With support from telecentre.org and technical assistance from the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) moved to create the Philippine CeC Programme Roadmap, which serves as the document guide for the collective aspirations of CeC stakeholders

Telecentre movement in Philippines: An overview

The enthusiasm to bring the Philippine countryside into the mainstream of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), bred a variety of efforts and initiatives. The Department of Science and Technology (DoST) pioneered the Multi-Purpose Community Telecentres (MCTs) in Agusan del Norte and Lanao del Norte, which function as a one-stop Internet access centre, public calling station, and reading/learning resource centre. In another instance, the World Corps Philippines (WCP) formed six Community Information Centres in Cebu, in the mould of earlier projects in India, Mexico and Kenya for community mobilisation, training, telecentre set-up, technology solutions, mentoring, and community integration. Then came the eBarangay project with a 100 Community eCentres (CeCs) of the Jumpstarting Electronic Governance in the Local Government Units (eLGU) Programme, Commission on Information and Communications Technology – National Computer Centre (CICT-NCC). Telecommunication exchanges in different telecommunications offices were transformed into CeCs.

CICT also launched iSchools and eSkwela for providing computer facilities to selected secondary schools and school dropouts respectively. Other initiatives are the Tulay Project of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) and United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Last Mile Initiative, and Microsoft's corporate social responsibility unit, etc. There are different initiatives across the country with the same social objective of serving the community. What is the possibility of a common unified direction for these CeC or ICT initiatives?

The CeC roadmap: Charting future progress

With the support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and telecentre.org, and technical assistance from the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP), CICT moved to create the Philippine CeC Programme Roadmap, which serves as the document guide for the collective aspirations of CeC stakeholders. 

In July 2007, different consultation workshops were organised with all the CeC stakeholders in seven cities, to discuss, what was needed to set a common direction for the Philippine CeC Programme over the next three years. They deliberated on the key challenges facing the Philippines telecentre movement like, connectivity issues and power constraints hindering access; CeC sustainability linked to variables of political support, human/financial/technical resources; information content discrepancies, interoperability, integration and coordination; social acceptance by communities; low literacy levels and lack of mechanisms for strengthening community participation in decision-making; and the relationship of CeCs to Internet cafés.

There was more than adequate legal basis since the concept of CeCs was anchored on legislation and policy documents such as The Right to Information in the Philippine Constitution's Bill of Rights, the Millennium Development Goals, the commitment of the Philippines to the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Geneva Plan of Action, the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2004-2010, and the Philippine Strategic Roadmap for the ICT Sector 2006-2010.

The roadmap: Guided by key principles

The Strategic Roadmap was guided by the following:

• Participation: The participation of all CeC stakeholders ensures relevance, validity and credibility of the programme. The stakeholders' participation began in the planning process and would continue throughout the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the programme
• Inclusion: All stakeholder groups were engaged and continue to be engaged in the various phases of the crafting and implementation of the CeC Roadmap
• Focus on the unserved, underserved and vulnerable groups, especially children, women and senior citizens: The priorities for additional targeted CeC sites are the unserved and underserved municipalities
• Global perspective; Filipino in spirit: The Philippine CeC Programme promotes openness to global knowledge, technology and networks to assure their adoption and use for optimum development of the country and the Filipino spirit
  
  
• Respect and promote social values and cultural diversity: Due appreciation of community values and cultural norms fosters programme relevance, acceptance, and participation
• 'A Community e-Centre in every municipality': It is the Philippine CeC Roadmap Vision for the next three years or until 2010. Coupled with it is the vision 'to promote development and to enhance productivity of the unserved and underserved communities in the Philippines, thereby improving quality of life through the provision of access, network and a stronger voice through the use of affordable, appropriate, and critical ICT-enabled services.'

Objectives of the CeC roadmap

• To provide connectivity to all municipalities of the Philippines
• To identify, develop and provide access to content that is responsive to knowledge needs of the target customers
• To ensure availability of competent CeC knowledge workers; and 
• To institutionalise systems support for the development, scaling, sustainable management and operation of CeCs
  Grounded upon the four (4) action areas are detailed below, the Philippine CeC Programme will operate in achieving the 2010 CeC Vision.

Infrastructure: It includes both power and Internet access; the goal is to provide affordable and reliable Internet connectivity to all CeCs. This will include identifying prospective CeC sites and matching telecommunications infrastructure to the last mile for priority and quick CeC rollouts. It will also mean dovetailing with the Department of Energy (DOE) electrification programme and with telecom expansion programmes to bring in remote CeCs. The infrastructure support for the CeC programme will be anchored on public and private sector partnership.

Content development: This will entail the inventory and linking of existing content in various CeCs, developing new contents to match the needs of communities, and beefing up CeCs to produce local content and sharing this with the network through the Philippine CeC web portal. Achieving this will open up access to existing knowledge and services, enable collaboration between public and private sector, local and global content providers, and transform CeCs into knowledge-based enterprises that communities can use to improve individual and community productivity.

Capacity building: Crucial to the success of the CeC Programme, this targets the development of human resources. It is based on the philosophy, when competent CeC knowledge workers are available, the programme will be sustained. Action will flow along three avenues: standardisation of capacity building programmes for CeC knowledge workers through the 'telecentre.org-Philippine Community eCentre Academy'; partnership strategies to institutionalise CeC plan; and development and adoption of competency standards for CeC workers.

CeC development and management: The managing and coordinative system that steers the implementation of the Philippine CeC programme along the directions set for it by the Roadmap is vital to the programme. Managing the CeC programme and developing CeCs along the strategic directions will be the mandate of the Programme Management Office (PMO).

Strategies for CeC Programme Management

The Roadmap calls for the following strategies in achieving efficient management of the Philippine CeC Programme:

• Resource mobilisation for the CeC financing programme network
• Adoption of national standards in the management of CeCs
• Installation and support systems such as legal framework, national and local policies in support of the CeC programme
• Promotion of the 'CeC fever' for social acceptability of CeCs
• Application of economies of scale for efficiency in CeC operations
• Insurance of collaboration in planning and delivery of CeC products/services mix
• Activation and strengthening of the Philippine CeC Network; and
• Scaling  CeCs in unserved and underserved municipalities, including tapping Internet cafes' potential to transform into CeCs (Internet Café ++)

This is the Roadmap for ICT momentum in the Philippine countryside for 2008-2010.

PhilCeCNet: To ensure an effective CeC programme

In support of the commitments embodied in the Philippine CeC Roadmap, the Philippine Community eCentre Network (PhilCeCNet) was born at the Third Knowledge Exchange Conference on Community eCentres in September 2006, at Cebu Province. It sprung from a desire to harmonise the efforts of various CeC initiatives, to share knowledge and experiences, and to achieve a commonality of direction and operations for maximum impact.

The PhilCeCNet is a learning and collaborative community of CeC stakeholders, contributing to the achievement of the Philippine CeC Programme's vision of 'A Community eCentre Programme in every municipality'. It delivers its mission through  activities underscored in the Philippine CeC roadmap, to be facilitated through the Philippine Community eCentre Portal and the local telecentre academy, commonly known as the telecentre.org – Philippine CeC Academy. It is also a multi-sectoral partner of CICT in the implementation of the Philippine CeC programme.

PhilCeCNet advocates stakeholder support for the Philippine CeC programme; recommends standards and operating procedures for CeCs; promotes knowledge-sharing on best practices, researches and projects; establishes bonds between CeCs, CeC providers and partners, network members, and international CeC networks; provides services, expertise and resources to components of the Philippine CeC programme; and generates and mobilises resources for network operations.

The network convenes with a General Assemby composed of nine (9) sector clusters, particularly the National Government Agencies (NGAs), Academic, Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Private Sector, Media, CeC Managers, CeC Users, Funding Agencies and Local Government Units (LGUs). The Assembly is the highest CeC policy-making body in the Philippines.  

An Executive Council headed by a Chairman, acts as the implementing unit of the network.  The CICT, as lead agency for the Philippine CeC programme, is an ex-officio voting member of the council. The council is supported administratively by a network secretariat, under an executive secretary, that oversees day-to-day operations of the network. It implements council's directives, makes tactical decisions for the network, and acts as its 'animator.'

PhilCeCNet: Into the Future 

PhilCeCNet, in the future, would not only be the telecentre network in the Philippines, but also the professional organisation of  CeC knowledge workers in the country. The Phil CeC Academy will be its training arm which will be responsible for developing and conducting CeC related  courses, accrediting capability building institutions,  providing training relevant to CeCs  and certifying CeC workers.  PhilCeCNet will play a major and critical  role, as a multi-sectoral partner of the government,  in achieving  the country's vision of a CeC in every municipality.

KEC4: Towards socio-economic development through CeCs

All the efforts in the past to close the digital divide and bring the benefits of development to the countryside have come into fruition at the Fourth Knowledge Exchange Conference on Community eCentres (KEC4) held on April 3-4, 2008, at Pasay City. More than 200 participants - conference delegates, guests, resource persons, and organisers attended the two-day conference. The agencies represented were the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC), Association for Progressive Communication (APC), Bayan Telecommunications, Inc. (Bayan), DAP, Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOST-PCARRD), IBM Philippines, Intel Technology Philippines – Corporate Affairs Group, Media G8Way Corporation, Microsoft Philippines, Molave Development Foundation, Inc. (MDFI), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company/ Smart Corporate Business Group (PLDT/Smart), The National Library of the Philippines (NLP), UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (UNACOM), UP-National Telehealth Centre (UP-NTC), and CICT.  These 14 institutions signed the Declaration of the PhilCeCNet Partnership as witnessed by telecentre.org and the CICT. 

The selection of representatives to the PhilCeCNet's Executive Council strengthened the network's potential and upheld the multi-stakeholder partnership in the implementation of the Philippine CeC Programme. The executive council members, duly elected to represent pre-identified sectors at the first General Assembly during the KEC4, are as follows: DOST-PCARRD (Government), University of the Philippines Open University (Academic), MDFI (NGO), Intel Technology Philippines, Inc. (Private Sector), AIJC (Media), Jimmy Calata, Provincial Government of Nueva Vizcaya (CeC Manager), Carolina Destacamento, CeC Calamba City, Laguna (CeC User), telecentre.org (International Development Agency), and Municipal Government of Infanta, Quezon (LGU). 
 
Aptly themed 'Engaging Communities in Knowledge-based Development', KEC4 marked an important milestone in the country's commitment to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) as well as the pursuit of the WSIS Plan of Action. Alongside the conference, five historic events took place, namely;

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the CICT and the PhilCeCNet partners
The launch of the Philippine CeC Roadmap 2008-2010
The launch of the Philippine CeC Web Portal (www.philcecnet.ph)
The launch of telecentre.org-Philippine CeC Academy; and
The launch of the PhilCeCNet

Through these efforts, the CICT and its partners from the knowledge and information industry and the local communities are committed to championing social and economic development through the Philippine CeC Programme.

Outcomes of KEC4

Regarded as the highlight of the KEC series that started in November 2005, the conference aimed to enable knowledge sharing across CeCs in the country and to discuss the major components of the Philippine CeC Roadmap among important stakeholders in the local telecentre arena.

The KEC4 brought together key players in the Philippine CeC Movement and increased the collaboration among the PhilCeCNet partners and members. The Memorandum of Understanding signed between the CICT and PhilCeCNet partners has made the partnership formal and public. It has forged the commitment to support the implementation of the PhilCeC programme through collaboration, expert advice and other resources to help realise the goals of the roadmap. This will give a new direction in the Philippines telecentre movement.

Conclusion

The telecentre movement in the Philippines, therefore, considerably hinges on the CeC Roadmap for a huge extant and impact. The CeC Roadmap seeks to consolidate telecentre initiatives in the region; provide an online mechanism whereby stakeholders can share resources, information, best practices and lessons with each other; and activate and expand the Philippine CeC network.

Quick Scan

• PhilCecNet: The quickest telecentre network in the region. It owes greatly to the active role of the government
• CeC Roadmap 2010: It evolved after a series of consultations in different parts of the country. The Roadmap clearly envisages the implementation plan