Introduction
The 25th Annual General Meeting (AGM) will mark one year since the CTC
Initiative commenced, with the staging of the first stakeholders meeting
during the 24th AGM held in Suriname last January. Since then the focus
has been on creating awareness and support for the initiative,
strengthening relationships with other regional agencies working on
related projects, defining the broad expected outcome and the specific
projects which CANTO will undertake, developing the project plans to
achieve the desired outcome and preparing and submitting the application
for funding to the European Union (EU).
Awareness Building
The CTC initiative was presented at several regional and international
meetings over the period. These include:
- CTU Ministerial Strategic Seminar, Bermuda, February 28 & 29, 2008
- Joint ITU/CITEL Forum on ICT in the Americas, Washington DC April 21,
2008,
- CARICOM ICT Steering Committee, Georgetown, May 14, 2008
- ITU-CITEL Regional Development Forum, Brasilia, May 2008
- Connect the Caribbean Forum at TIC, Port of Spain, May 2008
- CANTO 24th Annual Conference & Trade Exhibition, The Bahamas, July
2008
- Caribbean Internet Forum, Port of Spain, October 2008
- CARICOM ICT Steering Committee, Georgetown, October, 2008
- Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Caribbean
Broadband Conference, Port of Spain, October 2008
- ICT Forum of the Guadeloupe Chamber of Commerce, Guadeloupe,
November 2008
To date the feedback has been very positive. Representatives from
regional governments have indicated that, the principles, goals and
objectives of the project are consistent with their national ICT plans;
regional organisations have expressed their desire to support the
initiative, especially given the obvious synergies that exist with their
projects.
- The first CTC Newsletter was published in July 2008 to coincide with
activities at the 24th Annual Conference and Trade Exhibition. The
Newsletter is intended to provide information about the project and
generally to keep stakeholders informed as the project unfolds. The next
issue will be available before the 25th AGM 2009.
- A CTC webpage has been added to the portal. Information on the project
is available on this site.
- A database of regional ICT projects is available on the CTC website.
This will be further developed and maintained as part of the expanded
online information resource on regional ICT information.
Relationship Strengthening
Collaboration with other agencies and stakeholders is a key principle of
CTC. In an effort to exploit the synergies with ICT projects being
undertaken CANTO is working closely with other agencies. The following
table outlines the key relationships.
|
Agency
|
Project
|
Area of Focus
|
CANTO Role
|
Actions to Date
|
|
CTU / ITU
|
Caribbean
ICT Harmonisation (HIPCAR)
|
Enabling Environment
|
Member of HIPCAR Steering Committee
|
Participated in
kick-off meeting in December 2008.
|
|
CARICOM Secretariat
|
ICT for Development
|
Enabling Environment
Infrastructure & Readiness
ICT Services & Applications
|
Member of Regional ICT Steering Committee
|
Participated in May
and October 2008 meetings
|
|
Caribbean Knowledge
and Learning Network (CKLN)
|
C@ribNET
|
Infrastructure & Readiness
ICT Services & Applications
|
Stakeholder
|
Held discussions on
potential for
collaboration
|
|
CARICAD
|
EGovernment
|
Infrastructure & Readiness
ICT Services & Applications
|
Stakeholder
|
Held discussions
towards signing memorandum of understanding
|
CTC Projects
From the feedback received through the various discussion fora, one-on
one meetings, strategy workshop facilitated by 6S Consulting Services in
September 2008 and feedback form preliminary discussions with the
funding agency, we have decided to focus on the following project areas,
subject to final approval:
|
Ecommerce
|
Egovernment
|
ICT Training
|
- Best practise guidelines
- Egovernment awareness programme via conferences & workshops
- Website of egovernment best practise guidelines access via
CANTO portal
- Database of egovernment experts accessed via CANTO portal
|
-
Best practise guidelines
- Egovernment awareness programme via conferences & workshops
- Website of egovernment best practise guidelines access via CANTO portal
- Database of egovernment experts accessed via CANTO portal
|
- Online
ICT training catalogue
- Cadre of outsourcing partners for ICT training
- Face to face and online training courses to support the use of
new products and
services
|
The overall objective of these initiatives is to use ICT to advance the
economic development of the region and promote the development of a
framework for the Caribbean Single Market Economy (CSME) through an
improved and more harmonised investment environment and increased
regional competitiveness. This would be facilitated by increasing the
volume of online transactions in both the private sector and government.
Expected Outcome / Deliverable
Through the integrated initiatives of ICT capacity building, development
of ecommerce and the development of egovernment, CANTO will become a
regional hub of ICT capacity building, ecommerce and egovernment
information. The portal will become the premier point of reference for
ICT information on the Caribbean region.
| _________________ |
________ |
| |
1)For the purpose of the wider CTC initiative, the
Caribbean covers the geographic region plus Bahamas, Belize and
Suriname. The EU fund being accessed is specifically targeted at
sixteen countries. These are Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda,
Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic,
Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St.Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.
However through the contribution of CANTO, the other countries
were full members are based (Aruba, Bermuda, Bonaire, Cuba,
Curacao, St Maarten, Tortola / BVI) will be covered
|
Additional benefits of the projects will be,
- Capacity building within the secretariat in areas such as strategic
planning, project management, preparation and mentoring of actions plans
and project reporting.
- Increased engagement with other national and regional governments and
agencies.
- Increased engagement and visibility in the business community
regionally.
Action Plans & Management Structure
Detailed action plans have been developed to achieve the expected
outcome. The details action plan is contained in detailed project plans
prepared by 6S Consulting to support the application for funding.
The expectation is that we will get approval for the projects in April
2009 and that the contract will be signed in June 2009. Once approval is
given we will have to be in a position to commence work. This is
necessary to ensure that we keep pace with the timelines outlined in the
detailed project document. Pending approval, we expect to start the
project in July 2009.
The duration of the project is 20 months from the date of approval of
the funding. This covers the period from third quarter 2009 to first
quarter 2011.
Some of the key milestones in 2009 are,
- Setting up of Project Steering Committee - Q3 2009
- Project strategy meetings – Q3 2009
Details are available in the comprehensive project documents.
The projects will be managed through a single governance structure of a
steering committee which is supported by project teams. Each project
team will be led by one of the CANTO Secretariat Management team, guided
by an external management advisor.
Next Steps
While we await the decision on the application for funding we will
continue to undertake preparatory activities that can be supported out
of internal resources. These include:
- A half day skills building session on Stakeholder Collaboration and
Management during the AGM meeting. Key partners and agencies will be
invited to participate (ITU, CTU, CARICOM Secretariat, CARICAD, CKLN,
and UWI).
- Source and conduct training in project management and reporting for
secretariat staff.
- Start the recruitment process for additional resources (Project
Manager Web Developer) that will be required for the project.
Port of Spain, February 2009.
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