The Global Innovation Forum for Education Yerevan, Armenia October 2008 After Action Report and Recommendations for The Committee of e-leaders for Youth and ICT for Development By Rajiv Ramakrishnan
Conference Summary The Global Forum for Innovation and Education for Development was held in Yerevan, Armenia, from 21 to 24 October 2008. The forum provided a tremendous opportunity for young people from around the world to meet and work with leaders of international institutions (IOs), multi-national corporations (MNCs), civil society (CS) and governments. Over the course of four days, the body of 300 young people were divided into 16 functional teams. These teams were charged with designing cutting edge ICT based solutions to challenges like education, climate change and health. On the fourth day of the Forum, these young people presented their ideas on moderated panels. Experts from the field and business leaders judged the innovativeness and the feasibility of these ideas and picked three ideas which will be carried forward with assistance from the Armenian Ministry of Economy. I have contacted ATHGO for detailed descriptions of the solutions presented by the youth when I receive these documents, I will forward them to the Committee for our evaluation and study. The forum hosted several distinguished guests, most of whom were very impressed by the collaborative event between ATHGO and GAID, and have pledged their support for the Committee of e-leaders and our coming projects. Here is a brief list of high level participants: H.E. Mr. Tigran Sargsyan, Prime Minster, Republic of Armenia H.E. Mr. Cheick Sidi Diarra, UN Undersecretary General for Least Developed Countries H.E. Mr. Nerses Yeritsyan, Minster of Economy, Republic of Armenia Ms. Veonika Prikrylova, Director of Business Development, CEE, Microsoft Mr. Dag Nielsen, Director, Ericsson Response, EricssonAG Ms. Tatiana Nanaieva, Global Corporate Citizenship Group, Intel Ukraine Education Manager Mr. Karen Grigoryan, Sr. Economist, Private and Financial Sector Dept., The World Bank Group Mr. Andrei Korotkov, High Level Advisor to President, Foreign Trade Bank of Russian Federation Mr. Kamran Elahian, Chairman, Global Catalyst Partners Of course, our own Mr. Sarbuland Khan was a distinguished guest and keynote speaker at the forum. Partners: ATHGO International USAID-CAPS (Competitive Armenian Private Sector) Astro Entertainment STMicroelectronics Foundation Ericsson Ministry of Economy, Republic of Armenia UNDESA-GAID The Conference Agenda is attached for further details on participants and day to day events.
Outcomes There were two layers of outcomes from the global forum. The first were the solutions crafted by young people at the conference, which they presented to global leaders. The next layer is the response from business and government leaders to the ideas and demands of the young people, as well as corporate and government development initiatives that target and involve youth and ICTs. Both layers are critically important to us, as we foster a global youth movement for development. The challenge for us as e-leaders, and indeed the opportunity, will be to serve as the linkage between the ideas of the youth, and the resources of governments, IOs and MNCs. Our success will be translating these ideas into projects with deep development impact. Youth-Engineered Solutions There were several positive outcomes from the Global Forum, but one of most important to our work as e-leaders was the efforts of the young participants. While many of them represented an array of over 20 countries, most of these young people came from Armenia. But the reason ATGHO's model at this conference was successful that is to say why the young people were able to create such innovative, and feasible solutions that could work in any country, not just Armenia was because each group had an international diversity. While the solutions were varied and cut across a variety of development areas, there was a surprising level of commonality between groups. Almost as a rule, the 16 groups designed projects that fell into one of four categories: 1. Education and human capacity development 2. Infrastructure development 3. Environmental sustainability 4. Social collaboration and youth development While a detailed summary of all 16 projects will hopefully be mad available by ATHGO, here is a brief description of projects that were presented in each category. 1. Education, human capacity development and employment drew the greatest level of interest from youth at the forum. Several groups proposed the distribution of existing educational resources to rural and under served populations. They noted that existing television networks could be used to broadcast lectures from universities. The groups wanted to take advantage of mobile networks by using SMS as a platform to offer feedback on such courses and lectures. A very innovative and well received idea was to create links between universities, who could share recorded lectures or broadcast their lectures through and online/tv portals. 2. While many groups recognized the need for education and health content, they proposed solutions to target the problem of infrastructure. Groups encouraged mobile service providers to increase coverage networks for cell phones. Also, these youth welcomed the expanse of 3G cell phone coverage to increase the rate of internet access, especially in rural areas. Not all groups in this category focused on mobile technology, however. Some
groups focused on traditional computer based solutions. One group wanted to partner with NComputing, a computer firm that multiplies the power of existing computer terminals by connecting one computer to several displays and key boards (NComputing is now a member of GAID). 3. One group had a very innovative idea of using cell phone recycling to promote youth entrepreneurship. These students proposed that youth could collect, dismantle and sort used cell phones and run their own micro enterprises. 4. Finally, other groups focused on using ICTs to foster a youth movement. One group in particular proposed the creation of a youth sustainable development fund. This fund would be managed jointly by a team of selected youth and the Ministry of Economy and used for youth-led and youth targeted development projects. Corporate and Government Outcomes Many of the leaders from the private and public sectors were highly impressed by the forum, its participants and the prospect of the e-leaders. While their reactions cannot be organized into categories like the solutions of the youth, here are some of the responses of these institutions. Ericsson AG and Intel announced that in the coming years, they will work on a joint venture to bridge the gap between cell phones and computers. This convergence platform will hybridize the advantages between cell phones and computers, chiefly achieving the portability of a cell phone, without sacrificing the power of a computer. This has enormous implications for development. Currently, cell phones provide limited banking and education services. But they are not powerful enough to bring full curricular content, tele-health services (where a doctor can serve a patient without meeting in a clinic) or other applications. This breakthrough may be something we as e-leaders should watch and as it develops, encourage the creation of local e-learning, e-health and e-finance applications and content for the device. Several members of the public and private sectors have indicated a desire to work with our committee on development initiatives. The following section briefly details some of the many opportunities for partnership. Potentials for Partnership UNICEF The first group that approached me for direct partnership with the e-leaders was the UNICEF Office in Armenia. They have been using advanced statistical tools from UNDP to track youth development. They want our help to design new youth focused development programs in Armenia. Based on our committee's discretion, I would like to submit a request for proposal to UNICEF Armenia, requesting specifics that they would like from our team. Based on this document, we can decide how to move forward. Ericsson AG Mr. Dag Nielsen of Ericsson AG was a crucial partner in this conference. In my meetings with Dag, it was clear that Ericsson is poised to expand in the emerging
markets of India and Africa. But the handset maker doesn't want to stop at hardware; they want to be a partner in creating and distributing local content and applications. They can be a very strong partner in developing youth centered e- Health and e-learning applications. We should write a proposal for Ericsson as well as have at least one conference call with Dag and Ericsson's leadership in the coming weeks. Intel Corp. The representative from Intel at the forum was very impressed by the Committee. It comes as a strong plus for us since the Chairman of GAID is the Mr. Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corp. We should pursue this contact and develop a computer based proposal for a site in the developing world. There is a good chance that this proposal would be supported by Intel, and could provide a strong first project to unveil at a an e-leader success at the Global Forum in Monterrey, summer 2009. Microsoft Microsoft is always a dynamic and important presence at GAID events. Their emphasis is on education and entrepreneurship, two of the areas we must focus on. We should seriously consider developing project proposals targeting these two areas in Africa. Microsoft could be an important ally here because they already have a large contact base in Africa and their Unlimited Potential initiative is building IT centers throughout the developing world. Sun Microsystems Like the other hi-tech companies represented at the forum, Sun is focusing on education, particularly its open source platforms like Open Office. They want to expand these platforms in training centers they finance. This could be a viable alternative to Microsoft, and we should hedge our bets and write a proposal to them as well. That said, there are other areas where we could partner with Sun that would not compete directly with our work with Microsoft. IT4ALL IT4ALL is an organization that provides e-governance training to local and regional governments around the world. Based in Bilbao Spain, IT4ALL gives training courses around the world. We could work with them to develop a youthpolicy ICT training module for policy makers. Policy often is most effective when it is developed for local applications, and the local government focus of IT4ALL could help us have a deep development impact. Cisneros Foundation The Cisneros Foundation is a Caracsas based organization, and a member of GAID. At the conference, they expressed a great interest in the e-leaders, but wanted solutions tailored toward Latin America. While the primary focus of the e- Leaders may be geared toward Africa, Cisneros may provide an opportunity to diversify our operations, when the time is right.
The ATHGO Innovation Center Another group we should consider is the ATGHO Innovation Center in Yerevan. Set to open in 2009, the Center will help many young people in Yerevan develop social entrepreneurship ventures. It will also help promote ICT education and human capacity building, as it will lead the way for the winners of the Global Forum's proposal competition realize their ideas. Next Steps for the Committee The Global Forum provided a tremendous opportunity for the e-leaders. It helped us recognize that our purpose has merit: there is a large demand for a youth social movement. ICTs are at the heart of this social tide, and we can play a positive role in fostering the next wave of global leadership in development. To help us in our endeavor the opportunities for partnership that opened to us from the conference were vast. But before we move forward, we must take stock of our own situation, and finalize a few administrative priorities. Here are the tasks we need to tend to in the next few weeks. Strategic Plan First and foremost, we need to review and finalize our strategic plan. Let's confirm once and for all our mission statement. Then, we need to quickly identify two or three strategic objectives we will achieve in the next six months to one year in order to realize our mission. In the document, we need to define what the specific roles of the e-leaders will be, redefine membership if needed and stick to these principles. This needs to be accomplished in the next week. Tangible Project Proposals Next, we need to quickly write four or five proposals for ICT4D projects targeting youth in the developed world. We have the full support of GAID and its partners as well as the support of the Office of the United Nations Under Secretary General for LDCs. The reason we should draft a few different proposals is to spread our risk and increase the chances of getting support for at least one or two projects. Indeed, an interesting role we could enjoy as a committee is our convening power. In other words, the e-leaders could bring together partners like Intel and Ericsson to implement a joint project, thus multiplying the power of our efforts. Executive Team One of the difficulties with organizing the Global Forum was an ambiguous sense of responsibility and undefined roles. To avoid this in the future, the e-leaders should have defined roles, and an executive team to coordinate our efforts. At the very minimum, we should have a Director of Operations and Director of Finances, who work with other members in functional teams. In the coming weeks, Mr, Khan will work with the committee to define and fill the roles. Website Mr. Serge Kapto has done a superb job building and maintaining the GAID website. He recently updated the design and included a page for e-leaders which can be found at this link: (http://www.ungaid.org/networks/stakeholdernetworks/youtheleaders/tabid/960/default.aspx).
We need to develop content for this page and showcase our efforts. As we move forward, we can certainly use the space to highlight our initiatives, as well as best practices and initiatives of youth in the developing world. Whatever the case, the website is our business card to the world, and as such we should make it a priority. Financing Finally, a quick note on financing. The Global Forum was a project initiated months ago and had a fixed timetable. That timetable meant funding had to come in well before the conference date. It was also the toughest part of the conference. We spent quite a bit of time figuring out who to contact and why, but we were unable to reach our targets. I highly recommend that we not worry about financing for the committee in the next month or two. This is because if we focus our efforts on writing strong proposals, the partners I mentioned above, and others, will fund the projects directly. Once we have successfully begun a few proposals, and have tangible results, we will have a much stronger case for fundraising as a committee. Conclusions The Global Innovation Forum was a magnificent success. It would not have been possible without the leadership of Mr. Khan and and the hard work of Enrica, Serge, Robert and Maria at the GAID Secretariat. And it goes without saying that the hours of networking, organizing and planning of Armen Orujyan and his ATHGO staff were what made the conference a resounding success. We as a committee also gave our valuable time on each of those 10am phone calls, and on-site meetings. We have learned a lot from this experience and we should apply these lessons moving forward, particularly on organization. We also gained valuable contacts from the Forum and many opportunities for partnership with some of the world's most influential actors. But I hope the main thing we take a way from the conference is this: there is sea of untapped youth potential flowing across all borders. Young people from around the world were ready to move at this conference. Our challenge and our opportunity is to get them moving.