive people.”Deepak Khadgi and his wife Rosy are former injecting drug users and are both HIV-positive. They have set up an NGO offering counselling and livelihood skills. “My wife and I have been through a lot of pain, mostly because of people who shunned us. We decided to take it upon ourselves to help ourselves and others.

Shalina Bharat: Dean of the School of Health Systems Studies Mumbai, India “Research should have a purpose... it should make some impact on policy” Shalina Bharat conducted the first research into AIDS-related stigma, discrimination and denial. This gave international policymakers their first real insight into marginalized groups and those most at risk, particularly women. She also produced ground breaking research into the household and community response to AIDS.

Princey Mangalika: President, Lanka Plus, Sri Lanka “Villagers had seen me bathing my husband in the backyard and were worried when it rained they would get AIDS.” When her husband died of AIDS, neighbours threatened to kill Princey Mangalika. After finding she was HIV-positive, she became a counsellor and co-founded Lanka Plus. “I’m not going to let another woman get infected.”

Rubina Asim and Asim Ashraf: HIV-negative wife and HIV-positive husband Rubina: “One of the reasons we got married is to show it’s not right to hate or have stigma against HIV-positive people, but to let them live and enjoy life.” Asim: “She told me that I do so much for others, and she wanted to do something for me and my family, and together we’ll work for others.”

i4d | November 2008

features people from all walks of life in South Asia who, for a range of different reasons, are working to raise awareness among their communities about HIV.

Tahir Baig Barlas: Health & Safety Manager, Shell Pakistan “AIDS is knocking at our door. We have the opportunity to do something now.” Dr Tahir Baig Barlas established a workplace policy on AIDS. By localizing Shell’s guidelines, he addressed taboo subjects - sexual behaviour and stigma - in workplace discussions. “It’s all about risk management. If there’s no safety, there’s no business.”

Yusif Hamid: Humanitarian drug maker, India Yusif Hamid heads Cipla, one of the leading manufacturers of generic drugs. “Things designed or invented using public-funded research should be public property. I’m a great believer that life-saving drugs should be made available freely in developing countries and that there should be no monopolies in health care.

Dr Michael Abeyaratne: Husband and campaigner, Sri Lanka “People used to ask me why I’m doing this, hanging around, wasting my life. I said I didn’t make vows in public but to myself.” Dr Michael Abeyaratne’s wife was the first in Sri Lanka to say she was HIV-positive on national TV. She’d been infected through a blood transfusion. Her husband; a paediatric surgeon gave up his career to help her in her AIDSrelated work before she died.

We are grateful to UNAIDS for this multimedia book which has been redesigned for i4d readers. This can be accessed online at the following URL:

http://www.unaids.org/multimedia/ photoGalleries/Portraits_of_ Commitment/PortraitsPopup.htm November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

INTERVIEW : ASHISH SEN, TRUSTEE, VOICES, BANGALURU

Spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS

Rajat Banerjee of i4d team caught up with Ashish Sen, Trustee, VOICES, and President, AMARC (World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Asia Pacific Region. Ashish is a member of the Community Radio Forum and a Trustee of the Dev Nandan Ubhayeker Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore. A media specialist for over three decades in various assignments, he began his career with Business Standard, Calcutta. Ashish Sen holds a postgraduate degree in History from Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College Cambridge University. He writes regularly on development issues for mainstream newspapers development journals and publications. Community Media, especially community radio and community theatre are his priority areas. 20

i4d | November 2008

How is community radio an effective tool for generating local consciousness? VOICE has been increasingly acknowledged as a critical ingredient for poverty eradication and governance. Community radio, as the name suggests, articulates the voices of the community, by the community and for the community. It strengthens local information for local needs. Across the world, community radio has been an effective vehicle towards raising local consciousness. In a country like India, it does not take more than common sense to realise the substantial potential that community radio has – in this regard. India has daunting divides, not just in terms of rich-poor and urban-rural, but also in the context of literate-non literate. The number of languages and dialects reinforce the relevance of community radio in enabling and strengthening community voice. Consider the case of Namma Dhwani which is situated in Budhikote village, Kolar district in the southern state of Karnataka. Located on the border of three states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the people speak a mix of Kannada-TamilTelugu. The nearest AIR station is in Bangalore – nearly 100 kms from Budhikote which broadcasts in chaste Kannada. Not surprisingly, Namma Dhwani strengthens community cohesion and ownership because it speaks in their ‘voice’ and ‘language.’ What are the opportunities/limitations of using community radio for education including non-formal education? The issue of education could throw up questions pertinent to campus and community that bog down the growth of community radio in the country. Rather than lose the wood for the trees, it is important to consider both the process and the technology that characterises community radio and its implications on education – formal and non formal. While community radio provides a useful dissemination channel to impart education, its USP lies in its proximity to its community – both in terms of geography as well as participation and ownership. Consider the following: The local school at Budhikote village is a stone’s throw away from the Namma Dhwani community media centre. School children as well as teachers from the school have actively participated and made several programmes (curriculum based and extra- curricular) at Namma Dhwani. These have been cablecast and played through speaker boxes in the class rooms of the school. The experience has been inspiring – to say the least. Long before community radio legislation was passed, the cable-casting initiative impressed the local block development officer to formally endorse his stamp of approval. The initiative also prompted interest from the parents who began to actively participate in the Samudaya Dattashala (like a parent-teacher forum). Requests from the parent community to listen to their children’s programmes resulted in repeated cablecasts thereby facilitating a ripple/snowballing effect. What are the means by which community radio can promote non-formal education? Namma Dhwani has also used ICT/ mixed media models to promote non formal education for children and adults alike. Member of the farmer community have become conversant with web-surfing, thanks to the computers in the media centre. November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Relevant material is downloaded, packaged into audio format and subsequently narrowcast. This has helped to provide information related to market/mandi (whole sale market) prices and eliminate middle men bottlenecks. Namma Dhwani has also used its media skills to design and develop their own language training programme – using computer and radio/audio skills. The computer centre is also used by the children to learn technical skills. A certificate training programme in computer skills between Namma Dhwani and an educational centre in the nearby town of Bangarpet has also supported professional skill-based training among the local youth. The training was initiated about three years ago and was operationalised at the Namma Dhwani community media centre. What is the role of Information and Communication Tools (ICTs) in community-driven radio initiatives? Given the infrastructural gaps that handicap ICT access especially in rural India, ICTs (through a mixed media model) enables information to reach the last mile-last post. Again, the Budhikote initiative serves as a case in point. Nearby Budhikote is Ambedkar Colony inhabited by Dalits. Media penetration is negligible. However, through loud speakers positioned at tree tops, community-based programmes are regularly narrowcast. By using a mix of cable-casting, (this has given way in anticipation of the community radio station being shortly operational), loud speakers and computer access to the last mile has become viable. At the same time a local- global model has been put in place. It is contexts like these which underscore the relevance of ICTs in strengthening education and governance. Please let us know the operational framework of Namma Dhwani Namma Dhwani is the information arm of the Jagruti Resource Centre in Kammasamudram, Kolar. The Centre has a capacity

for three studio managers supported by community volunteers. A management committee comprising members of the community and self help groups in the area is in place providing advisory and programme support. 2. What are some of the initiatives undertaken by your organisation to bridge the digital divide besides community radio? Two recent initiatives carried out by VOICES in this regard include the legal awareness programme across four districts in Karnataka, and the Universal Birth Registration campaign in the state. Both initiatives have used a mixed media model (combining community-based radio, All India Radio (AIR), cable and local television and face-to-face mechanisms like Adalats (local judicial hearings) to disseminate information and community participation. VOICES also helped to set up a Disabilities information helpline in 2005. Do you think that the existing policy framework in India is inadequate? In terms of effectiveness, how do you rate the Indian community radio policy with that of other nations? The policy framework needs to provide greater clarity in terms of the following: • Distinctions between Campus and NGO community radio with a view to strengthening equity and inclusiveness • Remove the ban on News as far as community radio is concerned • Strengthening an enabling environment by encouraging and promoting low cost production and broadcast technology. This will, in turn, promote greater participation. Do you think that community radio initiatives in and across India is going to enhance capacity-building among groups and organisations intending to operationalise community radio stations? Capacity building is critical for community radio to take off in India. By capacity building I mean both awareness related consultations, sensitisation and orientation programmes that are linked to content production, management and sharing as well as hardware/technology workshops.

In the last five years, only a very few stations could be established and commissioned? What are the reasons behind the slow rate of growth of community radio stations in India? The process between license application and sanction needs to be

faster- although there has been improvement in the recent past. It would be prudent to consider and implement a uniform and single window clearance for all eligible categories. Lack of awareness about community radio in the country and especially in the rural areas. The investment on awareness building needs to be substantially enhanced. The cost of technology, especially transmitter costs, needs to be reduced. Otherwise, the viability of providing voice for the voiceless will be compromised.

What is the role of community radio in raising awareness on HIV/AIDS? The role of community radio in combating HIV/AIDS has enormous potential especially in a country like India. Unfortunately, the potential has not been commensurate with performance. While its graph continues to stride formidable proportions, solvency is compounded by the social stigma that is attached to HIV/AIDS in our country. This is where community radio comes in. Because of the anonymity that radio provides, its potential in terms of community- learning, sharing and counseling is significant. In the nineties, the renowned radio expert and practitioner, Ameen Sayani produced an audio/radio series on HIV/AIDS which generated considerable listenership and response. However, the advantage that community radio enjoys, lies in its ability to be in synchronisation with ground/local realities. This assumes particular importance given that many social communications strategies with regard to HIV/AIDS have been top-down and fear-based. Often these messages do not take into cognisance socio-cultural realities, and consequently demonstrate little teeth at the ground level. Community radio removes this disconnect. In doing so it also acts as a bridge between the ground and policy levels. The AMARC global study on community radio demonstrates its effectiveness as an interactive and participative vehicle to combat HIV/AIDS especially in regions like Africa. Recognising this, as well as the fact that HIV treatment and prevention scaleup must go hand in hand and that the central involvement of those affected by HIV/AIDS is essential to respond effectively, international agencies like IDRC have supported AMARC to broadcast proceedings of consultations, conferences and communication messages through its worldwide network. The Indian, and South Asian experience throws up the need to go to scale as well as strengthen documentation of good practices. There have been initiatives like the Equal Access project in Nepal and North India which have produced and disseminated relevant programmes through satellite/digital radio (World Space). Programmes like Desh/Pardesh demonstrated positive impact especially with regard to migrant communities. We need to accelerate the process. Admittedly, the slow pace is partly because community radio legislation has been recent for countries like Bangladesh and India. But given that the HIV/AIDS time bomb continues to tick alarmingly, there is a strong case to deepen the engagement between community radio and the life-threatening illness. i4d | November 2008

IGNOU and UNAIDS Launch Certificate Programme in NGO Management

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has launched a Certificate Programme in NGO Management in collaboration with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, (UNAIDS), India. This programme aims to enhance managerial and financial capacity of the NGO sector by imparting knowledge through distance education to effectively cover the large number of NGO functionaries, volunteers, community workers etc., working in/desirous of working in the development sector. Being a distance learning programme, it lays emphasis on individuals who operate in remote locations and rural areas. A six-month programme, which includes a 7-day contact programme at an NGO working on health issues identified by IGNOU and UNAIDS. The contact programme will give students an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the operational aspects pertaining to the issues. Additional resource materials have been dispatched to more than 1400 learning centres of IGNOU across the country which is intended to be used by students as reference material. The material includes manuals for setting up NGOs, model projects etc., along with other materials.

Though this programme is currently being offered only in English, it is also being developed in Hindi by the Uttar Pradesh Rajashri Tandon Open University (UPRTOU) for wider outreach. The programme is planned to be offered in all Indian languages by mid-2009. Eligibility criteria Minimum qualification for admission to this programme is 10+2 or Matriculate with at least 3 years of work experience in NGO sector. Sponsored Admission: A sponsor is allowed to nominate employees, who have passed 10+2/Matriculation with at least three years of work experience in any NGO. The sponsor will have to submit a Sponsoring Form along with the individual application form(s) of the candidate(s) nominated along with the Programme Fee of Rs. 1000/- per candidate by means of a Demand Draft drawn in favour of IGNOU payable at New Delhi. Fee structure The total fee for this programme is Rs 1,000/- payable along with the application form at the time of registration. The prospectus and application form for the programme can be collected in person, by post or online. More details about the programme is available on http://www.ignou.ac.in

Online competition with Michael Ballack UNAIDS has teamed up with International Football star Michael Ballack for an online competition where participants can win caps, t-shirts, and sweatshirts etc., courtesy Michael Ballack Clothing by answering 2 simple questions posted on http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/ FeatureStories/archive/2008/20081020_Ballak_UNAIDS_ competition.asp The Questions 1. UNAIDS is a Joint United Nations Programme composed of a Secretariat and Co-sponsoring organizations. Name any two of UNAIDS Co-sponsors. 2. In his video message (available at http://in.youtube. com/watch?v=lgdjI656kXg), what is UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Michael Ballack’s personal video message about HIV prevention? Send your answers along with your full name and address by email to: competition@unaids.org Closing date for submitting answers is 20 November 2008 and names of the competition winners will be announced on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2008. November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Michael Ballack has recently starred in a short film titled, ‘Be Smart, Protect yourself ’, made by UNAIDS which is available at http://in.youtube.com/ watch?v=lgdjI656kXg In t e r n a t i o n a l f o o t b a l l e r Michael Ballack is the Captain of the German National Team and has played in top football clubs including Bayern Munich and currently, Chelsea. He has previously been involved in charity events and fund raising. Appointed Special Representative of the UNAIDS in 2006, Michael has since dedicated time and effort disseminating HIV prevention messages through the media and will continue to support UNAIDS in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010. He featured in a social marketing advertisement in the German magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ and in the 60th Anniversary Issue of Times.

INTERVIEW : SMARAJIT JANA, NATIONAL PROGRAMME OFFICER, NACO, INDIA

National efforts for combating HIV/AIDS policies, if not all, are devised and cleared by NACO. The SACS can, though, make recommendations to NACO for the incorporation of certain module or certain policies for a particular state.

Rajat Banerjee of i4d team, CSDMS, talked to Samarjit Jana, National Programme Officer, National Aids Control Society (NACO) on the effectiveness of various programmes to combat HIV/AIDS in India It is known that NACO provides leadership to HIV/AIDS control programme in India through SACS (State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies). Is the programme successful? Yes. It is very successful. The programmes have been able to stabilise the epidemic and there has been some reduction in HIV/AIDS cases in states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal. In states like Maharashtra, where the incidence of HIV/AIDS infected people is high, the state AIDS programmes are not picking up. SACS is also not performing well in Bihar and Chattisgarh although in both states, the number of HIV/AIDS infected people is not that high. How far are the states empowered to administer and monitor HIV/AIDS policies? Are the states, under the SACS programme, authorised to strategise and implement policies? The states are unfortunately not empowered to devise policies on their own. Most of the

Do you think that the recent move by the Union Health Ministry to decriminalise gay sex will eventually bring down HIV/ AIDS cases in India? Of course yes. Once gay sex is decriminalised, we will have direct access to all those men who might be carrying the virus. If the gay people are charged because of their sexual preferences, NACO or in that matter any organisation working on HIV/AIDS will not be able to make a dent in their lives. What the current initiatives of NACO to foster UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? As per UN Millennium Development Goals, we are on track. In fact, NACO has been largely successful in mitigating the impacts of HIV/AIDS and in combating the epidemic. We are one of the trendsetters in terms of programme outlay and implementation. In comparison to other countries, India is working firmly towards the realisation of goal no 6 of MDGs. How does NACO support and rehabilitate people infected with HIV/AIDS? For HIV positive people, NACO provides various forms of supplement, support and care through its centres. These include 1. Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTCs) 2. Antiretroviral Therapy Centres (ATCs) 3. Community Care Centres (CCCs) What is the role of ICTs in spreading awareness on HIV/AIDS? We are using different media platforms to address this issue on HIV/AIDS. We use

advanced communication technologies to create awareness among masses. What is the current operational status of National Aids Control Policy III? NACP III is in line as per our plan. Are there any special programmes/ initiatives to address women and children suffering from HIV/AIDS? NACO, in all its programmes, includes women and children. NACOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary goal of paediatric prevention, care and treatment programme is not only to prevent HIV infection to newborns through Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) but also to provide treatment and care to all children infected by HIV. NACO emphasis upon the Antiretroviral therapy treatment given of sero-positive women and infected children. If an NGO, working on HIV/AIDS, wants to have financial and content support from NACO, then what proceedings should it follow? There is an established system by which NGOs working on HIV/AIDS can have financial and content support from NACO. The state-level SACS publishes advertisements in newspapers. The applications collected are appraised by a joint appraisal team who select the NGOs from a list of contenders. The NGOs are then asked to develop a full proposal which has to be approved and finalised by SACS. What is the present state of AIDS research in India? NACO does not have the infrastructure to execute clinical or academic research on HIV/AIDS. NACO though conducts surveys and trials through many of its programmes and operations. Â&#x201E; | October 2008 i4di4d | November

WOMEN’S INFORMATION FOR DELVELOPMENT NETWORK, ZARD, ZAMBIA

Women’s groups adopt ICTs in Zambia Zambia’s women’s groups have explored the effective use of ICTs through various capacity building activities through WIDNet programme

Gender inequalities in Zambia In Zambia, the problem of gender inequalities, inequities and the empowerment of women is still a serious issue of concern. Most women are very poor, illiterate, uninformed about many issues that affect them and their development. In addition, women suffer great injustices and their rights are violated. Although there are many women’s organisations working to empower women, their efforts have been fragmented because of limitations in information, knowledge and sharing of experiences. Each organisation has a specialisation, target and areas of operation that add value to the whole process, and sharing of information is one of the keys to reaching out to many. While women in Zambia are the operational heads of households, with the responsibility for children, household expenditures and other essential livelihood activities, the lack of opportunities to generate or receive income, leads to their inability to sustain the family and overcome poverty.

The ZARD initiative

Chimika Lungu Programme Officer; Capacity Building & Technical Support Zambia Association for Research & Development (ZARD), Zambia zardwidnet@microlink.zm; chimikalungu@yahoo.com

November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Zambia Association for Research and Development (Z ARD) is a NonGovernmental Organisation, whose aim is to uplift the status and living standards of women through participatory actionoriented research, advocacy, training, networking, publishing and information dissemination. ZARD has its origins in the Association of Zambian Women, which was established in 1974 following the First Women’s Conference. At the time of the Mwanakatwe Commission on the Review of the Conditions for Civil Service, they were instrumental in engendering the Mwanakatwe Commission and managing to secure 12 weeks paid maternity leave for

expectant female employees regardless of their marital status. Upon its dissolution, some of its members established a Social Economic Research Group (SERG) in 1976 following the First World Conference on Women held in Mexico in 1975. SERG was reconstituted as ZARD and registered with the Zambia Registrar of Societies. In March 1985 ZARD organised the Second Women’s Rights Conference at Mindolo, Kitwe and pressed the government to ratify the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). From then on, ZARD advocacy activities contributed to the official acceptance of Gender in Development through the establishment of a Gender in Development Division (GIDD) at cabinet office and popularisation of women’s issues in Zambia. During this time, a research capacity was established among Zambian women to generate gender information relevant for lobbying and advocacy activities. The need to broaden areas of gender activities resulted in some ZARD members forming a number of women’s development organisations such as the Women for Change, Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), the Women’s lobby Group, African Women Educationists, FAWEZA and Women and Law in Southern Africa Trust (WILSA), to mention only a few. Many of them have nevertheless continued to maintain their ZARD membership to this day.

The WIDNet programme Having realised the gap that existed in its Women’s Resource Centre in terms of limitations in information dissemination and clients’ capacity in using Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to access and share information, ZARD came

up with the Women’s Information for Development Network (WIDNet) programme. The WIDNet programme is an Internet portal for information on the status of women and girls in Zambia, supported by the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD), The Netherlands. The WIDNet project aims to promote the use of ICT4D among women in Zambia. The project has successfully empowered some women from the informal sector of society. This has given a chance to improve their livelihoods by alleviating their poverty. The project has also helped in raising awareness amongst members of its network and most importantly, it has provided them with a means of sharing information. The WIDNet website has facilitated information-sharing amongst its members. It was launched on 23rd February 2007 to publicise the work of ZARD, WIDNet, other network members and the women’s movement. WIDNet’s mandate is to collect and disseminate information to the women’s movement, civil society organisations, parliamentarians, government departments, media, learning institutions and communities, thus advocating for national reform through engagements with parliament, strengthening partnerships among member organisations through information management, capacity enhancement, research and publishing. This WIDNet programme is a valuable contribution to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) particularly the 3rd MDG that aims to promote gender equality and empower women. Largely the project intends to raise standards of living and hence reduce poverty and hunger, which is the 1st MDG. The emphasis of this project is on women because statistics have shown that women are most affected by the burden of poverty.

WIDNet partners WIDNet is very strategic as it is also established to enable women and the community at large to access information for development. The WIDNet project now has twelve partners namely the Women Entrepreneurs Development Association of Zambia (WEDAZ), Zambia Alliance of Women (ZAW), Women for Change (WfC), Society for Women and Aids in Zambia (SWAAZ), Zambia White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (ZWRASM), Young Women Christian Association of Zambia (YWCA), Forum for Women Educationist Zambia Chapter (FAWEZA), Girl Guides Association of Zambia (GGAZ), Justice for Widows and Orphans Project (JWOP) and a new addition, Zambia National Women’s lobby (ZNWL),Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), Zambia Federation of Women in Business (ZFAWIB) and Enviro-Green Care Association. The network has added on two new partners and the network will continue adding on organisations that meet WIDNet criteria and expectations. These organisations have members that draw services from the organisations as well as participate in servicing the general members of society.

IT Literacy Training for women Basic Information Technology (IT) Training is another important component under WIDNet. The Zambia Association for Research and Development (ZARD) under its WIDNet programme, opened its Women’s IT Literacy Training Centre on July 17 2006. The Training Centre focuses on empowering individuals,

especially women and girls by enabling them to use different ICT tools to access new knowledge and education materials seek out job opportunities and establish new business contacts. It also helps to support and strengthen civil and political participation. The use of ICTs for development promotes the delivery of valuable information. The WIDNet project has therefore created an environment where people are being empowered. Women are gaining and becoming empowered. Empowerment of women results in them becoming aware of their rights and available resources and opportunities. The training opportunities that WIDNet provides for them have helped them in making their lives better because of the skill they have gained. It has also helped women’s organisations to embrace ICTs as tools for development and a means of accessing vital information. In order for the ICT Literacy Programme to be successful, the following teaching methods are used: 1. Lectures: Useful in transmitting information and explain procedures. 2. Demonstration: This method is efficient in that, the participants were able to see the sequence of a particular procedure in performing a task and build on it. Demonstrations also proved to be very handy in that key points were emphasized and repeated. 3. Training manual: The modules are taught using the Training Manuals produced by ZARD. The training covers the following: basic Windows XP, basic word processing, the use of Internet, sending and receiving emails, and using search engines, Google in particular, in digital photography/video shooting, and Web 2.0 tools. The trainings have also been expanded to include awareness of interactive tools. Women’s organisations are being helped by training them in the use of Web 2.0 technologies. This particular training covers setting up blog accounts, publishing posts, replying to comments, posting pictures to the Web and signing up for RSS feeds. At the end of every module, trainees are encouraged to apply the skills learned. The trainees, who do not have any other source of contact with computers apart from ZARD’s IT Training Centre, are encouraged to return to the centre whenever it is available at no cost at all, in order for them to practice what they have learnt.

Training constraints Some of the constraints encountered were: Slow learners: In the groups from low income communities that register for the training, due to varying levels of education, more time is required to enable them learn a new aspect. • Language: An additional challenge has been the limited understanding of the English language by some of the participants coming from low income communities. This usually curtails the quick understanding of some aspects where translation into the local language is quite difficult. The use of computers and Internet mainly depends on English. An effort is always made to translate difficult English words into the local languages (Bemba and Nyanja). • Demand for the training: More young girls especially school dropouts including young boys are expressing interest in participating in ZARD’s IT literacy programme. With more •

i4d | November 2008

people asking for training, that means a bigger training room and even more computers are required. Since the inception of the programme in July 2006, ZARD has trained over 150 women and girls in basic IT and livelihood skills. Specifically, ZARD has trained a total of 81 individuals in basic ICT skills since July 2006. Out of these, 15 are male and 66 are female. Currently ZARD’s training room has the capacity of only 6 computers. ZARD has now embarked on building a larger training room to help cater for the increasing number of would be participants. This exercise is being supported by Non Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) and Canadian High Commission in Zambia. With a larger training room in place, ZARD is targeting to increase on the number of trainees to 200 each year.

Trainee statistics Most participants have been individual women and girls from low income communities or peri urban areas (namely: Chilulu, Garden and Chipata compounds of Trainee statistics (July 2006-July 2008) Lusaka) where access to basic services such as health, water/sanitation Female and education are Male v e r y p o o r. T h e programme has attracted both male and female but the Figure 1: Trainee Statistics: Out of a total of 81; 15 are majority are female. male and 66 are female The participants’ age ranged from as young as 14 years old to 61 years old. Participants come from all walks of life, including young school dropouts, a few youths still in high school and adult retirees.

Some success stories The Zambian National ICT policy also recognises that women and youth need special attention in order to achieve access for all. WIDNet is one of the only initiatives in women’s movement providing a platform for advocacy and empowerment of women and girls through the use of ICTs. Some notable successful results of the WIDNet project are: • Commencement of the building of a larger training centre with a sitting capacity of 30 people which will be completed by the end of 2009. • Linkages with national, regional and international NGO information centres. • Documented improved livelihoods of beneficiaries or former trainees (‘Changing lives through basic IT training for the underprivileged’, book). • ICT capacities within member NGOs and the community increased in Basic ICT, Internet use, and Web 2.0 tools and in digital photography / video shooting. The aim of the training is to build capacities of women and partner organisations to use ICTs for development, to document their activities, access information and advocate for gender equality. November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Employment for School Graduates Elgah Ngulube, age 24, completed her 12th grade in 2002. Since the opening of the Women’s IT Literacy Centre at ZARD, she was among the third group of individuals that came through to participate in the programme. Before the training, Elgah like 90% of the participants had no idea on how to use computers/ computer programmes. After the training, Elgah has secured herself a formal job and is currently working as an office assistant at the Wildlife Conservation Society in Lusaka, Zambia. When she first got employed by t h e Wi l d l i f e Conservation Society, her role involved typing and printing documents. Figure 2: Elgah Ngulube attending the IT Literacy She has been with Programme at ZARD the Society for a year now and since then her job has become even more demanding. “I’m now learning how to work with accounts and databases and would like to participate in more training at ZARD’s IT Literacy Training Centre. I would love to learn more advanced programmes that will help me in my current role.” Elgah says.

Conclusion To date, most women using computers have come from the educated elite. Yet if poor women in developing countries or low income communities can conquer the limitations that presently inhibit their access, they can use computers to help increase access to resources and exercise essential rights. Access to ICTs, and in particular, access to computers remains a great challenge in Zambia, especially for those that are living in low income communities. The Zambian Government’s ICT sector vision is ‘A Zambia transformed into an information and knowledge-based society and economy supported by consistent development and pervasive access to ICTs by all citizens by 2030.’ Zambia’s National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy was launched on March 28th 2007 at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka- Zambia under the theme ‘ICT- For accelerated wealth and job creation’. While ICTs are powerful tools for development, the world’s most valuable resources are its people. Lack of access to information has been a key source of disempowerment of the underprivileged, especially women and girls from low income communities, leaving them susceptible to exploitation, avertable diseases, and injustice. Therefore, the significance of ICTs should not be in the technologies as such but in the possibilities they open up for access to knowledge, information and communications. With the policy in place, it is the hope of all citizens- men, women, boys & girls from both urban and rural populations in Zambia that they will eventually employ ICTs in their work in order for these technologies to achieve their intended purpose.

INTERVIEW : KARISHMA KIRI, DIRECTOR, MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Promoting innovation

Karishma Kiri is a Director with Microsoft Corporation. Currently, she guides various emerging market strategies and incubations primarily focusing on product strategy and business development. Kiri has been leading Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global rural computing (BOP) initiatives since its inception as a part of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential effort. A bachelors degree holder in business economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, Kiri talks about the Rural BPO initiative in her conversation with Jayalakshmi Chittoor and Vignesh Sornamohan. Karishma believes that governments, NGOs and corporates should encourage and guide local innovation and concentrate on sustainable content creation.

i4d | November 2008

You have come up with the rural BPO initiative. Could you throw some light on this? One of the things that we have been looking at is -what are the interesting livelihood opportunities that can exist? One of the things that directly inspired us was former President A P J Abdul Kalam’s PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas) initiative. And we thought, could a hub be created within rural environment, which would provide employment generation opportunities and help bridge the rural urban disparity? One of the initial projects that I know of is the DesiCrew Solutions started by Saloni Malhotra under the guidance of Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala. And this is very interesting because we are using something we (India) are very good at - outsourcing and technology. And Microsoft has been doing a lot of research on this ever since we started our rural efforts. We have also tied up with DesiCrew for data entry and inputting data on our product launches. However, there were challenges on quality and capacity building. But the most important part was showing them that the ability exists and it is possible for them to handle technology, which made them confident. This is what we wanted to do. We did other programmes with Drishtee on e-Commerce and e-Healthcare. The main focus of all these projects was to let people know that they can do these things.

“Magazines like i4d can contribute by documenting innovative ideas and promoting young entrepreneurs with interesting ideas”

From a strategic decision maker’s experience what do you think about the future of the rural BPO? I think the model will keep evolving. Some of the existing 5 seater, 10 seater BPOs will continue to stay but the challenges here is the quality or the output and the on-going pipeline of clients. I think efforts are on to create a hub village in a district with 15, 20 or 30 seater BPOs with the plan being that people travel to that hub for work. This, I think, is going to be a more sustainable model because there would be less traveling time as compared to visiting the cities or towns and this may also generate more employment. But, unless you engage more mainstream ongoing clients outsourcing their work, these models will continue to happen on the fringes. What is required is access to the channels and visibility. So the task for companies like Microsoft and organisations like telecentre.org is to identify the small but interesting companies doing good work and help them get visibility and provide them with the access points. Here magazines like i4d and telecentre magazine can contribute by documenting innovative ideas and promote young entrepreneurs with interesting ideas in this field.

What is your opinion on the role of telecentres in health service delivery? For telecentres to be effective in providing health services, there has to be an involvement of the larger domain experts like Apollo November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Hospitals, Escorts, Aravind Eye Hospital and others with someone managing the end-points through e-mails, video conferencing, etc. But it is really important to have these health care centres. All of it can be brought under a business model with each point of the value chain affected. People are willing to pay for good healthcare. If there is need to connect to a doctor through a web cam they should be able to do that. But all of this is possible only through a hub with these facilities.

How is your telemedicine project experience in Bihar in partnership with Drishtee and Neurosynaptics? Our team visited Bihar and the most interesting part of the experience was that people were really concerned about who was communicating with them at the other side of the web cam. So having a van of Apollo or any other reputed hospital and may be having the person in the hub wearing a t-shirt with an Apollo logo would make a huge difference, because psychologically it would make people comfortable with the process and help in mediating the conversation of the patient with the doctor. Apart from these, there are other things also which are very important like having adequate preventive care, insurance, medicine delivery, and above all, love and care. All these have to be there for this model to be successful.

Microsoft India’s Project Vikas Helping Indian SMEs gain a competitive edge

A NASSCOM published Economic Impact Study in 2005 pointed out that while India was the global IT leader in software services, it ranked among the lowest when it came to domestic capital investment and consumption of IT. For the 8 million or more SMEs in India today – small companies that churn out auto components or electronic parts, garments or leather goods - IT adoption can mean the difference between succeeding in a competitive environment and barely surviving in the face of globalization. Microsoft India’s Project Vikas aims to enhance the global competitiveness of India’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. Set up in partnership with the National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC), Government of India, Project Vikas entails a five-year action plan to help the SMEs increase their global competitiveness through usage of IT to expand opportunities in the areas of job creation, market access, knowledge networks and enablement of supply chain linkages in the cluster ecosystem. The programme is a vital deliverable under Microsoft’s mission of ‘Realising India’s potential’ wherein Information Technology is deployed as a catalyst for empowering more and more individuals and businesses to realize their full potential. Project Vikas is not only enhancing efficiency and competitiveness in the SME sector, but doing so through fostering growth in the local software ecosystem. The multi-pronged strategy of the effort includes: • Using IT to provide enhanced access to markets: Many SMEs are hamstrung by limited access to markets, especially overseas markets. Providing them the means to access world markets, through ICT enablement, will eliminate a major barrier and empower them to transact directly with their customers. • Improving skills and creating human capital through relevant and focused training: Two factors limit SME access to skilled personnel: geographical clustering and inability to attract quality talent. It is therefore important to upgrade the skills of management and their existing employees to enable informed decision-making and reduce dependence on external agencies. More importantly, skills need to be locally developed and made available to clusters, in a continuous manner, through engagement with local ITIs and polytechnic training institutes. • Creating internal efficiencies through increased ICT

absorption, thereby reducing operational and transactional costs by automating repetitive processes and improving their capacities for information access, processing, collaboration and dissemination. • Development of ‘Knowledge Networks’ to enhance sharing of best practices across clusters, collation and dissemination of information of latest trends and developments related to markets and IT. The networks will include the creation of R&D linkages to ensure that SMEs have access to relevant and affordable R&D, foster innovation and ensure continued product improvement. • Fostering the growth of a local software ecosystem to support the assimilation of ICTs and providing relevant and customised solutions to the local manufacturing sector. Unless local software vendors are aligned with each cluster, it would be difficult for individual SMEs to either develop customised solutions specifically tailored to their requirements or to sustain the continuous enhancement and upgradation required in their IT systems. Project Vikas will incubate and nurture an ecosystem of such ISVs to ensure that continued, high quality and relevant ICT support is available to the cluster. • Other information chain infrastructure like R&D linkages. SMEs do not have inherent capacities to undertake R&D even though they might need this for continuous improvement of their product portfolios. Without continuous product improvement SMEs will be unable to effectively compete in the global environment. It is, therefore, important to create linkages between the Cluster and Organizations with R&D capabilities such as IITs, RECs, and other institutes to provide access to focused R&D to the clusters as well as creating the appropriate mechanism to share the research within the cluster. Manufacturing is the biggest engine for job creation in our economy. It is responsible for about 60 per cent of India’s exports, and about 40 million workers are employed by the manufacturing sector. This is the number suggested by the National Sample Survey 2000, so it would be safe to say it has only increased in the intervening years. These are big numbers, with the latent potential to grow bigger, and signify one thing clearly: the SME sector can play a crucial role in the economic growth of India. With globalization increasing and competition becoming more vigorous, though, the manufacturing sector has to adopt some best practices and embrace some new age tools. One of the key differentiators can be Information Technology – and its wide adoption by Indian SMEs can play a significant part in enhancing their competitiveness at the world stage. And this is exactly the gap Project Vikas is trying to address.

i4d | November 2008

BELIEF-II

The global access point to e-Infrastructure BELIEF-II is a project funded by the European Commission under the FP7 capacities programme. Kicked-off in April 2008, the project will span over 24 months with the aim of supporting e-Infrastructure projects in order to maximise synergies between research, ccientific and industrial communities in specific application areas. Building on the successes achieved in its first phase, BELIEF-II has the strategic objective of coordinating the communication of the results achieved by all the e-Infrastructure projects, thanks to the organisation of networking activities and to the promotion of the worldwide initiatives which could be of great interest for the future potential users. As coordinator of the International e-Infrastructure communication BELIEFII will: • Make sure e-Infrastructure projects work in synergy with one another advancing in the same direction of the national initiatives so as to foment fruitful interaction and mutual cooperation; • Reinforce relevance of e-Infrastructures worldwide, thus helping sustain their successful development and exploitation globally; • Develop stronger co-operation links with emerging economies, specifically in Latin America, India and South Africa.

In order to achieve these goals, the project will provide a communication platform that will, at the same time, allow the eNovember 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Image courtesy of Al_HikesAZ

Infrastructure projects to manage their contents, communicate their activities to the users and to the public, and have a unique access point to find out more about e-Infrastructures. The new networking platform was launched in August 2008 and, is empowered by the Digital Library, which will soon make it THE one-stop-shop for global e-Infrastructures community. Interactions and synergies will be supported also by a series of high profiled international events that will be organised during the project’s life span: • 2 eConcertation meetings - To work together on common directions • 2 brainstorming workshops - Tackling creatively the major issues emerging from eConcertation • 3 international symposia gathering major decision-makers, top researchers, scientific policymakers and industrial organisations and focusing on a future framework for a common

agenda for e-Infrastructure research in the world. These symposia will be organised, respectively, first in January 2009 in India, the second in July 2009, Brazil and the third one will take place in December 2009 at Cape Town, South Africa. Please mark these dates in your diary! Join the BELIEF Community, be part of the future of e-Infrastructure! For further information contact: info@beliefproject.org i4d is Media Partner with the BELIEF-II project •

Distance Learning/Education and training as an e-Infrastructures application is the theme of the first emagazine called Zero-In • Interested stake holders may contribute their experiences in the community • Interested members may get involved in the three face-to-face symposia to be held in India, Brazil, South Africa in the year 2009 More information about the project can be obtained from the project website: http://www.beliefproject.org

netgov Speak: Lead up to IGF 2008

Part VII: Content monitoring: The debate continues Internet makes it possible for communities to interact and share knowledge, information, voice and visual content freely, leading to creative social re-organisation. Internet is thus as much a social phenomenon as it is technological. With the evolution of the Internet in its new phase, commonly called Web 2.0, cyber communities and social access to Internet has been enhanced. According to Diplo Foundation, in its primer on Internet Governance, talks about this content and related issues, as the most controversial in the field of Internet Governance 3. Content policy, spam and filtering, public goods perspectives, etc., are being taken up in various debates across the world. In this issue, we try to understand the nuances of the various aspects of content monitoring. The content policy has to be seen both from the point of view of human rights (freedom of expression and the right to communicate), government (content control) and technology (tools for content control).

www.nixi.in

In Collaboration with:

International issues where there are major agreements

Issues like child pornography, genocide, incitement or terrorism related content, as prohibited by international law are not so contentious. There is wide ranging agreement that such contents should be removed from the Net, but there is not a consensus on how to interpret these. Another group of issues centres on content that is sensitive to different countries, ethnic minorities, or regions, due to their specific cultural contexts or values. There is a third group of issues revolving around political and ideologically sensitive content. This, in common parlance is referred to as Internet Censorship. Transparency International8, headquartered in Berlin, has reported a number of such practices in China, Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Content Control vs Freedom debate Many organisations that want to share information only among peers or are worried about the safety and security of the data/content would like to explore issues relating to information security. Information security is a domain that worries not only technology providers but also businesses and governments in various countries. The content policy in the Internet Governance domain relates not only to public (governmental) filtering of

content, private rating and filtering systems, controls through search engines and geo-location software, but also through international legal framework developed by different regions, like the European Union. The issues are raised by Human Rights organisations include the issues of privacy, freedom of expression, the right to receive information, various rights protecting the cultural, linguistic and minority diversity, and the right to education. The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) allows anyone to enjoy protection of the moral and material interests from scientific, literary or artistic production. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)2 is the global body empowered to set the norms for IPR issues. This has, in the recent years, responded to a number of civil society and advocacy groupsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; call for a developmental perspective to be built, keeping in mind the rights guaranteed by the Article 19 of the UN Human Rights Declaration. A point to note is the counter-balance in the Article 29 which gives the right of the state to limit freedom of expression for the sake of morality, public order, and general welfare. The main challenge is to establish a balance between these two schools of debate on the content policy with respect to Internet Governance.

How do governments filter content on the Internet? Governments often engage in creating an Internet Index of websites blocked for access by citizens. If a website is in this index, it will not be accessible to its citizens. Technically, the filtering typically uses router based IP blocking, proxy servers, and DNS redirection. Many countries track and monitor websites frequently. Some countries known to practice this extensively include China, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Singapore, but also other countries like Australia, Germany, France, USA, UK, etc 1. Such national filtering systems pose the risk of disintegration of the Internet in its spirit of free flow of information. W3C had suggested that rather than using the national filtering process, the end users should be encouraged to implement a rating and filtering system. Such browser level filtering is very useful to make end-user computers, child friendly, for example. Some search engine companies like Google impose self-censorship. For example, in their German and i4d | November 2008

French versions of Google, it is not possible to search for and find websites with Nazi materials. This is usually done to avoid possible court cases. Even in India, recently, sites like Orkut and YahooGroups have faced temporary shutdowns due to controversial content. The Indian government has stepped in after public outcry and not suo moto. According to Naresh Ajwani, Secretary, Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), “ISPs are not Police but the facilitators of content flow on the Internet. It’s like saying that the TV manufacturers like LG/Samsung shall be responsible for channels’ content...Having said that ISPs must act over any advised information from the law enforcement agencies to check on any content provider” Normal websites, or static websites are often moderated and managed by organisations. Whereas, personal blogs which use web 2.0 technologies, and other user related contents are often un-restricted information floating in the Internet space. The community and social networking sites offer space for content creation, and define the general norms for the type of content that can be placed. Other sites use a polling tool to report or flag unsuitable content. These sites may remove messages that have been flagged by other members are insensitive or objectionable content. This is a type of moderation that allows peer ranking of content. Other sites like eBay deletes references to ‘soul’ for sale or other similar irrelevant content posted by its members. Whether it is self-monitoring, or peer-review or regulation by government, the issue of content monitoring has both technological and legal perspectievs.

The technology perspective Gartner released its “Magic Quadrant for Content Monitoring and Filtering and Data Loss Prevention, 2008”5 a report by Gartner analysts Eric Ouellet and Paul E. Proctor. The rep ort states, “We have long believed that integrated network, endpoint and discovery capabilities - with a centralized management console capable of distributing a consistent set of policies, and providing usable event analysis and workflow for alerting on and remediating violations - was the ultimate goal and destination of this market.” Gartner, Inc.’s Magic Quadrant positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their ability to execute and completeness of vision. The report explains that “leaders have demonstrated a good understanding of client needs and offer comprehensive capabilities in all three functional areas, including network, discovery and endpoint directly or through well-established partnerships and tight integration. They offer aggressive road maps, but they will need to execute on those road maps, fully incorporate enhanced features being developed and address evolving market needs to remain in the Leaders Quadrant.” Though this is a research tool, and not an endorsement, it is one of the most respected analysis for assessing the security tools and technologies for organizations looking for solutions to secure their data and content. November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Global legal initiatives There is a legal vacuum in the field of content monitoring and policies around it. While governments use high levels of discretion in content control, it is important to recognize the need for global discussions and consensus building on this issue. Some of the initiatives towards this are discussed below: The Council of Europe Additional Protocol on the Cybercrime Convention specifies various types of hate speech, including racist and xenophobic materials, justification of genocide and crimes against humanity that should be prohibited on the Internet. The Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is particularly active in this field. It aims to reduce censorship and promote freedom of expression on the Internet. Practically, the EU has introduced the EU Safer Internet Action Plan6 which includes: • setting up of a European network of hotlines for reporting of illegal content, • encouraging self-regulation, • developing content rating, filtering, and benchmark filtering, • developing software and services, and • raising awareness of safer use of Internet. It also encourages the concept of what is illegal offline, is illegal online, though enforcement is more difficult of material posted on, and shared through the Internet. The Internet Watch Foundation7 in UK aims at combating child abuse on the Internet, and works with several stakeholders to promote its cause. Though the main players will continue to be governments, the role of communities, parents, schools etc. are also important when it comes to child safe content. Internet should also be protected as a global public good, with two key properties, viz., non-rivalrous consumption and non-excludability. At the legal level, the concept of res communis omnim (space as a common heritage of humankind to be regulated and garnered by all nations), is being promoted to further the concept of Global Public Good. The concept of the “commons” is another term which is used to define Internet Content. It is important to note that the debate is ongoing and will continue to be discussed at the upcoming Third Internet Governance Forum to be held in Hyderabad from December 3-6, 2008. For further details, please log on to www.intgovforum.org References: 1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Censor/cens3.html www.wipo.int Internet Governance: Issues, Actors and Divides (2005), edited by Eduardo Gelbstein and Jovan Kurbalija, DiploFoundation, Malta http://www.diplomacy.edu/ISL/ IG/default.htm www.intgovforum.org Gartner Magic Quadrant: www.gartner.com/it/products/mq/ mq_ms.jsp www.osce.org Internet Watch Foundation: www.iwf.org.uk Transparency International: www.transparency.org

CENTAD CLIMATE BRIEFS

Linking climate change with trade Centre for Trade and Development (Centad), an independent, not-for-profit organisation carries out policy research and advocacy on issues around trade and development with a focus on South Asia. There has been an increase in the discussions taking place on Climate Change in recent years among the academia and the civil society due to its impact on global trade and development issues. Acknowledging the fact that climate change issues are intertwined with the overall trade and development issues, Centad has come up with a set of Policy Briefs. The i4d team picked two of them that focus on the concerns and threats for two developing countries (India and Bangladesh). A summary of these policy briefs have been presented below.

Emissions and concerns for India - Some future options Positions of developed countries in terms of emissions Centad discusses the effect of carbon emission on developing countries. The figures and facts related to climate change show that developing countries are most affected by carbon emission. According to available statistics, the United States of America1 is responsible for 22% of the total carbon emission and it consumes 25% of the energy produced globally. The figures from Kyoto Protocol and the Marland (2001), show that, out of top ten largest emitters, eight of them are developed countries, while two are developing countries. Surprisingly, these countries emit more carbon dioxide than the global per capita level. To reduce emissions, the Kyoto Protocol has specified the amount of reductions to be undertaken by these countries between 2008-2012. According to the said protocol, countries like US, Australia and Canada need to reduce emissions by 93, 108 and 94 percent respectively. Countries like US and its group have asked for an alternative way of emission reduction based on the absolute emission levels. After such arrangements, developing countries like India and China will be forced to overhaul their production processes and embrace a process either by developing or importing a new technology from those countries who already have the technology. The three main concerns pertaining to this approach are availability of finance, technology transfer and institutional framework. 1. Question of financing: The development of clean technology in India revolves around the issue of availability of financing and transfer of technology. In its commitment, the Indian Government has decided to increase its investment in the development of alternative technologies that are climatefriendly. However, the primary issue here is how will the nation arrange for the finances required to undertake the project because the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act confines the government to undertake new commitments when the commitments on other developmental issues are yet to be met due to the shrinking of resources from the government

Technology transfer: The present framework does not involve any government in the transfer process. The main concern of this issue is unequal power sharing between the owners of technology and the recipient2. The Indian energy sector does not see alternative sources of energy as an option due to high cost per unit of production. Since, alternative sources of energy are developed and implemented by micro-level ventures, they cannot be connected to the grid system. So, the cost of installation remains high even after substantial support from government. Institutional framework: The existing framework of the Kyoto Protocol does not address the issue of equity. Protocol’s mitigation mechanism is a mechanism which bypasses the burden of reduction from one party to another. While in some cases, the trading of emission certificates may result of higher emission rather than reducing it.

Solution According to Centad, India’s participation in the technology transfer issue is mainly through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The Government of India has acknowledged higher funds and investments for the development of green technologies. After a certain limit, the FRBM Act restricts the government from making investments. In this situation, the government has to consider two things while developing the roadmap: 1. The green technology must fulfil the norm of low per unit production cost. 2. The technologies like clean carbon, etc. are based on high quality carbon To fulfill the second point, India has to import such carbon from the outside because we have insufficient reserves of carbon in the country. Hence, there is a need to develop efficient ‘social engineering’ projects which will indirectly meet with efficient energy standards.

Bangladesh and climate change - Need for a comprehensive adaptive strategy Considering the issues that were flagged in the Bali Action Plan (BAP), delivered in the 13th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-13) of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this particular paper focuses on i4d | November 2008

the concerns of Bangladesh in the face of the changing climate arena. The BAP covered a wide range of topics, including finalising the Adaptation Fund under the Protocol, a decision on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries, outcomes on technology transfer, capacity building, the Kyoto Protocol’s flexible mechanisms, the adverse effects of combating climate change, national communications, financial and administrative matters, various methodological issues and more importantly to discuss issues pertaining to long-term co-operation and the post-2012 period when the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period expires. Bangladesh by virtue of its geo-spatial settings is particularly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological impact of climate change that include sea level rise which can lead to more riverbank and coastline erosion and loss of cultivable and habitable land. Increasing sea surface temperature may increase the intensity and frequency of storms. This likely scenario can create an estimated 18 million climate refugees in Bangladesh itself. The paper goes on to elaborate on the ‘Concerns for Bangladesh - In light of BAP’ focussing on: 1. Differentiated targets and timetables on a fair and equitable basis: The base of the Kyoto Protocol is ‘common but differential responsibilities’ which means industrialised nations have to cut their emissions by at least 30% by 2020, taking this into consideration, the LDCs (Least Developed Countries) expected that the Bali Action Plan would result in firm political commitment for emission reduction but it was clear in the Bali talks that the interests of the LDCs has been grossly ignored by the developed and advanced developing countries and the Bali Conference failed to instigate any political commitment got quantitative reduction in GhG even within the framework of Kyoto Protocol. Interestingly, many countries belonging to the Annex 1 of Kyoto Protocol failed to meet their target by a long way, a failure which has intensified the vulnerabilities of climate change to LDCs. 2. Forests as carbon sinks: The Kyoto Protocol allows developing countries to promote afforestation and reforestation to tap financial incentives from carbon trading in forestry sector. Forest is the most important natural tool to fight against climate change as it can halt the loss of biodiversity, combat desertification and capture carbon. One of the controversial propositions for capturing carbons is Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) which demands developed countries to provide financial incentives to the 10 tropical forest nations in order to conserve forests as carbon sinks. But REDD is not a feasible option as it keeps forest dependent communities away from resource extraction from forests. This is viewed as a dirty market-based policy by some quarters which would divide developing countries into two sub-groups, viz., tropical countries and non-tropical countries. Centad feels that forests should be the key weapon against climate change especially for low resilient countries. If forest sector is regulated by market mechanisms, forward and backward linkages of forests will collapse resulting in loss of bio-diversity. Therefore, a transparent, climate proofing forest policy is the need of the hour and a common consensus should be built in this regard November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Market mechanisms to reduce emissions - No significant achievement: The Kyoto Protocol introduced a number of market-based mechanisms aimed at reducing the cost of climate mitigation with CDM being the most familiar mechanism. Some developing countries are unable to utilise the Adaptation Fund controlled by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) due to several underlying causes like domestic investment policy, political and social unrest, corruption, bureaucracy of CDM governing bodies and complex CDM project approval system. The paper notes that within the developing countries, the advanced economies of India, China and Brazil are the primary beneficiaries of CDM funds since they are able to use their expertise and investment to facilitate their goals while countries like Bangladesh fail to get the benefits of CDM as they are not hugely involved with development activities where CDM could fit. It is expected that all LDCs would enjoy an equitable and sustainable mechanism that encourages both developed and developing countries to reduce emissions which would simultaneously accelerate economic growth but there were very few discussions of similar nature in Bali which makes the future of market mechanisms of carbon trading gloomy in the post-Kyoto regime. 4. Technology transfer, cooperation and training: Existing and new technologies can play a key role in global and domestic monitoring, mitigation and adaptation strategies and action to deal with climate change. Technology most certainly is a major element in addressing climate change. But trading and transfer of technology is a complex system to deal with and all trading is governed by the WTO guidelines which are dominated by the North. Taking into consideration the complexities of technology transfer and the urgency required to disseminate knowledge to combat climate change, Centad proposes that ‘technology cooperation’ should be the way forward instead of technology transfer. The paper argues that technology cooperation is not a new phenomenon, it has been in vogue ever since the Industrial Age began and there is no reason why this kind of cooperation can not be carried out now. In summary, this particular climate brief suggests that only holistic and collective action can mitigate the adverse effects of climate change. Bangladesh can play a strong role in international climate negotiations by developing its negotiation capacity and adaptive skills and by using internal resources for small-scale mitigation. These, and three more papers namely, ‘India’s Climate Change Policy and Trade Concerns: Issues, Barriers and Solutions’, ‘Developing Countries and the Bonn Climate Change Session’ and ‘The Action Plan on Climate Change, G8 Declaration and the Accra Climate Change Meet: Points to Ponder’ are available on Centad’s website (http://www.centad.org/). With a strong focus on the policy issues surrounding climate change and its impact on trade these papers are a must read for development professionals/ academia who are interested in the issues. Summarised by Subir Dey (subir@csdms.in) and Ritu Srivastava (ritu@csdms.in)

THE ENERGY AND RESOURCES INSTITUTE, NEW DELHI, INDIA

A clarion call to sustainable energy use

Photo Credit: Jayalakshmi Chittoor

Lead energy experts and policy in nature encompassing environment conservation. Successful makers gave a clarion call to nations have harnessed energy security. Government’s energy improve access to socially policy must meet demands at competitive prices and should be acceptable and environmentally economically viable. The direct correlation between energy use and sustainable energy sources at human development is well established. Our goal must remain to the recently held India Energy improve access to reliable, affordable, economically viable, socially Conference 2008 in New acceptable and environmentally sustainable energy sources. We Delhi in early October. The conference was co-organised by have no choice but to increase per capita energy consumption to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in association with provide to our citizens a minimum acceptable level of well being Petroleum Federation of India (PetroFed). and welfare. I do hope that the conference deliberations would, The two-day conference was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Vice while focusing on hydrocarbons, place them within the ambit of President of India, Hamid Ansari. Other lead speakers included broader energy issues affecting us, and come forth with suitable Abbas A Naqi, R K Pachauri, and Sarthak Behuria, Chairman, policy options.” Petroleum Federation of India and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Appreciating the initiative taken by TERI and organisers, Abbas apart from other leaders in the oil and gas sector such as RIL, A Naqi, Secretary General, OAPEC, UAE said, “We envisage ONGC, GAIL, IOCL, BPCL, that Asian nations are expected BP India, Vestas India, etc. to use two-third of total oil The conference emphasised required in the developing that as one of the fastest growth countries. India itself is the economies of the world, the fourth largest economy of the energy strategy of the country world and is the fifth largest is critical for the achievement of energy consumer. OPEC our development objectives and has well-equipped itself to the goal of the government as tackle the growing demands well as the corporate sector must without compromising upon be to improve access to reliable, the environmental aspect. affordable, economically Fossil fuels will continue to viable, socially acceptable and satisfy the growing demands environmentally sustainable and Organisation of Petroleum energy sources. Exporting Countries (OPEC) R K Pachauri said, “We is working towards building are going through historic technologies to create changes in the energy sector, Biofuel as a future source of energy was discussed in this conference cleaner fuels. We believe that hence renewable and alternate mitigation and adaptation to sources of energy should be tapped in a bigger scale. I feel that climate change is necessary and OPEC nations have created a nuclear energy is an important component of the energy sector. fund of $300 million to conserve environment.” Energy sector needs major investments for R&D and the oil The conference aims to provide an in-depth analysis of exporting nations will play a quintessential role in supporting the the policy and regulatory aspects in the entire value chain of infrastructure and welfare of the local community. I see this as a the hydrocarbon sector. While discussing alternative energy unique opportunity for these nations to invest in countries like sources, the conference focused on their potential in India and India that would be mutually beneficial. We, in TERI, realise that identified policy imperatives required to push these sources to there is a need for closer relation with the Gulf. Biotechnology in move the economy towards a sustainable pathway. Specifically TERI has invented technology to clean up oil spills through ‘Oil the conference focused on prospects of bio-fuels in the light of Zapper’. Just as energy market is changing, there are enormous the controversies on the use of land for food vs fuel. To present a opportunity to work in collaboration to develop science and balanced view, conference had national and international players technology to meet demands and conserve environment through of the new and renewable energy sources as speakers, with sessions clean technologies.” ranging from exploration and production, refining, marketing Enunciating on the relevance of the conference, M Hamid and petroleum product pricing. Panel discussions on natural gas Ansari, Hon’ble Vice President of India said, “Energy for market development, utilisation and pricing were an integral part development debate is important and should be multifaceted of the sessions.

i4d | November 2008

CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS Bangladesh launches climate change action plan The Government of Bangladesh launched its Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan on 10 September 2008. The Action Plan 2009-2018 aims to build the capacity and ability to recover from calamities. The plan will also meet with the challenges of climate change. The action plan prioritises adaptation and reduction of disaster risks and also addresses low carbon development, mitigation, technology transfer, and the provision of adequate finance. Presently, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Bangladesh is working on the cost of implementing the plan. The Government consulted non-profit organisations, research groups and the private sector while formulating the plan. In the last three decades, Bangladesh has invested more than $10 billion to reduce vulnerability to natural disasters by building embankments and cyclone shelters etc. The plan also comprises of a comprehensive system of disaster preparedness and mitigation.

Andreas Schild receives the first Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Environment Award The first Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Environment Award was held at the headquarters of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) in New Delhi on 14th October 2008, to celebrate the 20th Foundation day of the Himalayan Environment Trust (HET) and 50 years of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation. Karan Singh, Me m b e r o f t h e Indian Parliament, Advisor to the Trust, and Chairman of the Award Committee presented the award to Andreas Schild, Director General of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) for his outstanding contributions, successful leadership and commitment towards sustainable development over the last 30 years. Florence Tinguely Mattli, from the Swiss Embassy, received the award on behalf of Andreas Schild. In his address note, Singh emphasised the need for transNovember 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Himalayan cooperation for sustainable mountain development and coordination among institutions. The speakers highlighted the importance of mountain ecosystems in securing sustainability of both highlands and lowlands.

South Africa invests in clean technology The first clean technology fund was launched by the Government of South Africa on 30th September 2008 in Johannesburg. With a budget of around US$39.3 million, the Evolution One fund will fund projects on water treatment technologies, waste management and thin-film solar panel development. Five clean technology projects in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) will receive their first cheques before the end of 2008. The fund is expected to grow to US$98 million by July 2009. There are 13 more projects based in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and South Africa that will receive funding by next year. Apart from the Evolution One fund, the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM) has also invested US$7.31 million in the new fund as it ‘contributes to the fight against climate change’.

Climate change leads to $300bn business According to a research conducted by the HSBC’s global banking and markets research team, tackling the urgent problem of climate change has become a bigger business than s o f t w a re a n d biotechnology combined. According to the report, global annual revenues from climate change businesses, which include renewable energy, nuclear power and energy management, have now surpassed $300bn. HSBC said that 390 companies around the world could now be classed as providing

goods or services that tackle climate change, up from 300 companies a year ago and about 166 in early 2004. These companies have not so far been considered together in one group as they are spread across many existing sector categories. But now, HSBC said, this was a “clearly identifiable sector”. The companies include large multinationals such as Siemens and Philips, which are usually considered as general industrials; large renewable energy companies, such as Vestas and Suzlon, the Danish and Indian makers of wind turbines respectively; and a big number of smaller start-ups, such as energy management software specialists.

Himalayan pollution ‘could impact monsoon cycle’ A group of French and Italian researchers have shown that pollution from China, India, Nepal and Pakistan can reach altitudes of over 5,000 metres in the Himalayas, contributing to the warming of the atmosphere and potentially affecting the South-East Asian monsoon cycle. The research team, whose findings were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 13th October, conducted their study over a 16-month period at the Himalayan Nepal Climate Observatory site in Nepal’s Khumbu Valley, located at an altitude of 5,079 metres. According to the research, increase in temperature can have a significant effect on the South East Asian monsoon, as the functioning of monsoon cycles relies on temperature regulation and the production of warmth in the atmosphere — if atmospheric temperatures rise or fall, these cycles could be significantly impacted. The team’s findings are expected to provide a basis for the understanding of this production of warmth and could also shed light on the melting of glaciers in the region. The study is the first long-term data analysis of aerosol formation at high altitudes. Additionally, it reveals that the frequency of this formation is high — similar to that reported in urban environments.

FROM LAB TO LAND, NORTH-EAST INDIA

e-Arik: Using ICTs for agricultural extension The e-Arik Project provides round the clock expert consultation on agriculture production, protection and marketing aspects through ICTs.

R Saravanan Assistant Professor (Extension Education & Rural Sociology) & Principal Investigator, e-Arik Central Agricultural University (CAU) Pasighat Arunachal Pradesh, India saravanancau@gmail.com

T Indra Devi Project Fellow, e-Arik Central Agricultural University (CAU) Pasighat Arunachal Pradesh, India indradvi@yahoo.com

Introduction Access to appropriate agricultural information is a difficult task for the rural tribal farmers of North-East India. Successful eAgriculture initiatives in rural India are not replicated among the rural tribal farmers in the North-East. There is no noteworthy village level ICT initiatives in the tribal population dominated eight states Figure 1: Map showing the e-Arik project area of North-East India, where large proportion of population and its socio-economic impact among rural live below the poverty line. Further, low tribal farming community in the ‘Yagrung’ and uncertain agricultural productivity, and near by villages of East Siang district frequent natural calamities add to the of Arunachal Pradesh. problems faced by the populace. The region’s geographical remoteness, difficult Farmers Information Needs terrain and inadequate manpower in the Assessment rural developmental departments make As a part of e-Arik project, a research study it difficult for the farmers to access the was conducted to assess the farm informainformation they need which, in turn, tion input pattern, information needs and hinders the socio-economic development Information and Communication Techof the region. nologies (ICTs) preference of 60 farmers of Keeping in mind the grim scenario Yagrung, Tekang and Kangkong villages of in the region, a research project named East Siang District, Arunachal Pradesh was ‘e-Arik’ (‘Arik’ means ‘Agriculture’ in the conducted during August and September Adi tribal dialect of Arunachal Pradesh) 2007. It was concluded that an overwhelmhas been implemented by the College ing majority of the tribal farmers do not of Horticulture and Forestry, Central have access to advanced agricultural information. Considerable proportions of the Agricultural University. This two year research project is farmers rely on the radio to receive farm sponsored by the Technology Information related information. Most farmers require Facilitation Programme (TIFP), Depart- information on all farm based activities. ment of Scientific and Industrial Research Pest and disease management information (DSIR), Ministr y of Science and for paddy and khasi mandarin crops were demanded by a greater proportion of farmTechnology, Government of India. It examines the application of ICTs in ers. Through Participatory Rural Appraisal providing agricultural extension services (PRA), farmers analysed their resource i4d | November 2008

Figure 2. Farmers information needs assessment being done using Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

Figure 3: Multimedia shows at farmers’ field

availability, constraints and opportunities for farming. Further, they diagrammatically depicted the seasonal variations in crop cultivation, inter-cultural operations, pest and disease occurrence, and farm produce harvesting. The PRA exercise indicated that cent percent of farmers possessed radio. Most of the farmers preferred using the internet, radio, and television for seeking agricultural information in the village knowledge centre.

e-mail from e-Arik-village knowledge centre to the farm scientists of Central Agricultural University and recommendations passed on to the farmers. Further, farm scientists undertake need based field visits and provide expert advice to the farmers. Farmers’ training and demonstrations are conducted by the project staff and/or extension personnel from the developmental departments. The project portal (www.earik.in) provides information on crop cultivation, agriculture and rural developmental departments and their schemes, day-to-day market information and weather conditions, the same is also displayed on the village knowledge centre notice board. Further, information on health, education, governance, etc, customised for tribal farmers, is available in the portal. The village agricultural library at the e-Arik-village knowledge centre maintains a collection of publications, multimedia CDs on agriculture, and daily newspapers for the villagers. The Farm input display unit at e-Arik village knowledge centre exhibits biofertilizers, organic pesticides and fungicide samples to familiarise farmers with alternative farming technologies. Regular training

ICT Indicators A survey was conducted to find out the availability, access and usage of ICT indicators in the three villages namely; Yagrung, Tekang and Kangkong villages of Pasighat circle of Esat Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh, in September 2007. A structured interview schedule was developed based on the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) identified ICT indicators on the ‘Access to Usage Indicators’ (on age, gender education, frequency and purpose) and ICT infrastructure. Information was collected from individuals and households. Findings indicated that four-fifths of rural population possess radio, and nearly onethird of farmers have TV and fixed line phones. However, very few possess cellular phones and none possess computers. There is no access to Internet in the three villages. More than half of the households (56 per cent) do not have electricity. Very few number of students and educated villagers are aware of the Internet and among them, only a few use Internet, that too occasionally. Among ICTs, radio is widely owned (80 percent) and used for getting agricultural information.

Project working mechanism After assessing farmers’ information needs, the project experimented with a single window system to improve access to agricultural information and technology by using computer, Internet, phone, radio and television. The project provides expert consultation on agriculture production, protection and marketing aspects through ICTs. The e-Arik research project staff regularly undertakes field visits to observe crop condition, diagnose the kind of pest infestation, diseases, and nutrient deficiency, physiological problems, and then digitally documents the field crop condition. To resolve complex crop pest, diseases, nutrient deficiency and physiological problems, digital photographs is transmitted through November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Figure 4: Computer training to the tribal village students at e-Arik: Village knowledge centre

programmes and ICT awareness lectures are conducted for the benefit of village children, students, village school teachers and villagers. The village advisory committee regularly reviews the progress of the project. Innovative approaches such as: farmer-to-

farmer communication, local leadership and self-help approaches were employed for agricultural technology transfer. The e-Arik pilot project covers 12 tribal villages, 500 registered farm families of East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh of North-east India.

Major Activities of the e-Arik Project Phase I: From May 2007 to April 2008 1. Farmers’ information needs assessment 2. Survey on ICT indicators 3. Field visits and diagnosis 4. Digital documentation

Figure 7: Farm information dissemination system in the e-Arik project

11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Figure 5: e-Arik: One step single window system for agricultural extension

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Farm advisory services On-farm demonstrations Market and weather information Awareness meetings and group discussions Organising multimedia shows Identifying and developing village knowledge managers/ intermediaries

Farm inputs familiarisation Establishing village library Creating digital resources Information on health, education and governance Computer literacy to the villagers

Phase II: From May 2008 to April 2009 1. Five hundred registered farmers 2. Developing para-extension professionals in villages 3. Digital documentation of farmers’ field history 4. Regular field visits and advisory services by facilitators 5. Digital documentation of ITKs 6. Facilitating multi-agency extension 7. On-farm demonstrations 8. Participatory video on farm technologies 9. Farm advisory publications 10. Strengthening village library 11. Creating farmer specific-digital database 12. Information on health, education and governance 13. Computer literacy to the villagers 14. Project impact assessment 15. Organising workshop on e-Arik: ICTs for agricultural extension project

Conclusion Initial experiences of e-Arik project shows encouraging results for farm technology dissemination, creating e-Awareness and e-literacy among rural tribal community members. Farmers have enthusiastically participated in the e-Arik project activities. Agriculture information and technology dissemination through ICTs combined with interpersonal channels created highest awareness among tribal farmers. The e-Arik project experiences and feed back from the stakeholders are encouraging for scaling-up the project in other regions in North-Eastern states of India.

Figure 6: Farmer facilitator documenting crop condition using mobile phone

Acknowledgement: This article has been prepared as part of the Technology Information Facilitation Programme (TIFP), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India sponsored research project Grant No.DSIR/TIF086/2007; Dated March, 2007.

i4d | November 2008

RENDEZVOUS MANTHAN AWARD SOUTH ASIA 2008, 16-18 OCTOBER 2008, NEW DELHI, INDIA

South Asia conclave on digital content “Technology is no longer a luxury but has become a necessity. Without technology, development will not take place”, said the Union Minister of State for Communications & IT, Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia in his speech as the chief guest during the inauguration ceremony of the Sixth Manthan Award South Asia 2008 conclave. The three-day Manthan Award conclave, held in New Delhi from 16-18 October 2008 witnessed several activities with parallel thematic sessions, workshops, and round-table conclaves. Besides celebrating the best e-Content practices, the event also provided a platform to exchange ideas and experiences for the innovative users and implementers of ICT4D tools for benefit of the masses. The ICT for development exhibition was there to provide an opportunity for organisations to demonstrate their innovations, practices and products. The annual conclave is organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation with the conference on ‘Digital Content and Development’ and the Manthan Award Gala to recognize best digital content practices as key event highlights. It was a milestone year for the Manthan Award journey, with the Award process reaching out to South Asia and recognising best ICT and digital content for development practices and innovations. Participants from 17 countries, member representatives of World Summit Award, also participated in the event. The parallel thematic events and sessions were held focusing on role of digital content and technology in vital spheres of education, learning, business, medicine, culture and entertainment. The two event workshops delved on role of ICT in creating rural social entrepreneurs and on community broadcasting. For the first time, the World Summit Award e-Content Summit, India 2008 was held to deliberate on key areas of digital content and development including policy matters worldwide. Each parallel thematic event came out with a set of workable recommendations for transforming them into a plan of action at the policy level to be worked upon by Manthan Award organisers in close coordination with Government bodies and Ministries.

Day1: 16 October 2008 The inaugural session focused on socio-economic divide superimposed with digital divides and role of ICT and digital content and technology in addressing these widening divides. The key speakers included Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, Professor Anil Gupta from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), B V Selvaraj, Lakshadweep Administrator, Raju Narisetti, November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

Editor of Mint, Satish Kaushal, Country Manager of IBM, Peter Bruck, World Summit Award Chairman, and R Ravichandran, World Ahead Director of Intel. The first day was divided into three parallel sessions, i.e., ICONECS session on e-Content in Government and Business, e-Content for Learning and Education, and Round Table Policy discussion on ‘ICT for drinking water and sanitation’. The session on e-Content in Governance and Business provided tremendous encouragement through the examples of places like Lakshadweep and Chattisgarh, where digitisation and realisation of the rights of those living in forests made tremendous progress using ICT and digital content. eBay showed how large populations can be turned into entrepreneurs with the help of technology. In the session on e-Content for Learning and Education it was unanimously accepted that there is need for new and effective ways of quality learning for the youth, especially in the rural areas of the country. The two key focus areas during the Round Table discussion on ‘ICT and Drinking Water and Sanitation’ were related to assessment of ICT training needs for water practitioners and communities and mechanisms for ICT enablement of Social Audit of Government’s Water and Sanitation Programmes. For innovative ICT applications for water and sanitation sector, the delivery can be through ICT kiosks and mobile platforms.

Day 2: 17 October 2008 Day two focused on key thematic sessions like digital content and education, health and digital panchayat and inclusive governance. The parallel ICONECS sessions focused on digital content in culture and entertainment; content in health and environment; digital content in News and Mobile tools; e-Content in Localisation and Inclusion and a Roundtable Policy discussion on Inclusive Governance through Digital Panchayats and Constituencies. Various recommendations and

action plans emerged out of these thematic sessions. One of the recommendation was that already developed cultural web portals could be shared with UNESCO for possible support and sharing. There is a need to develop a portal wherein the information about all Community Radio (CR) programmes at the South Asia level could be uploaded, so that it can be shared and modified according to the local needs. The portal will also highlight the common practices, experiences in sustaining the community radio, training modules and other relevant information in relation to the CR initiatives. One of the strong recommendations during the Round Table Session on ‘ICT @ Health for the Masses’, was - holistic development intrinsically linked to good health. Efforts by corporates like TCS, Satyam, and other organisations working together to improve healthcare access in our country can set a good example and there are already efforts towards this. The Policy Roundtable on ‘Content, Connectivity and Accessibility in Education’ saw the participants agreeing on benchmarking and determining the threshold points for ICT based content that would further help in defining standards for quality educational content. They found that making quality content accessible and regular assessment in the education process is very important for quality and sustainable outcome The ICONECS session on ‘e-Content in News and m-Content’ strongly mooted the point that technology, if used in the right way, will not just provide news and information to large populations, but create a situation where people will have unlimited scope for being informed anywhere, anytime. The policy discussion on Health and Environment led to various recommendations. To begin with, there should be sharing of database to enhance the functioning of various organisations. The government’s funds can be saved by enquiring the organisations about their operations and informing the government about the progress in their work. There need be effective coordination and networking between agencies for working efficiently. The strongest point unanimously agreed upon during the Policy Round Table on ‘Digital Panchayat and Inclusive Governance’ was in a country like India where most of the population resides in villages, one cannot ignore the fact that empowering the villagers would help create a better India. Digital panchayats are a means to that end. Speaking at the Round Table deliberation, Padmashree Anna Hazare, the man behind Right to Information in India, said “The world has come closer and competition has increased. To keep pace with the rest of the world, one needs to make use of the power of IT”. Reminding that Gandhiji had advocated decentralisation to strengthen democracy, Hazare explained how

IT is now the best tool for enabling decentralisation, eradicating corruption and increasing people’s participation in democracy. The round table reaped some sound results. T R Raghunandan, Jt Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India spoke about various points given by him to panchayat representatives which included ideas to fight corruption as far as funds allocated for panchayats are concerned. Osama Manzar, Chairman, the Manthan Award, assured Raghunandan that initiative would be taken on the suggestions given by him. He assured that Digital Empowerment Foundation, would take hundred gram panchayats under honorary leadership of social activist Anna Hazare. This way it would try to track corruption in various schemes with the help of guidelines given by Raghunandan.

Day 3: 18 October 2008 The final day of the conclave, hosted the World Summit Award India e-Content Summit, 2008, workshop on ICT @ Social Entrepreneurship and the Community Broadcasting Workshop. The second half of the same day hosted grassroots cultural programme and puppet shows and the Manthan Award South Asia 2008 Gala. At the India WSA Summit, the moot discussion was on technology outclassing the content domain, widening the content gaps. ICT and digital content experts from Germany, China, Nepal, etc., informed about the situation in their country and gave their ideas towards bridging the digital divide with quality content. Peter Bruck, Chairman, World Summit Award Austria, gave the concluding note by making few points. To begin with, the ICT and content network should be open, fair and competitive exchange should take place. The need is to congregate with others to become better equipped. The workshop on ‘ICT @ Social Entrepreneurship’ provided a workable platform for viewing different endeavours undertaken in this direction and brought out the analytical perspective of various entrepreneurial initiatives that can be taken up for actual development at the grassroots involving the youth. It could be seen through the presentations that in present situation, technology removed all barriers for people, be it a housewife, a retired person, student or anyone else, to have a career as a social entrepreneur. The presentations at the Community Broadcasting Workshop led to the recommendations that recorded content should be kept in libraries for open access to all. There should be Emergency community radio schemes at times of natural disasters. Moreover, the technology used for community broadcasting should be userfriendly and people with disabilities should also have access to the content. The Manthan Award South Asia 2008 Gala provided the climax to the three days conclave wherein the names of the best innovators, practitioners and implementers of ICT and digital content for development across South Asia were announced. The Award gala witnessed special guests’ presence including Anna Hazare, Prof Anil Gupta, Wajahat Habibullah, B V Selvaraj, R Chandrasekhar,Sanjeev Bikhchandani, and Prof Peter Bruck. Also, the occasion was resplendent with the presence of experts and intellectuals from not just various fields, but 17 countries as well. Ritu Srivastava, ritu@csdms.in & Sheenu Rajan, sheenu@telecentremagazine.net i4d | November 2008

What’s on Africa ICASA 2008 Last Date: 3-7 December 2008 Senegal http://www.icasadakar2008.org/en/

20-25 March 2009 Green Energy Summit 2008 Bangalore Karnataka

http://www.aucegypt.edu/ResearchatAUC/conferences/ elearning/Pages/default.aspx

Australia 20-25 March 2010 World Congress of Internal Medicine Melbourne, VIC http://www.wcim2010.com.au/

Europe 13-15 March 2009 4th Global Conference: Cybercultures - Exploring Critical Issues Salzburg, Austria http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/ci/Cyber/ cybercultures/c4/cfp.htm

Spain 9-11 March 2009 International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED) 2009 Valencia http://www.iated.org/inted2009

27-28 November 2008 e-GovWorld 2008: Fifth Annual eGovernance Summit New Delhi

24-28 August 2009 The 3rd International Symposium on the Environmental Physiology of Ectotherms and Plants Tsukuba

http://www.hivnat.org/

20-23 May 2009 World Renewable Energy Congress 2009-Asia Region (WREC) Bangkok

http://www.nias.affrc.go.jp/anhydrobiosis/isepep3/ index.html

http://www.thai-exhibition.com/entech

Jordan 22-24 April 2009 Interactive Mobile and Computer Aided Learning, IMCL2009 Amman http://www.imcl-conference.org/

Malaysia 29-30 November 2008 6th International Conference on Gender Studies (SAMA6) Penang http://www.geocities.com/sama_ukm

12-13 December 2008 2nd International Conference on Science and Technology (ICSTIE’O8) Permatang Pauh, Pulau Pinang 15-17 December 2008 International Conference on Environment 2008 (ICENV 2008) Penang http://chemical.eng.usm.my/ICENV2008

http://www.egovworld.org/

3-6 December 2008 Internet Governance Forum Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh

Thailand

Japan

www.icstie.com

India

http://www.terrapinn.com/2009/asiapower/

14-16 January 2009 12th Bangkok International Symposium on HIV Medicine Bangkok

http://www.greenenergysummit.com

10-12 January 2009 6th Conference on e-Learning Applications Cairo, Egypt

30 March - 3 April 2009 12th Annual Asia Power & Energy Congress Raffles City Convention Centre

Singapore 15-17 December 2008 6th International Conference on EGovernance (ICEG) 2008

United Arab Emirates 9-10 November 2008 Bank Tech Middle East Congress Dubai http://www.banktechmideast.com

17-19 April 2009 3rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on ICTD2009 Doha, Qatar http://www.ictd2009.org

United States 22-27 March 2009 Prevention of HIV/AIDS Keystone, Colorado http://www.keystonesymposia.org/9x3

United Kingdom 29 April 2009-1 May 2009 SEB’09 International Conference on Sustainability in Energy and Buildings Brighton http://seb09.sustainedenergy.org

25-27 March 2009 Gender and Education Association International Conference London http://www.ioe.ac.uk/fps/genderconference09

http://www.intgovforum.org/

http://www.iceg.net/2008/CallForPapers.html

11-13 December 2008 Renewable Energy Asia 2008 New Delhi

16-18 February 2009 Open Source Singapore-Pacific-Asia Conference & Expo 2009 (OSSPAC)

29-31 March 2009 Governance of New Technologies: The Transformation of Medicine, IT and IP University of Edinburgh Edinburgh

http://www.osspac.com

www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/script-ed/conference.asp

http://web.iitd.ac.in/~rea2008 November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

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Bytes for All... The Manthan award Manthan Award is a first of its kind initiative in India to recognize the best practices in e-Content and Creativity. After four years of holding it within India, the organizers have felt that it is about time it is expanded a bit and its areas of operation now is all of SAARC countries namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan & Afghanistan. From Bangladesh, among 13 nominated projects from Bangladesh 6 projects have been declared as winners. http://www.manthanaward.org

Jeeon: Information for life Jeeon-Information Knowledge Base (IKB), subtitled ‘Information for Life’, has been developed by Development Research Network in Bangla language. All critical information related to education, agriculture, governance, livelihoods, scholarships, libraries, loans, banking, health and so on are aggregated into a CD. The Jeeon CD reaches all and sundry through various telecentres, kiosks and through Internet also. Each CD responds to daily queries made by villagers concerning what, where, who and how in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, non-farm economic activities, appropriate technology, healthcare, education, human rights, awareness and disaster management. Eight thousand entities of data from the database have been included in the CDs. http://www.jeeon.com

the channel provides infotainment related matter that will help all kinds of audiences, whether rural or urban, to get the best out of the station. NetBetar has plans of reaching deep rural interiors with the help of its telecentres. http://www.netbetar.com

Unnayan TV: First online video channel in Bangladesh Unnayan TV is the first online video channel in Bangladesh which regularly publishes video contents on development, human rights, and educational as well as cultural issues of the country. The nonprofit project is an alternative initiative against the commercial media giants. The Bangla word ‘Unnayan’ stands for ‘Development’ i.e. ‘Development of human life and civilization’. The Unnayan TV project is registered under the host organisation ‘Machizo Multimedia Organization’ by Bangladesh Government as a trade organisation. The project makes tremendous use of multimedia and web technology to produce and publish local content online. Simple online web technology is used for video distribution. Newscontent is sent and published through popular mailing list, blogs and online applications. http://www.unnayantv.com

VoteBD.org

The Cell Bazaar service allows buyers and sellers of Bangladesh to meet in a mobile marketplace. Sellers post items, buyers view them, and contact sellers. More than 20 million users can access the service to buy any agricultural product, such as rice, fish, chicken, as well as large scale purchases like apartment, land, car, and consumer goods such as TV, fridge, etc. People can also offer services such as tutoring, repair, video, etc. Cell Bazaar brings the buyer and seller to point of transaction. At the final stages, buyer speaks to seller, agrees on terms, and meets them in person to transfer cash and take delivery of the good. When mobile payment is integrated into the system, buyer can complete the entire transaction through mobile phones.

Democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. But do we have a medium to turn this theory into a practical reality. The website has been developed for this purpose, to disseminate the personal information of the candidate who will contest in local and national elections among voters. Ironically, this effort is happening in Bangladesh. The information disseminated are educational qualification, criminal records (present and past), statements of assets and liabilities of candidates and dependents, profession, loan from bank and financial institutions, statement of income tax returns, source of election expenses, statement of actual election expenses, etc. In addition, about 2,500 news items published in the leading national dailies on corruption and crimies by politicians, businessmen, government officials and others are also posted on this site, which is regularly updated.

http://www.cellbazaar.com

http://www.votebd.org

NetBetar: First Bangla Internet radio to address developmental issues in Bangladesh

Hoimonti: First Linux based free operating system in Bangla

Music on the Internet is not new. But using an Internet radio station to address development certainly is. NetBetar is the first online audio channel in Bangla for Bangla speaking audience globally. NetBetar as an Internet Radio station serves two goalsto reconnect the global Bangladeshi to their roots and give them a chance to be a part of Bangladesh’s development. The medium is very interactive. Some of the programs have ‘call to ask’ functions where the listeners can call in and have their questions answered. Besides,

Hoimonti is a first of its kind technical endeavour in Bangladesh, where a Linux based free operating system called Ubuntu has been localised in Bangla language. Hoimonti has a Bangla ‘installation procedure’ along with configuration documentation. After installation, the default username is set to ‘Ankur’ with the same password. So far Ankur ICT Foundation has released customized Bangla Operation System based on Linux so that people get to know about Bengali localised softwares through Hoimonti.

Cell Bazaar

http://mission2011.net.bd i4d | November 2008

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Bytes for All... World Challenge 08

FLOSS and transforming government

Now in its fourth year, World Challenge 08 is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.

On 20 October 2008, Oregon State University and the World Bank’s e-Development Thematic Group organised a live webcast of the video-conference Global Dialogue between Portland, Washington DC, Moscow, Colombo, Dakar, Accra, Kigali and Brasilia on: The Impact of Open Source Software on Transforming Government. The discussion includes six countries from five continents, presenting a range of initiatives, opportunities and experience on a range of topics which are of critical importance

http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk

Non western ICT4D aid donors The New Wave of Non-Western ICT4D Aid Donors’ is a blog post by Richard Heeks. As growing numbers of nonWestern nations become ICT4D aid donors, how will this change the ICT4D landscape? The tidal patterns of Western aid donors and ICT4D are relatively wellknown. Each individual history varies but we can chart the big sweeps from tied aid to less-tied aid; from virtually ignoring ICT to the DOT Force-type love affair to falling out of love and now back to a more considered view; and likewise the moves from ‘markets with everything’ to the MDG paradigm and now the first signs of post-MDG thinking such as more growth-oriented aid. But there’s another big sweep coming and new kids on the block: newlyindustrialised and transitional nations are themselves setting up ICT4D aid programmes. China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and probably many others are becoming players. http://tinyurl.com/5t7lbc

The power of voice Voice communications, smartly used, can bring the benefits of information to many: Italian techie Giovanni Maruzzelli believes that the right solutions can turn telephones into a powerful tool. He says, “I want to get acquainted with the technical communities that relate (as users, developers, entrepreneurs, administrators, teachers, etc.) to free and open source software. I am making presentations at various venues around India about the free software that I am now contributing to. This software is used to connect the Asterisk PBX (http://www.asterisk.org) or private branch exchange to the GSM and Skype networks for making and receiving voice calls and SMSs. It uses second-hand, recycled or cheap cell phones as interfaces to the GSM network.” http://tinyurl.com/58otzy

VoIP blocked again in Pakistan The National Telecom Regulatory Authority under Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) that once again blocked the use of VoIP and basic services such as Skype etc. The move comes as a blow to the country that is trying to increase the size of the Telecom industry to over US$ 11 billion by 2011 from the current revenue which is in excess of US$ I.4 billion. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pakistanictpolicy http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/ group/pakistanictpolicy/message/1597 November 2008 | www.i4donline.net

to governments everywhere. This executive panel represents an outstanding global, non-technical view of the impact of Open Source Software based on their direct experience. The workshop explored both the business case and real-world applications for open technology to deliver the next generation of government services. The US has valuable experience in open source software development, at the federal, local and academic level. The speakers assembled in Oregon provided a very rich base for the policy dialogue with policy makers. This is also a great opportunity for South-South dialogue on this important topic for governments worldwide. http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live and http://goscon.org/summit

Bytes for All: www.bytesforall.org or www.bytesforall.net Bytes for All Readers Discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ bytesforall_readers To subscribe: bytesforall_readers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Bytes for All Discussion summary compiled by: Frederick Noronha, India, fred@bytesforall.org

IN-FACT

HIV/AIDS global stats Key Facts • • • •

•

The global percentage of adults living with HIV has leveled off since 2000 In 2007 there were 2.7 million new HIV infections and 2 million HIV-related deaths Rate of new HIV infections has fallen in several countries, but globally these favourable trends are at least partially offset by increases in new infections in other countries In 14 of 17 African countries (with adequate survey data) the percentage of young pregnant women (ages 15–24) who are living with HIV has declined since 2000-2001. In 7 countries, the drop in infections has equaled or exceeded the 25% target decline for 2010 set out in the Declaration of Commitment As treatment access has increased over the last ten years the annual number of AIDS deaths has fallen Sub-Saharan Africa remains heavily affected by HIV, accounting for 67% of all people living with HIV and for 75% of AIDS deaths in 2007 Globally, the percentage of women living with HIV has remained stable (at 50%) for several years, although women’s share of infections is increasing in several countries In virtually all regions outside subSaharan Africa, HIV disproportionately affects injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, and sex workers

Treatment and care: Unprecedented progress, remaining challenges • • • • • • • • •

The number of people receiving antiretroviral drugs in low- and middle-income countries has increased 10-fold in only six years, reaching almost 3 million people by the end of 2007 The rapid expansion of treatment access in resource-limited settings is saving lives, improving quality of life, and contributing to the rejuvenation of households, communities, and entire societies Intensified action is needed to ensure timely delivery of HIV treatment to children Globally, coverage of antiretroviral treatment for women is higher than or equal to that of men The populations most at risk of HIV exposure, such as injecting drug users, face considerable barriers to HIV treatment access, often as a result of institutionalized discrimination Low testing rates reduce the impact of HIV treatment, because individuals who are diagnosed late in the course of infection have a poorer prognosis. A number of countries, are successfully using a range of approaches to increase knowledge of HIV serostatus Despite the existence of affordable medications, too few people living with both HIV and tuberculosis are receiving treatment for both conditions. This situation contributes to substantial, avoidable morbidity and mortality. Weaknesses in health-care systems are slowing the scale-up of HIV treatment programmes, underscoring the need for intensified action to strengthen these systems. Among the developments needed to ensure the sustainability of HIV treatment are more affordable second- and third-line therapies, as well as greater success in preventing new HIV infections.

Source: http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/2008/2008_Global_report.asp

i4d | November 2008

Special Issue on

Internet Governance

Call for Papers/Articles The coming issue of i4d magazine – December is woven around the theme of 'Internet Governance'. We encourage a wide variety of submissions on the topic areas outlined below. • Access and infrastructure of Internet • Social Networking • Coordination for cyber crime, surveillance and legal mechanism to aid in justice delivery • IPv6 Vs IPv4 • Role of youth in Internet Governance • Multilingualism and character of the Internet Word Limit: • Spamming laws 1500-3000 words • Control of the Internet : dline • Spyware and Keyloggers 8 Dea n 00 issio er 2 Subm ovemb 10 N

Please note that the articles/papers will be edited to fit the required length, which is two to three printed pages, or 1500-3000 words. Do attach a passport size photograph and a brief bio (100 words) of the author. Also send high-resolution (300dpi) relevant images, graphs and charts if any in .JPEG, .GIFF or .TIFF to go with the article.

Send article to: .net editor@i4donline