One Laptop per Pacific Child The Impact of Technology in Outlying AreasA regional approach to introducing new technology

TTI Vanguard, Singapore, 15 July 2009Michael Hutak, OLPC Regional Director, Oceania

Painting created on the XO by child from Gaire, Papua New Guinea, 2008.

Conclusions• Begin with the end in mind (sound familiar?)• Inertia will not be overcome by raising awareness alone• Identifying the problem is only the first step• Don’t propose a fantasy future, add value to a “future present”• It’s hard to see two steps ahead when you’re playing catch-up • Leapfrogging or limbo dancing? Going under the radar• Baby, bathwater – handle with care. Technology can solve

problems but cannot deliver human happiness – cf. Vanuatu –world’s happiest country,

• How do we use leapfrogging technologies to better access the things developing countries have to offer “advanced” countries?

• It’s never too early to start lifelong learning• G809 -- US20bn to fight hunger!!!! A game changer we can all

benefit from – if its real (cf egland)• Our work is never done

Me• Policy field worker, an advocacy foot soldier

• challenges and successful approaches

• Strategic planning and actions we've taken in the Pacific w/ regards to forming a multi-stakeholder partnership.

• How can tech thinkers/developers learn from our approach?

• What can tech thinkers/developers teach us?

My ecosystem• politicians, bureaucrats,

technocrats• public servants, educators • national governments,

regional secretariats• regional and international

political architecture• international development

banks• bilateral donors• NGOs• private sector• civil society• the establishment, elite • permanent managerial class

• old money, new money• universities, academics• the international

community of professional consultants

• Suppliers• children• teachers• parents• communities• the living culture• indigenous advocates• my boss• my family

What works

• Multilateral, partnership approach – a coalition of aligned interests and orgs

• Country driven

• Integration into local systems and policy frameworks

• Stimulate country and community demand with pilots of gifted laptops

• Empower small NGO projects

• Emphasise broader community benefits

• Broaden pilots into programs to gather evidence

What’s working

• Major donor funding to provide technical assistance to countries (because it is country led)

• Place OLPC in key regional strategy docs

• Regional operational partnership strategy: Technical Working Group and Pacific Pool

• Regional approach enhances “aid effectiveness”, “donor harmonisation”

• Aligns with regional integration and facilitates on country to country exchange

“Devwords”: dealing w/ donors

• Effective, Enhance, Empower, Strengthen, Align, Synergise, Harmonize, Integrate, Catalytic

• Capacity building, resource mobilisation

• Aid effectiveness/donor harmonisation

• Evidence-based policy (conundrum)

• Digital divide (digital natives/immigrants/orphans)

• The bottom billion, BOP

Pacific Context

Pacific numbers

9m people

1.7m school kids

1000 languages

22 countries

3 subregions

2 hemispheres

1 region

Pacific context

• 22 countries and abt 9 million people and growing• c. 1.7m children aged 6-12 (PNG: 1.1m)• 40% 6-12yos attend no school (PNG: 50%) • A vast area but sparse, small pop.• Ancient cultures, but young post-colonial context –

independence in 1970-80s – PNG ‘75, Vanuatu 80• Six of the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs)

• Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and PNG.

• Sub-regional -- North and South Pacific Divide• North> Micronesia: USA Japanese – funds, ability to act quickly,

ICT savvy• South> Melanesia: Australia. Polynesia: NZ – no funds, “Pacific

Time”

Pacific context

• Poverty, food security, globalization, natural and human-made disasters, rapid population growth and increasing rates of urbanization

• Climate change -- PICs less than 0.5% global emissions, yet 3 X more vulnerable (IPCC)

• Impacts on the environment esp. fish stocks, indigenous language, culture and practices, local markets and livelihoods, communities and families

• Traditional cultures but very strong Christian influence

• Unstable political environment, racial tensions, challenges to democracy – Fiji, Tonga

Pacific context

• Low investment in education and ICT

• But lots of dev in ICT space deploying “old” tech – VSAT, Submarine cable (but O3B is coming)

• Remote island access to unused connectivity capacity as a “public good”

• Active space for donors: ADB, AusAID, USA, France/EU, DFID, NZ, China, Japan, Taiwan

• Vast amounts of aid for only modest progress– est. USD17bn last 20 years

• Meagre UN presence (WB considers Pacific a country office)

Pacific model: vernacular edu

• Grass roots movement to preserve indigenous languages

• Papua New Guinea: over 830 languages, inc. English and two lingua francas, Tok Pisin and HiriMotu.

• 435 languages used for initial education• since 1980 -- two vernacular languages in

Bougainville (North Solomons)• expanded across Pacific with a new level of

formal education called “elementary”

One Laptop per Pacific Child

One Laptop per Pacific Child

OLPC Oceania – multi-stakeholder partnerships

• Country-led national programmes

• Regional coordination and technical assistance

• Country-to-country experience exchange

• Collaborative, inclusive approach

Catalyst for better quality basic education

• better access to information, knowledge

• arming children with 21 cent. skills (ie. “information literacy”)

• Professional dev. for teachers

• Boost to long term national economic development

• Alignment with global commitments (MDGs)

The XO Laptop

• Prototype in 2005

• 1.2m units since 2007

• 31 countries, 19

languages

• Low cost (USD185)

• Rugged, low powered

• Connected, collaborative

• Open source

OLPC in the Pacific: catalytic, country-driven, value-adding

• Enhances traditional “Pacific values”• Catalytic effect on countries to deliver better

quality education• (by) fostering community demand on govt• (while) mobilising external resources and

partnerships to meet these demands• Adds value for countries, communities and

donors

OLPC Oceania

Policy touchstones1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child2000 Education for All (UNESCO)2000 Millennium Development Goals

MDG 1 – poverty and hunger

MDG 2 – universal primary educationMDG 3 – gender equalityMDG 8 – partnership for development

2003 Rome Conference on Donor Harmonisation2004 Paris Declaration on Aid-Effectiveness2005 Tunis Commitment to bridge the digital divide, WSIS2005-14 Decade of Education for Sustainable Development2007 PIF Pacific Plan2007 PIF Pacific Regional Digital Strategy2007 PIF Leaders’ Communiqué2007 Cape Town Open Education Declaration2009 Pacific ICT Ministerial Forum2009 PIF Educations Ministers Meeting

2007: PIF Pacific Plan and OLPC

In their Communiqué, Pacific leaders noted:“the potential utility of the

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative and the need for education authorities … to assess the priority to be accorded to it in their countries as a tool for education and disseminating information to rural and remote communities…”

OLPC Oceania 2008-15

Country Programs

Scale-up

Pilots

2008 – 5000 XOs in pilots in 5 countries

2009-10 OLPC introduced and assessed for scale up by 13 countries

2010-15 OLPC scaled up to deliver by 2015 one laptop per every child in basic education

2008: Pilots in 5 countries

Regional TA Partners: One Laptop Per Child Foundation Inc.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)

Pilots in 5 countries:Nauru (1)

Niue* (1)

Solomon Islands (3)

Papua New Guinea (3)

Vanuatu (1)

Funds expended – US$2.5 million:OLPC donates 5000 laptops to Pacific worth US$2m

OLPC and SPC assign human resources worth US$500k.

Pacific Rural Internet Connectivity System

‘PACRICS’ from SPC• Internet access using VSAT

Satellite solution• ‘Village ISP’, for Community

Information Centres • Rural or remote locations

Regional initiative Funded by AusAIDWhole Pacific footprint Smaller Antenna sizesCost effective - affordable for

schools • ADB-funded for 5 years

‘Every RICS site can be an OLPC hub’

• RICS provides the broad infrastructure to facilitate at-scale OLPC rollout in remote contexts.

• Country requests for 80 RICS/OLPC sites

Solomon Is

Niue

Nauru’s rich task curriculum

PNG

OLPC PNG teacher training

2008: Political endorssment

“OLPC will bring enormous benefits to our children, schools and teachers and the volume of benefits if rolled out fully, will cover over 7,000 Educational Institutions from elementary to secondary schools, benefit over 1,160,000 children and 35,700 teachers… transform this country and greatly narrow the digital divide.”

Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Puka TemuOpening Ceremony,

16th Session ACP-EU Joint Parliament Assembly, Port Morseby, 25 November 2008

2008 Pilot Phase: lessons learned

• OLPC aligns with Pacific goals and plans, inc. MDGs

• Country-level demand, political and community support in the Pacific

• Small trials give an insufficient evidence base

• M&E should be integrated at the outset

• Broader-based TA needed to build country capacity

• A standing stock of XO laptops and peripherals should be centrally kept in the region to efficiently feed country programs (“Pacific Pool”)

2009-10: Scale-up in 13 countries

Regional TA Partners:

• Technical Working Group

Funds required 3.5m:

• TWG 1.0m

• Pacific Pool 2.5m

OLPC requested by:

• Fiji • Samoa

• FSM • Solomon Is.

• Nauru • Tokelau

• Niue • Tonga

• Palau • Tuvalu

• PNG • Vanuatu

• RMI

Country level endorsement and demand

- requests from 13 countries

2009: Pacific Education Development Framework

New regional edu strategic plan 2009-15:

“With preliminary results from trials of OLPC… there is now a potential for Pacific countries to move beyond incrementalism and with assistance of ICTs make a quantum leap forward in realising goals of access, quality and equity in education…”

OLPC Oceania Technical Working Group

OLPC

Supply chain

Partnership Stakeholders

Country/Donor

Relations

Advocacy, Policy and Strategy

SPC

Country Assistance

Field Deployment Assistance

Ongoing support

NGOs,schools

communities

ACER

Monitoring & Evaluation development

guidance, oversight

ITU

Regional Assistance

Resource Mobilisation

Logistics, freight,

shipping issues

Friends

Volunteers, Deployment

Support

Grass roots Community

Development

Private Sector

engagement

Lessons learned,

best practice

Mission: Assess the viability of OLPC initiative in Oceania and its suitability for scaling up from 2010 to 2015. Objective: Facilitate OLPC Country Porgrammes in 13 PICTs

OLPC Oceania

Australian Museum

Content development

Partnership Stakeholders

Country/Donor

Relations

Advocacy, Policy and Strategy

USP

USPNet

Campuses in 12 countries

Country-to-Country

Exchange

UN etc

Pacific Friends of the Global

Fund

UNESCO

UNICEF

UNDP

WorldEd

Financial Literacy Skills

Microfinance

Private Sector

CSR

HNW Individuals

Dick Smith Electronics

Mission: Assess the viability of OLPC initiative in Oceania and its suitability for scaling up from 2010 to 2015. Objective: Facilitate OLPC Country Porgrammes in 13 PICTs

OLPC Pacific Pool: Ripple effect

Pacific model: vernacular edu

• OLPC strengthens this movement and protects local languages

• Cf: XO in Kosrae in FSM

– First deployed to Years 4-6 in English

– Older kids adapt XO to Kosrean

– Then deployed to years 1-3 in vernacular

• This model applicable right across Pacific

OLPC Oceania: pilots to programs 2008-10

Potential Pacific donors

• European Union

• AUSAid

• Asian Development Bank

• World Bank

• NZ Aid

• Japan

• China

• Corps, HNW individuals

Adding value – for communities

For remote communities, OLPC opens up access to:

• govt services

• telemedicine

• health and nutrition info & edu

• microfinance

• markets and market data

• weather info, disaster and emergency preparedness and response

Adding value – for countries

• Unlock human resources the productive capacity;

• Drive dev. of knowledge and skills economy

• stimulate new jobs and markets in hardware and software support, maintenance, repairs, spare parts

• Catalytic effect on govts to extend power and ICT infrastructure

• kickstarts e-commerce, e-government, microfinance, microcredit markets

• support livelihoods w/ new channel for rural and remote poor to access critical information

Adding value – for donors

• Alignment with global, regional and national agreements, plans and strategic frameworks

• “Country led” – a prerequisite of modern ODA

• More regional cooperation, integration and thus security

Challenges

• GFC and the collapse in CSR (no more greenwashers)• Poor resources to facilitate coordination and cooperation• Commercial rivals and industrial espionage• Australian policy directions: senior schools 9-12• Contest for resources (competing priorities and opportunity cost

argument)• Evidence conundrum• Poor data and data gathering capacity• Capacity and skills constraints• Low levels of investment• Subsistence economies• Remote contexts: inaccessible highlands, outlying islands• “Pacific Time”

Vanuatu: world’s ‘happiest’ place

Thanks and ‘Congratulation’