UPDATE ON SDNP

(as of 18 March 1994)

Twenty months have elapsed since the Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) was launched and some general conclusions of a policy and operational nature may serve as a general introduction to this third issue of Current Events.

Policy Issues

  1. The demand for access to information continues to grow rapidly and this is true for all stakeholder groups in sustainable development, viz. public and private sectors, NGOs, academia, the media, youth groups, etc.

  2. The participatory approach to networking that the SDNP has advocated receives strong endorsement, but it introduces a number of policy, administrative and logistical difficulties that take time to resolve before networking can effectively commence.

  3. The first workshop of communication and networking specialists that was convened in September 1992 to recommend strategies and policies for the SDNP concluded that a "pine-box" approach with semi-standardized hardware and software, was feasible. In practice the SDNP has found that far greater attention needs to be given to the specific needs of user-groups in each country, to current and proposed networking activities and to any computer-mediated communication systems that are in-place or proposed. Thus, SDNP looks for synergy with other initiatives such as Infoterra and complements and does not compete with other networking activities.

  4. The significance of the SDNP as a powerful tool which can help to free governments from dependency on external aid and as a means to increase Technical Cooperation between Developing Countries (TCDC) has not been sufficiently appreciated and should be promoted as an important objective of the SDN.

  5. The artificially high costs for accessing information and for communications that are found in many countries as a result of PTT charges and tariffs may have served to discourage development. As SDNs are established they may serve to encourage a review of the overall policy toward communication activities in some countries.

  6. SDNs are not only facilitating access between the users and sources of information on sustainable development, but they are serving as important advocacy points for sustainable development and generally contributing to the development process.

Operational Issues
  1. The pilot phase focused on twelve countries that were most carefully chosen to provide insights into the networking characteristics of countries in different regions, with varying sustainable development interests and concerns, countries with strong NGO presence and an accepted participatory approach to development issues, countries without or with only weak NGO participation, etc. No reliable or general insights were obtained for future operations except the need to treat each and every new country application as unique. The pilot phase did serve to underline that the energy, creativity and managerial abilities of the SDN coordinator as well as the effectiveness of the SDN's National Steering Committee will be the most critical factors in determining success or failure.

  2. The SDNP is not immune to unforeseen administrative and logistical difficulties that impact on other development projects. Thus the delivery of computers can be delayed by customs and securing reliable international telephone connections can take months.

  3. To date the choice of a host institution for the national SDN is roughly divided between governmental bodies and other stakeholders that include NGOs, universities, national libraries, etc.

  4. All SDNP Coordinators need to develop an extensive and creative marketing programme for their SDNs. Examples of products that the SDNP can produce need to be developed and physically demonstrated to a wide community of potential users before the value and benefits of networking and accessing information can be sufficiently appreciated.

  5. Costs for SDNP activities vary considerably from country to country, but annual costs of $100-125,000 may be used as a general rule of thumb.

  6. Each SDNP needs to find an appropriate balance between human and computer networking, and the latter may not be effective unless underpinned by the former. Most SDNs are better equipped to deal with information in digital rather than print form, and this trend is foreseen as accelerating.

  7. SDNP Coordinators are clear about the need to make their SDNs financially independent and sustainable in the longer run. What is of paramount importance to them is the assurance that external assistance will be steadfast in this developmental period. The earlier estimate that many SDNs will need external support for 4-5 years is seen as holding true.

In addition to the above conclusions many other useful lessons have been learned. A more complete analysis of the state of the SDNP and its forward philosophy can be found in the Report of the Second Workshop for SDNP Coordinators that was held in Bombay in December 1993, and which is available on line.

Workshop Activities

The fourth SDNP workshop over the 15 month period of September 1992 to December 1993 was held for SDNP Coordinators and possible future Coordinators at the National Institute for Software Technology in Bombay. Participants came from the South Pacific, Morocco, Bolivia, Cameroon, India, Colombia, Angola, Mexico, Korea, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Chile and Indonesia. Participants found the mixture of experienced SDNP Coordinators and possible future Coordinators to be especially useful.

The workshop provided an excellent opportunity for participants including the SDN Directorate to reflect candidly and at a length on lessons learned, new initiatives that are necessary and the need for national SDNs for more technical and managerial backstopping from New York. The workshop examined the SDNP Starter Kit in detail and advocated significant changes in the general approach which are reflected in a report on SDN's Information Series to be published in March. Lectures and hands on demonstrations were given in a wide range of computer mediated systems. Interaction during the workshop also demonstrated for the first time how the SDNP Coordinators are beginning to take ownership of the SDN, in which they and their respective staffs have made a personal investment.

SDNP participated in the first regional workshop of Capacity 21 countries which was held in Mbabane, Swaziland from 8-10 March for Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia. This was a valuable experience. Integration of the SDNP within Capacity 21 was explained and the four participating countries learned about the benefit of prompt access to information relevant to sustainable development. Each country requested a feasibility study for establishment of a national SDN.

Documentation

All principal reports of the SDNP including for example the Brochure and Workshop reports are available on line. They can be readily accessed in the following ways:

  1. UNDP Gopher Server: for users with full Internet connectivity this is the most convenient way of accessing SDN documentation. It is located under the United Nations Development Programme Documents option in the main Gopher menu.

    The UNDP Gopher also accepts electronic mail requests for information. This is handy for sites that do not have access to a full connection to the Internet. To obtain instructions on how to use this Gopher feature send a mail message to gopher.undp.org. The server will automatically return instructions.

  2. SDNP FTP Server: SDNP is currently supporting an experimental Internet FTP server. Users with full Internet connectivity can FTP to server FF121.undp.org, log in as anonymous and send their full electronic mail address as password. SDN documentation is located in directory SDN. Please check the file INDEX.TXT for a short description of the available documents.

  3. SDNP Mail Server: SDNP is also supporting a mail server. To obtain help and instruction on how to use this service send an electronic mail message to maiser@ff121.undp.org with any subject and body of text HELP. To retrieve a list of available documents send a similar message with the command SEND INDEX.TXT. This server is available to all sites that have electronic mail access to Internet; a full Internet connection is not needed.

SDNP Coverage

 Overall the progress in establishing national and regional SDNs has not been as fast as hoped. The principal reasons have been lack of finance and a variety of operational difficulties that had not been anticipated. It had been hoped that nearly twenty SDNs would be operational by the end of 1993. Now the same goal by the end of 1994 is the most optimistic target. SDNs are now operational in Angola, Pakistan, Philippines, Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua. Feasibility studies have been completed, budgets approved and it is hoped that operations will soon commence in another 5 countries including the South Pacific (a regional SDN), Korea, Indonesia, Tunisia and Morocco.

Feasibility studies have been completed, are ongoing or about to be initiated in a further 10 countries including Mexico, Egypt, Cameroon, Zambia, Lebanon, Syria, China, India, Costa Rica and Guatemala. It is also intended to initiate prefeasibility and feasibility activities in Gambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Malawi, Iran, Nepal, Vietnam, Chile and Colombia. Over forty other countries have requested assistance in the establishment of a national SDN, but the lack of resources constrains support at this time. The Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) based in Michigan USA has adopted SDNs policies and philosophy and hopes with collaboration from SDNP to initiate SDN-type operations in Estonia and Poland before the end of 1994.

The revised rate of growth has been beneficial insofar as amendments to the SDNP approach to networking could be more easily introduced and a more solid base for eventual expansion could be established.

CAPACITY 21

The SDNP is an instrument to help implement Agenda 21 and should be considered in the general context of national planning for sustainable development. UNDP's Capacity 21 programme, that was officially initiated in June 1993, is now focusing on capacity building in about 20 prioritized countries and in principle each of the Capacity 21 package for these countries can include an SDNP component. SDNP has thus become an integral part of Capacity 21, and is now heavily dependent on Capacity 21 for financial support.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

The number and variety of other organizations concerned with sustainable development and information networking which are collaborating with the SDNP continues to grow. In November and December a series of consultations were held with UN specialized agencies and a number of NGOs in Europe to discuss specific cooperation activities. The number and variety of suggestions was overwhelming and quite beyond the present human and financial resources of the SDN. A prioritization of possible initiatives will be decided in March.

On 3 and 4 March SDNP held consultations with staff of Infoterra, GEMS and GRID at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi. The complementarity of SDNP and Infoterra work was noted and it was agreed to initially focus on closer integration in Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland and Lebanon.

FUTURE EVENTS

  • Publication of the first issue of the SDN's Information Series (SIS) in late March, which effectively replaces the earlier concept of the "Starter Kit".
  • Sponsorship of selected SDNP staff for training at INET 1994 in Budapest.
  • Preparation for the Third Workshop for SDNP Coordinators. At present plans are for 15 participants to meet in November at the National Centre for Software Technology in Bombay, which was a superb host in 1993.
  • To continue to provide hands on technical support and management advice to all operational and about-to-become operational SDNs. Consultant missions to SDNs in all regions are planned for March, April and May.
  • To support a second independent assessment of SDNP in the latter part of the Third Quarter of 1994.


| Brochures | Workshops | Papers | Evaluations | SIS | Guidelines |

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:39:04 GMT Server: Apache/2.2.8 (CentOS) Content-Length: 0 Connection: close Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8